Stephen L Tabone Nature Photography

This morning at sunrise, I went to Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area in northern Virginia to shoot the Virginia bluebells that grow wild on the forest floor.  It was a cool 46 degrees and overcast.  The filtered light worked well for shooting the bluebells, but a blue sky in the background to compliment the color of the flowers would have been better.  The bluebells were in bloom in many areas, but they have not peaked yet.  That should happen this week around Wednesday, and I will be out there again.

Few blues in nature rival the Virginia bluebells.  They grow in single clumps or in stands of thousands along Cedar Run, a creek at Merrimac Farm.  The blossoms are pink in bud, changing to varying shades of blue as they mature, and returning to pink following pollination.  A few remain pink, but not many.

The blue, bell-shaped flowers hang in nodding clusters.  Each is about an inch long and has a narrow funnel-shaped tube broadening to a shallow bell with a scalloped edge.  The bluebells only appear for about two to three weeks in early spring/April when the weather conditions are right and before the trees get their leaves and shade the forest floor.

Below are a few photos from this morning.  More can be found in a gallery on my website just for the bluebells at:  http://stabone.com/p1007343060

Looking forward to tomorrow morning…meeting another photographer, Ernie Sears, at the Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area at 0700 to shoot the Virginia Bluebell flowers.  It may not be peak yet, but they should be pretty close.  It has been raining this afternoon and evening, so the hardwood forest around Cedar Run, where the bluebell plants thrive, will be very wet (and muddy).  But, it could result in some early morning fog to enhance the photography of the bluebell plants and flowers.  Regardless of the conditions, it will just be great to be outdoors in the woods early in the morning.  I will post the results tomorrow evening.

Recent Memories of Gainesville, FL

This evening after preparing the gear for tomorrow morning, I was reviewing images from my December visit to Gainesville, FL and found one of the sunset on Lake Wauburg that I had not processed–so I processed it (below).  It reminded me of that incredibly beautiful sunset and how lucky I was to be there to witness and capture it.  I was on the lake with JulieAnne and Ivor.  They could not have arranged for a better photography experience.  Besides the sunset from the water, we saw numerous birds to include herons, egrets, cormorants, white pelicans, eagles, and a night heron, anhinga and red shoulder hawk that posed perfectly for me.  One of the sunset photos follows and one of the hawk.  The others are located at:  http://stabone.com/p396945010

Today was a very special day having spent the morning at the Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge (325 acres along the Potomac River) and the afternoon at the Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area (302 acres of floodplain wetlands, fields and hardwood forest)  both located in Prince William County in Virginia and both within 15 minutes of home.  At Featherstone, I “participated” in a plant survey.  Unfortunately, I cannot recognize and name very many plants (I can barely tell a tree from a bush) and, therefore, was of little help to the four other people participating in the survey.  I did bring along some camera gear and was able to capture some of what Featherstone looks like in very early spring.

The following three images are from Featherstone.  As you can see, I was not the only person with camera gear. The second photo is a four image panoramic taken with a 24-70mm lens on a Nikon D700.  The third is an HDR image, comprised of five images of different exposures.

At Merrimac Farm, Kim Hosen, Executive Director for the Prince William Conservation Alliance (PWCA), and Ernie Sears took Angela and me on a trail that eventually worked its way along a creek named Cedar Run to an area that has one of the largest patches of Virginia Bluebells in the Northern Virginia. The bluebell plants were in large patches and covered in flower buds.  They only bloom for about a week or two depending on the conditions, and when they do, the forest floor is covered in blue flowers.

The purpose of the tour today was to familiarize me with the trail, because next Sunday I will assist the PWCA during their annual Bluebell Festival at the farm by taking groups on tours to see the bluebells.  Of course, while there today, I shot a few photos, but not of the bluebell plants.  That I will do in about a week when they in full bloom. Check back in about a week and half.  The following two photos were taken while on the trail.  The sky was dark blue from an approaching thunderstorm.  After taking these photos, I put the camera away because of the rain.   However, we were lucky because we only got a few drops, while in other nearby areas it hailed.

More photos are available on my website at:  http://stabone.com/p536693922

As you may know, I enjoy photographing birds.  They are fascinating, challenging to capture, and stunning when illuminated by the sun (light).  Here are four recent, winter, favorites (American Goldfinch, House Finch, Cardinal, and Chickadee).   Notice, no green in the backgrounds, but green, bright green, is starting to appear everywhere you look.

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Practically every weekend, except in the winter, we visit Leesylvania State Park, which is conveniently only about 5 miles away.  The park is on the Potomac River and is the home from spring through fall to several pairs of ospreys.  Each year, they return to the same nests, do a little repair work, and raise another clutch of chicks.

The below photo was taken last weekend after the arrival of a pair that nests near a fishing pier at the park.  We have watched them raise many young ospreys over the years. They look a bit weathered from their migration back to the park.  I am not sure when they arrived, but they were not there the weekend before.

Below the current photo of the pair of ospreys are two photos from last year of one of the ospreys with one of their chicks.  This year using a much more powerful lens I hope to get many more detailed photos.