Sunset 7/28/12

SUNSET OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 28, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 at 135mm
1/500 sec. f8
ISO 400

What can I say? These spectacular sunsets are Mother Nature's doing, not a photographer's.

Horse and rider

HORSE AND RIDER, ONTONAGON COUNTY FAIR, GREENLAND, MICHIGAN, JULY 29, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 at 135mm
1/1600 sec. f9
ISO 1600

This young lady, 17-year-old Darien Steiner, was a contestant at the Ontonagon County Fair yesterday. Of all the photographs I took of the events, this one seems to be the most insteresting, for it captures the horse's dynamic effort at the instant it changes direction, rounding the barrel perfectly and heading for the next—much to the obvious delight of its rider.

Carving a tree

FINNISH WOOD CARVER, ONTONAGON COUNTY FAIR, GREENLAND, MICHIGAN, JULY 28, 2012

Pentax *ist DS
SMC Pentax-DA 50-200 at 50mm
1/15 sec. f9.5
ISO 800

Deborah Abbott captured this artisan of Finnish extraction carving a little wooden tree at the annual Ontonagon County Fair in Greenland.

Weevil Knievel

MOTOCROSS CONTESTANT, ONTONAGON COUNTY FAIR, GREENLAND, MICHIGAN, JULY 28, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 at 135mm
1/800 sec. f8
ISO 400

This bepadded and behelmeted rider is about six years old. This part of the country goes in for reciprocating engine sports in a big way—motorbikes, cycles and ATVs in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter—and the enthusiasm starts young.

Wild Turkey

FEMALE EASTERN WILD TURKEY (MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO SILVESTRIS), SILVER CITY, MICHIGAN, JUY 25, 2012 

Pentax *ist DS
SMC-DA 50-200 at 200mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 800

Keeping an older (circa 2003) 6-megapixel camera with an inexpensive kit zoom lens in the car occasionally pays dividends. The combination can still produce decent photographs even when they are heavily cropped, as this one is.

Stella 7/24/12

WHITETAIL DEER, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 24, 2012

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/45 sec. f11
ISO 800

Stella now emerges from the woods to raid our bird feeders twice and even three times during daylight, then returns in the wee hours to clean up. If we haven't put out enough seed to suit her, she stands and stares until we cave in. We think she may be nursing twin fawns, even though she is fairly small, maybe a yearling or not much more.

Sunset 7/23/12

SUNSET OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 23, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 at 135mm
1/400 sec. f11
ISO 400

Wasn't it nice of that gull to photobomb this composition of a beautiful but quite common Lake Superior summer sunset? (Click on the photo for a desktop-sized version.)

Waif

RACCOON KIT, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 17, 2012

Nikon Coolpix S8200
Nikkor 4.5-63 at 63mm
1/60 f9 with flash
ISO 640

We spotted this cute young raccoon ambling alone across our back yard yesterday evening and took his portrait while he hunkered in the bushes. We let him be for his mama to come find him and together trash our garbage during the night. I used a borrowed Nikon S8200 point-and-shoot to take the shot, and was so impressed with it that I ordered one from B&H (a $140 refurb) in New York to serve as a weight-saving backup travel camera.

Whitetail deer 7/15/12

WHITETAIL DEER, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 15, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300

Top: 300mm
1/1250 sec. f9
ISO 6400

Bottom: 150mm
1/1250 sec. f9
ISO 5000

Stella is a yearling doe so bold she raids our bird feeders in broad daylight and in our close presence. I wish I had used a slower shutter speed and f11 or even f16 to get her nose sharp in the top photo while focusing on her eyes. She has a long, long muzzle, as seen in the bottom shot.

Sunset 7/13/12

SUNSET OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 13, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 at 68mm
1/800 sec. f8
ISO 320

Clearly it's spectacular sunset season in these parts, when distant cloud formations almost nightly provide an exotic backdrop as the sun descends into the horizon. Click on the photo for a desktop-sized version.

Gnatbombed

FEMALE COMMON MERGANSER, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 10, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/800 sec. f8
ISO 160

No sooner did I open this photo on my computer than I thought something had gone terribly wrong with my camera. Perhaps sand had gotten onto the sensor. Then I looked a little closer. A cloud of gnats had photobombed the view. (Click on the photo for a better look.) Otherwise it's not a bad composition, I thought, so I set out to rescue it with the clone stamp tool in Photoshop Elements. The result is below.

Aphrodite Fritillary

APHRODITE FRITILLARY (SPEYERICA APHRODITE), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 9, 2012

Pentax K-5
SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 at 135mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 800

How nice of this little butterfly to flit onto the flowers next to me as I took a brand-new 18-135mm wide-angle-to-medium-telephoto lens out for its first spin!

Though the 18-135 is not a macro lens, it does focus very closely, and I think this one will become the regular walk-around lens for my K-5, supplanting a three-year-old Sigma 17-70mm.

Sunset 7/1/12

SUNSET OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 1, 2012

Pentax K20D
Sigma DC 17-70 at 17mm
1/250 sec. f11
ISO 280

Sunsets in Upper Michigan speak for themselves, don't they? (Click on the photo for desktop-sized version.)

Cooperage

COOPERAGE, FORT MICHILIMACKINAC, MACKINAW CITY, MICHIGAN, JUNE 30, 2012

Pentax K20D
Sigma 17-70 DC at 53mm
1/250 sec. f16
ISO 800

The reproduction colonial fortress on the Strait of Mackinac is a good place for interior compositions. This barrel and tools conveniently were parked in the light of a window in the restored cooperage, yielding an almost Rembrandtesque quality.