Lake Crescent NWR

It has been quite awhile since I have undated my blog, seems like IG has been where I have landed with my photos but I miss the journaling about them, it is like a photo dairy of the trips, the learning curve, equip used and just overall fun with Dan.  We went out to western Nebraska for a long weekend to explore this NWR and were blessed to see burrowing owls plus numerous other birds.  There is nothing like the wide open spaces of the sandhills, blue skies and green grasses for miles.

Burrowing Owl

This little guy has been on my photography bucket list ever since I saw Michael Forsberg's image of one.  While not the quality of his by any means at least I finally was able to photograph them in their natural habitat not in a zoo.  We went this last weekend to the Sandhills of western Nebraska, specifically to Crescent Lake NWR and were blessed to see many, many burrows with the amazing little darlings.

Feeding Frenzy at Sunset

  We went for a drive in the country on the 4th of July and came upon a feeding frenzy of barn swallows.  The little one would sit with it's mouth open watching the sky and she would appear out of nowhere and cram a bug literally down it's throat! I was using my 70-200 with the 1.4TCiii and have been quite pleased how they work together.

Wildlife at the Smokeys

 It was a fantastic spring for black bears in the Smokey's, that doesn't mean I was successful getting great images but sure did enjoy seeing them with their cubs and sometimes that just has to be enough.  We also saw an abundance of coyotes and they sure weren't as straggly looking as the ones I usually see around here.

This guy almost ended up in our truck, the windows were down and he could

smell the popcorn, we have a photo of his nose print on the side of the door,

poor Dan was getting a little nervous!

The original "goose" from Top Gun

  I know they are only geese but they are so graceful when flying by.  Hand holding the 150-600 still is quite a struggle but I am getting better at it.

Boring Bird on a Fence

  This started as a boring image of a cute little bird on a fence but I decided to try a composite with texture to see what I could do with it.  I started in On1 and layered the bird image on top of the background and masked the background through at 100% opacity, then I painted in and out at about 20% the edges until I was happy with it.  Moved into effects and applied a texture, back into layers where I applied my background on top this time, using the lighten blending mode.  Now into LR where I did some basic adjustment, radial filter and vignette.  Not perfect but for my first composite type image I am happy with the outcome.  Now for more YouTube videos to learn some more techniques.

Bird on fence image

 

Background

Finished composite
 



Squaw Creek

  Made a trip to Squaw Creek last week with Cathy who had never been there and had a fantastic day filled with sunshine and warmer temperatures and lots of laughing.  Not as much bird activity as we were hoping for but it was just so nice to be out in the fresh air with my camera in hand.  The eagles were not too plentifully but the trumpeter swan numbers were great and still a fair amount of snow geese.

 

 



Maybe She Won't See Me...

  This stag was so calm and tired, he even would drink from the creek laying on his side.  I think because the creek was between us, he wasn't too concerned that we were fairly close.

 

 

Love Is In the Air

  This big boy was making sure none of the other bucks were going to get his ladies.  As loud as they are with all their bugling during the rut it is nothing compared to the cranes.

 

Mountain Sheep

This little mountain goat was jumping from rock to rock and was just adorable to watch. It has been a great visit to the Teton's and Yellowstone this time as we have seen lots of wildlife. Hopefully when we get home and have downloaded everything we will have some keepers.

Great Blue Heron

I finished up the morning by doing a quick drive around Holmes Lake and happened upon this guy and he was not at all threatened by me being near by.  God is such an amazing creator!

 

Owlets

I was lucky enough to be able to photograph a couple of baby owls this week, hope to see Mom or Dad before these leave the nests.  Amazingly they are in a tree right in the middle of town.