This is not the same family as before. For one, the goslings are much older. They’re still pretty cute though. Right now, everywhere I go, I see families of geese. It seems like they almost always have four to five goslings in their hatches.
What I particularly like about this shot is the way the water looks like chiseled glass, or paint on a canvas. That’s not post. That’s really how the water turned out. A little bit of choppiness and wind seems to have a neat effect.
The following stock images have been approved at iStockPhoto. This was a pretty successful batch for me. I don’t have anything to go up now after that, but I will be correcting some of the rejections and resubmitting them.
The model is Samantha Blazier, a coworker and actress. She does really great work, I think. It was lovely to work with her on these images. This shoot was my first one with a model that wasn’t related to me, so it’s kind of a big deal to me. To have many of the images accepted makes me very happy.
Not a great photo, thanks to the reeds between me and the subject, and the dim morning light. I’m not even sure what this bird is. Stork? Pelican? Something else? It was freaking huge, and I was really hoping to get a full frame shot of it, but it saw me creeping up and gently swam out into the middle of the lake. I am thinking about buying a canoe.
This weekend was a bust for photography. I’ve been trying to branch out and explore other natural areas in town. The side effect of this is, I don’t know where the animals are, or even if they’re out there. On both Saturday and Sunday, it was also very, very cold and windy, so I think those conditions added to my failure to find much of anything mobile to capture.
These guys are everywhere in the northern part of town. I see them roosting just a few blocks away from where i live. They’re a gang, composed of perhaps a dozen individuals, never seen far from one another. While I was out on Sunday, up on the banks of the Poudre looking for herons, they came swooping low overhead, one after another, so I got to try to take plenty of shots at them. This is the one that I thought turned out the best.
The Roundbottom project is in full swing around here, with large chunks of my profits from web design going into expenses. This weekend, I miraculously somehow stumbled upon a going out of business sale at a costume store in Denver. I was trying to find replica revolvers, and this came up. Today was the last day, and everything was 70% off. Needless to say, Sarah and I went hog wild. I’ll be uploading some photos of what we scored later on, but here’s a list:
All this was acquired for $250. Which seems like a lot, but we’ll get dozens of shoots out of this stuff. Woohoo!
So a note to you steampunkers–keep your eyes open for costume shops going out of business in your areas. Great deals can be had at these closures.
More of the goose family. I took a lot of shots of these guys. Fort Collins has a real problem with them though. They were introduced to the area in the 1950s, and ever since then, the population has climbed steadily. Very few animals here prey on them. Humans don’t hunt them much because apparently they taste like goose shit or something equally foul (pun intended). Show this picture to anyone who has lived here for a while, long enough to have to go through the back entrance of a store because a pair of geese have nested in the entry way of the front and attack anyone who gets within 20 feet–they’re going to just see four more annoyances.
Still, so cute!
I’ve got a few more blackbird shots in reserve, but I figured you would rather see anything else at this point. So I’m back to some of the raw shots from the last steampunk shoot. Consider these outtakes, because they have no post or effects. They’re good images though, at least, I think so.
I did a top secret shoot last night that I really wish I could show off, but instead, I’ll tell you how you can see it later…
I know, I know. I have to find something else to photograph. I’m trying, really, I am. I just can’t get enough of these birds. They’re common, which means I get a lot of attempts, but they’re freaking hard to get close enough to, so they have that going for them. I consider them my training birds. Once I can sneak up on one of these and get a full frame shot, I will be able to do the same for other species. I will be sneaky like ninja.
On my way to work yesterday, I saw a fox walking down the middle of the street in broad daylight, (well, as broad as daylight is at 7:30 AM). That’ll teach me to go anywhere without my camera. That’s not even the first time I’ve seen a fox in our neighborhood. They are ridiculously brave around here. I’m glad my cats are indoor cats.
I took some long distance shots of a fox out at the pounds a couple of weeks ago, and it had something gnarly in its mouth that I couldn’t make out, even after zooming in. I am pretty sure I found that object on Sunday in the middle of the path. It’s a half-picked-at badger skull. There was still fur around the snout, making it easy to identify. I moved it to a hiding where I could find it again later. I’m hoping it’ll be picked clean by the end of the summer. I’ll bring it home and boil it and use it as a prop. Assuming the fox doesn’t reclaim it.
This has been cropped, about 50%. I have tried and tried to get close enough to get a good shot of this guy. I’ve chased it from one side of the ponds to another (not on purpose–he just always seems to be hiding where I am going). Sometimes, I see it before it sees me. Other times, it’s in the air before I can bring up the camera.
When I see it first, I sometimes will drop to my belly and crawl towards it. Or if it’s high, like here, I will take tiny steps ever closer. I managed to cover a lot of distance for this shot–just not quite enough to get a really fantastic shot. Still, good enough for the daily photo.
Night herons are freaking awesome birds, by the way. Fun fact: Young Black-crowned Night-Herons often disgorge their stomach contents when disturbed. This habit makes it easy to study its diet.
So after this weekend, I feel a lot more comfortable with the new lens. I’m not taking the greatest shots ever, but I’m working my way up the steep learning curve and slowly getting better. I am also working on my stalking skills. I probably spent at least 2 hours total this weekend on my stomach, belly-crawling up to the shore of a pond, watching some bird. Funny thing is, I never get quite close enough when I do that. My best shots are the ones I don’t expect to get. Go figure.
These guys were hiding under mom. I knew she was nesting on the log, but I set up in the spot because the herons sometimes land there, and I really want to get a good shot of a blue heron. After about an hour, dad goose arrived to much honking, and the mother started waddling around the log. Up pop four yellow fuzzballs. I am a sucker for cuteness.
My story “Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” a story of a goblin’s hopes for his idiot children, is available in Black Gate 15.
I recently finished the first draft of a YA novel called Takedown Notice set in the net-mage universe of my stories “Captain Blood’s B00ty” and “One Click Banishment.” What happens when the Magical Association of Atlantis finally gets the upper hand against the net mages in the spell program copyfight?