The well-equipped woods photographer

PHOTOGRAPHER WITH DEEP-WOODS KIT, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, JUNE 14, 2011

Pentax *ist DS
SMC-DA 35mm f2.4 AL
1/180 sec. f4.5
ISO 400

My latest and greatest item for photography in the deep, bug-infested woods is that $8.95 headnet, which effectively thwarts skeeters and blackflies immune to industrial-strength DEET. With it I had no problem peering through the viewfinder, and neither did Deborah Abbott, who wore her own identical headnet while snapping this photograph.

Sandhill crane

SANDHILL CRANE (GRUS CANADENSIS) NEAR BRUCE CROSSING, MICHIGAN, JUNE 20, 2011

Pentax *ist DS
SMC Pentax-DA 50-200 at 200mm
1/750 f8
ISO 400

We keep a seven-year-old but still quite serviceable 6.1-megapixel digital camera in the car for those rare opportunity shots while on the road, and with it Debby captured this sandhill crane in breeding colors from the car window as we were driving south to Illinois for a week.

Motorboating merganserlings

RACING MERGANSERLINGS, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 17, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/800 f10
ISO 1600

An infrequent but always amusing sight off our beach at Lake Superior is a clutch of very young merganserlings racing each other, wildly churning their webbed feet like pint-sized Evinrudes, down the beach when the water is calm. The one in the lead triumphantly grips a wiggling prize in his beak, either a minnow or a tadpole.

Rapids

PRESQUE ISLE RIVER, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, JUNE 14, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 35mm f2.4 AL
1/8, 1/15, 1/4, 1/30, 0.6 sec. at f11 with .8 ND filter
ISO 100
HDR processing in Photomatix Pro

Photographing in the woods under overcast skies renders better images than in harsh overhead sunlight, but I tried melding five separate full-sun exposures with high-dynamic-range software in an experiment. Except for blown highlights in the lower right, it seemed to turn out OK. Nonetheless, I'm going to return on a gray day and try the same shot, also with HDR processing.

Nursery

FEMALE COMMON MERGANSER (MERGUS MERGANSER) AND YOUNG, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 13, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/2000 sec. f10
ISO 1600

This flotilla of merganserlings -- 13 count 'em 13 -- probably is made up of two or more clutches of siblings. The females of the species often appoint one of their number as a feathered day-care center and dump their younguns on her while they go off to work or the hairdresser's. Note the two piggybacking on Mama, behavior common with loons but this is the first time I've ever seen it in mergansers.

Radar station

FEMALE WHITETAIL DEER (ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS), SILVER CITY, MICHIGAN, JUNE 9, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/125 sec. f10
ISO 1600

Whenever we head up into the nearby Porcupine Mountains, we make sure to take along in the car a camera and long lens for drive-by shooting opportunities. I rolled down the window and captured this winsome doe stopping in the tree line from the side of the road. With those ears, she probably can hear a butterfly whisper from a thousand yards.

Brown Thrasher

BROWN THRASHER (TOXOSTOMA RUFUM), GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 29, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/250 sec. f11
ISO 1600

This is the first time I've photographed this common but elusive cousin of the catbird and mockingbird. One usually hears its many different calls rather than spotting it in the dense thickets of the Northern boreal forest. The long shot was heavily cropped, but it's a large bird, bigger than a robin, so it shows up with reasonable detail.

Mystery dragonfly

RESTING DRAGONFLY, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 9, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/1600 sec. f11
ISO 1600

The other evening a swarm of scores of dragonflies swooped around the trees and bushes in front of our cabin on Lake Superior, and this one held on long enough to a twig for me to get its portrait. There are dozens of dragonfly species, and I have no idea which one this is. If its back had been to the camera, it probably would have been possible to compare the markings with those in a bug book.

Nightmare

AMERICAN CROW, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 8, 2011

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/60 sec. f11
ISO 400

It's only an ordinary crow on the rock riprap in front of our cabin on Lake Superior sampling the bird seed we scatter for the chipmunks, but in this tight shot it looks as menacing as an apparition from "Lord of the Rings."

American Crow

AMERICAN CROW (CORVUS BRACHYRHYNCHOS), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 3, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/1000 sec. f14
ISO 1600

The Lady Friend disdains these birds as much as she does gulls -- she refuses to enter either species in our daily bird sighting list -- but I rather admire them. Ugly as they are, they're the smartest avian species around and even can modify and use tools. A few years ago West Nile fever set their numbers back a great deal, but they've rebounded handsomely.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (male)

MALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 6, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Notice the tiny landing gear on this bird -- it's so small and feeble that the species can't walk on the ground, only grip a twig.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female)

FEMALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD (ARCHILOCHUS COLUBRIS), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 1, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/180 sec. f11 with on-board flash
ISO 200

This year we have more hummers than ever around the cabin on the shore of Lake Superior. Sometimes the squadrons of looping, swooping and bickering birds -- hummers are solitary and aggressive toward each other, especially in the mating season -- cause us to duck as we walk outside. A snap of flash captured this female's iridescent color.

Spotted Sandpiper

SPOTTED SANDPIPER (ACTITIS MACULARIUS), GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 30, 2011

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/2000 sec. f10
ISO 1600

This species of sandpiper, one of the many small shore birds the locals call "peeps" for their peet-weet-weet calls, often displays an exaggerated bobbing motion that suggests it's a few feathers short of a headdress. It's also one of the few shore birds that actually will dive underwater to escape a predator. For a few years they seemed to have disappeared from our Lake Superior beach, but if so they've come back in goodly numbers.

Joe and his pet buzzard

JOE ROGERS WITH RESCUED TURKEY VULTURE, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, MAY 28, 2011

Pentax K-5
Tamron SP AF DI 90mm macro
1/160 sec. f16 with on-board flash
ISO 1600

Another in a series from the Wildlife Recovery Association program at the Porkies' Visitor Center last weekend, this one shows the organization's head, Joe Rogers, and the turkey vulture with which he wraps up the show. With relish he demonstrates how the bird cleans out its huge, carrion-plugged nostrils with a long claw. Adults are appalled but kids are delighted.