Apple Blossoms

May 31, 2020

Beautiful Spring weather has finally arrived to the New York Capital District! On this beautiful weekend day, I spent some time walking our apple trees and photographing the blossoms with the Canon 7D Mark II and the EF 100-400 F/4.5-5.6L lens; yes I was also trying to capture a few birds that afternoon.

We have about ten apple trees consisting of Honeycrisp and Norther Spey varieties. Last Fall I pruned these 9 year-old dwarf and semi-dwarf trees back quite a bit to open them up and let more air into the trees. I am hoping for a better fruit crop in 2020. If these blossoms are an indication, we are well on our way.

Color photos were processed in Adobe Lightroom and the black and white photos were processed in Adobe Photoshop with Nik Silver Efex Pro plug-in applying a Fuji ACROS filter and select Dodge & Burn.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Eastern Cottontail

April 22, 2019

There are a number of Eastern Cottontails that have taken up residence on our property. The rabbits mostly are harmless with the exception of the early-summer vegetable garden, which we have fenced off this Spring. The bunnies also attract the hawks and owls periodically, who do a decent job of keeping the bunny population in control.

Northern Gray Squirrel looks into the camera

Northern Gray Squirrels of Winter

March 3, 2019

A recurring visitor to our bird feeders are the Northern Gray Squirrels who frequently gorge themselves on bird feed. Not shy about hopping right up and helping themselves, they typically play nicely with most of the birds, while the Blue Jays will assert themselves and drive the squirrels away.

Birds of the first 2019 snow storm

February 16, 2019

The first snow storm of 2019 rolled through the Capital District in New York during the Martin Luther King long holiday weekend and left behind approximately 15 inches of snow and bitter cold. On Sunday morning, I spent a couple hours with the Canon 7D Mark II and the EF 100-400MM F4.5-5.6L lens photographing the birds as they visited the recently stocked bird feeder.

Making Sunshine

December 28, 2018

It has been dark and gloomy day in the Capital District. While working on the year-end clean-up of my Lightroom catalog I came across an image of some flowers in the mid-day Summer sun that I thought would work well as a background to one of my winter bird photos and add some color and warmth to the day. Above is the result of some quick editing.

A Pileated Woodpecker pecks away at a stump - Canon 7D Mark II

Pileated Woodpecker in Spring

April 29, 2018

I have been seeing a lot of woodpecker sign this Spring and every once in awhile I spook the Pileated Woodpeckers while walking the dog...there is always two. On this late sunny afternoon in early April, my son happened to notice that we had a visitor on the tree stump in the backyard. I managed to grab the camera and start taking a few photos through the glass window in our backdoor.

Welcome!

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