photoartflightSunrise & Early Evening Cloud Landscapes From Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Posted on March 10, 2023
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.
Early Morning Blackwater NWR Landscape
Posted on July 8, 2020
Many times when you visit the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, you can see Eagles early in the morning on snags or on tree branches as the sun is rising. It is fun to see how many you can find to photograph.
Blackwater NWR – Trees In Light Fog
Posted on December 22, 2019
On one of our trips to the Blackwater NWR, there was a light fog at the Refuge when we arrived. Along the Wildlife Drive in the wooded area, I thought the fog looked interesting. It seemed to make the trees near to us stand out more against the hazy softer trees in the distance. I was using a 24-105mm lens @ 90mm to concentrate on the closer trees near the Wildlife Drive, adding depth to the image.
CloudBurst At Blackwater
Posted on August 20, 2018
I liked these clouds by the lookout platform at Blackwater NWR. It reminded me of a starburst, but with clouds. I decided to leave the top of a small tree as a center point for a visual center to draw your eye. Three images @24mm, combined in Photoshop with layered masks for blending the three images.
Meeting House Refraction Photography
Posted on March 24, 2018
I went to the Meeting House in our Community to see how that worked with my new Glass Globe. It is an interesting building with a large expanse of lawn in front of the building. In some ways the Globe reminds me of using a “fisheye” lens, but more interesting. If you shoot wider you get a smaller globe but see the surrounding area you are photographing which can add some interest. Also depends on your f/stop. On my first blog post I was using a 50mm macro lens. For this series I was using a 24-105mm zoom. On the wider range I really had to stretch my arm out far to be able to focus on the globe. On the 105mm range I could focus easier, but pretty much filled the frame with the globe. I was shooting at f/14 most of the time & tried a variety of focal lengths. I did not want my “background” image to be too distinct to take away from the globe image, but still have some detail. The feature image was shot at 88mm.
Globe @ 55mm f/14
Globe @ 55mm f/14
Globe @ 50mm f/14 – trying to get a little detail in actual building
24mm @ f/14
90mm f/14
90mm @ f/14
50mm @ f/14
105mm f/14
24mm @ f/14
105mm f/14
Firey Clouds With Moon
Posted on February 18, 2018
I was taking images of wispy cloud formations as the sun was going down. Got a lot of variations including multiple panoramas, some verticals and some horizontals. I liked the warm colors of the clouds and all the variations of clouds across the sky, getting quite a few images of different clouds and compositions. When I was done I noticed the moon was visible now, so I shot another series with the moon, as shown above.
Colorful Morning Sky At Blackwater NWR
Posted on February 14, 2018
A still colorful morning sky after the sun had come up. This was from along the Wildlife Drive at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge Maryland. I was going to do a series of images for a panorama, but then decided it was better as 1 image.
Early Morning Clouds At Blackwater NWR
Posted on February 13, 2018
This is from a previous visit to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge Maryland. We like photographing there for Bald Eagles and landscapes. Being close to the coast, you can get some amazing vibrant colors at sunrise and sunset. This is a little after sunrise and the clouds were fantastic. Shot multiple areas along the Wildlife Drive and this is one in a series. (Once I have a chance to get to the others!)
Hoar Frost At Brigantine
Posted on February 7, 2018
While I was photographing the Mute Swans By Gull Pond at the Brigantine Div., Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge early in the morning, I noticed where I was standing, the ground was covered with “Hoar Frost”.
Hoar Frost is defined as “expressing the resemblance of white feathers of frost to an old man’s beard.”
First, to produce any frost, you need water vapor (gaseous form of water) in the air over cold ground with a surface dew point at least as cold as 32 degrees. When these water vapor molecules contact a subfreezing surface, such as a blade of grass, they jump directly from the gas state to solid state, a process known as”deposition”, leading to a coating of tiny ice crystals.
All images shot with the Canon 24 – 105mm @24mm or 105mm.
photoartflight 