Cades Cove Round 1 – The Landscapes

/1 Comment/in , , , , /by

I had the pleasure of visiting Cades Cove, part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in East Tennessee, on Monday June 28.

I came back with over 300 photos! Tons of landscapes and so much wildlife. It was my first time visiting so I got all the “touristy” shots out of the way! It really was a beautiful place, I can’t wait to go again.

I have to give a big shout out to my flickr contact Anthony for the inspiration to visit this amazing place. His shots from Cades Cove and all around East Tennessee are so amazing.

Here is Round One – The Landscapes:

Stay tuned for Round Two – The Wildlife!

This Week at the Lake – 16/52

/2 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , /by

A similar shot to start this week off as last week – but I really liked it!

My week at the lake started on Tuesday, I set the alarm clock for 4:45 am so I could make it before work. The problem I face with that is that it’s too dark to really get any wildlife photos. I was able to get the sun coming down Otter Creek Rd:

And then I tried to get a shot of the mist/fog rising on the lake with the sunrise:

Also that morning I met big time Ashville, NC wedding photographer Corey McNabb. He was on his way back from a wedding in Memphis and stopped to get some bird photos at Radnor. We looked for the owls but were not able to find them that morning. Check out his site, he’s got some great photos.

Next I went Thursday morning. Thursday was a great day to watch the owls but again, it was so dark because it was early I couldn’t get any good shots. I saw 3 younger owls and one adult. I watched one of the younger owls pretend to hunt in the creek bed, picking up sticks and tossing them aside, fun to watch!
Here is one decent shot of a younger owl:

Thursday is also when I got the top post, with the sun rising just over camera right.
Also got this bird photo that morning:

Since the owls were so active in the morning, I went back at lunch hoping to still see them. I only saw one then but he was too far away.
I’m not sure what type of bird this is but he was very cooperative, posing for me while I was looking for the owls:

I also spotted this doe and fawn:

On the way back to the car, I got this:

This Week at the Lake – 15/52

/5 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , /by

Another great week!
(In my opinion) I had another really great week at Radnor Lake. I got a lot of photos to share this week. I was able to visit everyday, Monday-Friday!

Monday
Monday was sooooo hot and humid! I went to Radnor on my lunch break. I saw 2 of the younger owls and 2 adult owls. Here is an adult (snoozing!):

The younger owls were in a tree straight up over the walking trail, while looking up at them I noticed the light comming down through the trees. I snapped this shot that I really like:

Tuesday
Tuesday was a great day, it was the first time in a couple weeks that I was able to go early in the morning. I got up extra early so I could be at the lake at 6am. I parked at the west entrance and made my way to the lake trail. I walked out onto the bridge that crosses the dam to look around. I was right at the middle of the bridge and I heard some noise behind me, I turned around and saw about 8 otter running across the path and into the water! Since I was in the middle of the bridge I wasn’t able to get a really good position to get shots but I was able to snap this quickly:

I continued across the bridge to get a morning shot of the lake (which is posted at the top of this post)

Then I headed back down the lake trail, I came up on this doe and her brand new fawn:

Once the sun started getting higher in the sky, it was able to start shining through the trees. It was soooo humid this morning it created some amazing sun rays!

I made it to this bridge (which is about half way through the lake trail) and figured I better head back

On the way back, I came across the doe and her fawn again, they posed for one more photo!

Wednesday
Wednesday was a lunch visit again, I could not find the younger owls, but perhaps some evidence??? Ha! I don’t really know if this is an owl feather or not!

I did catch sight of an adult owl though

Thursday
Thursday was again a lunchtime visit and again I saw a couple adult owls but none of the younger owls. I watched one adult owl catch some food and fly off with it, probably to find the younger owls to feed them


(snoozing again!)


Here you can see the food in her talon, looks like a large crayfish

Friday
It was so hot on Friday I did not stay long at all on my lunch break. I could not find the owls so I walked down the road a little and got this shot of a dragonfly:

After that, I headed back to the car…

And that was my week! A very hot week but worth the trips, I feel like I got some great captures – Hopefully I can keep it up…

This Week at the Lake – 14/52

/1 Comment/in , , , , , /by

Week 14 is an all owl week! I visited Radnor Lake on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday – each at around noon. Each day I saw multiple owls! The young owls are often hanging out while the parent is out hunting. I was only able to see the parent on two of those days. I watched her hunt and catch something on both Thursday and Friday. On Friday, she brought the food over and fed one of the younger owls. Unfortunately, I was not in a good position to get a shot of that.

Here are my shots of the Barred Owls at Radnor Lake:

This Week at the Lake – 13/52

/4 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , /by

I visited Radnor Lake twice this week. Once on Thursday at lunch and once on Friday after work -which is the first time I’ve been there in the evening since Week 4.

The lesson of the week is: CHARGE YOUR BATTERIES!
Thursday at lunch, I got out of the car, turned the camera on and noticed the battery was very low. Since it was already Thursday and I had not gotten any shots yet, I decided to try to find something easy like geese rather than hope to see another owl. So I walked down the road and noticed that they had opened a portion of the road that was closed due to storm damage. I made it to a deck that overlooks the lake and got this:

I took probably 10-15 photos of these geese. I started walking back to where I had seen the owl last week. Forgetting that my battery was low, I took some photos of deer that were practically on the other side of the lake…

Then I made it to the spot- the long bridge on the west end of the Lake Trail. I walked out there and right away I spotted:

I thought it was awesome! Two times in a row at Radnor I saw a Barred Owl. Then I started looking around, I looked up…..

I couldn’t believe it! There were 2 more owls watching me. I walked around to see if I could get a different view of these owls. When I got to the other side of the tree, I looked up and….

A fourth? Are you kidding me? I’ve seen one owl in 12 weeks and now here are 4 in one day!
Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw another – a fifth owl that was hunting. He had just flown back to a tree with something in his mouth. Then he flew towards me, and stopped at a tree that was so close to me and was in the perfect light. I raised my camera, pushed the button and…..

Nothing.
I looked down and read “Change The Battery Pack”

Then the owl flew right over top of me. It was my chance to get an awesome Owl-in-Flight shot. He flew to the other owls and gave one of them the food he had (I’m no owl expert but I’m guessing the others in the tree were younger owls). Then he flew from there and into another tree. And I have no shots of that event…. If only I hadn’t taken so many shots of geese. Oh, and before I saw the fifth one, I took this:

So I went home and charged the batteries. I couldn’t make it on my lunch break on Friday so I went after work. I went to the “owl city” and there weren’t any there. After sitting there for 15-20 minutes I headed down the road. I wanted to get a couple HDR’s this week so I stopped and got these:

Also got this along the road:

Then heading back to the car I got this dear in the road:


These people were walking around the corner and this dear didn’t care one bit.

I also snapped this near where I had seen the owls:

And that was my week – 2 days, lots of pictures, and one missed opportunity! Oh well, it’s only week 13…

This Week at the Lake – 12/52

/1 Comment/in , , , , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake - 12/52

A Barred Owl! So I finally got to see an owl at Radnor lake.

My first trip to the lake for the week was on Monday morning. The light is so great in the morning – I keep taking these bench shots:

I also got this shot of part of the fence that keeps people on the trail:

All those were take with the 70-200 2.8 L – All at 2.8 and all at long Focal lengths. I love the 2.8 aperture and the depth of focus it gives.

Also that morning I got a couple shots of deer:

I’m not sure why I keep putting the deer shots in black and white! I think they turn out really good though.

On my way back to the car that morning, I started talking with another photographer I met on the trail. I mentioned how I wanted to see an owl and he said he sees an owl almost every time he comes to the lake! He told me where to go sit (the link takes you to a picture of the long bridge at the start of the lake trail when coming from the ease parking lot)

My next chance to get to the lake came on Wednesday. So I went straight to this spot and sat on a bench. I sat for a couple minutes thinking I was wasting my lunch break when I heard the owl. It was coming from the direction of the east parking lot. So, do I get up and head back toward the parking lot or sit here longer? So I decided to sit and a couple minutes later I heard him again. But then nothing, for over 5 minutes I didn’t hear or see him. I was ready to give up (I’m just impatient) so I got up and turned around and noticed this little buck laying down right behind me!

While I was getting shots of this deer, another couple came walking down the bridge. He saw my camera and told me he had just seen an owl! I couldn’t believe it! If I had walked back out to the road I would have seen him. I was kind kind of mad and was going to head back to work. When I was telling the guy that I had been waiting for an owl, the owl swooped in and landed on a tree not far from the bridge!
The shot at the top of this post along with this:

I got several shots of him in the tree and then he flew to the ground looking for something to eat:

He stood in the same spot for a long time waiting for something in the little creek, then he attacked

The rest are too blurry to post as it was rather dark in the woods. I don’t think he got what he was after so he flew back to a tree that was further away. By then I had been gone from work for an hour and still had the 5 minute walk back to the car and the 15 minute drive back to the office! Better get going…..

For links to previous weeks of the 52 week project Click HERE

This Week at the Lake – 11/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake - 11/52

This week I made two lunch break trips to the lake. I have been so busy at work the last few weeks that it is hard for me to break away. I’m glad that I’m doing this project because it really forces me to make time to get there. After I leave the lake, I’m always glad I went. It’s a great break in the middle of the day.

The above shot is the same bridge I lead off with last week, just a much different perspective. I took that shot on Friday. That day I actually carried my camera bag with me, something I don’t usually do. Because I did, I was able to switch lenses and get a much different view of the same bridge. You really should view it LARGE on Black – it looks much better that way!

IMG_1158 copy
This deer greeted me at the very beginning of the trail on Wednesday. I got very close to her. I processed it a couple different ways and I let my wife choose what she thought was the best – black and white it is!

IMG_1193 copy
This is a different deer, this shot was taken on the east side of the Lake Trail on Friday. She appears to be very pregnant. Again, black and white seemed like a great fit to the photo.

IMG_1163 copy
Finally, I caught this heron on Wednesday. I wanted to wait a while to see if I could get a shot of it taking off or flying, but I had to get going to get back to work….

This Week at the Lake – 10/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake - 10/52

My 10th week was a very short one. I was traveling for work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Friday, I spent the morning registering my son for Kindergarten! Wow, I can’t believe he’ll be in school!

So the only chance I had was Thursday on my lunch break. So I had about 30 to 40 minutes to get something decent for the week. I’m not sure I really got anything great, but I guess that’s how it can go sometimes during a year long project.

There were some big storm clouds in the sky so I parked at the west entrance hoping to get a wide shot of the lake with the clouds overhead. I was going to walk down the road some to get a good view when I came up to this:

So, scratch that idea. I walked back to see what I could see along the lake trail through the woods. That trail starts off with the bridge at the top of this post. While crossing this bridge I noticed a deer laying down in the mud:

I almost completely missed it.

By then it was time to head back to the car – yes, 40 minutes really goes by that fast… (also because while I was on the road, I spent some time stalking a turtle that resulted in no photos)

On the way back to the car, I caught this woodpecker:

For My Wife

/1 Comment/in /by

For my Wife

IMG_0243 copy

I got these two shots framed for my wife on our seventh anniversary.

The first one was done by using a wide open aperture (2.8) and a long focal length (195 mm) – focusing directly on the passage “With this ring, I thee wed”. The ring was placed so that the light would create a heart as the shadow. The “book” used is the 1928 book of common prayer – the one we used at our wedding.

The second photo was shot from straight overhead. Same ring and light placement, different book. This was just a novel I found around the house, this page being the start of chapter Seven. Textures were added in Photoshop CS2

This Week at the Lake – 9/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

IMG_1065 copy

Well I struggled to get anything decent this week. I was only able to visit the lake twice, for 40 minutes on Wednesday and 40 minutes on Thursday. Most of my best shots come when I can get there first thing in the morning – unfortunately, I was not able to do that this week.
On top of that, most of the road was closed due to storm damage. Radnor Lake received heavy damage along Otter Creek Road in the recent heavy rains that flooded Nashville. Check this photo out on Radnor Lake’s website! It’s absolutely incredible the damage that can be caused by water…

Along with the damage to the road, they said over 50 trees were down. Most of the Lake trail that I usually walk seemed ok. You could tell there was heavy rain and a lot of water but there didn’t appear to be major damage.

The above shot shows a deck they had to close. This deck overlooks a creek that results in the water flowing over the dam. During the heavy rains, the sides of the creek were washed away right up to one of the posts of this deck. It was very close to washing the entire deck away!

IMG_1068_69_70_tonemapped copy
This shot shows where they have closed Otter Creek Road

IMG_1071 copy
Here is a big snapping turtle trying to escape the muck! There is a lot of extra debris and mud in the water because of the heavy rains.

IMG_1058 copy
One of the many benches along the Lake Trail

For more information on my 52 week project at Radnor Lake – Click Here