Sunrise & Early Evening Cloud Landscapes From Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

From the archives, early morning and early evening cloud landscape images from the Wildlife Drive at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland. The Featured image is near the start of the Wildlife Drive. Image taken with a 17-40mm lens @ 17mm, f/11, 1/640 sec., -0.67 Exposure Comp, Canon 1D mkIII.

Blackwater NWR Sunset Panorama, 14mm, m43 Olympus OMD-1, 3 Image Panorama
Blackwater NWR Sunset Panorama, Canon 17-40mm lens @ 17mm, f/4, Canon 1D mkIII, 4 Horiz. Image Panorama
BWR Sunset, Olympus OMD-1, f/18, 1/200th sec., ISO 320, ISO 320
Blackwater NWR Early Morning Panorama, Canon 17-40mm lens @ 17mm, f/4, Canon 1D mkIII, 2 Image Panorama
Blackwater NWR Late Afternoon Panorama, 2 image Panorama, f/18, Panasonic 100-300mm lens @ 81mm, Full Frame Equivalent 162mm, OM-D1
Blackwater NWR Late Afternoon, f/18, Panasonic 100-300mm lens @ 32mm, Full Frame Camera Equivalent 64mm, OM-D1
Blackwater NWR Late Afternoon, f/18, Panasonic 14-140mm lens @ 41mm, Full Frame Camera Equivalent 82mm, OM-D1
Blackwater NWR Late Afternoon, f/18, Panasonic 14-140mm lens @ 14mm, Full Frame Camera Equivalent 28mm, OM-D1
Blackwater NWR Late Afternoon, Panasonic LX-1 Pocket Camera @ 25.2 mm
BWR Colorful Clouds, Panasonic LX1 Pocket Camera, 5 pm, 7.5mm, Full Frame equivalent 33mm
Blackwater NWR Late Afternoon, Canon 24-105mm lens @ 85mm, Canon 1D mkIV, 12 image Panorama
Blackwater NWR, Canon 24-105mm lens @ 85mm, Canon 1D mkIV, 2 image Panorama, 6 o’clock pm
Blackwater NWR Early Morning Panorama, Canon 17-40mm lens @ 17mm, f/4, Canon 1D mkIII, 2 Image Panorama
Blackwater NWR Early Morning Panorama, Canon 24-105mm lens @ 85mm, f/4, Canon 1D mkIII, 12 Image Panorama
Blackwater NWR Late Evening Panorama, Sigma 12-24mm lens @ 24mm, f/5.6, Canon 1D Mk IV, 12 Vertical Image Panorama
Blackwater NWR Early Morning Panorama, Canon 24-105mm lens @ 24mm, f/10, -0.33 Exposure Compensation Canon 1D Mk III, 12 Vertical Image Panorama
Blackwater NWR Late Evening Panorama, 14-140mm Panasonic lens @ 14mm, Full Frame Equivalent 28mm, Olympus OM-D1

Plainsboro Preserve White Trail Panoramas

A few more larger panoramas from our walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve White Trail. The Featured Vertical Pano Image is 10 horizontal images taken with a 14-140 mm lens @ 32mm with an Olympus OM-D 1.

Plainsboro Preserve White Trail Pano, 10 Image Pano taken @ 17mm, Olympus DM D1
Plainsboro Preserve White Trail Pano, 12 Image Pano taken @ 14mm, Olympus OM D 1
Plainsboro Preserve White Trail Pano, 7 Image Pano taken @ 17mm, Olympus OM D 1

Brigantine Cloud Panoramas

I finally had a chance to work on some panoramas I shot last month at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville NJ. The cloud formations on this day were amazing. So I had a lot of choices for working with series panoramas while we were there. Lately I have been using an Olympus m43 Camera with a 14mm – 140mm zoom for landscapes or general info shots and the Canon R with a 400mm DO lens or the Tamron 150-600mm for Wildlife. It is a lot easier to carry a smaller m43 camera with a wide zoom range along with the heavier full frame camera with longer lenses, instead of 2 large camera bodies. The m43 format with a 14-140mm zoom seems a little harder to do multi-image panoramas @14mm but after working with it for quite a while I am getting more usable & predictable panoramas. Sort of a learning curve I guess. Basically I overlap the images more. At 14mm with m43 format it is sort of the equivalent (field of view) of 28mm on a full frame DSLR. All the images here are shot at 14mm but go from 2 to 8 images for each photo panorama. Some were vertical images and some were horizontal images for each image.

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2 – 14mm Horizontal images panorama 

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Panorama- 4 Vertical Images @14mm

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Panorama – 3 vertical images stacked @ 14mm

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3 horizontal images stacked @14mm

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Panorama – 4 horizontal images @14mm

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2 horizontal images stacked @ 14mm

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2 Horizontal images @14mm Stacked

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2 Horizontal images – Atlantic City on left @14mm

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2 Horizontal Images Stacked @ 14mm

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2 Horizontal Images Stacked – Osprey Platform @ 14mm

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2 Horizontal images Stacked @14mm

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2 -Horizontal Images @14mm

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3 – Horizontal Images Stacked @14mm

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2 – 14mm Horizontal Images Stacked 

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7 – 14mm Images stacked

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Two Trees – 3 Images Vertical Stacked 

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Brigantine Landscape- 3 Horizontal Images Stacked @14mm

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Brigantine Landscape w/ Clouds – 2 Horizontal Images @14mm

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Brigantine 3 Vertical Images @14mm

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Brigantine – 2 Horizontal Images @ 14mm

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Brigantine NWR 2 Image panorama 

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Brigantine NWR – 3 Image panorama @14mm

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7 image panorama – 7 – 12mm vertical images combined in Photoshop

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2 Vertical Images @14mm

Fallen Fall Leaves

The leaves this year do not seem as vibrant overall as other years. Plus it has been extremely rainy and gray. But there are spots of bright colors here and there. The background textures also added interest to the leaves.

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Blue sky was reflecting in the puddle around the yellow leaf adding color around the yellow leaf

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Small Pond Fall Images

Still working on images from our walks at the Davidson’s Mill Pond Park. I liked the colors in the water with the Fall colored subdued trees behind the pond. The featured image was shot @ 14mm on a m43 format camera. The blue sky seemed to really reflect in the pond water setting off the floating fallen leaves. Then I tried 2 additional shots, one @ 41mm and then one @ 32mm. I liked the wider view “featured” image best of the 3. But sometimes you don’t know until you compare them all at once and then you can see which you like best.

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Weathered Fall Leaf Still Life Images

 

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Beginning of the trail through the woods

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At the beginning of the trail, we heard someone behind us say “Excuse us! Be are just going to pass you. Then we realized it was a rider on a horse. Never heard them behind us!

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Halloween Pennant Dragonfly

We went to Plainsboro Preserve to look for Dragonflies, or whatever else we could find. The New Jersey Audubon Society manages the Preserve on behalf of Plainsboro and Middlesex County. The Preserve is over 1,000 acres of undistrubed open space with nature trails and 50 acre McCormack Lake. It was supposed to start to rain so I decided to travel light and just took a m43 Camera with a 14-140mm lens (Full Frame DSLR FOV equivalent ~28-280mm). There were lots of dragonfly’s along the paths and off to the sides but were mostly buzzing around so with the m43 camera it was tough to get shots of them. When they did land it was only for a few seconds. We are going back when it is not going to rain and have more time to explore for Dragonflies. It is interesting how different places, but still close in proximity attract different types of dragonflies. I guess it depends on water conditions. They say Skimmers are attracted to still waters or slow streams.

 

 

 

More Panoramas

A series of multi-image panoramas photographed at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. Shot with a m43 camera @14mm. Featured image was 4 images, shot horizontally in sections, handheld, going from ground to the sky. Assembled in Photoshop. I find the m43 images take a little more care when assembling in Photoshop. Some need a little more “tweaking” or fine tuning than larger sensor cameras. But overall they are fun to use. A lot lighter to carry when you are wandering around looking for subjects to photograph. I still prefer my larger Canons, but sometimes it is nice to go “light”.

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2 horizontal shots – stacked vertically in Photoshop. m43 format @14mm

 

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A series of horizontal images, shot overlapping, from ground to sky. Assembled in Photoshop. m43 format @14mm

A Walk At The Tubman Road Trail

These are from a walk at the Tubman Road Trail at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge outside of Cambridge Maryland a few weeks ago. Many times when we go to Blackwater NWR, we stay on the main drive through the Refuge. Last time we went to see what was happening at the Tubman Road Trail. Our previous trip around Christmas, we were surprised to see how large the trees have grown from their reforestation program from a tornado years ago, but it was very quiet for wildlife. The trail is about 2 miles long and goes through fields, forests & marsh areas, giving a wide variety of photo subjects. From birds, animals, reptiles, butterflies (+bugs), landscapes and nature still life images.

It was late Winter so it was a little quite for wildlife, but on previous visits we photographed Eagles, hawks and a variety of other birds. It is also nice for just the walk to see what you can find. We only went down to the first series of ponds to check things out and then returned to the Wildlife Drive for the Snow Geese.

The featured image is one of the ponds a little into the walk. It is three vertical shots, handheld, assembled in Photoshop, 14mm with a m43 camera.  The ponds are getting harder to photograph because the bushes are getting taller, obstructing part of the view.

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Pond next to parking area, 3 shots, 14mm, m43 camera

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Another pond on the other side of the path. 

Many times you can see Woodpeckers & Flickers along this area. One tree here used to have a Flicker nest.

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A wider view of the above pond 

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Another view of ponds

 

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A view down the path near the entrance

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Pinecones

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You have to watch for exposed roots along the path, but they sometimes look interesting.

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Pond from further down path 

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Tree Root Still Life

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Pine Needle Still Life

 

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