The Whodunit Photographer: 2015

Friday, December 4, 2015

Spider Island Bridge

SPIDER ISLAND BRIDGE, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 28, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 18mm
1/320 sec. f13
ISO 1600

Sometimes a cloudy-day photo with overly muted colors works better as a black-and-white. I chose a high ISO and a very small aperture in order to get sharpness throughout the depth of field and enough shutter speed to overcome my shaky hands.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Winter at the Garden

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS: CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135mm
ISO 100

1/80 sec f11 60mm

1/200 sec. f11 78mm

1/40 sec. f18 40mm

The first snow of the season had come to the Garden the day before—heavy and wet, followed by an overnight plunge in temperature into the teens. Normally I'm not a landscape photographer, but these scenes were too striking to pass up.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Great Blue

GREAT BLUE HERON, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/320 sec. f9
ISO 400

Just as the Garden opened this morning at 8, this Great Blue posed nicely just outside the Welcome Center. The low morning light resulted in saturated colors, which I muted using Lightroom to make the bird pop out of the foliage. I wish I had had a 300mm telephoto to cut down the range, but the Tamron-and-extender combination on the K-3 gave sufficient sharpness that allowed some pretty hard cropping of the image.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Footbridge

FOOTBRIDGE, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3

90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)

1/1600 sec. f10

ISO 1600

In the original frame, power wires and a large building marred the background. Cropping top and bottom hard and turning the photograph into a faux panoramic shot improved things.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Leaves and grasses

TREE LEAVES AND TALL GRASSES, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/2500 sec. f10
ISO 1600

Shooting toward the early morning sun sometimes results in a combination of backlighting and deep shadow that dramatically stages the subject.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Leaves

FLOATING LEAVES, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax converter (126mm)
1/1000 sec. f10
ISO 1600

A stray bit of "Jesus light," as photographers call rays of sun concentrated through holes in clouds or foliage, settled upon a single maple leaf in this floating pile and made it stand out just long enough for its portrait to be taken.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Shoreline with bench

SHORELINE WITH BENCH, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro with 1.4x Pentax converter (126mm)
1/500 sec. f8
ISO 1600

The composition of the grasses lining the garden lagoon would have been humdrum had it not been for the reflection of the bench at the bottom of the photo.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Mallard toilette

MALLARD, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax converter (126mm)
1/250 sec. f10
ISO 1600

Mallards are ever so plentiful in parks with ponds, and photographs of them draw mostly yawns. Once in a while, though, sunlight, pose and placement can combine to provide a photograph that lifts the subject out of the ordinary.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Leaf

AUTUMN LEAF, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

The fall colors in Northern Illinois, say the people who referee such things, are slightly past their peak. Maybe so, but they're still fairly spectacular all over the Botanic Garden. I'm not sure what species this leaf is, but it looks as if it might be a variety of maple.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Bloom

UNIDENTIFIED, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/1000 sec. f11
ISO 1600

I have no idea of the name of this bloom, but today I decided to use a 1.4x extender with the 90mm macro lens in order to maintain a comfortable distance between camera and subject, yet get in close enough for good detail. Even this late in October there was plenty of color at the Garden.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Lily

WATER LILY, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 11, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 135mm
1/250 sec. f9
ISO 400

The lilies at the Botanic Gardens are often perfect photographic subjects when the early morning sunlight is dappled by surrounding trees and bushes. At least half a dozen photographers simultaneously jockeyed for a good shot at this specimen.

Hibiscus

HIBISCUS, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 11, 2015

Pentax K-3
Tamron 90mm macro
1/640 sec. f9
ISO 1600

Just by chance, a perfectly shaped ray of sunlight fell upon a single hibiscus in the early-morning gloom of the Tropical Greenhouse at the Botanic Garden as I came along, and naturally I took advantage.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Sunrise over Lake Superior

SUNRISE OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 23, 2015

Pentax K-3
Sigma 18-250 at 26mm
1/125 sec. f8
ISO 400

It was worth arising early for this one. Much of a good sunrise photo depends on cloud formations in the distance, and Mother Nature cooperated.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Cabbage White Butterfly

CABBAGE WHITE BUTTERFLY, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 5, 2015

Pentax K-01
Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro
1/400 sec. f9
ISO 400

I was hoping to catch a bumblebee with my macro photography outfit set up next to a pot of purple flowers on the back deck when this specimen of Pieris rapae flitted within range. It's a pretty butterfly, but its larvae play hell with crops in the cabbage family.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Fresnel lens

FRESNEL LENS, SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE, SILVER BAY, MINNESOTA, JULY 1, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135 at 28mm
1/160 sec. f10
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott, sprightlier than I am, climbed the long winding staircase inside the historical lighthouse at Split Rock on Minnesota's Lake Superior north shore to capture this view of the mighty Third Order Fresnel lens from the landing below. Although the lighthouse was retired in 1969 and has become a museum, the lens remains on its pedestal and emits a beam every November 10 to mark the loss of the lake freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Red squirrel

RED SQUIRREL, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 2, 2015

Pentax K-5
Sigma 18-250 at 250mm
1/100 sec. f6.3
ISO 1600

They're cute, cheeky little fellows, but red squirrels are destructive pests in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I chased this one from our bird feeders and he stopped while climbing a nearby tree to flip me the squirrel equivalent of the bird.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Merganserlings

COMMON MERGANSER WITH YOUNG, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 11, 2015

Pentax K-5
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x converter (420mm)
1/1250 sec. f9
ISO 640

Through the kitchen window I spotted this feathered flotilla chugging west on the lake shore. I grabbed the nearest camera and dashed out the door and around the cabin, creeping up on the tree line just in time to capture the babies as they spotted me and tried to crawl atop Mama. It was the first time this spring that we've seen them.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Hummer No. 4

RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 16, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5
1/6400 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Here's an unusual angle on a hummer that was overlooked when I first captured the bird in the summer of 2013. I found the shot while looking in my photo archive for something else.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Hummers No. 2 and 3

MALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JUNE 2, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x converter (420mm)
Top: 1/640 f8 Bottom: 1/200 f8
ISO 1600

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Hummer No. 1

FEMALE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 30, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/180 f8 with on-board flash
ISO 400

This one was captured through the front window with flash on a gray, rainy day—not the best conditions, but acceptable.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Sunset 5/27/15

SUNSET OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 27, 2015

Pentax K-5
Sigma 18-250 at 18mm
1/80 sec. f8
ISO 400

The best of the sunsets won't be here until August, when summer storm cloud formations in the evening add considerable moodiness to the sky, but this late May lakescape isn't bad.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Birch owl

OWL FACE IN CUT BIRCH, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 21, 2015

Pentax K-5

Sigma 18-250 at 31mm

1/500 sec. f8

ISO 6400

Deborah Abbott was walking through a neighbor's yard when she spotted the likeness of an owl in the stump of a freshly cut birch log. The camera, preset at f8 and 1/500th of a second, automatically raised the ISO to compensate for the deep shade in which the stump lay. This setting enables the photographer to concentrate on composition without worrying about the technicals.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 16, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/60 sec. f8
ISO 400

There's a lot wrong with this shot. Too much clutter from the feeders, for instance. But the pose of the grosbeak is lovely, so I'm calling this a keeper. Someone with better Photoshop skills could probably eliminate the clutter.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Blue Jay

BLUE JAY, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 14, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/160 sec. f8
ISO 800

It was a gray, overcast evening and I was shooting handheld through a plate glass window at high ISO and a slow shutter speed, but in my opinion this turned out to be an acceptable although unexciting photo.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Goldfinches

MALE AND FEMALE GOLDFINCHES, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 13, 2015

Both photos:
Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
Top: 1/400 sec. f6.7
Bottom: 1/250 sec. f6.7

The birds were in deep shade, so I opened the aperture on the F* 300 to the full f4.5 (the teleconverter results in loss of one f/stop, resulting in f/6.7 on the camera). The results were pleasingly sharp.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Red-breasted Nuthatch

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 13, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/320 f6.7
ISO 400

The numbers of different species at our feeders are beginning to increase as the weather improves, but I was lucky to capture this nuthatch in the instant he alighted on a suet feeder and immediately took off for other parts. The little birds never sit still for their portraits.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Chipping Sparrow

CHIPPING SPARROW, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 9, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/1000 sec/ f8
ISO 800

Chippies are common around our cabin feeders but often prefer to forage for spilled seed in the grass underneath them while goldfinches and siskins battle it out for space on the perches.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Purple Finch

PURPLE FINCH, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 7, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 800

I had to kick up the ISO in order to get sufficient shutter speed to capture this outlier in the horde of pine siskins that settled upon our feeders yesterday. A little work with Lightroom smoothed out the resultant noise.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Pine Siskin

PINE SISKIN, GREEN, MICHIGAN, MAY 7, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (720mm)
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 400

Our cabin in the woods seems to have become Siskin Central, with dozens upon dozens of the little finches on the feeders and the ground underneath scrabbling for seed. I was pleased with the performance of the 420mm handheld lens combination and its photo quality, which held up despite a heavy crop of the image.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Robin II

AMERICAN ROBIN, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 26, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x converter (420mm)
1/640 sec. f8
ISO 400

The sole usable photograph gleaned from this morning's foray to the Botanic Garden was this ordinary robin, but it's a decent formal portrait.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Grackle attack?

COMMON GRACKLE, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 19, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm plus Pentax HD 1.4x converter (420mm)
1/800 sec. f7.1
ISO 400

"I am your worst nightmare," this bird seems to be saying. "I will rip your throat out . . ." Actually, it was preening itself in a tree and seemingly trying not to look menacing. But those yellow eyes are always frightening. I was happy to get a sharp photo handholding a 420mm combination.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Red-winged Blackbird

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, LOVELACE PARK, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 17, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 plus Pentax HD 1.4x teleconverter (420mm)
1/640 sec. f8
ISO 400

I had just gotten up from a bench at the Lovelace Park pond after waiting fruitlessly for species other than Canada geese or mallards to show up when this fine specimen of a red-wing alighted a few feet in front of me. That long 420mm plus about 75 percent cropping of the frame yielded a satisfactory (to me) image.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Robin

AMERICAN ROBIN, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 15, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax F* 300mm f4.5 with Pentax-HD 1.4x converter (420mm)
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 400

An hour on the hunt in the Botanic Garden this morning, and all I got was this robin. At least I learned that handholding a 420mm lens-and-converter combination is possible, and that the image quality is more than acceptable.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Pandora red poppy anemone

PANDORA RED POPPY ANEMONE, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 5, 2015

Pentax K-01
90mm Tamron f2.8 macro
1/20 sec. f8 on tripod
ISO 400

The first Sunday of April was too early for much to be photographable outside at the Botanic Garden, but there was a decent indoor floral arrangement that included this striking anemone. I used my trusty flower photo kit of a K-01 and Tamron macro lens atop a tripod for this one, and had to desaturate the intense red in Lightroom to make it more believable.

Monday, April 6, 2015

First mallard of the season

FEMALE MALLARD, LOVELACE PARK, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 5, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax F* 300mm f4.5
1/1600 sec. f8
ISO 800

I actually had to step back from the edge of Lovelace Park pond so the lens could focus on this specimen of duckhood, so close was it to the camera. I'd gone there with the camera ISO set at 800 so that if there was a chance to catch a bird in flight I'd be ready. Now perhaps on the next outing some rarer migratory species will stop for their portraits.

The glory of Gore Canyon

UPPER GORE CANYON, COLORADO, MARCH 19, 2015

Pentax K-3
Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3 at 31mm
1/2500 sec. f4
ISO 800

This is the last of the "railfan window" shots I'll post in this group of photographs. It shows one of the reasons why the California Zephyr route is considered Amtrak's most scenic. The two Gore Canyons—Upper and Lower—are, along with Glenwood Canyon, the most breathtaking sights of the ride. I wish, however, that I had been able to use a smaller aperture in order to get both near and far views tack sharp, but had to settle for nearly wide open in order to diffuse the dust on the window.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Rock fence

UNION PACIFIC R.R. NEAR UTALINE, UTAH, MARCH 19, 2015

Pentax K-3
Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3 at 22mm
1/3200 sec. f4
ISO 800

All along the route of the California Zephyr as it threads its way past beetling cliffs, rock fences protect the train from piles of fallen boulders on the tracks ahead. When a stone punches its way through a wire, a red signal is tripped so that the engineer will stop the train before it strikes the rock.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Sunup near Winnemucca

ON THE UNION PACIFIC R.R. WEST OF WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA, MARCH 16, 2015

Pentax K-3
Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3 at 18mm
1/800 sec. f3.5
ISO 800

I can't tell whether that's mist rising from the desert at daybreak or just schmutz on the glass of the window in the last car of the California Zephyr. In either case, shooting with the lens wide open yielded a usable photograph.

Friday, April 3, 2015

The middle of nowhere

ON THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD NEAR THOMPSON SPRINGS, UTAH, MARCH 19, 2015

Pentax K-3
Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3 at 18mm
1/3200 sec. f4
ISO 400

This shot from the rear window of the last car of an eastbound California Zephyr was made with the lens nearly wide open in order to diffuse the dust and schmutz on the window glass. I also used a rubber lens hood to block out light reflected from behind.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Cymbidium orchid

CYMBIDIUM ORCHID, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY 22, 2015

Pentax K-3
Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro
1/1600 sec. f11
ISO 1600

This portrait of an orchid opening its petals was the best shot from an hour wandering around the Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden this morning. I used a high ISO for a shutter speed fast enough and a f/stop small enough to get a sharp photo in iffy light. Tripods and monopods aren't allowed because of the crowds. (The Garden does permit them at the fair on more lightly attended Wednesdays, however.)

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Iguana No. 2

GREEN IGUANA, LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 190mm
1/640 sec. f6.3
ISO 1600

It's a green iguana, but the males of the species famously turn bright orange just as breeding season begins. It was captured through a remarkably clean and clear side window of a tourist bus trundling slowly through the small town of Los Chiles on the Rio Frio in northern Costa Rica.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Iguana

GREEN IGUANA, MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK, QUEPOS, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 28, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 190mm
1/320 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Iguanas are as common in Central America as squirrels are in Chicago suburbs. I was sitting on a stone wall near the Manuel Antonio National Park gift shop when this specimen suddenly popped out of a hole under the wall and had a good look at me.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Common Basilisk

COMMON BASILISK LIZARD, RIO FRIO, NICARAGUA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/200 sec. f10
ISO 800

Often called the "Jesus lizard" for its ability to run atop the water on huge feet equipped with flaps of skin along the edges, the basilisk is common in sea-level waterways of Central and northern South American rainforests. Our Costa Rican tour boat had crossed the border into Nicaragua when this photo was taken.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Mantled Howler

MANTLED HOWLER MONKEY, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/400 sec. f9
ISO 800

It wasn't only birds we saw during our tour boat trip up the Rio Frio in northern Costa Rica. The trees were full of monkeys, especially the mantled howler species. Their howls can travel three miles through dense forests, and biologists think howling is the monkeys' version of social media, their way of keeping in touch with one another without having to move from their favorite branches.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Great Curassow

GREAT CURASSOW, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/80 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Technically this is a substandard photograph, having been shot through the window of a moving tour bus, but I'm including it on this blog because the pheasant-sized great curassow, an endangered species, isn't often seen in the wild. Our driver and guide grew greatly excited when they spotted it in the road near Los Chiles. This is a female; the male is even odder-looking. They live in the rain forests of central America.