I came back. With better glass.

Interesting caterpillers. Gonna come back with better glass.

The Dragonflies are Out

And at least one obligatory frog. (This is frog #4 for the year.)

Different Butterfly, Different Flower, Different Day. And a Bee.

Weekly Dose of Frogs.

You've seen one frog, you've seen them all.
Yet, more frogs - they are here.
I needed to get a little bike riding in this weekend, so I did it in the park, and hit the pond before and after.

My guess is that he is better at catching food than he looks.

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Wow! Lightroom 3 high-iso noise reduction.
I am gaining confidence to crank up the ISO when I need to. The dragon fly was hand held at iso 6400. With lightroom 2 that would have been a mess, there is visible noise, but I'm happy with it.

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The back end:
This is obviously not the most stable way to setup a tripod. I used a remote shutter release , and there was no wind, so it was a quick way to lower the camera and get the job done. In other words, again, I am lazy.

A Butterfly. That's all.

Haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately. The few that I have taken, put nicely... let's just say... they stink.

First Dragonfly of the Season

Friday, May 14th
When I have spare time, I have been driving by Sloan's Pond on the way home from Cave City.

Friday was a cloudy, slightly rainy day and the frogs were croaking loudly. I didn't see many frogs but I sure could hear them.

This dragonfly shot has nothing on last year's shots, but it's a start.

400mm, heavily cropped

I'm throwing in a frog for good measure.



Saturday, May 15th
After seeing a few frogs at Sloan's Pond Friday, I decided to drive up Saturday night and peck around. I got up there much later than planned.  We stayed a few hours (a friend went with me).

Last year I got a pretty good shot of a frog illuminated by my handy-dandy LED flashlight. Before packing up, I grabbed the zoom to give that a quick try.

There were several small frogs on the lily pads, none particularly close to the edge of the pond. Here is one shot that came out ok.

15 second exposure

Spider vs Bee! Film at 11!

Again, I tend to like star trail shots. I shined the flashlight for a portion of the exposure on the nearby foleage.


Sloan's Pond - Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
I like star trails, even short ones.

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Freeman Lake, Elizabethtown KY (all below)






Spider vs Bee!
Actually the bee was right up against the spider several times. I suppose the spider knows how to pick his battles.
I didn't hang around long enough to see what the spider had for dinner.
I noticed the spider, as I saw the flower move. Hey, flowers don't move (very fast anyway).




Oh, there is no film. There never was any film. It was a scam. Get over it.

Caught in the Headlamps!

Sloan's Pond (Again!) - Mammoth Cave National Park, Ky
Very Very Nice!


Glen Lily Bridge, Bowling Green Ky - 120 second exposure
I think this location has potential. I will go back when it is not quite as dark, so that the background is not overpowered by the headlights. Maybe with pleasing cloud cover. I went late mainly because I was setup on Price Chapel Rd bridge. I figured there would not be much traffic that time of night.


Garvin Bridge, Bowling Green Ky - 30 Second Exposure
The colors were wild on this shot. I corrected to make the lights on the bridge look like I thought they should. That gave the light from the street lamp that eerie green color. I will go back sometime and shoot this from a lower prospective - maybe have the camera level with the guard rails, then another with the camera six inches to one foot above the bridge.

'Wet Belly' or 'Stop, Drop, and (almost) Roll'

Got out early to try to catch the sun rising over the lake in the park. The park is closed. Head over to the other side of town to the river. Barely make it in time. Need something to make the shot interesting. Weeds look nice, so I did the fire drill: Stop, Drop, and Roll. Actually no roll, just stop and drop and a little wallowing for position.

Wound up with a wet belly for this, not sure if it was worth it!


Bowling Green Ky - Just across the walking bridge.

The following shots are with the new lens. I had some dissappointing results with it the first time out, so I was glad to get some results.
Sloan's Pond - Mammoth Cave National Park Ky






This had lots of 'not-attractive-stuff', fortunately it was 'croppable'.


The dragonflies are out, and seem surprisingly easy to shoot. Right place, right time I think. These are cropped heavily, as I was not all that close. Interestingly, the dragonfly would take off, buzz around a bit, then land back in the exact spot over and over again. If I did not get him the first time, I just had to wait for the next landing.



'Googly Eyes'

Butterflies Everywhere

These are close to the Old Louisville Rd bridge. Don't know much about butterflies, but there were lots, and lots, of these babies.