Immature herring gull dropping crab for lunch.

On Saturday, February 4, 2012, I went on my first hosted birdwalk. This birdwalk was led by Derrick of the Freeport Wild Bird Suppy – http://www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/default.asp .

Birdwatching is distinctly different than bird photography. There are obvious overlaps. Birdwatching is all about the count, number of species, then number of birds. Lists are kept – life, day, month, location, year, and every other distinction that can be created.

There was only one true photo opportunity, a shore side flock of Dunlin sandpipers – Caldris alpina – with favorable side lighting. The first sighting of this flock was on an offshore ledge with backlighting.

Bird sighting and souundings may be brief and require rapid identification. Derrick was spot on and led the group with an ongoing descriptive dialogue.

There is much more to birding. The equipment is all binoculars and/or spotting scopes on tripods. No cameras. A notebook to create the day list, (which later is added to the week, month, year, site, life, et al, lists) Habitat knowledge. Tree identifictation – “beyond the popular, higher in the oak tree…” Weather factors and effects. Tide status – high/low, coming/going.

Then there is the bird itself. Markings, size, shape, location, behavior patterns, et al, lead to affirmative identification. I have much to learn and experience to gain.

Bird watchers are friendly without being chatting or gregarious during the birdwalk. Listening for birds leads to seeing birds. Listening is the practiced deliberate art of not talking.

Spotting highlights for me included the Eagle nest on a nearby island, the immature Eagle soaring, and the mature Eagle perched. And the Dunlin sandpipers. To see Derrick’s trip list, see http://www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/bird_news.asp?id=1556#1556

After the walk, we returned to store for chatting, coffee, and the warmth of comraderie. Some took the opportunity to buy needed bird seed and other supplies. Conveniently incidental and not an expectation.

After the walk, I went down to Freeport harbor with my D300 & 150/500mm zoom attached. First to the yacht club to look for the Barrows Goldeneye that had been spotted from afar. They were gone. I did snap off some shots of a small group of Common Eiders before going over to the Town Landing for other opportunities. There I scored picture and lesson of the day.

An immature herring gull was in hopping flight with a small crab. It would hop fly up about ten feed and drop the crab onto the dock with hopes of cracking the shell open for lunch. At the top of the hop, I snapped and was rewarded with the photo above.

Lesson of the day, when taking photos of motion, take the camera off of manual and use the shutter priority mode to freeze the frame,

I will be back next week, hopefully a wee bit better prepared to learn more from a birding master.

Derrick, Thank you.

Via Flickr:
Seagull lunch.

Sunrise at Portland’s eastern promenade.

Sunset at Portland’s western promenade.

Moved through shutter speeds to best capture the rays bursting up.

F-Stop held steady at 5.6.

Shutter speed @ 1/2500.

Focalength 170 mm.

ISO: 400

What else?

Next time? F-stop to F8 or 16. Manual focus on the water vapors.

Portland Harbor at twilight. Even as the days slowly get longer, photography after work remains a challenge. Today’s 365 effort started with a few iPhone photos near a local big box bookstore, just in case something better didn’t turn up later. Having time to burn, I left the Maine Mall, headed across the Veterans Bridge and into the Portland Harbor area.

In my mental hip pocket, I always carry a few destinations in case another opportunity eludes my eye. This late afternoon, after a day of snow, then rain, then this caught my eye. I parked LittleBlue along the side of outer Commercial Street. Fortunately, I was wearing LL Bean boots as I stomped across snow, ice and slithering mud. The train tracks in the area hold promise as well.

This 365 challenge is opening my eyes even more. Every picture is a story.

This is the dedication from my first photgraphy show. IT should have been posted here last August, but was crushed with enough other things going on. It is worth sharing here, even later.

If every day is a new beginning, then every day we are nothing more than beginners. This show is a new beginning for me that began five decades ago. Both of my parents are photographers, how could I become anything less. They always had cameras nearby, both professionally and personally, and through gentle osmosis, I learned the art of composition. This show is dedicated to my father Robert M. Smith, Sr. of Lewiston, and my mother Joyce CB LaGasse of Durham. Thank you each for the shared journeys and boundless encouragement.

My journey through film cameras included an Instamatic snap’n’shoot, a Kodak 110 pocket camera, and a Canon AE-1. Photographic limitations were primarily convenience and cost based.

Ten years ago, the digital camera arrived. My first digital camera was a Minolta Dimage 5 (or 7)? Several of the pictures in this show were shot with that first digital camera. I chased through the upgrades and evolutions, seemingly on an annual basis. Several years ago, I settled comfortably into my Nikon D300 with upgrades scattered through lenses, adaptors and camera bags.

I have always been a traveler, hence the theme of my photography – From Here To Away. While images of Maine remain endless, perspective and context includes going and returning.

Digital photography and communications evolution matured concurrently. It is through Twitter that Andrea and I became acquaintances and are now friends. It is through this growing friendship that I was afforded this opportunity to publicly present and share my photography. Andrea – thank you for this new beginning.

The truest thanks go to my wife Patty. This show would not be possible without her support, encouragement, and affirmation. We always have and always will travel widely. Sometimes to familiar places, other times to places beyond where we have gone before. These pictures are from our shared story.
Thank you for sharing this, my newest beginning.

I hope you find my pictures meaningful and that they spark and inspire a memory from your story.

The First Picture

This is the first picture saved, from one decade ago. I drive this road nearly daily. Even now, I am less than one mile from where this picture was taken.

It was taken with my first true digital camera, the Minolta Dimage 5/7. I still have it here in my study – nostalgia, sentimental, memories.

For awhile over the past decade, I chased the evolution of digital photography with annual upgrades. Three years ago, I settled in a Nikon D300 which is still my workhorse.

Over the years, pictures were saved – nearly all pictures taken. This hoarding deepens and clogs the clutter on one external hardrive and the companion backup hardrive.

So it’s time to start the review, archiving, cataloging and deletion. I’m hesitant and excited about this journey from then to now. What worked, what didn’t, what doesn’t, what stays, what goes into the digital dust bin. But mostly what has been learned and remembered.

Side note: sitting here on my desk, there is one final roll of undeveloped film. There may even be another in the Canon AE-1 stowed away in a cabinet. As I get through from then to now, those memories need to be revealed as well.

I still take sunrise pictures. In fact, every good day starts with a sunrise. This good day is starting now.

This Iron Ranger is a test of personal integrity.

When no one is watching, will you stop and pay the access fee anyways? Certainly , they could make it easier by charging whole, not half dollar amounts. But then again, a fifty-cent tip for self service is a wee bit excessive. Perhaps, I was unintentionally paying it forward for a next car through.

I double folded my Lincoln and pulled forward into the park with a clear conscience.

After having a thoroughly enjoyable walk down and back across the uniquely famous one-mile beach. I exited the park, stopping at the entrance to use my iPhone maps app to get my bearings towards the next destination. While there, a micro SUV zipped by, scarcely braking for the posted speed limit, certainly not stopping to honor the Iron Ranger.

Integrity is doing the right thing. Whether or not any one else is watching.

Should I have gone back, to at least take a photo of the offensive violator? Would it have made any difference if I had? What would you have done?

New year, new robe. The size tag says, “one size fits most”.

Well, I’m on the lower demographic of most. The sleeve extends to my finger tips. The waist, well let’s just say it is more ample than I hope I never become.

This is lazy retailing. No more worries about running out of the right size stock. Fit everyone, well most everyone, into a singular easy to keep in stock size. Most is not a size. But I bought a new robe anyways.

Lesson Learned-never be in a hurry and settle for one size fits most.

Moral: Lazy gets what lazy does.

2012: First Light. Blue Jay on a high snag of the backyard forest apple tree. I call it a forest apple tree because it grew tall first and never developed the lower branches.

At this time year – just after the winter solstice, the sunrises in the windowless corner of my study. One more window would turn this study into a solarium, so it may be just as well. I have views north, east and south. And that makes all the difference.

Well, once again, I begin again.

The temperature was hovering just below freezing with a rainfall rate drifting between drizzle and light. This picture was taken on the shores of Runaround Pond, a wilderness pond down and around both ends of my road. There will be more.

Much of our modern life is battery operated. This iPad, the iPhone used to take this picture, digital photography, et al. Remember when batteries were for flashlights, emergency radios, and vehicles?

But candles? Really? Sure, a case can be made for the cool safety of this nonflammable entity. But, in my reality, the loss of ambience is perturbing. Candles flicker, casting shadows, creating gleaming, sparkling moments and memories. Battery operated candles flicker by subtly flashing. This is not the same warm glow of shared romance.

The business model, as applied through the bean counters, as endorsed by the insurance underwriters, make the practical and logical case for battery operated candles. All while the spirit of romance is sterilized, neutered, made less than before.

Candlelit. Batteries not included.