Nocturnal Critters

There have been flying squirrels at my bird feeder at night quite a bit lately. I decided to try to get a few shots. These were obviously taken with a flash. It is just too dark, and they move alot, so it would be tough to get a shot without flash.

There were three out tonight (that I saw). Over the weekend there were at least 5 scampering around the feeders and in the tree. They seemed to be having quite the party.

(The next morning)
The suet feeder was pretty much empty this morning, except for one small chunk the size of a marble.

YASSOP (Yet Another Shot of the Same Old Place)

1 Minute Exposure

Nolin River Lake, Approaching Spillway Levels

It was a fairly slow work day. I decided to drive up and get some shots of the flooding.

Since there was no real destruction, I didn't mind getting a little artsy with a few shots. Some of these are long exposure, some not. All are shot with a polarizer filter (probably a little over-done), and I white balanced a tad on the cool side. I like dramatic skies.

Curve near the Wax Bridge

The Nolin River Lake reached its highest level on record. It was built in 1963. Water was projected to start running through the spillway a little later this evening (later than I was there).

Wax Marina, Restaurant,  and my truck.

Iberia, you can see the water line.

Wax Bridge, KY 88.

Wax Restaurant, and (again), my truck.

Wax Marina.

The road I am on (KY728), for the shot below will be closed later when water overflows into the spillway (The water never made it to the spillway, and KY728 never closed).

I will return for this shot in the fall (in color).

Nolin Dam Control Tower

I saw a disgusting amount of trash around the Wax aera, and had some good shots that I refused to take because of the trash level - it is sad.

Life in the Fast Lane

Went for a little hike at the park Sunday. There are a few rocky-bedded streams close to the visitors center that are dry unless a decent shower has fallen recently. I was going for a little water action, but alas, on those streams, a puddle or two was it.

Before the hike, as usual, I stopped by Sloan's Pond. I am pretty sure this is the same frog from last week (except for some reason, he was in black and white last week). I have noticed up at the pond that frequently you see the same frogs on the same logs time after time. Territorial I suppose. I need to google that.

Had to fight with a cattail to get a clear view of the frog.

It Was Cloudy. I Was Passing By.

10 second exposure

It was cloudy, I was passing by. Enough said.

Frogs #1 & 2, 2011

Here we go again.

One Barn, One Cow.

Generic Barn Shot (above). Generic Cow Drinking Shot (below).

Moo.

Too many barns lately. So, the first shot is of a barn. The next shot is of a cow, not a barn. That slightly lowers my barn to 'other stuff' ratio.

Another Rerun. You've Seen it Before - You'll See it Again.

You've seen this before, you'll see it again. The last time was in the fall. This time there is a little dogwood action going on.



I was in the area and was fifteen minutes early for my service call. So - here you go - again. As an added bonus, I resisted the unnatural urge to covert this shot to black and white, which is fairly unusual for me (resisting the urge to convert to B&W).

There is a Barn. Here Are Some Weeds. I Have a Camera.

This is one of those, 'I'm driving home, there is a barn and I have a camera' shots. I did have to lay down in the grass, but it was clean and dry with, apparently, no ticks.

You know I like clouds.

I have been taking a little heat for not posting much. Here you go. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure.

I am a gloomy day shooter. (That is gloomy-day shooter, not gloomy day-shooter.)

It Was a Grey Day.

Sun Valley Feed Mill

Sun Valley, I'm not so sure.

Sunrise at Rochester Ky, and More Heron

My buddy, the blue heron. Lucky for me, he seems to like breakfast and dinner (morning and evening). He caught a fish while I was here but my shutter speeds were WWWAAAAAYYYY to slow to catch that, I got to see it though.

(Above) A big splash with a little sunlight thrown in.

It was surprisingly warm this morning. I was up early, so I thought I would try to make it to Rochester (a little over 30 minutes away) before sunrise. I knew roughly where the sun was to rise - over the falls from the vantage point I have been shooting from.

I got my sneakers, and the knees and rear of my jeans wet from trying to get the camera down as low as I could without dunking it. Didn't bring my boots. Glad it wasn't cold.

I have some inconsistencies in my white balance. I shoot raw, so white balance is pretty much up to me. It was pretty yellow early, and I was there several hours so the later shots will not be as yellow. I think the colder white balance is more pleasing on some, but actually the wet rocks were pretty yellow. I will be taking another look and maybe re-post.

I went a little crazy with uploading and posting. I could tell that each consecutive shot had vastly different water patterns. He wasn't moving around a lot except when he caught the fish so I just kept hitting the remote. I still have over 100 shots after deleting all motion blur and unpleasing water pattern shots. The close ups are at 400mm, with very small aperatures (f22 and higher, to keep the stringy water in focus and slow down shutter speed). The stringy water shots are at 1/3, to 1/2 second.

Rochester Ky. A Heron, over and over again.

I'll be stopping by here a lot. Expect to see more. Yes, I do like B&W, and they did not look like much in color.

Three Minutes of Freeman Lake

Nashville Zoo

From the 'right place at the right time department':

Went to the Nashville Zoo with some friends. Lugged around the big lens all day in the backpack, which is a bigger chore than I'd like to admit. That may, or may not, imply that I am a wuss. Right before we were ready to leave, I finally had a good reason to whip out the big gun. So, in the end, it was worth carrying it around all day. This cougar is playing with a ball that, surprisingly, seems to have developed a small leak. I can't take credit for snapping at the right moment, I was firing in bursts and did get lucky that one shot hit pretty close to home. The light level was a little low - the cougar shots are at ISO1600, maximum aperture.