Hot Off The Press: Melantisic Green Heron

As readers of this blog will remember, about a year and half ago I had the pleasure of photographing an unusually colored heron in Cuba’s Jardines del rey archipelago, an UNESCO World Biosphere, on the island of Cayo Santa Maria. My photos of this odd looking heron eventually made their way to Dr. James Kushlan of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Heron Specialist Group. It is believed that this heron  is either a melanistic or genetic variant of the Green Heron and is most likely the first record for such plumage in this species.

Below you will see the JPEG version from the latest issue of Conservator, a beautiful magazine that is published by Ducks Unlimited Canada  and sent out to those that hold a membership with Ducks Unlimited Canada. The most recent issue of the magazine began hitting the doorsteps of DUC members this week and features an InfoGraphic on my Melanistic Green Heron that I photographed in Cuba. The inset image shows a normally plumaged Green Heron that was also photogaphed in Cuba.

Please take a moment to check out the Ducks Unlimited Canada website particularly the page that celebrates their 75 Years of Conservation Excellence.  DUC has conserved 6.3 million acres and has completed 9,000 projects all aimed at conservation. That folks is an amazing track record don’t you think!

To see a larger version of this excerpt from the magazine do remember to click on the image.

 

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Autumn’s Frosty Details

 

Frosted Oak Sapling

Yikes! I was going through some old folders of photos the other day and I came across this series of frosty photos that were photographed during one final walk at the cottage prior to closing up for the winter – way back in 2009. Not sure if it I forgot about them, never found the time to optimize them, or waited for them to get better with age. Each photo was created with my Nikon D200 and the Nikon 105mm Micro lens firmly mounted on a tripod. The images with the Sugar Maple leaves on Haircap Moss were essentially set-up. Often when it looks like there will be frost in the forecast, I will typically look for a few colorful leaves that are in decent condition and lay them out on the moss for a preconceived compositional idea. While I lay sound asleep the frost does its thing, and I awake before the sun has a chance to melt the frosted elements.

Please remember to click on the photos to see the larger, sharper version of each.

Autumn Sugar Maple Leaf on Haircap Moss with Reindeer Lichen

Autumn Oak and Frost

Autumn Sugar Maple Leaf on Haircap Moss

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Beautiful Poison

 

Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis)

I have long wanted to photograph tropical species of frogs and had a wonderful opportunity to do so a couple of months ago. All of the frogs in this post are captive bred and raised in Canada. Since many of these photos will appear in the eBook I am writing on frog photography, it was of the utmost importance to me that none of the frogs photographed were wild caught specimens. One of the chapters in the eBook will provide tips and instructions on photographing captive specimens such as the ones you see here.

One of my favorites is the lovely poison dart frog that opens this blog post – the Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis). This is perhaps the deadliest of poison frogs. Its skin is coated with an alkaloid poison (batrachotoxin). It is estimated that one milligram of this poison is enough to kill 10,000 mice, 10-20 humans, or two bull elephants. Yikes! Good thing they are captive bred. Poison dart frogs tend to lose their toxicity in captivity as they are no longer feeding on the ants and termites of their rainforest homes, which is where they get their toxicity from. Nonetheless, poison has never looked so beautiful.

Here are a few additional poison dart frogs from the shoot….more to follow in a later blog post.

Please click on the photos to see the larger sharper version.

Ranitomeya amazonica (rare species in the wild)

Zimmerman’s Poison Frog (Ranitomeya variabilis)

Blessed Poison Frog (Ranitomeya benedicts)

Ranitomeya vanzolinni

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Intimate Autumn Landscapes

Stubb’s Falls on the Little East River

Several weeks ago I met up with fellow landscape photographer, the very talented Kyle McDougall at Stubb’s Falls in Arrowhead Provincial Park near Huntsville, Ontario. After spending numerous hours at this location we ventured a little further north to Brook’s Falls near the town of Emsdale. I am just now finding the time to process a few of the image files from this day. We were blessed with some lovely autumn colour and beautiful overcast light which makes for perfect waterfall photography conditions. Most often after I photograph a few images of the grand scene before me, I will often seek out the more intimate scenes that are not so readily apparent. My favorite lens for such intimate landscapes has always been the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens> On occasion I will use my Nikon 12-24mm lens when I wish to compose an intimate landscape image within tight quarters. Below are a few intimate landscapes from the trip to Stubb’s Falls and Brook’s Falls. Please take a moment to indicate your favorite of the bunch.

When you have a minute or two please do check out the additions to the blogroll which now include direct links to the blogs of Kyle McDougall, Mike Grandmaison, and John Shaw. In addition to these updates to the blogroll we now have a Twitter page. Click here for the Twitter page.

The November issue of Denise Ippolito’s Creative Photography eMini-Magazine is now published. Please follow the image-link in the side-bar of the blog to be taken directly to the emini-magazine. If you would like a real treat head over to Denise’s A Creative Adventure Blog for an amazing collection of images from her recent travels to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.

Please remember to click on each of the photos to see a larger, sharper version.

Stubb’s Falls on the Little East River

Magnetawan River at Brook’s Falls

Magnetawan River at Brook’s Falls

Magnetawan River at Brook’s Falls

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Horseshoe Lake Sunsets

 

Horseshoe Lake at sunset

 

I have been busy catching up on my processing of images captured throughout the summer and thought I would share a collection of sunsets from Horseshoe Lake. The above image was created after an evening session of photographing Bullfrogs at dusk. While I was packing away my gear to begin canoeing back to the cottage I turned around to notice this impressive sunset and cloud formation in the sky. Since I was in the canoe and my tripod was back at the cottage I cranked up the ISO to 800, activated the Virtual Horizon feature on the Nikon D800 and fired away. With no grad filters on hand I exposed for the highlights and later in photoshop revealed a touch of detail from the shadows.

The two images below were photographed one after the other. Since the colours were somewhat lacking on this night I chose to use a Cokin Blue/Yellow Polarizer on the first image to add some colour to the scene. The final image portrays the natural colours as they were that night. Please do take a moment to indicate which of the two scenes is your favorite and why.

Remember to click on the photos to see the larger, sharper version of each.

Horseshoe Lake with Cokin Blue/Yellow Polarizer

Horseshoe Lake un-filtered

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