Red Admiral No. 2

RED ADMIRAL, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 18, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/1000 sec. f8
IS0 640

After a long morning yesterday hunting birds and finding little to shoot, I came home to find the blossoms of our crabapple tree still mobbed by Red Admiral butterflies. The DA 55-300 zoom lens focuses much closer (just over 4 feet) than the F* 300 I used yesterday, and so here's a shot that shows the detailed underside of one of the creature's folded wings.

Red Admiral

RED ADMIRAL (VANESSA ATALANTA), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 15, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/500 sec. f6.3
ISO 400

A 300-millimeter telephoto is not exactly a bug photographer's closeup choice, but it was on my camera when I went out hunting for birds and spotted a shower of Red Admirals feeding on the blossoms of a crabapple tree in front of my house. The red admiral (originally "red admirable," which makes more sense) has quite a literary presence, being a recurring motif in Pale Fire, one of the major novels of Vladimir Nabokov, a renowned amateur lepidopterist.

Gulls

In my view the lowly gull, reviled as a garbage bird, is underappreciated as a sleek aerobat of the shore. I often spend mornings by a body of water admiring their soaring and wheeling and diving. The following shots were all taken by the lagoon at Lovelace Park in Evanston, Illinois, a favorite spot for small children to throw bits of bread to gulls, mallards and Canada geese. All were captured with a Pentax K-5 equipped with a Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm, f8, ISO 1600, varying shutter speeds.

HERRING GULL

RING-BILLED GULL

RING-BILLED GULL

Red-winged Blackbird

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD (AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS), LOVELACE PARK, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 13, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/4000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Always a striking sight with its red and orange epaulets, this migratory (in the northern U.S.) songbird (yes, it is one) has been celebrated by the Ojibwa with an equally striking name: memiskondinimaanganeshiinh, which means "bird with a very red damn-little shoulder blade." At least that's what Wikipedia says, and you know that Wikipedia isn't always a reliable source.

Cowbird

BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD (MILOTHRUS OTER), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 12, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF) with Kenko 1.5x teleconverter (450mm total)
 1/125 sec. f8
 ISO 1600

Cowbirds lay their eggs in other species' nests and their chicks get the most food, leaving the others to starve. No wonder Walt Kelly made villains of cowbirds in his Pogo comic strip.

Poppy?

POPPY(?), CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 6, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/2000 sec. f14
ISO 1600

I have no idea what variety this bloom is—some subspecies of corn poppy?—so if you do, please let me know. I'd taken my long 55-300mm lens along to the garden intending to shoot birds, but seeing none, shot flowers instead. The 55-300 focuses remarkably close and makes a decent impromptu macro lens.

Somebody's in trouble

CARDINALS, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 10, 2012

Pentax K10D
Sigma APO 135-400 at 340mm
1/180 sec. f8
ISO 400

The female cardinal was feeding on the backyard deck railing when the male came by. It was clear by the female's threatening posture and the male's defensiveness that the latter had done something he oughtn't. Maybe he was out all night with his buddies and dragged himself in at 2 a.m. somewhat worse for wear.

Mallard No. 1

MALLARD, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 6, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 400

Now the ubiquitous mallard may be the most boring bird to photograph (next to Canada geese), but at least it has the virtue of ubiquity. That means one might go out to photograph interesting birds but find nothing . . . except mallards. One need not go home empty-handed, need one? The low sun made the feather detail and water droplets stand out.

Cardinal

NORTHERN CARDINAL (CARDINALIS CARDINALIS), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 7, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF) with 1.5x Kenko converter (450mm total)
1/640 sec. f10
ISO 1600

A handsome pair of cardinals calls our backyard home, but getting good photos of them is frustrating. They don't perch or feed on the deck railing for long, but seem to suffer from the same helter-skelter attention deficit disorder that our sparrows do. One has to wait patiently with the long lens and grab a quick shot before the subject is gone. Next time I'll get him when his crest is erect.

Horns

AIR HORN ARRAY ATOP AMTRAK LOCOMOTIVE, EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 26, 2012

Pentax K-5
Sigma 17-70 DC at 70mm
1/250 sec. f8
ISO 1600

The air horns on an Amtrak P42 locomotive are recessed out of sight into the roof, but I captured these on a California Zephyr from the pedestrian overpass at Emeryville station. For railfans, they are the standard Nathan/Airchime K5LA five-chime array Amtrak uses on all locomotives, sounding D#, F#, G#, B and D# octave notes. The "snow cones" on the fronts keep out snow, ice and exhaust particles.

Backup hose

BACKUP HOSE, CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, NEAR RENO, NEVADA, MARCH 24, 2012

Pentax K-5
Sigma 17-70 DC at 23mm
1/1600 sec. f4
ISO 400

This "backup hose" on the last car of the California Zephyr is a stub air hose employed in a "shoving move" as the train is backed into Denver station. As the train slowly approached the stopping point, conductors used to open the "peanut valve" (so called for its faint high-pitched whistle) to dump air pressure, causing the brakes to apply and halt the train. Today they use radios to talk the engineer through shoving moves while holding the hose, and use the valve only in emergencies. "Ten cars . . . five cars . . . one car . . . half a car . . . that'll do," they say.

Lead service attendant

LEAD SERVICE ATTENDANT, CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLORADO, MARCH 21, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/400 sec. f10
ISO 400

This lead service attendant, as Amtrak calls the crew members who run the snack bars in its lounge cars, briefly stuck his head out to capture the sun during a station stop at Glenwood Springs, Colorado. They're on the job from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with a few breaks, every day during a six-day round-trip run from Chicago to Emeryville, California.

Chef

DINING CAR CHEF, CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLORADO, MARCH 21, 2012


Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 70mm
1/500 sec. f4
ISO 400


The chef of an eastbound California Zephyr leans out his galley window to catch a little sun and fresh air between lunch seatings during the brief station stop at noon in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Conductor

CONDUCTOR, CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLORADO, MARCH 21, 2012


Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/400 sec. f10
ISO 400


There's a soft spot in my heart for railroaders, and I photograph them every chance I get. This shot was taken one March noon from the station platform in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, as Amtrak's eastbound California Zephyr sounded its horn and prepared to pull out.

Amtrak 6 eastbound

AMTRAK NO. 6, THE EASTBOUND CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR, ENTERS GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLORADO, MARCH 21, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm at 150mm
1/1000 sec. f10
ISO 400

This one's for the railfans. I waited ten minutes at the western end of the long Glenwood Springs platform for Amtrak 6 to appear one sunny March day. Luckily a Union Pacific freight arrived first and stopped to allow the eastbound Zephyr to get ahead of it, offering a good chance to get an interesting action railroading shot.

Depot bench

BENCH ARMREST, RAILROAD STATION, GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLORADO, MARCH 21, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 190mm
1/13 sec. f9
ISO 400

Old oaken furniture in railroad stations always warms my heart, and this carved waiting room bench armrest in the historic 1904 Denver & Rio Grande Western (now Amtrak) depot in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, caught my eye on a recent visit there aboard the California Zephyr.

Tunnel

ENTERING TUNNEL OVER DONNER PASS NEAR TRUCKEE, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 24, 2012 

Pentax K-5
Sigma 17-70 DC at 37mm
1/160 sec. f4
ISO 400

This shot, taken from the vestibule window of the last car on a California Zephyr, is the first of several from a trip on that train I'll be posting in the next few days. Dealing with grimy vestibule windows necessitates a nearly wide open aperture so that the crud doesn't come into focus. Increasing contrast and brightness with Lightroom helps overcome the flatness of the light through the grime.