The Water Tiger

Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens, Nikon Speedlight SB400, ISO 400, f16 @ 1/100

Water Tiger is the common name given to the larval stage of the Predacious Diving Beetle. During my forays out to the frog ponds I often encounter bizarre, alien-like waterbugs, so recently I decided to use a small 2.5 gallon aquarium and and photograph a few of these interesting critters. The Water Tiger has a voracious appetite and will often devour tadpoles, salamander larva, other aquatic bugs, and small fish. The large sickle-like jaws allow them to over-power prey larger than themselves. My aquarium set-up was quite productive allowing me to successfully create numerous images of various subjects. I will share in a future post soon exactly what worked best for the set-up and how I processed each of the image files.

Please do click on each of the images to see the larger, sharper versions.

Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens, Nikon Speedlight SB400, ISO 400, f16 @ 1/60

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Breakfast Time

The following is a series of images I created over a 5 minute time frame of a Common Loon on Horseshoe Lake near Parry Sound, Ontario. It was early morning as I paddled my canoe along shoreline of a quiet bay.  A large Snapping Turtle surfaced beside the canoe to check me out before slowly retreating back to the bottom of the lake. Next I saw a Common Loon was nearby, but I was not in a good position to photograph it, so I slowly paddled my way around for a better shooting angle. The loon had dove, but resurfaced nearby with a large rock bass in its bill. Over the next 5 minutes the loon appeared to play with the fish before swallowing it. I created countless images of the action and below are my favorite ones from the series.

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

Common Loon with Rock Bass

Common Loon diving for Rock Bass after dropping it

Common Loon grabbing Rock Bass

Common Loon with a firm grasp of the Rock Bass

Common Loon with the now dead Rock Bass

Common Loon after swallowing the Rock Bass

Common Loon content after a hearty breakfast

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Cautionary Note About Photographing Bullfrogs

Bullfrog at Dawn on Horseshoe Lake, Parry Sound, Ontario

During my last round of trips to photograph the Bullfrogs on Horseshoe Lake in Ontario’s Parry Sound region I was under close watch by one member of the resident beaver family that resides in the marsh. In fact, the Bullfrogs most often hang out in very close proximity to the active beaver lodge. Each evening as I would arrive at the wetland to photograph the frogs the beaver would swim out of the lodge and feast on the stems of the yellow pond lily leaves while seemingly watching my every move. I did think that the beaver was behaving a little differently than usual. Nonetheless I happily photographed the bullfrogs and was even lucky enough to catch an ambient light image of one of the males with it’s vocal sac inflated, and I love the blurred effect of the water beside the vibrating vocal sac.

Bullfrog Chorusing

I was also able to work on some more of my frog-scapes with my Nikon 18-35mm lens, which quickly became my favorite lens for such imagery. The easiest and most effective way to create frog-scapes is to use a wide-angle lens with the Live View feature that is available on DSLRs today. I like to use a bubble level in the camera’s hot-shoe to ensure all is square with the world as well.

Bullfrog at Dusk on Horseshoe Lake, Parry Sound, Ontario

On the week I departed from the cottage on Horseshoe Lake my brother Gregg had shown up to spend a week at the lake. A couple of days later he sent me a text message to inform me to be very careful of the beavers in the marsh. The large male beaver (see image below) charged my brother in the canoe as well as a couple of kids that were also nearby. As it turns out the beaver pups were now old enough to leave the den for under the protective eyes of their parents. Beavers can be very dangerous animals and should not be under-estimated. In May 2013, a Russian fisherman was killed when a beaver attacked him and severed a major artery. When I travel north to the cottage again next week I will need to be very careful of the beavers and be mindful of there whereabouts while I am with the Bullfrog.

Beaver in Wetland on Horseshoe Lake, Parry Sound, Ontario

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

 

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In-camera HDR along the Rosseau River

During my last stay at the family cottage on Horseshoe Lake in Ontario’s Muskoka region I chose to visit Lower Rosseau Falls on a rain-filled day. As I made the half hour trek over to the river there was a persistent drizzle, which is absolutely perfect for waterfall photography. As soon as I arrived, as luck would have it, the skies began to look as though it was going to clear up. I rushed to garb a few images before the river was in full sun. Rather than depart and head back when the sun shone full, I decided to play around with the Nikon D800’s in-camera HDR feature for both the sunlit scenes and the those whereby I waited for some cloud cover. This feature will produce a 108 MB TIFF file!

What else is new with the images in this post? I have processed and sharpened all of them using the new TKAction Panel from Tony Kuyper. If you enjoy photographing landscapes and wish to get the absolute most out of your image files then simply click here and read through and watch the videos as well. On the Special Offer page you can purchase the complete package for only $79US.

Please click on the images to see the larger, sharper versions and let me know which one is your favorite 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Making New Friends

I have just returned from my trip up to Horseshoe Lake in Ontario’s Parry Sound region. I have lots of fresh images to share over the course of the next few weeks before my return trip. I spent a considerable amount of time in a nearby wetland with the local Bullfrog population and do seem to have become good friends with one fellow. This particular male Bullfrog is extremely co-operative and will allow me to pick him up without hesitation. I am guessing that I have likely photographed him several times over the last few years and he is quite used to my presence. I will need to look to through my older images to see if I can find any identifying marks that would be informative in that regard.

Please click on the image to see the larger, sharper version.

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