Experiments in Photography

On days like this, when it's snowing and blowing outside, I look for interesting ways to spend my time. What better than photographing unique and vintage fishing lures?

Pictured here are a variety of lures photographed using a wide array of experimental techniques. From the top left, the lure is hanging vertically while water is poured over a piece of glass in the background.  A blue cloth backdrop some distance in the background provide the blue color in the flowing water.

In the second image, the lure, a Herter's vintage spoonplug, is swinging from the line while water is dribbled past during the capture.  Once again, the background is pleated up blue cloth with highly angled lighting to provide the deep contrasts.

The orange and brown Lazy Ike look-a-like in the next image is a was staged in a tray of water with a piece of black glass on the bottom.  The tray is tipped to and fro during the capture to give the water some life. Strobes and white reflectors give the ripples some texture.

The next image is of a Millsite Rattle Bug in black and red. The conditions for this capture are like the previous image of the spoon-plug, except there's a plant added to the background to give just a hint of something other than blue.

The next image of a weedless spoon is one of the simplest setups, but some of the most challenging lighting.  The lure is simply hanging over a piece of black glass, but lots of reflectors and strobes are used to give just the right effect.  It's hard to give brass a true brass color under strobes without the use of some colored reflectors.

The final image (Cisco Kid, upper right) is the simplest of all.  The lure is hanging above a bunched up blue cloth, lighting does the rest.

Photographing a Team

There is nothing quite as challenging as photographing a large group of young kids hyped out on ice cream!  Today was team awards and photo day for the local swim team.

A life-long competetive swimmer, competetive swimming holds a special place in my heart.  Therefore, I always have and always will support our local youth team.  One of the services I provide is photography at their events and anual team photo, in addition to maintaining their web pages and serving on the Board of Directors.

Thank goodness for the assistance of the coaching staff!

One of our swimmers in action!

Go Aquatomics!

Aix sponsa, The Wood Duck

At a very young age, I became enamoured with birds.  These feathered wonders come in such an array of sizes, shapes and a spectacle of colors.  I knew then, with such clarity, that I wanted to become an ornithologist and dedicate my life to working with these wonderful creatures.  (Of course, that didn't happen...)

It's no wonder, really, that my life compas should align this way.  As I think back in time to those most carefree of days, there was always wildlife as a central focus of my life.  As a ragged youth, clad in jeans and t-shirt, I ran wild along the banks of the James River in southwest central North Dakota.  I hiked, I biked, I ran, I swam and I canoed this wood-lined river, often from sunrise to sunset.  Living on the edge of a small town with two working parents and three nagging sisters, this was my escape.  I remember fondly the hours spent viewing wildlife, and some special moments that put permanent markers on the road of my life.  But, those I'll save for future writings.

Back in the early 70's, it was rare to see wood ducks on that stretch of the river.  Wood duck just were not all that numerous.  It made it a special event each time I would get a glimpse of these jeweled spectacles.  Slowly, as Ducks Unlimited, with the aid of local Boy Scouts and others, established nesting boxes up and down the river, the numbers grew.  By the late 70's and early 80's, wood ducks became a much more common site.

I became skilled at spotting these spectacles perched on trees overhanging the river, or drifting in and out of sight under the many snags and deadfall at the rivers edge.  I can remember watching for hours as the ever alert and constantly peeping hens minded their brood of ducklings along the wooded shoreline.  As I would occasionally approach just a bit too close by canoe,  the mother would enter her broken wing display, pleading me to follow her as her down-clad young scattered into the bramble. 

Often, I would see a hen watching over what was clearly more than just her own brood of young.  I would later come to learn that these enormous broods were the result of hens laying there eggs in other hen's nests.  No matter, the nurturing mother always seemed well equiped to deal with the large gaggle of young.


The wood duck has a special place in my heart.  Whenever I hear their call, or spot one darting through the sky or swimming along the banks of the Rio Grande, I'm taken back to those carefree days of my youth.  Undoubtedly, a smile will cross my face and maybe a sparkle twinge my eye as I admire the beauty of this wonderful bird.

Short-Horned Lizards

Phrynosoma douglassii, the short-horned lizard, is a species I think of fondly.  These little guys are wonderfully camoflaged, ornately armored, and just plain fascintating ant-eating machines!  Not to mention, they were also the subject of my first published photography -- with an article to go along.  One I'm most proud of, by the way.  Imagine, the chemistry graduate student publishing a two-page spread of this wonderful little guy in Colorado Outdoors! 

Lizards are in general absolutely wonderful photographic subjects with intricate scalation, beautiful colors and they come in a broad variety of shapes and sizes..  They are also very challenging as they can be hard to locate and most have a propencity towards running away. (Oh, and some can inflict very painful bites -- ouch!)

I still love these little guys!  Maybe it's because we like the same areas, or maybe it's that we share a name?  Whatever it is, it's a passion I don't think I'll ever shake.

Getting Started: Photographing Juncos

Given this is my first blog, where does one start? Normally, it is feasible to start at the beginning, but how would I ever catch up? Perhaps it's best to start with the present. That said, I suppose a bit of introduction would be in order.

My name is Doug. I'm an outdoor enthusiast who made rational choices in life. By "rational" I mean I always knew I would need a sound job, and that jobs in the out-of-doors doing things I loved were hard to find, i.e., compromises were made. Now with a Ph.D. in chemistry (which I used for a few years before making another turn into management) I found a little nitch in life that could pay the bills and allow me some flexibility to pursue my greater desires in my free time. Too bad nobody told me that "free time" would be precious little to none. So now it's a race to retirement -- the one that gets there with sanity, bank accounts, and health in tact wins!

Regardless of my choices, there have been those few passions that have made the journey with me through life. Photography and birding are two of those "true to the core" passions. Today, I share the intersection of those with any who feel compelled to read along.

Today was a wonderful lull before the coming storm. The snow just seems to keep coming to the Jemez Mountains of Northern New Mexico this year. No matter, because a visit to the Randal Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe was in order -- I'll save the back-log of work for tomorrow when the snow flakes are expected to return. For now, it is sunny and glorious outside, despite the couple feet of icy and melting snow still covering the yard of my mountain-side home.

The sun was shining and the birds were active at the Center's many feeders today, but my patiences was just not up to par. No matter, I managed a few photos of some dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis).
This photo is one of the gray-headed race (sexes indistinguishable). Note the dark eye region, and the overall gray body color with a rusty-brown back.

The challenges with photographing these gregarious and vocal little guys are their constant shy hopping about the underbrush coupled with the difficulty of getting separation of the eye from the dark feathers. To solve the problem comes Canon high-speed E-TTL flash. These photos were captured using the Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the 180mm Macro f/3.5 L and the 580EXII Speedlight shooting in aperture priority mode at shutter speeds around 1/500 to 1/1000 second!

The beauty of high-speed synch E-TTL is the ability to dial down the background a stop or two and freeze motion without a lot of thought. Here, I drop the blue sky about a stop by adding light from the flash. Note the catch-light the flash puts in the eye. Note the white outer tail feathers.

Here's the male of the Oregon Race of the species, distinguishable by the dark head contrasting the rest of the body and the pale brown flanks. This species has so much variation with 15 described races; six forms are easily recognizable in the field.

Among the other birds I viewed today were house finches, american goldfinches, spotted towhees, canyon towhees, common ravens, western scrub-jays, evening grossbeaks, red-naped sap-suckers, red-breasted nuthatches, white-breasted nuthatches, pine siskins, black-billed magpies, Townsend's solitaires, and bushtits.

If you get to Santa Fe, be sure to check out the Randal Davey Center. It's free, and during the summer the hummingbirds swarm the many feeders just as the many other birds visit the seed feeders year-round.