{"id":1977,"date":"2012-08-24T15:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T20:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2012-08-25T11:58:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-25T16:58:51","slug":"august-photo-ramblings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/24\/august-photo-ramblings\/","title":{"rendered":"August Photo Ramblings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, I\u00a0was in\u00a0the Davis Mountains to conduct a hummingbird photography workshop.\u00a0\u00a0The 7th of August was\u00a0supposed to be the peak of the hummer migration, but\u00a0the birds didn’t get the memo.\u00a0 It seems the heat and dry weather\u00a0delayed\u00a0their movements by about 10 days.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we\u00a0had a pretty good shoot.\u00a0 Next summer, I\u00a0plan to do it again, only\u00a0later in\u00a0August…around the\u00a020th.\u00a0 Keep an eye on my photo tour schedule next spring to\u00a0get\u00a0the details.<\/p>\n

For us south Texas folks, the weather was great with\u00a0highs around 90 degrees (almost 15 degrees cooler than McAllen\u00a0experienced) and the nights were a pleasant 67 degrees.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it remains hot in south Texas, but I keep plugging away behind the computer.\u00a0 A few days back, I\u00a0ventured outdoors\u00a0to photograph a rare and beautiful\u00a0reptile called the speckled racer.\u00a0 You will\u00a0see from the photos below that it may\u00a0be one of the most beautiful\u00a0snakes in Texas.\u00a0\u00a0Then two mornings ago, I worked a fishing area on the on the\u00a0Laguna Madre at sunrise\u00a0before\u00a0moving a short distance inland\u00a0to catch some\u00a0deer activity.\u00a0\u00a0 Last night I drove out north of Edinburg\u00a0to\u00a0photograph a weathered\u00a0old church.<\/p>\n

With all this going on, I’ve been trying out some new equipment\u00a0(a\u00a0carbon fiber tripod by Feisol.net and their carbon fiber ball head).\u00a0 Both are sturdy, lightweight and considerably less expensive than\u00a0that of\u00a0their highly advertised competitors).\u00a0\u00a0A 20 mph\u00a0 breeze was ripping last night as I shot the old church and I was sure it would cause blurs in my slow shutter speed photos.\u00a0 Not so; each photo was razor sharp.\u00a0\u00a0If you are looking for a\u00a0new\u00a0tripod or ball head, check them out.<\/p>\n

Here are some of\u00a0the August photos for your consideration.\u00a0 Remember, you can click in the upper right portion of any photo to get a larger, sharper view.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The speckled racer occurs along the lower Rio Grande in Sabal palm forests, but it is rarely photographed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Both racer photo were shot with a 100-400 mm Canon lens and Canon 7D camera.<\/p>\n

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The turquoise and black speckled racer is well camouflaged in its riparian forest surroundings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Black-chinned hummingbird feeding at flower in the Davis Mountains, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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These hummingbird photos were shot with the Canon 7D, 500 mm IS lens, carbon fiber tripod, and Wimberley head at 1\/250 second, f 22 and\u00a0ISO 200 with five high speed flashes focused on the background and flower area.<\/p>\n

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Black-chinned Hummingbird male feeding in a butterfly garden in the Davis Mountains, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Juvenile Black-chinned Hummingbird feeding at red flowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Black-chinned Hummingbird male at rest on yucca leaves, Davis Mountians, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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August sunrise in the Davis Mountains, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Tourists watching the sunrise at Indian Lodge, Davis Mountains State Park, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Shots above and below were made with a Canon 5D Mark II camera and 24 -105 mm lens, hand held below and supported above.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Slow motion shot of fishermen seining bait fish in the Laguna Madre before sunrise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Scuffle at feeding time, south Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Sunsets like this are why a lot of Texas sportsmen practice "deer blind theology".<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Abandoned church in rural south Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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This old church needs a little "light painting" before the walls cave in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Maybe the ghosts left the lights on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The light painting shots were done in bulb setting with a Canon 5D Mark II and 15-35 mm lens with cable release, ISO 100, long exposure noise reduction setting, mirror lockup setting,\u00a0Feisol CT-3371 carbon fiber tripod and Feison\u00a0CB-50DC carbon fiber ball head.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed this eclectic little batch of photo subjects\u00a0from a\u00a0August in Texas.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, I\u00a0was in\u00a0the Davis Mountains to conduct a hummingbird photography workshop.\u00a0\u00a0The 7th of August was\u00a0supposed to be the peak of the hummer migration, but\u00a0the birds didn’t get the memo.\u00a0 It seems the heat and dry weather\u00a0delayed\u00a0their movements by about 10 days.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we\u00a0had a pretty good shoot.\u00a0 Next summer, I\u00a0plan to do it … Continue reading August Photo Ramblings<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1998,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}