Dave Wilson Photography » Nature

Portrait of a Photographer, White Sands

Dave Wilson — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 03:18:00 +0000

This isn't a typical self portrait, I know, but I thought it was rather fun nonetheless. During my morning at White Sands last month, I spent a great deal of time, trying to avoid my shadow and being careful not to walk across any area of dunes that I reckoned I would want to photograph. In the end, I decided to go the opposite route and shot this picture of the shadow I had been trying to avoid.

Fort Davis Rattler

Dave Wilson — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:09:56 +0000

Apologies for the silence here over the last few days. I've been traveling and have had internet connection problems. As a result, I'm a few days behind in my posts.

Here's an image from 3 days ago when I was in Fort Davis, Texas. There's a fabulous little "Reptile and Rattler Museum" there -a typical roadside tourist attraction except for the fact that it's actually well worth a visit. Their collection includes a dozen or more different types of rattlesnake (and a few other local favourites). I had absolutely no idea that rattlesnakes came in as many shapes and sizes from the diminuitive Sidewinder to the enormous East Diamondback.

I think this fellow is a Western Diamondback but, frankly, I can't remember. The shot was taken with a 24-70mm lens shooting through the glass of the enclosure with a single SB-600 flash off camera to the left. Despite the rather less than optically perfect glass, the side flash seems to have helped and the image is remarkably free of crud.

Ready To Fly

Dave Wilson — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:43:58 +0000

I posted another image of our Barn Swallow chicks over on Flickr a couple of days ago. This was as close as I got to them that evening, shooting with a 200mm lens and 56mm of extension tubes. I'm happy to report that all 4 chicks successfully took flight today and are now enjoying their newfound freedom (but still expecting their mother to feed them regularly and still all trying to fit in the nest).

Mexican Hats

Dave Wilson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:19:26 +0000

I've been amazingly busy for the last week and haven't posted anything at all. So much for my plan to post at least every other day. To try to end the photo drought, I'm posting one from the queue.

This was one of the first images I took with my then-new 70-200mm f2.8 lens back in the early summer. These Mexican Hats grow all over our property and provide a great splash of colour from late spring through the middle of summer. This year, the display wasn't as good as it has been previously due to the drought but we still had enough to use for wide-open aperture target practice.

Compound Eyes

Dave Wilson — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:49:01 +0000

I spent some more time with the Blue Dashers (Pachydiplax longipennis) at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center this afternoon. This time, I stuck an extra 12mm of extension on my setup and tried to get as close as possible to the dragonflies. This definitely made a difference though my maximum magnification was limited by the fact that this guy was perching about 3 feet away over the pond and I couldn't get closer without getting wet. To be perfectly honest, I've cheated with this image since it's a pretty extreme crop. I guess that's OK for the blog, though, since I only show 700 pixel images here (note that this one isn't for sale as a print).

Purple Coneflower

Dave Wilson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:36:41 +0000

For this shot, taken using a Tamron 90mm macro lens, I decided to go in rather closer than usual on a Purple Coneflower at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center here in Austin. The orange and red spikes radiating from a green center make a rather striking display.

Roseate Skimmer Dragonfly, Austin, Texas

Dave Wilson — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:36:31 +0000

Yesterday morning we saw one of our annual nature marvels taking place. Thousands of dragonflies were migrating south past our house for most of the morning. Today there are a few but nothing like the huge number we saw yesterday morning.

The migration is apparently triggered by the passage of a cold front but, as far as I could tell, we didn't see any cool air yesterday - the temperature topped out at 105F according to my car thermometer. Regardless, something told the dragonflies that it was time to head for warmer climes (!).

While the insects are migrating, getting good pictures is not easy since they are rather more interested in flying than setting down on a handy branch. As a result, this picture is actually a few weeks old. It was taken at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center where they have a couple of ponds that are generally a good place to find dragonflies.

This Roseate Skimmer was a lot trickier to photograph than the Blue Dashers whose pictures I have posted before. This is a larger insect but significantly more skittish so getting close enough to get a shot like this proved difficult. Once again, though, the trusty 70-300mm VR lens with 56mm of extension tubes did the job, letting me get this image from about 18-24 inches away from the dragonfly.

Coreopsis

Dave Wilson — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:52:35 +0000

Coreopsis are probably my favourite Texas wildflowers. The splash of red they provide really brightens up roadsides in spring. This image was taken at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last weekend and I was quite surprised to find them still blooming given how late in the summer it is and also how little rain we have had this year.

Stamen

Dave Wilson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:34:02 +0000

This is one of the two images I entered into the competition following last Saturday's World Wide Photo Walk in Austin. I spent most of the morning shooting HDRs but couldn't resist getting the macro lens out when we found a rather wonderful flowering shrub outside the Silicon Laboratories office. This was taken handheld in available light so has an incredibly shallow depth of field (probably about a tenth of an inch or thereabouts) but the effect of the sharp stamen above the coloured blur of the flower is very appealing to me.

Alien Eyes

Dave Wilson — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:10:06 +0000

I love taking photos of dragonflies and Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is one of the best places around here to find them. They have two ponds both of which typically have a decent number of dragonfly patrolling them.

Seeing these creatures close up is quite an eye-opener. They really are completely alien compared to the mammals and birds we typically see around us.

This is one of the shots I took while experimenting with flash but before I settled on a suitable working aperture. The depth of field is, therefore, still rather shallow but the fact that this accentuates the eyes made the picture work for me.

You can find another picture from the same shoot here.