DRAGONFLY SERIES

Was walking my dog yesterday when I noticed all these dragonflies flying all over the place. Must be mating season or something as I’ve never seen this many dragonflies in a day. Here are some of the brave ones who sat still for me despite my iphone getting too close to photograph them.

JORDAN POND

Jordan Pond is a lake inside the Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine. I visited it on my way to the peak of the Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest mountain in the Atlantic coast of the United States. I was there in the summer of 2019 and it was a sight to behold. Imagine this place in the fall, the colors are probably breathtaking. I was like on a trance that day having just stepped out of a hearty lobster bake for lunch. I actually don’t remember much this part of my trip including the time I stood by the lake to take these photographs. It was only yesterday as I was going through my iPad’s photo albums that I realized they’re actually a decent bunch of photos worthy of a feature in my page.

TRICOLORED HERON

Four years ago, I met a Japanese photographer whose hobby was traveling all over the United States photographing wildlife in national parks. We met at a common friends wedding he was photographing and I mentioned to him my interest in wildlife photography. He suggested I check out the Wakodahatchee Wetlands Nature Park, a nature preserve in Delray Beach, Florida, which is a sanctuary to a large number of birds plus a few other animals. He said that I’ll get a lot of good shots of these birds in their natural habitat. I’ve been planning to visit the park since then but I always fail to find time. This morning I decided to be a little more spontaneous and drove 30 miles to the park.

At the park, I encountered hundreds of birds but what really caught my attention was this lonesome tricolored heron that was trying to catch its breakfast in one of the many ponds around the park. I was standing on the boardwalk right above it but my presence didn’t seem to bother it all. I was able to take photos of it quietly standing behind the reeds preparing for its attack as well as of it flying over the pond to catch its next meal. My only regret is failing to capture it with a fish between its beaks.

Today I was finally able to try on fast shutter speeds (used 1/2000) to photograph this heron on flight but unfortunately missed to program my camera to multiple shots, which would have allowed me to take more shots of the entire flight. Still, I’m very happy with the results including the lighting and colors resulting to very minimal need for post-processing. I used a Canon Rebel T6s camera with a Canon EF-S 18-200mm lens for these photographs.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE BEE KIND

Whenever I see a bee, I always run the opposite direction. I grew up fearing them after seeing the swollen faces of neighborhood kids after getting stung by one. Today I decided to overcome my fear, after all, should I get stung on the cheeks or lips then I get instant fillers for free. LOL. I was walking my dog this morning when I noticed these bees happily hovering over a bed of flowers. Thanks to my ever reliable iPhone 11 Pro Max I was able to capture these pollinators at work. I took these photos with the subject about 6-10 inches away from my phone. I guess today is my lucky day as none of them got pissed at me for crossing into their personal space. No puffy cheeks and lips though but these close-up photographs are more than good enough for me today.

A RAINBOW IN THE LAND OF FIRE

The Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) province in the southern tip of Argentina is every nature lover’s paradise. I can’t imagine how Charles Darwin felt when he first explored this region almost two hundred years ago. This was first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan on his way to the Pacific and was named after the bonfires dotting the shoreline, which were produced by the natives most likely for heating. I visited this southernmost part of the world back in December of 2018 and captured this photograph at the area where the world’s southernmost post office stands. I did not have my DSLR ready and the rainbow was slowly fading so I used my iPhone 7 Plus to capture the moment. I later took more pictures with my DSLR (sans rainbow) and will feature them in another post.

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