Monthly Archives: August 2010

Shenandoah evening

This evening I drove up to Shenandoah National Park to shoot some evening light photos.  Along Skyline Drive there are thousands of wild sunflowers and other plants in bloom now.

Even though the normal summer haze was covering the mountains and valley, the light from the lowering sun brought out the definition of the trees and ridge lines in the distance.

I was headed to the Stony Man overlook to photograph the horizon at sunset when I spotted a Black Bear near the road.  I pulled over and lifted up my 200-400 lens which had a 1.4x teleconverter attached to take a photo through my car car window but the long focal length and the 1/4 sec. exposure time, along with a moving bear, was way above my handholding capabilities.  So, I couldn’t get a sharp picture but it was still a kick to see a bear this evening.

I arrived at the Stony Man overlook a few minutes before sunset.  The sunset was nice but with no clouds in the sky, not that photographically dramatic so I stayed after the sun had disappeared below the horizon and waited for the sky to turn reddish-orange to take the shot below.

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    Nice morning, few birds

    This morning’s weather was very nice at Huntley Meadows park, but it seemed a lot of the bird population was on summer vacation.  However, the park wasn’t completely empty.  There were a number of Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets doing some feather preening and the Gray Catbird above dropped by just close enough for me to get a nice photograph.

    A number of different plants are blooming now in the park and I found this Pale Touch-me-not in bloom, covered in early morning dew drops.

    As I was headed out of the park, an Osprey appeared overhead and made several dives into the wetlands in search of a meal.  I was able to get some in-flight photos as it circled around before it successfully caught a fish on its third dive.

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      A visit to Meadowlark

      Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA features ornamental and native plant gardens.  Even though the spring flowers are long gone, there is still lots of color to be seen here.  There are also large gardens that attract many different types of butterflies, such as the Tiger Swallowtail below.

      The park also features plants found in different natural settings with mature hardwood trails and a number of ponds where I found this nice water lily.

      A large group of Black-eyed Susans provided a good subject for a multi-exposure image using a 24-70mm zoom lens to create this swirl pattern.

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        Great Falls observations

        Today was a good opportunity to concentrate on small sections of Great Falls Park, on the Virginia side, and single out the pieces that best describe this park… the trees, the rocks and the ever changing flow of water. The layering of trees in the scene above caught my eye as the morning sun was rising directly behind and just above the trees.

        The park has numerous waterfalls as well as abundant birdlife and you can expect to see a Great Blue Heron standing on one of the rocks at the water’s edge, scanning for a meal.

        The water’s flow over the rocks creates frequently changing patterns depending on the volume of water rushing through Great Falls. I spotted this small ‘falls within the falls’ below, which I thought would look best as a black and white image.

        The rocks are the solid structure of the park that contrasts with the constant rush of water, providing the great water patterns and waterfalls throughout the park.

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        • Roger ThomasAugust 29, 2010 - 7:27 am

          Lovely shots Mike, it’s great to see you’ve been getting out quite a bit and seeing a few pages from your book shows you have a keen eye and how hard you have been working at it.

          God bless and hope you reap great rewards from your works.

        • Mike WalkerAugust 29, 2010 - 9:58 am

          Appreciate the comments Roger. How’s the photography going across the pond?

        • Roger ThomasSeptember 8, 2010 - 4:04 am

          Have been fairly active for the most time which has made me delinquent in setting up a website. Have done a couple of trips to Scotland, Wales, Holland, Provence–South of France and Namibia–Africa.

          Provence is great for lavender and sunflower fields, vineyards and olive groves. Namibia is fantastic, vast and varied. Of course all the big wild life (elephant, rhino, lions, giraffe, zebra…), sand dunes, weird rock formations. This place is a MUST, a photographers dream. I will email a few shots from the trip.

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