Fireworks Fun

I spent the evening with some friends at the First Annual Fireworks Competitions at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Coney Island is one of my favorite local places, as I was a regular there during my childhood.  It's good to see that the place is coming back from retirement, as I was afraid it would disappear entirely some years ago.  Now there are lots of ride back in the park, but I think they need to work on the concessions a bit.  Anyway, it was good to see good old Moonlight Gardens, where I spent some time dancing in my twenties.

This is apparently the first nationally held competition of it's type.  Represented were: Mexico, Canada, and U.S.A.  Canada won hands down with Mexico bringing up the rear.  Then there was an encore from Rozzi, which stole the show.  They would have won, if they had competed.   It was a chilly evening and I didn't get home till about midnight but it was a fun time.  Here are a few images from the evening.  The rest are on my website here, where you can see I took some liberties in Photoshop.

 

Fall Trips

We're leaving on October 12th for Hocking Hills State Park.  We'll spend the weekend there and photograph falls, water features, forest scenery and landscapes as well as whatever macro and floral features we encounter on the trails.  You can join us if you like by checking out the event page  HERE.

After the Hocking Hills event, we will be heading directly to North Carolina for approximately 10 days of working in the western N. Carolina and eastern Tennessee mountains, shooting waterfalls, forest scenery, antique architectural, rutting elk, sunrise and sunset atop the Blue Ridge Parkway from my favorite sites, as well as a couple of adventurous side trips deep into the forests for some special sites that few ever see.

Check out the website for details here, and, here. If you can't make it during the times listed, contact me.  We'll be there from 15 - 25 October, and longer if necessary.  We'll accommodate you if you just want to come for a couple of days.  Drop a line and ask what's available and we'll be flexible during that time period.

This is a great opportunity to capture some wonderful images.  Hope you can join us there.

Hummers

I recently had the opportunity to visit a place where there were more hummingbirds than I had ever seen in one place.  I'm sure this is small news to some people, but I had never seen 20-30 hummers flying around in the same place before.  Normally, at my house, we're lucky to see three or four at the same time.

Anyway, we drove like three hours one way to visit some folks in Terre Haute, Indiana.  They live on a residential lot that backs up to a corn field with neighbors on either side.  Apparently, they have been putting out the feeders for many years, so they had a "reputation" with the birds.  It is also getting time for migration, so the place was literally swarming with birds.

I'd like to thank my friend, Nancy, for including me in her adventure.  We had a great time there and meeting her friends with the hummingbirds.  Other than two half hour traffic jams on the way home, it was a spectacular day.  Make sure and check out her page at the link above for more hummers and sunflowers.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day.

I shot all of these with my Sigma 50-500mm lens in manual mode.  Some were shot at 1/250th with a flash and the rest at aperture priority f6.3.  There was a lot of available light, so, it wasn't too hard to grab one or two in focus, as I was able to get some shutters up to 1/2000.  It was interesting to note that there was only one male who was visiting all during our shooting, but as soon as we went inside, half a dozen more showed up.  It was amazing to see so many birds at one time.

Here are some shots from a few years ago, shot with my old Nikon 70-300mmG version $150.00 clunker in available light as well.  That was a miserable lens, but occasionally, I wish I had it back.  That's on my bucket list, but this time it will be the newer VR version.

These were shot from my back deck.  We had a good amount of visits that year, but this year was pretty sparse.  Maybe I should grow corn in the back yard and more birds will come. lol

If you want to see all my shots, check this link.  I'm currently combing the archives for more decent shots of hummers from the past, so maybe check back later and see if there are any additions.  Thanks for looking, and don't forget, the correct formula for hummers is 1:4 sugar to water.  Excess sugar is not good for them.