In Cornell Plantation's Arboretum

I led a small group of fellow photographers on a foray beginning at the Harder Watercourse in the Cornell Plantation's Arboretum.  While the forecast was for showers, it was actually a warm and sunny day with lots of insect activity. Entering the watercourse, one finds a magnificent array of summer blooms - Sunflowers, Cone Flowers and more.

Dropping down the slope below the Harder garden, we found fields of wildflowers including large pockets of Monarda fistulosa.  There I saw one of my favorite and strangest little moths, the Hummingbird Moth.

It is a beautiful combination of sienna reds, olive greens and blacks.  The antennae are tipped with blue too.  It hovers just like its namesake to sip nectar from the blooms.

They move pretty fast, so it is always a relief when the set of photos has a few good, sharp  images.

Finding a Hummingbird Moth was a special treat for this foray.  For some in the group, it was an amazing, new discovery.  It is a special sighting, even for me. Usually, I only see a few on my garden phlox.  There always seems to be a surprise in the Plantation's many gardens.  I just have to be patient and observe closely.  It seems that the less you move, the more you can discover.

Paul Schmitt

Spring Wildflowers!

My love for nature photography began with landscapes. That is never more apparent than when the emerging colors of spring destroy the muted winter colors. Recently I revisited Lick Brook for both waterfalls and spring wildflowers where I found this magical scene with the first bits of spring green in the trees.  (Yes, my feet got wet getting to this spot. It was worth it.)

At one time this spring,  I went looking for birds with a big telephoto lens and found something unexpected that needed a wider view. What to do?  Why, pull out my iPhone and take the photo.  So it was that this renegade bunch of daffodils appeared in a wooded area.

I transformed the image to match the impression it made on me using the Mobile Monet app.

Sometimes the wildflowers are just outside my door.  I have a 4-foot square garden in a sheltered corner by our sun room. The quiet corner seems to encourage early blooming like seen in this Purple Trillium.

So, I've become so intrigued with testing my ability to capture a workable image with the iPhone, that I am becoming too lazy to switch to a wide angle lens when I see an expansive image like these Virginia Bluebells. With the small size of the camera phone, I can set the camera right on the ground and see the world like a bug.  Edited again with Mobile Monet.

Virginia Bluebells seem to have a changeable personality depending on the type of light.  During the same shoot, I found this, again from a bug's perspective.

Spring also brings a rich yellow and green display to the marshy areas when the Celandine Poppy blooms. 

Saving my favorite image for last, I found this lush Trillium grandiflorum on a leafy hillside in the Mundy Wildflower Garden at Cornell Plantations on a beautiful spring morning.

Now, if I did not have a lawn to mow, I could be out there right now looking for more beautiful finds. Maybe you can take my place?

Paul Schmitt

Creative Results with iPhone image editors

I've been preparing for another smartphone workshop and exploring the many photo editors on the market.  One of the most useful (and more challenging) editors is  the Iris Photo Suite.  It is $1.99 and provides a wide range of whole image manipulations-  exposure, white balance, shadows and highlight, sharpness, histograms, and noise.  There is also a wide range of filters that apply textures and color treatments to the complete image.  In addition, it has layers and selective masking so that a texture filter can be applied to a selective portion of the image.  All pretty powerful, but supported by pretty sketchy tutorials.

Here is one image that I first corrected for image wide settings, leveled and cropped, and finally added two masks to create greater texture on the wooden rail fence.

Overall, I am pleased with the result.  One very helpful feature is the ability to zoom in on a local area to achieve some precision in selecting the area on which to apply the mask effect.  The result matches how I felt about this little corner of the Herb Garden at Cornell Plantations.

Another more creative app is MobileMonet which allows you to select where in the image to show colors. I played with this using a photo of a brilliant orange Cana at Plantations.  First, the  image was optimized using Iris Photo Suite. Moving on to MobileMonet, a black and white line sketch is created, and using a stylus brush, I painted in the areas where I want the underlying color of the input image to show.

The result, far removed from the original image, appeals to me because it removes the competing background, and produces a stronger artistic interpretation of the subject without the background colors to confuse the eye.  It reminds me of some wonderful watercolor images done on pure white paper with no color beyond the subject plant.

As I've evaluated the many photo editing apps, I have come to realize the awkward mess we have where no one app has all the tools.  One app may only cost $1.99, but building a set of apps does accumulated a higher cost, and the different apps have so different approaches and icons that it becomes confusing. In addition, the small screen does create a poorer result than can be achieved when the image is brought into a desktop computer with much larger screen. As an example, I cannot imagine how you would see image noise on the small smartphone screen, nor how to correct for it.  That would best be left to the desktop.

Paul Schmitt

Canada Lilies- A Woodland Treat

I have an admiration for flowers that achieve unique beauty without selective human breeding.  So, along with the the truly wild orchids, one other will lead me to awake at 5:30 am. (The time is driven by capturing extremely sharp images when the air is dead still.)

The Canada Lily, Lilium canadense, is in a struggle to survive the overpopulation of Whitetail Deer.  Since the Mundy Wildflower Garden was partly fenced, the few plants inside have begun to show their full potential. Earlier this week I was amazed to find a single lily standing about seven feet tall with eleven blooms.  Plans were made based on a prediction of favorable conditions for Saturday, and I was joined by spouse Pam and good friend David Dunneau. 

This is an amazing plant.  Previously I had only seen single or double blooms that I now characterize as juvenile plants. 

The smaller plants are still  quite beautiful and definitely easier to compose into a photo.

A closer look at the flower shows an inviting target for the pollinator.

While most blooms were very regular in form, I found one plant with twin blooms that had a very seductive form.

I thought when I saw this bloom several days ago that it was in the process of opening and would be fully open this morning, but it retains the earlier form.

An unexpected bonus of the early morning outing was spotted by my friend David.  Two very tiny flies in the mating couplet. They are only about 6 millimeters long (1/4 inch).

Pretty neat to see them in detail.  Again, the calm air helped greatly.

Finished by 9 am, we retired to the Ithaca Bakery for bagels and coffee.  We had earned the treat.

Paul Schmitt

It's all about the birds and the bees.

Ask yourself what comes to mind when you hear  "the birds and the bees".  My Friday outing was all about the birds and the bees.  Really!  Read on.

There are now multiple websites that have a live stream of an active nest - Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons and Redtail Hawks, to name a few. One of the very popular ones shows a pair of Redtails nesting on a very high light tower on the campus of Cornell University.
See:  Cornell Redtail Hawk Nest

I've heard many people admit to watching this on their computer for long periods of time. Some are doing so when they should be working. Such is the magnetic interest that the cycle of new life has on us.

To my good fortune,  I have been directed to a cliff side nest of Redtail Hawks in the Fall Creek Gorge near the Cornell campus, and the location is perfect for photography.  Even better, it is not a man made structure but "au natural" with no voyeuristic component.  Join me in a series of photos from about a two hour session and how it ended with the bees.

This is, I believe, the female shown high above the nest on a warm day, keeping watch on the nest below.

I think she sees me. Actually, I am on the sidewalk of a well-traveled street with regular pedestrian traffic and I am sure she sees me and lots more.

When I arrived, the chicks were active in the nest below.

The chick in the foreground is the older of the two. Note that it has more dark feathers emerging to replace the down.  The younger chick is attempting to do something with the tough-skinned chipmunk left earlier by a parent. They are not very graceful at this stage.  Awkward, really.

Eventually, the adult overhead flew to a roost on the opposite side of the gorge, still watchful.

After some time had passed,  the male returned with a fresh chipmunk.

For a few moments, both adults were on the nest.  I think the male left quickly to resume hunting and the female remained to feed the chicks.  Chipmunks are pretty tough skinned, and the one chick's attempt to take one apart was futile. The female put all of her strengths into the task.

She was pretty equitable in dividing the food among the two chicks.

What I expected next was the onset of a food coma for the chicks.  I could see them become calmer.

As the nest came out of the shadows and they became drowsy, I expected the adult to shield them with outstretched wings, as I had seen three days before. It had been two hours on the bridge. It was time to move to something new.  The time passed quickly.  I'd met numerous walkers.  Most had never seen such a thing close up, but some stopped every day on their way to and from work. 

So, I went to Sapsucker Woods for a break and to walk a woodland trail looking for small birds. Found a few such as Phoebes and Orioles, but was most taken by the wild azaleas blooming with hot pink flowers.  

So, you see that my day was really all about the birds and the bees.

I am sure that there are others who will enjoy reading about this. Please share it with someone.

Thanks,

Paul Schmitt

Persistance and Luck

I'll try to be short on words right now.  It has been a long day and I have a lot of good photo results to edit.  Yesterday, I got a little smarter on the habits of the Eastern Bluebirds around the nest boxes.

Eastern Bluebird, male

So, this male has some favorite perches to watch the grass areas for insects. It just takes hours to learn which branches are the chosen ones.  I expect even better results soon.

 Began today at the Mundy Wildflower Garden on the Cornell campus.  I was thinking birds  until two very prime wildflowers caught my interest. To my delight, I met a new photographer friend, David, and we explored the area together.

Marsh Marigolds are actually in the buttercup family, but obviously someone thought they reminded them of marigolds.  Well, they got the marsh part pretty much right. They love the wet, squishy places.

I guess the Virginia Bluebells fare a little better in the name department.  They are blue, and they are found in Virginia.  Sounds better than New York Bluebells, eh?

This crazy spring weather  has been rough on some blooming plants, but it has been good to the Bluebells.  Can't recall them lasting so long or being so lush. On the negative side, I found the buds on some plants frozen into a mush.  No May Apple blooms in many cases.

Now, back to the birds.  After some unfavorable weather, a shift in the patterns has open the door for many small birds to come north, and on top of that, I just got lucky today. To be honest, we roamed the wildflower garden for at least two hours with no bird photos to show for it.  Heard them, saw them, but never got close. As we returned to the horticulture building with zero birds, we spotted activity in a flowering  apple tree. Then, I heard the piping calls of the Baltimore Orioles.  Not sure if they are eating the flowers or bugs on the flowers, but it was some sort of feast. This male put on a concert of his songs. Nice.

 

That pretty much made the efforts of the morning justified.  But, there was more, as a beautiful Northern Cardinal took a perch nearby.

The male Cardinal also showed interest in the flowering apple.

I would be fully satisfied with these results, but the apple tree also attracted a very small warbler that stayed high in the tree, nearly always hidden by branches.

I could not match the little bird's white eye ring with any warbler that I knew, and when I got home to study my bird guide, I discovered it is a Nashville Warbler, and a first for me.  (Birders get excited for firsts.) There are just so many warblers and sometimes the smallest detail is needed to separate the choices.  What a nice end to the outing.  The birding weatherman has predicted another big wave of warblers for tonight, and I am debating whether I have the energy to get up very early again.  Don't know right now.

Hope you enjoy my story and that it moves you to look outside your windows just a little tomorrow. Never know what will entertain you with a song or some bright color.

Paul



Note: I have loaded a wider set of high resolution photos for the Baltimore Oriole and Northern Cardinal on my SmugMug web galleries at:

http://pschmitt.smugmug.com/Birds/Perching-Birds/18761402_G84qx9#!i=1826082241&k=SZn9n7w