Photography

Colorful Fall Flowers

This little one, has eye lashes

Hairy Woodpecker Busy Eating , while another bird in the background photobombs 🙂

ID tips from friends:
the clean white outer tail feathers distinguish Hairy from Downy, in most areas anyway.
Female Hairy Woodpecker. unbarred tail feathers, larger bill, and well developed comma eliminate a Downy
You can also see the size of the bird compared to each suet cake. It’s a hairy.

Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi 12.2 MP D-SLR Camera with a 75-300 canon lens

A bunch of compiled shots of the same woodpecker, Minnetonka MN October 2014

A Downy Woodpecker, Male

Click to see full size image, and see more detail of the bird, the sun light reflecting on his feathers, etc.

(the guy on the feeder might be another bird)
the image resolution/quality was lowered to reduce it’s size / web version

our bird

I filmed this short clip of nature sounds at the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge on a nice walk, Oct 16  around 2PM .. enjoying the Minnesota Fall.   This was my first visit to this park.   When you stop thinking, moving, and enhance your awareness to the present moment things start to become more vivid, colors, sounds… this video attempts to share that experience

You can watch this on youtube and as full screen for a clearer view here: http://www.youtube.com/v/gckSurwx4O8

video description from youtube: Ready for a moment of enhanced awareness?  Maybe see some magic?   look around, listen, watch … Nature sounds, crickets, wind, trail, leaves, sun, valley … this video might offer you a mystical minute of enjoying some awareness to the surrounding nature, shot during a walk at the MN River Valley National Wildlife Refuge (in between the noise from airplanes taking off)

Here is another one, this one is more of a  quick 360 view
You can watch this on youtube and as full screen for a clearer view here: http://www.youtube.com/v/L5eFs_aG_uI

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Ready for a moment of enhanced awareness?  Maybe feel some magic?  Hear some sounds? See leaves falling off trees in the wind.. Filmed at the MN river valley not far from the river itself.  Look around, listen, watch … wind, trail, blowing leaves … This video might offer you a mystical minute.

Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Oct 16 2014

You can watch this on youtube and as full screen for a clearer view here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/HzdOmEo0ST0

You can watch this on youtube and as full screen for a clearer view here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/pS2K_OA22VI

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Watch the sky, clouds, sun, big waves and listen to the sounds… filmed on a pier at Lake Calhoun, Minneapolis MN, on Saturday October 4 2014. Temperature must have been about 45, windy so felt colder.

Walking to pier:

A still video portrait

A still video portrait:

A still video portrait:

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October 10, 2014
Grass with frost at about 7AM, Hopkins MN

October 10, 2014
Grasses and wild plants with frost at about 7AM, Hopkins MN

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The red tree, at about noon time, where I parked and ate lunch in  the red sun light passing through the leaves

Oct 10, 2014, Eden Prairie, MN

this is an Acer x freemanii hybrid of red maple (A. rubrum) and silver maple (A. saccharinum)

Nice fall colors on the side of this hill, in the shade you will see frost on the grass – Oct 10, 2014, Hopkins, MN

Photo above shows a sumac plant

October 8, 2014 – Chan, MN

In Chanhassen, MN – October 8, 2014

A full lunar eclipse, I couldn’t take photos of the full eclipse, the photos below show the blood moon eclipse winding down as the moon was setting between 6 to 7 AM, October 8, 2014

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Here’s a squirrel doing what squirrels do, we take these critters fore-granted here in MN since they are abundant, if you watch them, they are intelligent, agile, flexible, quick and love to eat.  I think these photos will help you see that. October 8, 2014

click on photos to see photos in full size, and the squirrel’s details

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Plant identification post:

This one is: Viburnum trilobum/opulus – canberrybush viburnum

October 2, 2014 – Eden Prairie MN

Fall colors, Chanhassen, MN

Oct 9, 2014

above photo is at highway 212

Below, shows early fall colors in the metro

Below is Red Rock lake in Eden Prairie

First photo shows 3 contrails,

the last 2 photos show multiple chemtrails, at least 3, these are much longer, do not disappear they dissipate into clouds instead

First photo taken about 11AM, last 3 taken about 5PM on the same day from relatively the same location.

This little woodpecker is busy looking for food, zoomed in, getting closer trying to follow her/his moves.

October 5, 2014 Minnesota

October 11, 2014 , Chanhassen MN by the Lakewinds Coop. Nice Fall day.

On Sept 30th, Lebanon Hills Park

Do click on the photo for the full size, and you’ll get a much better view of the Egret

At Murphy Hanrehan

Path, Sky, Calming

Many Have worshiped
One of my favorite celestial objects, the sun.
Photos taken in Savage, MN on 09/23/2012
Make sure to click on the photos for the full-size. Then spend some time exploring the colors of these intense sun rays, look at the clouds, and the areas around the sun for many colorful pieces of natural art curtsey the sun and water vapor.
Why is the sky not blue?  because this is a photo of the sun, not the sky.

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The FULL moon tonight, 9/30/2012, taken with my telescope and DSLR camera at 2AM in Minnesota, the sky is crystal clear.

Enjoy (click the photos to see full size).

one

two

three

This was my first attempt to take photos with my new telescope and DSLR camera. I’m not using an adapter, but didn’t need one.

This is a photo using the camera alone with my telephoto lens at maximum zoom:
(click photo to see full size)

Notice a difference?  The telescope photos are like mirror images, the telescope images need to be flipped to match what your eyes see.

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Last Tuesday before heading out to work I noticed many white worms all over the lid of the refuse container (i.e. trash bin). There was plenty of dew on the car and the trash bin lid was also pretty wet, however the photos don’t clearly show the amount of dew present on the lid.

These little worms were knee deep in dew.

Do you see the pairs? why are they next to each other like that?
These aren’t the usual kind of worms I”m used to seeing, will these turn to butterflies or some other flying insect?

If you click on a photo to enlarge it you will notice the  water surrounding the worms.

Later on that day, 1/3rd the worms were “dead by drying” in the sun light, the rest were gone, somewhere. Maybe birds ate them, maybe they went back into the trash bin to eat trash, I donno.

Well, I think they looked pretty and cute, a bit unusual for a garden worm.. I thought they looked interesting / cool. You might agree.

If you thought these worms were anything but gross, I hope this next piece of info doesn’t change your mind: These are maggots.

They must have come out of the trash bin some how, they are the larva of flies (house flies, blow-flies, and cheese flies). In this case I believe these are from blow-flies.

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I enjoy the shape, geometry, symmetry, snow-like looks

(click image to enlarge)

Click on images for the full-size

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Click photos to enlarge

Nov 03, 2010, Fort Snelling State Park

Oct 24, 2010

Click photos to enlarge

A (non-breading or immature) Cedar Waxwing birds flying, looking, jumping etc..

About to land:

(Click photo above for a much larger photo)

Close-ups:

(Click photo above for a much larger photo)

(Click photo above for a much larger photo)

(Click photo above for a much larger photo)

What’s that there?:

(Click photo above for a much larger photo)

Jumping to another branch, like a ninja wearing a black mask!:

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A Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) eating a frog

After the meal
Click image to enlarge
Oct 24, 2010
Taken at Big Willow Park, Minnetonka, MN Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi 12.2 MP D-SLR Camera

Fall Trail

Click image to enlarge
Oct 24, 2010
Taken at Big Willow Park, Minnetonka, MN Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi 12.2 MP D-SLR Camera

green moss and leaves turning (red) in background

Click image to enlarge
Oct 24, 2010
Taken at Big Willow Park, Minnetonka, MN Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi 12.2 MP D-SLR Camera

Minnehaha creek in Minnetonka, MN

Click photo to enlarge
Taken October 24, 2010 with a Canon Rebel XSi 12.2 MP D-SLR Camera

Taken at Big Willow Park, Minnetonka, MN

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Squirrel Indulging, Fattening up for winter

Nov 21, 2010
In the back yard!
Click photo to enlarge

Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi 12.2 MP D-SLR Camera