Summertime- Fairtime

Summer is here and that means it is time for county fairs.  I had fun going to our local Lake County Fair.  There was lots to see and do and to take pictures of.

Dog Shows

Banana Derby Racing

Farm Animal judging

Motocross Racing

 even with little tykes

ATV racing

Monster Trucks

and fun food.

Winter Photography

Cold and snow can be disheartening, but there are interesting winter images out there.  At times there can be an early snow before all the leaves have fallen.  This can bring an interesting contrast between the fall leaf color in an otherwise black and white of snow and tree trunks.

I live close to Lake Michigan and with a large body of water when a cold front comes in and the weather gets frigid, interesting ice sculptures can form on a windy night when waves pound on any vegetation that is near the shoreline.

A wonderful opportunity comes when storm clouds start to clear and patches of blue and white appear in the sky, especially if it is early morning or early evening.

Be sure to check where the light is coming from and walk around your subject to take full advantage of the light.  Take shots from several angles.  You may find you like one view better than another.

Staycation

I have been taking a lot of small trips in the area to do photography this summer.  One of them was to Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, WI.  This is a fun place.  It has all the elements I love- flowers, old barns and sheds, lots of interesting details around each corner.  There are a lot of ideas of gardens you can plant and they have a cool gift shop where you can purchase new and old country style items for you house and yard.  It reminds me of small towns in New England or Door County, but it is a lot closer to my home.  Here are some of the pictures I came away with.

Rodeo Days

A fun place to practice action photography is at a rodeo.  I had never been to one before and so just seeing a rodeo in person sounded fun and then I was going to get to photograph it.  One of my photography clubs was going to take an overnighter to check it out.  We had a professional rodeo photographer come and talk to us.  He told us what events we would be seeing and what to look for and what was that good shot that you would want to try and get.  Well, for my first time I am pretty happy.  It was a fun event and we had plenty of opportunity to try to get pictures of the bucking bronchos, calf wrestling, bucking bulls, calf roping and barrel races, plus the clowns.

I used my 100-400 mm zoom lens which worked just fine. I kept my shutter speed at 1/1000 of a second and started at the lowest ISO I could. When the lighting was good, I was at ISO 400.  As the sun started going down I went up to as high as 1600.  Then I started to use my flash with my Better Beamer flash extender.  That is when I had to start being a little careful about timing my shots as I couldn't do a burst of shots and have them come out.  For the rodeo in the evening we had reserved seating in the stands where we had to stay put.  Some of us went to the top of the stands so we could take shots and not get the fence in our pictures most of the time.  We had special permission to photograph with tripods the following morning and could roam around the ring (just outside the fence of course) and photograph were we wanted.  There were a few people there in the morning watching the events, but mostly we had the area to ourselves.  For myself, I found it was easiest to track the action hand holding my camera with image stabilization on.  The lighting was good and so I could shoot 1/1000 of a second at ISO 400 and get f8-11.

Here are some of my shots:

Showing off the Colors

Whoa, boy!

Some mighty fine horses.

Taking him for a ride

Off you go!

Doing a summersault over the bull.

Going around the barrel

Coming down the home stretch

I'm going to get you

Roping the calf

Bison Birthday

What does a person who likes nature photography do for their birthday?  Take pictures of course.  I had missed a recent outing with Lake County Camera Club and it was a bright overcast day.  It was perfect for getting animal shots without the sun making everything bright and contrasty.  Instead I had nice even lighting to work with.  So, since I couldn't go to Yellowstone in a day, I took the half hour drive to Lester's Bison Farm to check it out.  I find out they have several fields they rotate the bison to for grazing and it is my good fortune to find the herd is in the field next to the house and store.  I am able to just park my car and walk a short distance to the fence line.  I find that Lester has a herd of about 50 bison plus about 10 adorable calves. 

The problem is sometimes they like to all clump together and you have to separate a couple out to get a good photo.  Then when you think you have that perfect shot, another bison comes strolling in front and your chance is gone.  However, it is fun to watch them and with patience you can get some nice photos because they are contained to an area and can't disappear out past the trees. I used my 100-400mm zoom lens which worked out great, except when they decided to come right up close to the fence where I was at.  Ha!  Here are some of the images I was able to get.

Bison family

"Come back here Junior"

Three Amigos

Don't come any closer

Just resting

Heading out

Hummingbirds

We have bird feeders in our yard, but sometimes we get just too busy to take time out to watch our visitors.  The other day my husband, Wayne, noticed that the hummingbirds were coming to their feeder.   It was such a nice evening outside.  I decided I should get my camera and tripod set up and relax out by our patio table.  I was not disappointed. The male Ruby-throated hummingbird came in and out and actually landed on a branch we have placed near the feeder and posed nicely.

A little while later, the female Ruby-throated hummingbird came and visited the feeder too.  I got several shots of her, even one after taking a drink with her tongue out.  It pays to relax and enjoy the nature God has created around us.  Both photos were taken at 1/1000sec, f6.3 ISO400 with my 600mm Sigma lens on my Canon 7D II.

Birding at Magee Marsh

Magee Marsh is a great place to go in May to capture migrating birds in the spring.  I will be posting a few migrating birds that I have found.  I think I will start out with some pairs. First is the Blackburnian Warbler.

Male (f11 1/1000 sec ISO 1600 no flash)

Female (f8 1/1000sec ISO400 flash)

This is a favorite because of its flame-orange coloring in the throat.  It has a triangular black cheek patch and a white wing patch.  Females color is more washed out.  They winter in the mountains of northern South America and summer in eastern southern Canada and northern United States from the Great Lakes to New England area.