One for the road, a few teasers

The weather this morning was to nice not to go for a walk. I did have to go to the bank for spending cash for my vacation, then I stopped at the camera store for the spare battery for my camera bodies, and I called Cabela’s to check on the status of the tent cot that I ordered. It’s not here, things are looking grim in that respect, looks like I’ll be stuck using my big tent.

Anyway, the teasers aren’t of great landscape shots of the type I hope to get while on vacation, it was these darned flickers.

Northern flicker

There was a flock of the flickers, and they all seemed to be taking a few minutes to preen their feathers. However, they all found places to do so that caused me fits, with either shadows or branches messing up what could have been great shots. As it is, they’re still very good shots, for the most part.

Northern flicker

Northern flicker

Northern flicker

Northern flicker

Northern flicker

Northern flicker

I had a great view of the last one, but as I was pressing the shutter release, it ducked its head behind the branch, darn.

I actually saw the flickers towards the middle of a very good day of walking and photography, here’s the rest of the photos from today in the order that I shot them, starting with a hen turkey. I don’t photograph the hens very often, as their colors are a little duller than that of the Toms. But, when I can get a head shot of a hen without cropping, I won’t pass it up.

Hen turkey

I zoomed out for this next one.

Hen turkeys

The weather was nice, and since there were a couple of examples of the fall colors to photograph, I did so. I bought the first 60D this spring, I haven’t had a chance to try any fall foliage photos, and I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of what I saw today to zero in on the correct exposure. I was close.

Fall foliage

Fall foliage

Even though the only lens I took with me today was the Beast, I couldn’t resist photographing a few of the last of this years sweet pea flowers.

Sweet peas

I’ve been trying not to fall back on shooting mallards all the time, but when this dapper dude duck posed for me, I had to photograph him.

Male mallard

There were a number of praying mantises around today, here’s my best shot, which I got by laying flat on my belly, hoping that the cyclists wouldn’t take advantage of my position to run over me. Notice how short the depth of field is when I zoom the Beast to 500 mm.

Praying mantis

And finally, I’ve been trying all summer to get really close to a male goldfinch for a photo while they’re still in their breeding plumage. I got close to one today, but it has already molted. This one is not cropped at all.

American goldfinch

I cropped this one slightly.

American goldfinch

That’s it for the day.

My Forester is packed other than my food and camera gear, which I’ll pack tomorrow morning. I’ve changed my plans slightly, I’m not going to start as early as originally planned. I’ll wait until Cabela’s opens, give them a call to see if my order arrived, if it has, I’ll stop there as I head out, if not, I’m off for the week.

The weather forecast for the week is looking great! No rain at all until next Friday night and Saturday. The nights are forecast to be frosty the first few mornings, with pleasant afternoon highs, perfect as far as I’m concerned. This is going to be a great week no matter what. It was nice enough today knowing that I don’t have to worry about time or going to work for the next week, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy this week!

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!