Photography
While in in the Kokee State Park, where Waimea Canyon is located, I found many wildflowers growing along the side of the road. All of these images were made on one drive through the park. The snail was photographed on the lawn of the hotel; it was eating fallen blossoms of a plumeria tree.
I had the opportunity to be in Kauai while on a job and managed to get out and photogrpah on the weekend of June 13-14. Although I’ve been to Kauai many times over the last 30 years, this is the first time I’d seen large waves on the south shore. There was a large storm off to the north that resulted in many waves coming in from different angles. At some coves it looked like a washing machine as waves came in from different angles, sometimes combining intoa great froth of water.
The karri tree grows only in South West Australia and is one of the tallest trees in the world. A hardwood tree growing to 90 meters in height, it sheds its grayish bark each fall leaving a pile of shredded bark at its base, revealing smooth new bark in patches of white, yellow, and orange. The trunk extends straight up and has branches only near the top.
Several of these tress have been put into service as fire towers by building platforms near the top made accessible by ladders attached to the trunk. Several trees have also had these ladders intalled to permit access by the public. As there is only one ladder on the trunk, people decending must pass those accending the tree. Not for me.
These images are from Gloucester National Park, Beedelup National Park, and Warren National Park near Pemberton, West Australia.
Many caves are located in the Cape K=Leeuin Naturaliste National Park. While three of these caves are electrically lit, two with guided tours and one self-guided, there are othes which are explored wearing a hard hat and headlamp. I did not explore these, but I did venture into Mammouth Cave and Lake Cave.
Mammouth is self guided, so there is as much time as you need for photography; however, tripods are not allowed. This made photography difficult but possible using the railing in corners where the camera could be suppported. This limited the selection of subjects to those near the corners of platforms. In Lake Cave it was more difficult, as I was part of a large group. The only useable images were made with the camera placed on teh edge of the platform.
The caves are quite beautiful, lit as they are with yellow and redish lights. Using flash revealed the true color to be more whitish or grey, what would be expected for limestone. Thin tubes are formed as mineral laden water drips through a tube, adding material to the end of the tube. In Lake Cave, the main feature is actually suspended above the surface of the water. The base was originally attached to the bottom of the cave lake, which was disolved over time and lowered.
Nambung National Park is a three hour drive along the coast 245 km north of Perth. Within the park is the Pinnacles Desert, an area of yellow sands and limestone outcroppings. Thousands of stone pillars stud the area, some up to 12 feet high. Starting as a area of sand dunes blown inland from the beach, rain water leached lime from the sand near the surface and concentrated in lower levels of the dune, cementing the sand together into limestone. The pillars were a result of a hard crust of calcrete that formed over the top of the limestone. Water seeped through cracks in the crust and further dissolved the limestone leaving columns of harder limestone under calcrete caps. Winds blowing the sand away exposed the columns we see today.
I arrived at the Pinnacles at mid-day, making photography difficult, although the day was clear, with little breeze.
With the exception of the Fox Bat, which was photographed in the wild, these images were made either in Sydney Wildlife World or the Sydney Aquarium. I took many photographs, but photographing handheld through glass in a dark environment proved to be too much of a challenge. Many of the images were distorted slightly, especially in the aquarium where the interfaces between air-glass-water distorted the optics.
In order from left to right, the photos are Fox Bat, Bull Ant, Hedge Grasshopper, Forest Tree Frog, Red Eyed Tree Frog, Gippsland Water Dragon, and Crocodile.
After seeing only male turkeys in our yard over the winter, the big males have gathered up their harems and are displaying to impress females, and to chase off any portential rivals. There are eleven turkeys in the group that visits reguraly, one big male, a couple of juvenile males, and seven females.
The colors on their heads changes dramatically when they are displaying, with vivid blues, a whte cap on top of their head, and bright red neck. the colors in their feathers are spectacular in the morning light. The male puffs up its feathers, spreads his tail and extends his wings down to the ground. He also angles his tail so that it shows in the direction of the femals (or to potential rivals) to show how big and flashy he is.
The images in this post were take with my new Sigma 150mm F2.8 macro lens
One thing I didn’t plan when going to Homer to photograph bald eagles was the prospet of capturing the eagles as they swooped in to catch a fish near the surface of rthe water. I always thought that must be one lucky photographer to be in the right spot, with the right equipment, at the right time. It didn’t occur to me that as with birds in the back yard, if you put out food, they will come.
A local water taxi operator brought us, and a couple of cases of frozen fish, to a quiet bay across from Homer. Since the ordinance on feeding eagles only applies to the city limits of Homer, the captain is able to toss fish into the water. While there were only three or four eagles in the tree tops when we arrived, there were more than 20 eventually.
Other wildlife wintering in Homer, AK include Longtailed Ducks and sea otters, sometimes coming close to shore.
