Sawgrass County Park

Goin’ Green

By Mia McPherson, on April 24th, 2013%

Leaf Abstract

I’ve posted about Thinking Pink and Shades of Blue so today I thought I’d share some images about Goin’ Green. I have plenty of images of hillside covered in green but not that many of the huge green leaves I would find in USF’s Botanical Garden in Tampa Florida. When I looked at the veins in this leaf I knew I wanted to take close up, abstract images.

Monk Parakeet

Monk Parakeets are one of the green birds I have photographed, this one I found at Roosevelt Wetlands in Pinellas County Florida and took images of it as it foraged in the grasses that had gone to seed. Monk Parakeets were also called Quaker Parrots, they aren’t native to Florida but they have made themselves right at home.

Grass gone to seed

Green is simple, as simple as a stem that holds the seeds of new grasses.

Mia

*I am going to be away from my computer a lot until Friday, please feel free to share this post with your friends and family.

A Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk learning to hunt

By Mia McPherson, on April 7th, 2013%

Portrait of a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk – Nikon D70, handheld. f5.6, 1/200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, flash fired, not baited

In July of 2007 I was fortunate to follow and photograph a family of Red-shouldered Hawks at Sawgrass County Park in Florida for a few weeks when the fledglings were learning to hunt for themselves. Because Sawgrass County Park has a high number of visitors each day the hawks were used to people and didn’t flush easily.

This juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on a metal fencepost so I opted to go for a portrait to remove the “hand of man”. My EXIF information doesn’t list the ISO used for this shot but I do know that the auto flash fired. I was still using my Nikon D70 when all of these images were created.

Red-shouldered Hawk juvenile – Nikon D70, handheld, f5.6, 1/320, ISO 640, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, flash fired, not baited

The day after the portrait above was taken I was back at Sawgrass County Park hoping for decent light and to find the young hawks again, I found the Red-shouldered juveniles but the light wasn’t great because of thunder storms rolling through the area. I had been photographing this immature Red-Shouldered Hawk as it perched in a pine tree when it flew directly at me and as it flew over my head I could feel the whoosh of air from its wings. I thought the young hawk was going to carry off the straw hat I was wearing but as I turned I could see it had landed on the ground about 20 feet from me and was dispatching what appeared to be a Palmetto Bug.

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk trying to catch a Yellow Rat Snake – Nikon D70, handheld, f4.8, 1/400, ISO 1000, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 80mm, flash fired, not baited

Not long after the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk ate the Palmetto Bug I could hear another Red-tailed Hawk calling and the hawk I was photographing flew towards the sound. I slowly followed the sound and used the trunks of trees as a blind as I walked. I came up on two young Red-shouldered Hawks, one on the fence and the other was perched higher in a tree above the hawk you see in this frame. The hawks were very interested in trying to catch this Yellow Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta) that had woven its body through the links of the fence. I took a few images and left because I didn’t want to disrupt the hawks.

The next time I went to the park I measured one of the square links in the fence and according to my calculations this snake was over 6 foot in length. Sorry about the poor quality of the last image, it was dark under the trees and there was a light rain falling but I did want to capture the interactions I was observing.

I enjoyed following this family of Red-shouldered Hawks that summer.

Mia

Red-shouldered Hawk juvenile – Small in the Frame

By Mia McPherson, on January 25th, 2013%

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk – Small in frame – Sawgrass County Park

Five days ago I posted a Bald Eagle image where the eagle was small in the frame and explained that I felt that the setting was as important as the subject, I also feel that way about this image of a Red-shouldered Hawk juvenile perched in a tree. I photographed this young Red-shouldered Hawk at Sawgrass County Park in Pinellas County, Florida a few years ago as the early morning light lit up the grasses and Bamboo in the background.

The subject doesn’t always need to fill the frame to have impact and appeal, sometimes the background or habitat has as much appeal as the subject.

Mia

Golden-silk Spider

By Mia McPherson, on October 31st, 2012%

Golden-silk Spider (Nephila clavipes) – Nikon D70, handheld, f5.6, 1/60, ISO 500, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, flash fired, not baited or set up

I scoured my files and the scariest thing I could come up with for Halloween is this Golden-silk Spider (other than images of me). I don’t think it is really scary except that it doesn’t have feathers or fur. Okay the legs do look a little furry.

The size of Golden-silk Spider females might be frightening to some, their bodies can be up to an inch long but that measurement doesn’t include the length of the legs, these spiders are not small, think 4 – 5 inches across!

And yes, their web is a golden color instead of the silvery-white I’ve seen with other spiders.

Still, she isn’t very spooky. What humans do to nature is.

Mia

Photographed in 2007 at Sawgrass County Park, Pinellas County, Florida

Common Gallinule adult

By Mia McPherson, on August 21st, 2012%

Common Gallinule adult – Nikon D70, handheld, f5.6, 1/50, ISO 1600, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light

Not that long ago Common Gallinules (Gallinula galeata) were called Common Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus), it will take me some time to get used to the new name.

This image was created at Sawgrass County Park in Pinellas County, Florida under the shade of trees in low light about 5 years ago. It was taken with my first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera which by now is considered older than dirt and a low price VR lens. The D70 wasn’t well known for how it handled higher ISO’s but this image was taken at ISO 1600 and I was rather pleased with the results. I applied a small amount of noise reduction (NR) to the background in postprocessing with no noise reduction on the bird or perch, I masked the bird and perch and applied sharpening to just those subjects.

The key was to get the exposure right at the time the image was created, increasing exposure in postprocessing can introduce unwanted noise.

While it might be nice to be able to afford the latest, most up to date camera body and to have the best of lenses, quality images can be created with older model camera bodies and lower cost, shorter focal length lenses.

Mia

More Common Gallinule images

*I am away for a while so I have prescheduled this post, please feel free to share it with your friends and family.