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This Week at the Lake – 35/52

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I figured this was an appropriate lead shot this week as we enter November and get closer to Thanksgiving!

I’m posting late today because I got up early this morning to go to…… Radnor Lake! I met up with a few people from the Nashville Photography Meetup Group as well as a few people I met in the Radnor Lake Group on flickr. Lot’s of fun, and good to meet some more photographers. I’ll have those pictures up for next weeks post.

For this week I was only able to visit twice, Wednesday and Thursday. I didn’t get much Wednesday morning because shortly after I got on Otter Creek Road it started to rain on me. Here is what I got before the rains came:

The rest of my shots all came on Thursday. I took a half day off work because it was my sons birthday. I had a few hours to kill before he got home so I headed to the lake. Here is what I came away with on Thursday:

I know I take a lot of these type shots but I really like them!

The clouds starting rolling in right about the time I got to this overlook. They really made for a great lakescape.

One of the few times this lens ever comes off my camera!

I saw this guy sitting there so I would take a shot and then take a couple steps toward him, take another shot and then another couple steps. Just trying to see how close I could get. I think I could have gotten closer but some other hikers came up behind me and he ran off.

Not the best shot, but I had to put this up for the Brentwood Police Captain I was talking to. We were both watching the HUGE buck for a while. He was down in a ravine and never came closer to the path.

More turkeys

One of my favorites from the week….

And that’s it for the week!

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All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 33/52

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Not much to write about this week – I visited Radnor Lake on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I was very excited to spot this huge buck on Thursday at about mid-day. Here is another of the same buck crossing the hiking trail:

There’s another to check off the wish list! Now if only I could see a bald eagle I’d be just about done with that list!

Wednesday was an early morning trip:

Other miscellaneous shots from the week:

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is now on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 31/52

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I’m getting closer!
For the last couple of weeks, nearly every time I visit around lunch, I’ve seen a hawk flying around. I haven’t been able to catch him in a tree or on the ground yet, but I finally caught him flying close enough to the ground to get a decent shot of him! This is only at 200mm and only cropped a little.

Of course, I had to play around with the photo some, here is a more dramatic lens flare version:

On Thursday, I posted on my Facebook Page about some tones I was working on. Here are a couple shots using very similar tones and processing:

Signs of Fall at the lake!

And Finally, the “mandatory” weekly deer photos:


I got these three shots up on the Ganier Ridge Trail, this week was my first time heading off on that trail…

And that’s it for the week!

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This Week at the Lake – 30/52

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I let my son choose the lead photo this week. I couldn’t decide between this deer portrait and this lakescape:

I think he chose well though, I think that is my best deer portrait so far.

I got some pretty good stuff this week, I started off on Monday morning when I shot the sunrise above. Tuesday I went on my lunch break. As soon as I got close to the lake I could here tons of geese. They have certainly returned from their summer break in a big way! I headed down Otter Creek Rd along the lake to capture some goose photos:

I also got this abstract

I got to go again Wednesday morning so I headed back down Otter Creek Rd.

This time the lake was very steamy/misty

I wanted to capture some geese photos with the mist
I went a little crazy with this one, but I thought it looked pretty cool

I really wanted to get one in flight, I managed this one

Finally I had to head back to the car. I stopped one last time at a clearing and I heard the geese – here they come!
Finally, a group flew right by me

I went again Friday during lunch and that was when I captured the deer portrait above and this one

And that’s it for the week!

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This Week at the Lake – 28/52

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A very quiet week at the lake this week. Not much going on…..

A couple weeks ago I tried a lake scape with textures added. The more I looked at it the more I really liked it. So, I thought I’d try it again. The above shot was taken on a beautiful morning when the mist was rising from the lake. I’ve applied 3 textures that I’ve downloaded from various places over the internet (mainly flickr). Unfortunately I can’t remember where I got them as I’ve had them in a folder for over a year now.

Here are the rest of the shots from this week:
The epic battle between hawk and black bird continues! If you saw last week I posted a shot of a hawk chasing a black bird. I saw a similar scene early Monday morning. Again there were several black birds and one hawk and again it was hard to tell who was chasing who! I’m hoping I can get close enough to get a good shot of this happening.

There are 3 deer in this shot – none of them showing their head!

The background is awesome!

And that’s it for the week!

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This Week at the Lake – 27/52

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It was tough getting anything decent this week. It seemed to be cloudy the entire week making it dark along the trails. My camera doesn’t do too well in dark conditions and I ended up with dozens of blurry images this week. It’s also getting too dark for my early morning trips. The sun doesn’t seem to come over the hills until 7:15 or so, by 7:30 I should be back at the car to get ready for work.

Here are this weeks best shots:

I liked the idea for this but I think the deer is too far away

This is heavily cropped but it was so cool to watch I wanted to share it. This hawk and about 5 black birds were going at it for a while. Was the hawk trying to eat a black bird or were the black birds trying to get the hawk to leave? Most of the time, I couldn’t even tell who was chasing who! At the time of this shot, it’s clear that the hawk is chasing the black bird. But shortly after this, the hawk landed on a log and another black bird came down and provoked the hawk. None of the chases ever lasted very long as the hawk gave up the chase quickly and easily. Very fun to watch, wish I could have gotten closer but this was all happening on the other side of the lake!

spotted this owl Friday evening. I set up the tripod without scaring him off, and fired off a few shots. While taking these shots it really started raining. Not much rain was making it to me under the trees but I didn’t want my gear sitting out any longer.

Bad formation! But pretty cool photo with the added textures…

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This Week at the Lake – 26/52

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The half way point!
It’s hard to believe that I’m half way through this project. These weeks have been flying by but I know I’ve got the hardest weeks coming up. I think I’ll be fine into November but then – who knows! I’m not a fan of winter at all and I always have a hard time finding interesting things to shoot in the dead of winter.

This week was great, the weather has turned pretty mild (at least compared to the 100+ degree days).

The shot above was taken early Monday morning
Here are the rest in chronological order:
After getting the lead shot, I noticed this deer all the way across the lake. I applied some textures for a vintage feel.

More texture fun!

The “baby” deer are getting so big! I can’t help but think this is the same deer as seen in Week 19 and Week 15. They were all taken in the same area and I frequently see a doe and a fawn in that area.

A lakescape taken in the middle of the day, this is the same spot as Week 15‘s sunrise

Another from this spot, in black and white

I don’t know who was lucky enough to get to go out on a canoe on Wednesday morning. Typically, canoes are not allowed. One of the canoes had a park ranger in it.

There are 4 really good “lakescape” spots around Radnor Lake. I’ve posted shots from all the other views before but I think this is the first week from this spot. The lead shot is also from this vantage point, just very different days! Also, this shot marks one of the extremely rare instances where I processed the shot in both HDR and Non-HDR and preferred the Non-HDR version! This shot was inspired by this shot by flickr contact abennett23. I’ve been looking for a while now for the best location and timing to get something similar to his.

These little birds have made several appearances through out the weeks. Probably because they will come so close to you if you are quiet and still

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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 – 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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