Recently I traveled Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area in Utah to photograph bald eagles. The refuge poisons and collects carp for the eagles to eat, and in most years the photography is spectacular. This year, not so much. Too much open water meant that the eagles had lots of food sources and were widely dispersed. There were, however, many Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis) and Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), so I photographed them instead.
There are basically two things that you can “say” about gulls. Either that they’re graceful (and occasionally comical) white birds, or that they are carrion and garbage eaters:
Finally, I did see a number of raptors, including Harriers and one of my favorites, American Kestrels (Falco sparverius). Unfortunately, this Kestrel seemed to prefer this post to a more attractive perch.
These images are from an evening side trip to Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah made while I was camping at Arches with my family in late spring. When I captured these image, I was a little disappointed with the light. I hoped for a spectacular sunset, but a late-day storm largely blocked the setting sun. After reviewing these images, though, I realize that the storm light was a blessing in disguise — I like how these images capture the feeling of the misty storm light.
Incidentally, I did not have time at Dead Horse Point to really do it justice. (One of the hazards of combining a family and photo trip). This is a spectacular park, perched on the edge of a cliff 2000 feed above the Colorado River. I could easily spend several days photographing there. Highly recommended if you’re in Moab.
These is a multi-image panorama of the Monitor and Merrimack buttes, located just outside Dead Horse Point. (By mult-image panorama, I mean that the image is stitched together from several frames in Phtosohop. This image would print 26″ wide at a reasonable resolution). Frankly, the thing I like best about this image is that the subject matter is not a cliche. So many talented photographers have worked the area around Moab that it’s hard to make an image that one hasn’t already seen a million times before. Compositionally, this image is nothing spectacular, but at least the subject matter is fresh.
This is a horizontal view of the same scene as the opening image above. I can’t quite decide if I like this better or if I prefer the monochrome image below.
This is a wider horizontal view of the same scene. I converted it to monochrome and toned it in Photoshop. By zooming out, I changed the focus from the ridge running into the distance to the wash beside the ridge. The image seems a tad bit busy or “unfocused” to me, I still like it.
