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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 – 29/52

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Click the panorama above to view the full size!! Maybe not the most exciting pano ever but I spent a lot of time on it. It’s full size is about 8.5 feet long (over 30,000 pixels) and consists of 15 vertical images. The file size for the full size image 1.83 gigs! It was too large for my computer to blend in photoshop, so I had to create two panoramas using photoshops “automerge” and then manually blend those two together. Now, if only I could find someone to print an 8.5′ long photo…..

This was taken Wednesday evening. I had to shake things up a bit and visit at a different time. It’s amazing how different you can see things when the light is different. By stopping by Wednesday evening, I also lucked out and caught the harvest moon:

I feel like I was rushed taking these as it was really getting dark at this point. Radnor Lake closes at “dark” so I wanted to be sure I was back at my car before someone else considered it “dark”. After these shots, I headed quickly back to the parking lot – only to see that there were still probably 20-25 cars there. I guess I could have stayed a little while longer….

Other shots with the Wednesday evening light:

I also visited during my lunch break on Monday and Wednesday, here is the result of those trips:

Not sure what type of bird this is but I sat and watched him catch bugs, he was very fast.

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 – 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 – 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 – 19/52

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Hope you like the new look here! I’ve been wanting a wordpress template that would put my photos on an all black background and I’ve finally found it! I think it looks much better now….

Week 19 has come and gone. This week I visited Radnor Lake on Wednesday (noon), Thursday (noon) and Friday (early morning).

Wednesday I used my lunch break from work to go to the lake. Usually when I do this, I have to set an alarm on my phone to tell me when to head back to the car. Well, on Wednesday, I was walking around shooting, finding owls and deer, off in my own little world. I remember thinking to myself “seems like I’ve been here a while but I must have more time – my alarm hasn’t gone off yet!”. Shortly after, I suddenly realize the phone is not in my pocket! I headed for the car as quick as I could. Finally I got to the car, there was my phone buzzing away! I had been there for about an hour and fifteen minutes (would still take almost fifteen minutes to get back to the office)! Yikes! Luckily no one was looking for me and I didn’t really miss anything important, I don’t even think anyone noticed…

The skies were great that day so I wanted to get a good lake-scape
This is the same spot that I got the images from for Week 13 and Week 16

I then headed to where I normally see the owls and sure enough…
(I think he’s trying to hide from me 🙂 )

(These are all the same owl)

Also while standing there (waiting for my alarm to ring!) I saw this fawn and her mother cross the path

On Thursday I headed to the lake despite the HOT temperatures (and made sure I had my phone with me)
It was so hot I decided I was not going to walk far or stay long. I parked at the west entrance this time and headed up the lake trail. I didn’t go very far and I came across another owl – I had never seen one in this part of the park before

On Friday, I was able to go early in the morning – getting there just after 6am. I was walking along the lake trail and had made it quite a ways without getting many pictures. I saw lots of deer but nothing was coming out right for me. It was so dark this morning because of hazy/cloudy skies that almost everything I took was blurry. The shutter speeds were 1/20, 1/40 (even at 800 ISO).

I was walking along the path and I heard a bunch of birds being very noisy. There was a small tree nearby with a canopy of branches right on the side of the trail. I ducked under the branches and looked up – there was a Barred Owl that was no more that 10 feet away! I took a couple shots before he was spooked by some people walking.
This is only at 70mm – quality is not that great because it was very dark under the tree. 1/20 shutter speed at f2.8

He flew to a nearby branch where I got a couple more shots before he left

I then started back towards the car. On the way back I saw another Doe with a Fawn. I did everything I could to get a decent shot of these two but nothing seemed to go right. I followed/stalked for at least a quarter mile.

I then watched them emerge from some brush and there was a second fawn. I don’t think it belonged to this doe because she walked off with the other fawn and this one stayed. He came very close to me at one point.

He then wandered off and I headed to the car.

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This Week at the Lake – 17/52

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This Week at the Lake - 17/52
Can you believe that?! ( I paid her $20 to walk there!)

This was a great week at the lake. The weather has cooled some and it was so nice. I had Monday and Tuesday off work, Monday I went to Cades Cove and we came back home Monday evening. Since I already had Tuesday off work, I went to the lake! I got there about 6:15 am and was able to walk the entire loop – something I haven’t done in a long time.

I had a feeling I was going to see the same sun rays I saw in Week 15. I was right, as the sun started coming through the trees, the rays began to shine down. I spotted a few deer nearby and decided I was going to sit there until one crossed the path. It took about 20 minutes, but finally one did. I was shooting away as she watched me the entire time she crossed! I was so excited, I kept checking the viewfinder the rest of the hike to make sure it really happened!

Further along the trail I came up on some more rays:

I did see an owl that morning but could not get a good shot of him before he flew off.

I was sitting on the side of the road watching a Great Blue Heron when this little bird flew up. I’m not sure what type of bird he is and he didn’t stay long.

The Heron I was watching started flying away so I tried some in-flight shots. I followed him all the way back around to the spillway trail. Every time he flew away he just flew further down the trail so I met up with him again and again. I’m sure he was tired of me!

I had made the full loop now and saw that people were filming a commercial there were packing up (they were setting up when I first got there). They had a car waiting and Governor Phil Bredeson came walking out to get in.

You never know what you’ll see at Radnor Lake…..

Wednesday was so nice so I decided to go to the lake during my lunch break. I spotted this fawn sleeping on the edge of the lake

I sat and watched him for a while and he got up to stretch and laid back down.

I went on my lunch break again on Thursday. It was quiet there, I didn’t see much but it was still so nice. I did get this little bird just singing away…

On Friday, I was meeting the Nashville Photography Meetup Group Downtown at 7pm so I had some time after work. I headed to the lake and was able to walk the entire loop again.

A distorted self portrait 🙂

This deer was busy eating the duckweed

Here is a deer that came walking up to me and got so close! This shot is only at 100mm

This Week at the Lake – 16/52

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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: