Great Blue in flight

GREAT BLUE HERON OVER LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 22, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 sec. f11
ISO 400

Great Blues are like bald eagles -- they're easy to see but hard to photograph, because they seem to know that the camera is in the cabin out of easy reach whenever they pay a visit. These huge and ungainly birds are stately but slow fliers, primarily because they hold their necks in S-shapes and their legs out in the slipstream, creating lots of drag.

Docent

ELDERLY DOCENT, HANKA FINNISH HOMESTEAD MUSEUM NEAR PELKIE, MICHIGAN, JULY 21, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 45mm
1/500 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

The old gent's face shows as much weatherbeaten character (love those retro aviator spectacles!) as the rural museum where he describes the rustic sights to visitors. I rarely photograph people -- I'm just not good at it -- but he was just too striking to ignore.

Milk shed with cream separator

MILK SHED, HANKA FINNISH HOMESTEAD MUSEUM NEAR PELKIE, MICHIGAN, JULY 21, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 45mm
1/60 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

Another shot from our visit earlier this week to the super-rustic Finnish Homestead, this one of the milk shed with a cream separator inside the door. That cream separator, by the way, was considered the Cadillac of such appliances around the turn of the 20th century. It is powered by a hand crank hidden by the door frame.

Natural air conditioning

BARN ROOF, HANKA FINNISH HOMESTEAD MUSEUM NEAR PELKIE, MICHIGAN, JULY 21, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 26mm
1/20 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

The fixup crew of this extremely rustic museum has yet to address the weathered and shrunken cedar shakes atop the barn, but they give the place an authenticity that fresh ground-up restoration just cannot achieve. You can almost sense the ghosts of the original settlers that came from Finland more than a century ago.

Blacksmith shop window

WINDOW, BLACKSMITH SHED, HANKA FINNISH HOMESTEAD MUSEUM NEAR PELKIE, MICHIGAN, JULY 21, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 31mm
1/45 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

The Hanka Finnish Homestead museum deep in the forest near Keweenaw Bay is an only slightly restored semi-ruin that appears to have been abandoned long ago, dried-up cedar shakes falling off walls and roofs, yet giving a splendid picture of European-style subsistence farming in Upper Michigan before 1920. We spent much of an afternoon there.

Thundersquall

THUNDERSTORM ON LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 21, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 26mm
1/750 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

Often the broad big-sky vista of Lake Superior is a stage for dramatic weather as well as vivid sunsets. This squall -- at least 20 miles away -- slowly progressed in stately fashion across the lake from southwest to northeast on its way to paste Houghton/Hancock some 50 miles from the Writer's Lair.

Bridge supports

PIERS, STATE HIGHWAY M-64 BRIDGE AT ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 18, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 Ed (IF)
1/125 sec. f16
ISO 400

Abstract photography has not been my thing, but when I drove under the highway bridge over the Ontonagon River a few days ago looking for wildlife to capture, this vista looked as if it might be interesting compressed with a long lens. And so it is. To me, anyway. I wonder how much the faux stonework added to the cost of constructing the bridge.

Whatchu lookin' at?

WHITETAIL DEER, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 18, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/750 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

Another shot of the sandhill cranes' "pet" deer taken yesterday, this time all by her lonesome. Last night we learned that another deer had hung out with the cranes at the rookery, but it had an unfortunate encounter a week or so ago with a pickup on the nearby highway.

The doe and the cranes

WHITETAIL DEER AND SANDHILL CRANES, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 18, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-FA* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/500 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

Who knew sandhill cranes kept pet deer? The sedge of cranes at my favorite Upper Peninsula rookery do, or they seem to. As the birds moved across the meadow, the doe followed as if on a leash, right in their midst. Maybe she knew they knew where the best tidbits were. Or maybe they knew she makes a better target for photographers. In any case they added up to a rare picture.

Natural sand sculptures

SAND SCULPTURE 1, LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 16, 2009 (DEBORAH ABBOTT PHOTO)

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 53mm
1/500 sec. f9.5
ISO 400


SAND SCULPTURE 2, LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 16, 2009 (DEBORAH ABBOTT PHOTO)

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 63mm
1/1500 sec. f8
ISO 400

The Lady Friend was walking the dog on the beach near the Writer's Lair this morning when she spotted several impromptu sculptures the previous night's high waves and winds had scoured out of the beach, and she dashed inside to get a camera to capture them. The first was created atop an old wooden telephone wire spool, and the second on a stout branch jutting out from the shoreline. Within an hour or two both sculptures had disappeared in the sun and gusts.

Toad

AMERICAN TOAD (BUFO AMERICANUS), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 15, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 63mm
1/180 sec. f8, with on-board flash
ISO 400

The American Toad being as common as dirt, one would think there would be far more photos of them online. Trouble is they are not only the opposite of photogenic but also have a propensity to hop just before the camera locks focus. This one held still just long enough for the shutter to trip. Too bad I didn't think to use f11 instead of f8; more of its body would have been in sharp focus.

Gull No. 4

RING-BILLED GULL, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 13, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 f9.5
ISO 400

This gull is the same one captured below, that photo taken a split second later. Today's seems to be technically better than the first, partly because the focus seems to be absolutely perfect while the other is ever so much a smidgen off -- and partly because the gull's position in relation to the sun enabled the light to capture more feather detail. The low-winged pose is slightly less dramatic than the high-winged one, however, so maybe it's a wash which the better picture is. What do you think? (Click on either photo for a larger version.)

Gull No. 3

RING-BILLED GULL, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 13, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

It occured to me this morning that the reason I'm having such a hard time getting sharp, detailed close-up shots of birds and other wildlife is that I'm not taking them in zoos and aviaries, as most skilled amateurs do. Pro wildlife photographers who go out in the boonies and get good stuff have incredible reserves of patience and canny stalking skills as well as big and costly 1000mm telephotos. None of which I have, but once in a while I get a keeper of a shot, and maybe this is one.

Sandhill cranes No. 2

SANDHILL CRANES, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 9, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/500 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

The other day I captured those cranes just after high noon, when the sun was high and the light harsh. Yesterday morning about 8 I went back and recaptured them when the sun was low and the light much gentler. I do think the second effort is slightly better than the first; the colors on the birds' bodies seems subtler and the shadows not so strong.

Sandhill cranes

SANDHILL CRANES (GRUS CANADENSIS), ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, JULY 8, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/250 sec. f13
ISO 400

I had driven to the Ontonagon airfield to hunt interesting airplanes. There weren't any, but in the cut-down field off the threshold of Runway 34 stood a sedge of eighteen sandhill cranes, a fairly common species in the western portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. "Among the tallest birds in the world and capable of flying at great heights," says the Birds of Michigan Field Guide.

Taraxacum officinale

DANDELION (TARAXACUM OFFICINALE), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 7, 2009

Pentax *ist DS
SMC Pentax-DA 50-200 at 50mm with Raynox 250 macro auxiliary
1/750 sec. f16
ISO 800

"What's this?" I asked the Lady Friend. "Canada hawkweed perhaps?" "Looks like a dandelion to me," she replied. Couldn't be, I thought. The stalk was a good three feet high. So I went back to the driveway and had another look. Yep, the leaves at ground level bespoke the ubiquitous dandelion of our front lawns, but it was competing -- successfully -- with tall grass for the sun. Pest though it may be, it's still a pretty flower close up.

Cedar waxwing

CEDAR WAXWING (BOMBYCILLA CEDRORUM), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 4, 2009

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300 mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/350 sec. f8
ISO 400
The other day I turned the lawn chair on the beach toward the tall white pines above the Writer's Lair and enjoyed the frantic antics of half a dozen waxwings, a species so full of avian ADD that they make sparrows seem slow and lumbering. They look like masked little Robin Hoods about to skewer the Sheriff of Nottingham in mid-flight.

Monarch

MONARCH BUTTERFLY (DANAUS PLEXIPUS), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 4, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 70mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 400

I was looking for birds on the beach near our cabin yesterday and finding only gulls when I spotted this handsome monarch flitting from wildflower to wildflower. I followed close behind and when it alighted on a sprig of yarrow, it settled down long enough for me to lean in close and get this macro shot. The bug book says the pheromone spots on its hind wings identify it as a male.

Orange hawkweed

ORANGE HAWKWEED (HIERACIUM AURANTIACIUM), GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 3, 2009

Pentax *ist DS
SMC Pentax-DA 50-200 at 68mm with Raynox 250 auxiliary closeup lens
1/250 sec. f16
ISO 800

At this time of year the yard of the Writer's Lair is speckled by this vivid nickel-sized wildflower, also known as Devil's Paintbrush or King-devil. "Hawkweed," the flower book says, comes from the fanciful notion that hawks ate the blossom to sharpen their vision. It's an immigrant from alpine Europe.

Front porch

FRONT PORCH OF CABIN ON LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, JULY 3, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 23mm
1/60 sec. f8
ISO 400

I had just stepped out of the Writer's Lair to photograph the sunrise on Lake Superior, then turned, and spotted how the low sunlight warmed the varnished logs on the front porch. Now that was a welcoming sight to me, and I hope it is to you, too.