Fairweather Zealot

This is what happens when you combine a non-studio photographer with the urge to do something artistic – Gummi Art.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I just couldn’t resist this as a Chrismtas shot with those colors! Everyone have a great holiday season.

Great Spangled Fritillary
Speyeria cybele

Purple Sandpiper
Calidris maritima

I’ve been really missing photography lately, and have been itching to get out with my camera. I had made several subtle hints that although it would only be in the high 40′s today, that we should perhaps go see what there was to see down at Barnegat Lighthouse, hoping to see some Harlequins and other cool birds. I was slightly less subtly denied each time.

But my wife – being the wonderful woman she is, secretly planned on giving in for my birthday, and today we took a small photography trip. This purple sandpiper was one of the highlights of our trip.

Yellow-rumped Warbler
Dendroica coronata

Finishing off the rest of my shots from my trip to Forsythe a couple of weeks ago, I found this Yellow-rumped warbler shot.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Regulus calendula

This is “Bubba”, a small Ruby-crowned Kinglet that entertained me for about 40 minutes a couple of Saturdays ago. Despite the amount of time spent and the 200+ pictures I took, I ended up with very few good shots. This one isn’t perfect, but I love the light on it.

See it large or On Black

The wife and I decided to take a day to go out and see what there was to see along the Jersey coast today. After a pretty disappointing selection at Barnegat Lighthouse (more songbirds than seabirds), we went to Forsythe NWR in Brigantine. It was also fairly slow, but what we did see what pretty cool.

This Greater Yellowlegs was among the highlights of the day – s/he let me get within about 3m, clicking away. Definitely needs to be seen larger (or original size).

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Black Form) – female
Papilio glaucus

Going through the archives a bit more, I found a few shots of Eastern Black Swallowtails (black form) from Valley Forge, taken in August.

Introducing the Gummis

Just trying to flex my muscles on something remotely art-like. I got this idea and wanted to see if I could pull it off. I wanted to play with the light and refraction coming through the gummi bears. This is the result (see the whole set).

Very few gummis were hurt during the making of this picture.

Eastern Phoebe
Sayornis phoebe

Wednesday was a very quiet day when I went hiking – the only highlight was a couple of shots of this beautiful phoebe.

Black-throated Blue Warbler – male
Dendroica caerulescens

We went back to Palmyra for a short hike after the sun came out, and while it was mostly dead, we did have some good birding just before we left.

The highlight, though, had to be getting the two shots of this beautiful male Black-throated Blue Warbler.