View allAll Photos Tagged Tree|
Eagle Among Trees. Sacramento Valley, California. January 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
A bald eagle flies through heavy vegetation
I was up in the Sacramento Valley last winter, visiting several wildlife refuges, when I had the opportunity to photograph several bald eagles. It was not uncommon to find them perched alone in the high branches of tall trees, from which they can presumable observe their surroundings and watch for prey. If I waited long enough, eventually the bird would take flight, giving me a few seconds to try to track the early while firing off a quick series of exposures.
This bird made it doubly tricky. Instead of heading for an open area, it looped back right in among the trees. It is perhaps even a bit difficult to find the eagle through that jumble of branches! I'll be honest — I'm also sharing their photograph as an example of how amazing modern autofocus systems can be, at least with a bit of practice. The challenges here are quite something — the eagle is flying at a good rate and somehow the camera and I had to keep focus on it despite all of the nearer and farther interference.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, "California's Fall Color: A Photographer's Guide to Autumn in the Sierra" is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
These Tree Swallows are migrating north for the summer and were taking a rest in this tree. I would have overlooked them except for their chatter.
Detail of a tree in Paquetá island... This place has some of the most impressive trees in the city!
Paquetá is a small island where the time had stopped decades ago... It could be another city, a small one, but its a district of the Wonderful City, Rio, located in the middle of Guanabara Bay. After a bit more than one hour by ferry boat you arrive in this bucolic place where cars are not allowed, only bicycles and horses. Its a place of tranquility...
Paquetá district, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Have a beautiful day and week ahead! :¬)
I spotted this tree with shoes hanging from it next to HWY. 16 miles east of Mitchell. Basically nothings close by. I don't know why but the sign said: A bunch of old souls just hanging around"
stopped off in Cloyne this morning on the way to Ballycotton , left home at 4am accompanied by my daugther , we were in the field in darkness with an owl in a nearby tree
Seems like they are always in motion but this one stood still for quite a long time. CT Bridle Trail, Oxford, CT
We were able to go out riding back roads and such yesterday because due to the Covid Thing Anita is only working a day or two each week. So we decided to ride Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park as it had just opened up to traffic again. We were going to celebrate by driving the whole length of it, approximately 135 miles from Front Royal to Waynsboro (where it joins up with the Blue Ridge Parkway and continues on south). Anyway we didn't take the direct route to get to the drive and got on this little one lane road where we were admiring some wild flowers along the side of the road. Anita stopped the vehicle in the middle of the road (as she always does!!!) and that is how we met this gentleman who proceeded to make the whole day perfect for us! In honor of him I am posting two photos today. He stopped and Anita started asking him questions about the flowers, and he said, come on up to my house just over this hill and I will show you my peonie garden. We spent over an hour sitting in this beautiful garden and talking. Turned out he was a master gardener, above 80 years old and had a real joy for caring for his flowers. He also had Purple Martin houses and Blue Bird boxes in his garden. He called these birds Bluebirds even though I knew they were Tree Sparrows! Such a generous, sweet tempered man I don't think we have ever met before! The stories he told of the farms around about him, the flowers and what all he and his wife were doing and had done were so very interesting! We came away from there with many beautiful photos and a big bouquet of lovely peonies! The drive on Skyline was a pale comparison to that part of the day. There truly are some beautiful souls in this Covid infested world!
I had to wade in deep snow to get to the old tree yesterday. Halfway down the path I met a couple walking in the other direction so from there I could walk in their footsteps. That made it a little easier for me, which I thanked them for.
Tree
14/12/16.
Pentax K1000 SLR.
Fomapan 200 shot at 400.
Developed by me.
Rodinal, 1+50, 20 mins, 20C, Fomafix P, spiral tank.
Scanned with Epson Scan V550.
035003
I had my Elm trees trimmed a bit. The arborist doing the work was amazing. He was totally at home in the trees! For the Tree-mendous Tuesday group. TMT!
I don't know what kind of tree it is... but I like it! LOL. It's not diseased, but it sure is peeling!! Maybe it's another Sycamore tree. Will have to investigate. :-)
It's nice today (1st in a long time!) and I've been out taking pics with my new camera all morning. I am sooo addicted!! Bit by the camera bug!!
I'm glad I didn't discover cameras when I was still working. I don't think I would have gotten much work done. LOL.
Well, hope you like this one!! Have a nice day! :-)
" A Cherry Blossoming "
I have decided 2014 will be my year of the tree. I will attempt to make a cane every week that features a tree. Hopefully this self challenge will expand my knowledge of cane making and also give me some interesting canes to play with.
I know where I want my ashes scattered.
If you are on the M25 heading anticlockwise, Southbound, between junction 17 and 16 there is a sign stating that you have entered Buckinghamshire. Not long after that on the left is a field, and a tree in the middle of that field will stand out. All alone, on the brow of a hill, it draws the eye. Over the years I have passed this tree hundreds, maybe thousands of times, seen it with leaves, without leaves, backed by thick slatey skies, ‘Simpsons’ skies, obliterated by fog, backed by a sherberty sunrise. I have always wanted to have a photograph of it in all of its variations on my wall but have never had the impetus to pull off the motorway and actually find a route to it.
That tree and I have eyed each other through good times and shitty times, when times are shitty I particularly think about wanting to be deposited there when I’m gone.
The first year of secondary school, I had a bad time. I was like a young meerkat who had been rejected by the mob, certain members were able to influence the rest with their smear campaign and out I was cast.
Like those nature programs where a member of the group is rejected for a superficial reason - they smelt funny, they got knocked up by the alpha male when they were not alpha female, they hurt their paw and couldn’t keep up - Suddenly I found myself alone, wandering the concrete plains, conspicuous by my solitude. The jackals – sullen 11 year old boys in my year – trailed the scent of weakness, yelled ‘loner’ at me every lunchtime and delighted in telling me what the girl who hated me had been saying. I imagined wildlife filmmakers were following my pathetic plight without intervening. ‘Rejected juvenile Naughton has survived another day alone in the grounds of the school. She skulked in areas where she knew there was cover and eventually found a bench at the top of a hill above the playing fields, that looked out onto the M25. It seemed that it was not within the territory of any predators, the plains below were filled with 5th year jackals, focused only on their footballs, so she cowered there unseen, able to keep a look out for the enemy whilst watching the vehicles charging clockwise North, longing to be inside any one of them.’
Having my ashes scattered under this tree is a most suitable spot. I live on the periphery. In most other people’s lives I am merely a fleeting presence, like the littlest hobo, except I don’t help anyone and no children cry when I disappear again. Every time someone who once knew me is driving along that section of the M25 they might pass the tree and think of me. This would certainly be more often than they’d ever think of me otherwise - If my ashes were in some garden of remembrance. This way no-one has to actually go out of their way to visit me, they can just pass by on their way and wave, or swear - apt representation of all of my relationships anyway – arms length/motorway’s width. You can’t actually go up to the tree, you can only view it from a distance, see it in passing, no chance to linger, no awkward pleasantries, no small-talk.
One idle Monday-dreading-Sunday I decided, today was the day to photograph my tree of death. Using Googlemaps I was able to find my tree and work out the possible routes to it.
Googlemaps streetview now shows, with little blue dots, the places people have taken photos, and you can see the exact spot they stood. My tree features in several of these shots. Maybe this could be the future of memorials - we can do away with engraved benches and instead have Google Memorials – a black dot on the map that, when you roll over it, shows who chose this to be their memorial spot - a brief life history, a couple of photos, links to every one of their multitude of blogs, websites, tweets, so much information that they are practically alive again according to their web presence. In order to secure the best memorial spots bidding would be done on Ebay, top spots being famous landmarks, football stadiums and strip clubs. Then we may as well have Google Graves and Google Gore – gold stars for all the spots where famous people are buried, and red splatters where noteworthy deaths occurred, you know how we like that. Instead of just getting it to show the traffic situation on your phone you can also ask for the gore spots to be shown. “Oh damn, accident on the M4, sorry kids, we’d better find another route to Legoland – in fact if we take that back road there are three gore-spots we will go past, you’d like that wouldn’t you kids?”
“Yay!!!!”