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If there was one standout bird from my recent trip to Sax-Zim Bog, it was definitely this male White-winged Crossbill. Crossbills have specially designed bills that help them pry open cones and get to the seeds inside. I have never been this close to one for such a long period of time. I was in awe as my two friends and I watched this bird at eye-level, plucking tamarack cones and ripping them apart, while paying no mind to us whatsoever. It was magical to observe such a unique and beautiful bird so closely, especially since they are generally seen near the tops of tall spruce trees. They also tend to stay in flocks and so I think my friend was right in his assessment that this particular bird seemed to have been separated from his flock. St. Louis County, MN 02/01/22
The Bullock's oriole would have a hard time to conceal itself from anyone entering its space, the beautiful yellow/orange feathers unfold its beauty from a distance
On a morning walk / hike through one of the Eastern Sierras numerous aspen groves, I came across a group of young aspen trees taking root just beyond a much larger group of mature trees. In kind of a gesture by these mature trees, they seemed to say... "Look over here... these are our youngsters." And they seemed to say it in that "proud-parent-kind-of-way" ;)
A 200 foot tall tree stands out on the side of a volcano in Costa Rica...
The tree is nearly a mile from the camera, the background ends around 2 miles distant. This is what lots of humid air looks like...
American kestrel takes off after an unsuccessful dive for prey. Ironically, I only stopped here to watch a Coyote hunting the back of the field, and this ended up as the standout among 1,000+ Kestrel images taken on this day. Point Reyes National Seashore
This was a "first" for me. I heard this bird singing before I locate it and thought at first that a mockingbird was in the area due to the changing songs being sung. These Thrashers are said to have a repertoire that has more than a 1000 different songs.
Dahlia against monochrome background.
Thank you so much for your views, comments and faves! They are encouraging as I continue on my photographic journey.
Another shot from my visit to Bloomberg’s new European Headquarters for Open House on Saturday 22nd September. Many buildings only have one standout area for photography. For this one there are 2 with the spiral stair in the upper atrium in the previous image and this location in the ground floor reception area. It is called the Vortex and is a twisted wood-panelled structure that is part hallway and part work of art. Its 3 leaning walls with no columns to support their weight are a structural first for a building this size. The passage to the left leads to lifts to the upper floors. There is a reflective silver ceiling which is part of an artwork by Olafur Eliasson.
Places were only available by pre-booking which I secured in August as soon as booking opened. The building was only opened in October 2017 so a first in Open House. The building was certainly the highlight of the weekend for me. As with all Open House buildings it is free to visit. Good impressions were added to as while we waited for our 45 minute tour to start free hot drinks, soft drinks and biscuits were provided. Also a 50 page booklet about the building was given out to keep. The Guide told us at the start that photos were allowed but not videos. Later when I started taking shots a security guard came up to me and asked what the Guide told me about photos, I told him and he muttered he was not sure about that and he would go and check with his supervisor. He didn’t bother me again. I have heard that the following day they changed policy to allow pictures only with mobile phones but later reverted to also allowing SLR’s. Certainly from a security perspective the distinction is no longer relevant with the quality of some Smartphones these days.
The picture was taken handheld. The image was taken with a Sony A68 with a Sigma 10-20 mm lens at 10mm. I took 3 shots for HDR processed in Photomatix using Tone Balancer for a natural look. . Then I used Topaz Clarity for more detail and Topaz DeNoise to correct a little noise. Unsharp mask with settings of 42 amount and 42 radius was used for more pop on the woodwork. A layer mask was used to remove the effect from highlights. At the top of the picture one of the moveable lights was pointed towards me creating flare. I got over that by cloning some of the light panels from the left to cover it. I wanted to avoid cropping to keep in the curves at the top.
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I was shooting sunrise one morning and the fog rolled in on an adjacent mountain. As the fog swirled around, this guy stood out against the whiteness.
This female Wood Duck makes an interesting foreground picture against a diverse colored fading Autumn wallpaper back-splash