Figure 1 – American goldfinch, Little Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA, August 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

It is early August, and the weather in Massachusetts has been truly gorgeous. After that threatening storm, we got glorious warm and dry days. I was thinking about what defines this time if year. There is a special quality to the August light as the sky transforms slowly from the intensity of July to the mellow glow of September.  And then there is the Queen Ann’s lace in its myriad forms and, of course, it is the time for the goldfinches to show off their peak yellow color. I have tried to capture this sense of summer in this portrait of an American goldfinch – Spinus tristis– Figure 1. I have photographed the goldfinches before at my feeder, where they act as well behaved guests slowly dining on thistle seeds as if in polite conversation. But outside they are much more wary of humans, ever so peripatetic in their motions. You hear their characteristic chirping song, struggle to find them among the flowers or branches, try to frame and focus on them, and they quickly move on, as if you were some annoying paparazzi. This brilliant colored male was kind enough to allow me a few pictures against the perfect background of underbrush and flowers.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 188 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/4000th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.