Natural Selections

National Geographic recently posted an excellent article on Snow Leopards with pictures by Steve Winter. Remarkable pictures. Apple has announced that their next Operating System is called Snow Leopard. And with just one encounter with a snow leopard, I can see why there is such interest. We made a visit to the Santa Barbara Zoo, which although small, is one of the better zoos I have been to. It was there, at the end of the visit, that I came face-to-face with a snow leopard. Generally cats ignore you, but not this one. We made eye contact and this cat keep a very close watch on me. I was able to take a number of pictures including this one. I was so glad there were bars between us and I was on the outside. Santa Barbara, CA. Aug 2005.

Once again the nature trail behind our home provides the subject of today’s post. This tiny leaf - which was only about an inch across (not counting the stem) - caught my eye as we walked along. It looked just like a cat’s face. I carefully carried it the full three miles and when I got home, rather than taking a picture of it, I put it on the flatbed scanner and scanned it. Within an hour the yellow had mostly faded to brown and the affect was completely lost. It always amazes me that things which are so beautiful, fade so quickly. Such is the economy of nature. Apex, NC. Aug 2008.

It is my experience that most creates are all about food. When our 14 year old son gets up in the morning the first question he asks is, “what’s for dinner?” The same is true for most species on this planet (and elsewhere as well). When we had a bird feeder on our back porch we had a constant flow of birds (and squirrels). Many of them were quite bold and would munch away even if they were aware of our presence, but not the cardinal. At the first sign of human presence they made for the distant trees. So it was with great difficulty that I captured this female cardinal one rainy day. While quite muted compared with the bright red male cardinal the female plumage is every bit as beautiful.
Apex, NC. Dec 2006.

I realize this is a bit out of season, but hey it’s my blog and I like the picture.
Along the nature trail behind our home there are a number of ponds where rain water collects enroute to Jordan lake. They are almost nuclear green at times and I can’t imagine that there is much oxygen in the water, nevertheless it is home to frogs, fish, turtles and who knows what else. We have a blue heron or two that regularly work the ponds for fish. This Great Blue Heron had just taken off from the water’s edge and was circling through the trees when I took this picture. Apex, NC. Nov. 2007

I love the way butterflies go merrily about their way through life. They travel with abandon, but with great focus, looking for the things that are important to them. One flew past us on our walk the other day and I thought about how nice it would be if a butterfly would pause long enough to sit on my arm. They also designed in an amazing way. I don’t know if the eye-like shape on the wing deters enemies or simply confuses them. I just love the patterns. This live butterfly was photographed in the Natural Sciences Museum in Raleigh, NC. Feb. 2008.

Big and small leaves.

One of the most predominant colors in the world is green. It is easy on the eyes and visible to most people, even those with color blindness. There are some parts of the world that have a real lack of green, which is mostly due to deforestation, which leads to a lack of water, etc., etc.

I happen to live in a very green area of the country. I went away for two weeks and when I got back our house was in the process of being reclaimed by the land. This makes it a perfect environment for growing many things like these leaves in the Chapel Hill Botanical Garden. The clouds made a perfect soft box. Chapel Hill, NC. May 2007

I was actually looking for a Blue Heron when we came across this Great Egret. The heron had been walking the edge of the lake and slipped back among the trees when we got too close. We left the lake and followed the nature trail back to a marshy area and there, instead of a Blue Heron we found this Great Egret. Cary, NC. July 2006

There is a tree just out back that hawks love to perch on, either to rest or to observe the area below. The best part though is when they take off. It can be a real challenge to get the timing right because they are so quick. Apex, NC. Mar. 2008.

A few years ago when Apple started including nature pictures with their operating system for desktops I realized that I could probably do something like that myself. I quickly learned that taking pictures that work for a computer desktop (aka: wallpaper) is more challenging than just taking pretty pictures. Desktop photos require a greater degree of simplicity than many other photos. If they are cluttered or have too many colors it serves as a distraction. There is a reason why a plain blue or gray background works so well. This seed pod, photographed at the Duke Botanical Garden in Durham, NC is a good example of a photograph that works. Sept. 2005.

Do dragons really fly? Yes, and that is what makes them so hard to photograph. In fact, that is the number one challenge with nature photography. The natural enmity between natural creatures and people makes the task of successful nature photography that much more challenging. The general solution is a longer lens. The effective focal length of the lens used to photograph this dragonfly was 450mm. It is very common to use 600mm and even 800mm lenses for capturing creatures in the wild.