Photographing Now

It's been difficult to photograph here in the Finger Lakes of New York with a late winter, and a "no show" spring until today.  I have been concentrating on what might be called intimate landscapes and bird behaviors.


Here are some recent images that brought joy to my outings.

I love Wood Ducks.  This drake is flaring his wings to display to the nearby hen duck.  A gust of wind lifted his crest, making my trip out on a very cold morning very worthwhile.

A day later I again fought the cold hoping for another close encounter with the same pair of ducks.  The pond had a thin glaze of ice and they never appeared, but a flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets descended from the hemlock trees to capture small insects locked in the thin ice.  This colorful fellow perched only twenty feet from me.

Once home and examining my photos closely, I realized I had one image of the tiny bird with a midge in its beak. Wow!

A few weeks ago, I lured a friend to make a rugged hike into two remote waterfalls just an hour south in Pennsylvania, on the west side of the Pine Creek Gorge.  The first stop was Jerry Run where the major drop was too dangerous to enter. We settled for a beautiful little drop with moss lined banks that had coat of ice.

We continued to our ultimate goal at Bohen Run.

On a frigid morning in March, I chanced upon an early season fisherman at Ithaca Falls.  I do not understand how he could cast with bare hands. It was really cold, plus windy.

But, my focus was again on the intimate landscape, and this scene was more fulfilling to me.

In addition, I have done some revisions to my website that include a new gallery of exhibition quality images, a gallery of recent images, and the addition of Death Valley images in the Travel folder. There are some striking landscapes in the Death Valley gallery.  You can see these at:  https://pschmitt.smugmug.com/  All of the images are available directly from SmugMug as display prints and also as nice mouse pads.

Thanks for your interest.

Paul Schmitt