Figure 1 -Female red-winged blackbird, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, May 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Last week I made several attempts to get a decent photograph of a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus).  When the background lighting is harsh this become like photographing a black cat.  It is hard to see the eyes or any kind of facial feature.  So this is still an act in progress – a photographic learning experience.  I have been experimenting with using fill-flask for these kinds of situations.

But in the meantime I discovered this beautiful female red-wing.  The females look nothing like the males. Indeed they look noting like their names no red wings. I happily and greedily snapped away as she nibbled on the cattails, in search I suspect of nesting materials, although maybe lunch.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 145 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture AE priority mode,1/4000th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Portrait of Donna, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Hati and Skoll Gallery is pleased to announce that David and his friend and fellow photographer Donna Griffiths are featured on this week’s “The Swap.”
“The Swap” is an ongoing portrait project with a simple concept. Two photographers pair together and take portraits of one another. The portraits are currently on the home page of “The Swap” and the accompanying write-up is to be found on the “The Swap’s” blog page.

David and Donna decided to take a formal head shot approach to their portraits and to make them complementary in the sense that they are both sepia toned black and whites and have a similar but not identical pose to them.  They used classic Vermeer side lighting, as much as a gray February day in New England would allow, and then filled with a frontal diffuse flash.  The whole process was an exciting learning experience.  You can learn a lot from another photographer when you collaborate in this manner.  That, after all, is the whole point of “The Swap.”

Since they decided to use black and white images, we include here, as Figure 1, a portrait from the project by David of Donna in color. More of Donna’s work can be found at her website.

Figure 1 – tree stump on the water, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

A magical aspect of modern digital photography is that you may start with a preconceived notion of a photograph: is it a black and white or a color image for instance, only to see that transformed when you go to process the picture.  There is a kind of leap of faith when you commit to grey-scale from color. Of course, you can still recover it.  I took Figure 1 with the an intense motivation towards black and white.  It was to be a study in contrast, form, and dynamic range. And, indeed, in the first attempt I took it over to black and white.  But i quickly fell in love with the intensity of warm light on the log, with the blueness of the water, and the reflections of sky light in the little waves that I had  preserved by choosing a shutter speed of 1/2500th sec.  I suspect that it has another life in black and white, but will leave that for another day.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 70 mm (through a chain-link fence I may add), ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE Mode 1/2500th sec at F/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Yellow rumped warbler, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 23, 2015, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

On Thursday (April 22) and Friday (April 23) I saw my first warblers of the year at Fresh Pond Reserve. Warblers are not necessarily closely related to one another.  The name means one who warbles, a singer or songster.  And it is for their songs that bird lovers so anxiously await them each spring.  They can be a challenge to the photographer as they move quickly and like to hide in bushes and scrub.  I have decided that the best way to go after photographs of small birds is to use my 70 to 200 mm which is highly mobile and doesn’t interfere with my walks, but that invariably requires a lot of cropping, which can sacrifice resolution. So it is a challenge, but a fun one.

I am quite pleased with the way that Figure 1 of a yellow rumped warbler – Setophaga coronata – came out.  He gave in to patience and due diligence on my part.  He was against the dreaded white sky.  But fortunately, there were some blotches of blue, so ultimately pleasing.

On the other hand I remain dissatisfied with Figure 2, which shows a palm warbler – Setophaga palmarum.  He was just too fast and too hidden to get a really good shot at.  This will have to do as my species example until I get a better one.  I compromised by not cropping too tightly, in that way to retain a reasonable level of sharpness.

Figure 2 – Palm warbler, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 22, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 81 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/3200th sec at f/9.0 with +1 exposure compensation.

Figure 2 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 200 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/2000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Tree swalloow at nesting box, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 21, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

This past week has been truly remarkable on Fresh Pond.   Slaves to an ancient schedule, the migratory birds have been returning, species by species. I have seen my first hooded merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, a lone male out on the pond. On Wednesday (April 21) I was delighted to see tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) dive bombing in tremendous haste across the two ponds, and it made me wonder how it would ever be possible to photograph such a graceful but fast bird in flight. A note of natural history – the tree swallow is a long distance commuter. It winters in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.  It migrates thousand of miles in great flocks to its breeding grounds along the Atlantic coast of North America. Well nature was about to teach me a thing or two about photographing birds.  I walked further down the path and was dazzled by the iridescent bird inspecting nesting box Number 5.  I was maybe 10 meters away, took out my camera armed with my 70 to 200 mm zoom and started photographing, while I stepped ever closer.  The result is Figure 1, and the only problem here was the man-made habitat.  It was as if this was the address Number 5, Fresh Pond Lane, in case you wanted to send letters to this finely feathered fellow.

Figure 2 – Tree swallow, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 21, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I moved on and a while later noticed that these swallows take rests in the trees.  Trees at the edge of the water represent two things I don’t like: invariably because of the protective fencing the distance is too great for even 200 mm, and inevitably you’re shooting into a sky while forced to use positive exposure compensation to be able to get the details on the bird.  Still I got Figure 2, which I like because of the pose that the bird is taking – not just sitting there and chirping.

Then it occurred to me that if I waited long enough the swallow would take flight.  Now this is a photographic crap shoot. Unlike the instantaneous response of the Leica M3 of my youth, digital SLRs tend to be slow to respond and clunky. There is a long time between shutter press and actual exposure.  And many times that I have tried this only the birds tail feathers remain in the image.  But this time it worked. I could see immediately on review that he was squarely in the right hand side of the image.  The result is Figure 3.  I love the beautiful transparency and corrugation of the wings and the way that the feet are pressed up against the bird’s body – landing gear up!

Figure 3 – Tree swallow in flight, Fresh Pond, Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 21, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 172 mm, ISO 3200, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/640th sec at f/9.0 with + 1 exposure compensation.

Figure 2 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 200 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/4000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 3 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 176 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/4000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.