2008

05/05/08 - Dragonfly Update: Spotted the first dragonfly in the yard while I was mowing today.  It was startled out of a fir tree next to the shed when the tractor mower kicked up a cloud of dust and leafy debris.  Not sure of the dragonfly species.  It looked all black and shiny, and my first thought was a Black Saddlebags, but I remember them to be bigger than this one.  Hopefully, I'll find out tomorrow.

04/26/08 - Wild Turkey Update: Wild turkeys are out and about - the Toms strutting their stuff and the hens doing their best to ignore them.  This one, however, wasn't as successful at ignoring a strutting Tom and is now nesting.  Notice how well she's camouflaged, considering the nest is on the ground and under very little cover.  I walked past this one three times while looking for damselflies before I realized it was only about two feet away from me . . . now I avoid the area so she doesn't get spooked and abandon her future family before they hatch, though I do peek at her from afar every day.

04/26/08 - Damselfly Update: Spotted the first damselfly of the year (Swift Forktail - Ischnura erratica - male) in the grass by an old oak stump.  This damselfly was only about twenty feet from the nesting turkey, above. Now I take the long way, around the shed to search the area for damselflies and dragonflies. The Swift Forktail and Pacific Forktail damselflies usually arrive in early April.

03/22/08 - Turkey Vulture - Buzzard Update: Spotted the first Turkey Vulture of the year, circling several hundred feet above the house. It soon found the remains of a dead deer lying in the brush in a neighbor's field. I usually spot the first Buzzard on March 16.

03/06/08 - Hummingbird Update: The first female Rufous Hummingbird of the year arrived about mid-morning, bringing along her juvenile son from last year's hatching. By the end of the next day, we had three nesting pairs around the house.

03/03/08 - Hummingbird Update: The first Rufous Hummingbird of the year arrived about mid-day today. After checking out the feeder, he claimed a perch on top of the central Fire Thorne bush and kept a vigilent eye out for passing females. Some years the hummers arrive by February 15th.

2007

10/10/07 - Mushroom Update:
I've added 21 new images and completely redesigned the Mushroom Gallery.  Unfortunately, I don't know the names of any of them.  Regardless, they still make neat photography subjects and they're interesting to look at.  If you know the names of the mushrooms, please let me know.  Hope you enjoy viewing the expanded and improved Mushroom Gallery.

10/10/07 - Butterfly Update:
I've determined the names of the butterflies I've taken images of and completely redesigned the Butterfly Gallery.  I've added several new species and additional images of some existing species.  I've also expanded the Butterfly Gallery to include one rather pretty moth.  I'll be adding more moth images after I gather all their names.  Hope you enjoy viewing the improved Butterfly Gallery.

07/31/07 - Dragonfly Update:
This has been a pretty good year for taking pictures of Dragonflies.  Whereas last year I only managed to capture a few different kinds, this year I managed to capture 16 - and in most cases, I managed images of both sexes.  Many of the Dragonflies are beautifully colored and marked, but even the less colorful varieties are magnificent in their own right.  And by the way, you don't necessarily need to be around a body of water to have Dragonflies visit you.  We have no bodies of water on our property, only a seasonal creek that runs through our neighbor's property (about 150 - 200 yards away), and starting in early June, their creek is dry.

Since Dragonflies appear to like perches to display on and lurk from for passing bugs, I set up numerous dead branches around the blackberries - they also seem to like hanging around the blackberry vines and perching on last years dead runners.  If you decide you want to take pictures of Dragonflies, the main thing to remember is that when you approach them, do so very slowly, and have the camera set as soon as you start your approach.  As soon as I spot a Dragonfly, I turn on the camera and set it to full zoom - in the case of the Fuji S5200, that's 10X - and I turn on the Macro Mode.  I then slowly maneuver to within 6 to 8 feet of the subject.  After taking 1 or 2 images, I take another slow step forward and take another few images.  I keep repeating the step-and-shoot process until I'm within the near range limit of the lens - by then, I can usually move fairly freely around the Dragonfly without spooking it, though I have noticed they watch me intently.  I've also found that Dragonfly bodies are highly reflective.  As a result, I often either increase my shutter speed or use a narrower aperture (sometimes both) to eliminate some of the glare.  I've also recently started experimenting with flash, even in full sunlight; it seems to bring out the colors and feature definition better.  And it may sound odd, but I've had the best luck approaching them when I'm wearing a white shirt.

For your viewing enjoyment and identification purposes, I've completely rewritten the Dragonfly pages, and where before I displayed only 10 images without names, I've now added well over 100 images with both Latin and common names of each variety.

And I'd like to give special thanks to Dr. Dennis Paulson, Director Emeritus of The Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound and Steve Valley of the Oregon Dragonfly And Damselfly Survey for their help in identifying the various dragonflies presented in my Dragonfly Gallery and my Damselfly Gallery.

Equipment:
I've recently been asked, several times, what camera I use.  All recent images were taken with an off the shelf, Fuji Finepix S5200 - no additional options or features, not even filters.  The S5200 is a 5 MP point and shoot digital with a 10X optical zoom and a 5.2X digital zoom.  I never use the digital zoom; it adds distortions to the image.  For subjects within 6 feet, like bugs, I also use macro.  All my shots are taken without a tripod or monopod.  I'm still new to digital photography, so to learn the camera, I hardly ever use the "Auto" setting - so far, I prefer Programmed Auto (for aperture adjustments) and Aperture Priority.  For light metering, I prefer center spot metering.  Weather permitting, I stroll around the yard for an hour or two every day and take anywhere from 50 to 100 digital photos.  If I'm lucky, I may get half a dozen images that are keepers.  Various flash settings are also used, sometimes because they're needed and sometimes for effect.

Prior to using the S5200, I used a Nikon 8008 35mm SLR, prior to that a Konika AF 35 mm SLR.  My main reasons for switching to digital were the amount of time and hassle it took to develop a roll of film, and that scanning the photo into a digital format for the site always lost some of the photo's quality.  With a good digital camera, there's no quality loss, and with all their bells and whistles, touch up software is seldom needed.