So the momentous day arrived, October 9th, 2009. Gerry and I went down to the new Federal courhouse in Brooklyn and after sitting for over two hours in hard plastic seats, I and and 120 others took the oath and became US citizens.
After the ceremony and a much delayed breakfast at a local diner, we headed out of town and made a 150+ mile dash down the Garden State Parkway, to arrived at Cape May on the most southern tip of New Jersey. To develop an appetite for diner, we took a stroll along the beach, and enjoyed the sunset.
Beach Comber
Beach Comber
Sunset Surf
Painted Surf
Sanderling Feeding
The next day we wandered around a bit and first on our itenerary was the Cape May Lighthouse, where we saw either a Merlin or a peregrine falcon, a beautiful pair of Great Blue herons, Egrets, and juvenile bald eagles. But the plants stood still and let themselves be photographed…
Wild Honesuckle
Rushes in the Breeze
Cattail Rushes
There are a couple of shots at the extremes of my camera kit’s capabilities – based around my Olympus E510.
Both of these were taken in Gilbert Lake State park in New York. The first was the view from our campsite looking straight up. This is was shot at a focal length of 14mm (28mm equ), the widest I can get with one shot. Auto focus, programed exposure, the works.
Camp Site Canopy
The next was taken with the E510 too, but this time mounted on it was my old Vivitar 100-300mm zoom lens from my OM series cameras (I’ve been through a few in my time). So that of course means manual focus (how retro is that?) and only Aperture priority exposure mode available. Nevertheless, I think this picture clearly shows the benefits of in-camera optical image stabilization. This picture was shot hand held at 300mm, which on the E510 is the equivalent of 600mm. Shot at 200 ISO, the exposure time was only 160th of a second with the lens wide open at f5.8. Still pretty sharp if I say so myself. 
Dragonfly at rest
It’s been quite some time since my last missive here. But better late than never.
Lucky us: we got to go to Florida again this year, and even better, had Elliott in town for company. We took him out to the place where we saw all the heron and pelican and what not activity last year, the E G Simmons county park. Unfortunately there was precious little activity there this time. A few pretty butterflies and a single great blue heron was about it. Thought there was an Osprey on it’s (artificial) nesting site.
Blue Heron in the Mangroves
After that anticlimactic day Gerry and I returned to another site from our 2008 visit, John Chestnut Park. Last year is was warm and we saw alligators (5 to 6 foot) and cardinals and maybe an anhinga. This year is was much colder. We drove into the park and the first thing on out minds was to pick out a table close to a lake where I thought I might have seen an ibis last year. We had hardly arranged our picnic on the table before these two fine specimens flew directly into our space and proceeded to beg for food.
After a while (well after we packed the remains of our picnic away) they returned to fishing in the pond behind us. While watching the great blue walk back to the shore, I notices a biggish bird flying rapidly between two trees on the opposite shore. Using binoculars it was clearly a Banded Kingfisher, and in the gallery below there is a crop of a very bad of picture which was taken at the extreme limit of my zoom and hand held. So that picture is there just for ID purposes. Also spotted (who could miss him) was a large Ibis, patrolling round the margin of the pond.
As we walked around the pond to get a little closer to the ibis, I saw a little blue heron fly in and perch on a post. By a roundabout way behind some trees I managed to get close enough for a couple of reasonable pictures of the gorgeous bird, about who’s face it is all too easy to anthropomorphize.
It’s been a while since I posted anything to this blog of mine. A blog that nobody appears to read, except for me I think. ;-(
Well anyway enough of that. At least I get the satisfaction of going through the zillions of shots that accumulate relentlessly and pick out one or two successful ones.
After our maiden camping trip (with our new kit) in July, August and September found us enjoying the great outdoors in Columbia county, New York, and here are a few botanical shots, including some from those trips.
One of the great things about camping is you see so much wildlife. Even rank city slickers like us.
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Then there are these few more city oriented shots.
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And lastly a few more abstract pictures.
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The middle of July found Gerry and I at Housatonic Meadows State Park. We were trying out our brand new, luxurious standing room all over tent for the very first time.
We had had quite a rush to get there on the Friday evening in time to beat the sunset at just after 7:30. The prospect of putting up a new tent in the dark was not welcome. As it happened, we got to our site with very little daylight left and we completed the tent errection by lantern. Phew.
Last week I purchased a new back pack to carry the camera kit. It has room for a fair few lenses, and do-dahs one needs to carry about. There’s all sorts of compartments (Velcro adjustable), pockets and nooks and crannies and lots of ways into the bag. I like this thing because it’s a “swing” type that loops over one shoulder and can be swung around to the front, very quickly where the camera with the longer of my two lenses attached fits nicely and very quickly accessed via the side entrance. Yet it’s not very large. Maybe half the size of a small backpack. This is going to greatly increase the camera’s mobility!
Other nice touches include the soft cloth tethered inside the main compartment – great for covering lenses and LDC panels, and inside the front pocket is a drawstring weatherproof bad to cover the whole shebang in a storm.
So, throwing my kit over my shoulder (if you’ll forgive the illusion) I hoped on my bike and took a spin round the park…
I have the great good fortune to live two long blocks from Prospect Park in Brooklyn. It has a nice easy 3 and a bit mile loop to cycle/run/roller skate around, and many paths inside it’s 300+ Acres and a lake. Consequently I am often to be found there in my free time. Right now the plants around the water margins are looking particularly lush.
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Elephant grass
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Elephant grass catching sun
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Water plants in the lake margin
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Water Lilies reaching for the sky
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Water Lilies reaching for the sky
The lily and the water plant shots were also assisted by my Bogen Manfrotto Magic Arm clamped to the crossbar of my bike. It’s a great portable camera support, and often much more convenient that a tripod. For these shots I also had help from a small tree which I leaned the bike against for additional bracing.
