This Week at the Lake – 25/52

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Nothing too exciting this week. I visited Radnor Lake often, and got tons of deer shots this week. I also switched up my path there, making a loop that’s perfect for my lunch break. Starting in the east parking lot, head down Otter Creek Rd. Take the Lake Trail to the right. After a short distance, the lake trail meets the Ganier Ridge trail. Take that trail up the hill for a little while and then take the spur trail to the right, which heads back to the parking lot. It’s a perfect 30-40 minute hike.

I did this hike on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There were lots of deer to see along the trail each day. Here is this weeks take:


I was hiding 🙂


a small woodpecker


A great blue heron by the lake shore


A whole lot of green, and a little bit of red


A bird (green heron?) flies across the lake early in the morning


A crazy looking wildflower


Saw this snake on Friday. I also found some snake skin only a few feet away from where he was sun bathing.

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This Week at the Lake – 24/52

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Lot’s of photos this week! I visited Radnor Lake in Nashville Tennessee on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Wednesday morning was rainy, so I walked down Otter Creek Rd. I headed to one of the best spots at the park to get a lakescape. I’ve got shots from this spot on Week 13, and Week 16, and Week 19. This time it was different with the dark rain clouds:

Heading back to the car, I got this shot right before it really started raining hard:

I went Thursday mid-day. The temperature and humidity have dropped considerably from last week, as you can see from this photo with the nice blue sky and fluffy clouds:

Then I went Friday early morning. I started off heading to the spot that I got shots for Week 15 and Wee 22 and I got this:

While setting up for this shot, I heard a loud crash maybe 10 feet away. I look over and there is a young buck staring at me. Then another comes to the shore and then some does arrive. I snapped this shot and then backed up from the shore and switched lenses. I’ve been looking forward to the fall, hoping I could get some shots of bucks. These may not be very impressive bucks but they are certainly the best I’ve seen so far. I ended up following them along the trail for nearly a mile, grabbing many shots:

This is one of the does

Got the idea for this shot from a Matt Hansen photo. I’m not sure I pulled it off nearly as well as he but I still liked it.

Loved this one too!

Last one!

On the way back to the car I stopped at the dam where I usually see green herons. Sure enough there was one there, I only grabbed a couple shots before he was scared off by other walkers:

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This Week at the Lake – 23/52

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I struggled to pick a lead photo this week. I like the photos I got this week but nothing really seemed to pop.

I started the week of at the lake on a Tuesday lunch time visit. It was about 100 degrees though so I did not stay long. I saw an owl on the side of the road on the way in but was unable to get a shot of him. The only thing I got in Tuesday was this:

On Thursday I went before work. Usually I get a lot of photos when I visit in the morning, however, that morning I did not get much. I came across a doe and fawn but it was 6am and dark in the woods. Everything came out blurry. The only shot I liked from that day was this one:

On Friday, I dropped my son off at school. I wanted to be there to pick him up so I took the day off rather than go to work for only a few hours. So, with my son in school and my daughter in daycare, my wife and I headed to the lake. We hiked the lake trail and took the south lake trail back to make a loop. It was the first time I’d hiked the south lake trail.

We saw an owl…

The background in this is awesome!

The fawns are getting big and losing their spots…

In the middle of the woods, there is a bench with a plaque that says “Play Ball”…. I don’t get it. This was on the South Lake Trail

Another week down! I would like for it to cool down some but that gets me thinking about winter – I’m not sure how I’ll make it through winter….

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This Week at the Lake – 22/52

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I’ve got a good variety of shots this week – HDR, black and white, wildlife, flower, textured……. All kinds of good stuff!

Despite extremely hot temperatures (heat index at least at 110 2 days!) I was able able to get to the Radnor Lake 3 times this week.
I went Monday on my lunch break. It was very quiet that day, I didn’t get much other that this:


Still on the shallow depth of focus and the black and white kick!

On Tuesday I went before work and was able to catch this amazing sunrise from the shore of the lake

Yes, the lake really is very green – it’s the duckweed that is growing throughout the lake

After the sunrise died down, I headed out along the lake trail. Here is what I was able to capture:


I followed these two around for a while but could not get any better shots of the fawn. I got really close at one point but it was so dark that my shutter speed was around 1/20. I’m just not steady enough to get a clear shot at 1/20. I may need to invest in a good ball head tripod….

Finally by Friday it cooled down a lot – so I headed out on my lunch break. I didn’t see any wildlife, so I started taken some “random” shots:

Also found some wildflowers along Otter Creek Rd

On the way back to the car I got a shot of this butterfly and I wanted to try textures again (Last week’s lead shot was a textured butterfly photo also)

Also, while I was just about back at the car, this little woodpecker landed very close

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This Week at the Lake – 21/52

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A very short week for me – I was traveling for work during most of the week. Unfortunately I was only able to visit Radnor Lake for 30-40 minutes on Friday.

I tried some different processing on the shot above, including adding textures. I think it turned out alright but I’m hoping for a much better week next week!

Here are some others I got:
This guy seemed to want his picture taken

A macro lens would be fun to use with these guys! There are tons of them at Radnor

My obsession with shallow DOF continues! I’ve also been converting more to black and white lately

Probably my favorite from this week – I like the simplicity and the light on the leaves.

So that’s all I managed in the short time I was there.

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This Week at the Lake – 20/52

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A little something different for my main post for Week 20. The first black and white photo that I’ve chosen to lead off with. I really liked the light and shadows in this – and of course I love that shallow depth of focus (dof). It may not be as popular as some of my others but it really clicked with me for some reason, probably one I will print.

Here are the other shots from Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday:

Monday

Help needed in identifying this bird! Please tell me if you know!
EDIT – Thanks to Matt Hansen for the ID! This is a Yellow Billed Cuckoo

For this one, I was really trying to get a “Deer in the Woods” look, not just a portrait. I think it turned out alright, something I will continue trying to get

Wednesday

Thanks to the nice couple on the bridge who helped my identify this as a Green Heron

Thursday

Friday

Wow, lots of photos this week!
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Franklin, Tennessee

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Earlier this week I stopped by Franklin, Tennessee after work to get some photos. Before this, I had zero shots of the downtown area of Franklin.

I got lots of shots, we’ll break it up into categories…

HDR
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There were so many people and cars it was hard getting most of those shots. Once I found a composition I wanted I would have to wait several minutes to get it with no cars…

Black and White
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Downtown Franklin is well suited for Black and White photography

Color
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Most of these color shots looked so good in black and white also, but I needed to throw some color in there!

This Week at the Lake – 18/52

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Moving right along! Week 18 already….

I visited Radnor Lake on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Monday I was off work, so I took the kids to the zoo, after which we picked my wife up from work and headed to the lake. My son loves riding his bike so we brought it with us:

The kids enjoyed themselves, we were able to find deer, squirrels, birds, turtles and we even saw a couple owls!

On Tuesday I stopped by before heading to work. Along the path I found a fawn with, I presume, her mother

Heading back to the car, I got a flower shot. A Rose of Sharon, growing near the house on the dam walkway

The next day I again got to go before work. Arriving at 6 am I wandered up to the spillway bridge to take in the view of the lake from there. Noticed this Lightning Bug on the bridge railing

That’s some major depth of focus! Achieved by using a long focal length (180mm) and a wide open aperture (f2.8)

Further down the path I got another black and white deer portrait

This deer was walking along the path with everyone else!

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This Week at the Lake – 15/52

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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 – 13/52

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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…