Gridlock Around the Pentagon or Hike in a Wildlife Preserve

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

This morning I started my daily routine to prepare for commuting to the Pentagon, which includes checking TV and Webcam traffic reports. Today, I discovered that all of the roads and highways (including I-95) around the Pentagon were shutdown due to a “suspicious” car parked at Arlington Cemetery. It was clearly a nightmare for thousands of commuters that had left earlier and could not approach the Pentagon–access was only by Metro or foot. Apparently, the police arrested an individual after hours at the cemetery, who was uncooperative and had a backpack containing suspicious items. More can be read at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43437875/ns/today-today_news/t/nbc-suspicious-device-found-car-near-pentagon/

I suppose the authorities need to be cautious, but in my opinion, they overreacted and caused a horrendous nightmare for thousands of people trying to get to work at the Pentagon or in and around Arlington and Washington DC. For me, I rejoiced in the situation because I saw an opportunity to skip work and hike in a local wildlife preserve and do what I would rather be doing anyway, photography. So, instead of checking the 15 bluebird nest boxes at the Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area on Saturday as I had planned, I went this morning and hiked the 300 acres for 5 hours to each bluebird nest box, recorded the status of the nests and shot photos of the nests with my iPhone and surrounding landscapes with my Nikon. It turned out to be a great day (for me).

I am one a several volunteers who check the bluebird nest boxes at Merrimac. The results of what we observe and do is recorded in a log and includes documenting nest activity, counting eggs and chicks, removing old nests and ensuring the nest boxes are in good condition. The results of what I found today were:

  • 6 active nests
  • 1 box with a new nest but no eggs or chicks (yet)
  • 2 nests with eggs
  • 3 nests with bluebird chicks that were about two weeks old
I used my iPhone to photograph the nests, eggs and chicks. 
I also shot a lot of photos with my Nikon of flowers and the summer landscape at Merrimac, but have not transferred them from the camera yet. Bottom line, it was a bad morning for many, many people in the northern Virginia and Washington DC area, but for me, it turned out to be outstanding. This evening and this weekend, I will get back to reviewing and processing my images from Italy.
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Minimal Progress Processing Italy Images

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

After spending two weeks in Italy and shooting over 3,500 photographs, it is going to take a long time to review, select, process and upload some of the photographs to my Website. I shot all of the photographs using Nikon’s RAW format, which requires post processing to convert the raw digital data captured by the camera’s senor to JPG files for viewing on the Internet or printing. That is the very brief, non-technical explanation.

Last night, I found myself wandering around through the thousands of images stopping to look at the many beautiful cities and sites we visited and reflecting back on the experience without making much processing progress. Therefore, I concluded the best approach was to focus my review and processing in the order of the cities we visited. So, I started with Venice, where we began our two week tour. We were there for four days and three nights, so I have many Venice images to process.  The following are a few of my favorites so far. (In case you have not discovered this yet, you can click on the images to increase their size.)

The above image of the Piazza San Marco was taken from a boat that we took to the island of Burano. The Piazza and surrounding streets were very busy with thousands of people. However, when I went out at 5:30 AM to shoot the sunrise on the day after arriving, I practically had Venice to myself–only people cleaning the streets and making deliveries were out. That is when I shot the below photo of the clock tower in the Piazza San Marco.

The above image was taken on the next morning’s sunrise, which was overcast and foggy. The gondolas were covered and moored making for a colorful setting to the otherwise colorless view across the Grand Canal.

Above is a view of a canal with a church clock tower that I could not pass up photographing because of the reflections in the water. Below is the famous Rialto Bridge late in the afternoon with one of the many gondolas coming out from under it.

Below is another gondola moving along a canal with late afternoon sunlit buildings in the background. Venice is a very colorful city!

The weekend begins tomorrow afternoon, and I am looking forward to reviewing and processing more images. Saturday is my day to inspect 15 bluebird boxes on the 300 acre Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area. I am also looking forward to spending the day on the farm in the fields and forest shooting early summer landscapes and hopefully some young bluebirds. It will be quite a contrast from the scenery in Italy.

All of the above images and others are also located in galleries on my Website at:   http://stabone.com/f90458637

To all of the Nutbush people that Angela and I traveled with in Italy, we enjoyed traveling with you and have been enjoying following your post travel comments and seeing your photos on the Nutbush Facebook page.  As you probably have figured out by now, it will be a couple of weeks before I send you the CDs with the above and other photographs. Arrivederci!

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Italy — A Photographer’s Paradise

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

We returned from Italy early yesterday evening to delightful weather (mid-70s and 60s this AM) here in northern Virginia. Other than feeling blue about leaving Italy, our return trip went very well with only one difficulty–the driver of the van to the airport did not speak ANY english, or chose not to, and could not have driven any slower. We thought we might not get to the airport in time for our flight. Now, we are getting physically adjusted and caught up around the house. “Physical adjustment” included going to Wegmans and buying a bottle of Italian rosso vino, several different cheeses, a container of carefully chosen olives, and an assortment of deli meats to include genoa salami, sopressata, proscuitto, and imported ham. So, tonight we will have an Italian dinner while reflecting on what we saw and the many fabulous meals we had for more than two weeks in Italy.

I shot over 90G of images and started the process of uploading and backing them up on the Mac and an external drive. I scanned some of them as they were being transferred by Lightroom and was pleased with what I was seeing. My Nikon D700 and the Nikon 28-300mm VRII lens performed very well. I did not use my 50mm f1.4 as much as I had planned, but it was useful a couple of times.  I had to limit my gear (bodies and lenses) for the trip, but had enough room for my Benro travel tripod and was glad that I did for a few sunrise opportunities. The D700’s ability to shoot at high ISOs and the 28-300’s VR (Vibration Reduction) permitted fast shutter speeds in low light, which was very useful when hand-holding the camera in the many cathedrals, museums and restaurants we visited

It’s going to take quite some time to review and process all of the best images (“keepers”). Below is one shot that is still very vivid to me. It was a sunrise in Positano, after arriving late the day before.  There was almost nobody on the beach, other than a few workers who were organizing the beach furniture for the day.  The sun had not risen over the steep shoreline behind me and the camera; therefore, much of the small mountainside town of Positano was not yet lit by the sun.

The next photo was shot from beyond a fence on a small knoll on the top of the island of Capri, which was breathtakingly beautiful, and provided a gorgeous composition of foreground and the island, water and boats below.

That is all for now and possibly today–on to other projects. Since it will take quite a while to review, select and process all of the raw images, I will periodically add them to this blog and to a new directory on my website.

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Sunrise at Leesylvania State Park, VA

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

Saturday morning, I left the house at 5:30 AM to go to Leesylvania State Park to photograph the sunrise on the Potomac River. As I approached the park, I was disappointed because there were no clouds in the sky. Clouds often make a tremendous difference in sunrise photographs. However, as I approached the Potomac shoreline, I could see the sky turning gorgeous shades of red, orange and yellow where the sun was coming over the horizon.  As the sun continued to rise, the colors intensified and became more and more vibrant, as well as forming a beautiful reflection in the river. As it turned out, it was a very beautiful sunrise without the clouds. Just about every sunrise is beautiful and worth witnessing–some are just more spectacular than others. Below are a couple of the sunrise photographs (HDRs, D700, 24mm & 55mm, f/16, ISO 200).

Later, after the sun had risen, I walked out on a pier at the park that provides a good view of a pair of ospreys that return each year to rebuild their nest and raise their young. The female osprey was on the nest when I arrived, obviously sitting on eggs. Later, the male returned to the nest with the tail section of a fish. A couple photos of the ospreys follow (D300, 400mm, f/8, ISO 200). I plan to photograph the osprey chicks during the summer, as I have done in previous years.

While heading back toward the shoreline on the pier, there was an Eastern Phoebe singing its heart out and brilliantly lit by the morning sun. It sat on the edge of the guard rail for about 10 minutes keeping a close eye on me and singing away. I waited until it flew into a nearby tree before heading to the end of the pier. (D300, 400mm, f/6.3, 1/640, ISO 200)

When I was leaving the park, I noticed what looked like an eagle’s white head high up in a distant tree. It was difficult to see through a series of trees, but as I slowed the car down to a spot where I could get I better view, I could see that it was in fact an eagle and in a location where I might be able to photograph it. I did a quick (illegal) u-turn, parked the car (poorly in my haste), grabbed my camera, and began shooting. The eagle saw me and all the commotion I was making, and I could see that it was getting nervous listening to the camera fire away. It stayed long enough for me to get a few good photographs. (D300, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 200)

As evidenced by the above photographs, it was a great spring morning to be alive, having survived Saturday’s rapture, and to be outdoors enjoying some of nature’s beautiful sights and wildlife.

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American Wild Bird Website

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

Last year, I met a talented wildlife and nature photographer, Ernie Sears, while touring and photographing Featherstone Wildlife Management Area. and, since then, we have had other opportunities to shoot together.  On Friday, Ernie stood up a new Website dedicated to displaying his and other other photographers’s American bird photographs.

As Ernie states on the new Website (AmericanWildBirds.com):  “…with over 5 billion images and growing at an extraordinary rate, it has become harder and harder to find high quality images (on the Internet) on specific subjects such as a particular species of bird. There are of course many great images of many species of birds on these sites. However, there are also a lot of poor  images – soft focus, obstructed views, duplicate or near duplicate images, and badly composed photos. We think there is a better way to present these magnificent creatures and give recognition to the photographers who spend uncountable hours learning their craft and working in the field to capture the beauty and wonder of our wild birds.”

Ernie asked that I contribute some of my bird photographs to the Website, which I gladly did, and I was honored when he asked me to be the site’s first featured bird photographer. Also included on the the American Wild Bird site is an article I wrote (Photographing Sandhill Cranes in Florida) on my memorable experience shooting Sandhill Cranes at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in 2008, when over 5,000 cranes were wintering there.

If you enjoy seeing bird photographs and reading about them or a photographer’s experience in photographing them, I encourage you to visit AmericanWildBird.com, or if you are a bird photographer I recommend sharing your photographs on this site.

To “spice up” this article, below is photograph that I shot yesterday at Leesylvania State Park of an eagle that was high up in a tree that I noticed as I was leaving the park. Naturally, I slammed on my breaks, whipped the car around, parked (poorly), grabbed my camera, and was fortuante enough to take a few shots before the eagle got nervous about me and flew off.  I will be posting a more complete article later today with more eagle photos, as well as some sunrise photos.

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