Wednesday, March 31, 2010

More Gallup Park Pictures

So I decided to go the park again tonight. The geese and other birds were still fairly cooperative tonight so I got some decent pictures. It was a nice enough night to boot. Supposed to be really nice this weekend.

Just a shot of a swan.

I call this one stealth duck because she was tilting her head towards the water and looking like she was sneaking up on something.

Same duck but standing. I love the look of the female mallards.

A close up of the swan's head.

A goose and I love the lighting on this one.

Monday, March 29, 2010

A Couple Seagulls

I love the look of seagulls. If you hang around the Lakes long enough, you see plenty of them.

This is near Mackinaw.

This is up near Lake Superior.

This is the same seagull in flight.

Near The Big Two Hearted River

Up near the Falls is the Big Two Hearted River of Ernest Hemingway fame. I believe he spent a great amount of time up here in the summers and I think he may have spent some time here after World War I. As a result, one of his main characters spent some time around here. It's a pretty beautiful area.

We were trying to look for both a lighthouse and a foot bridge. Found neither because the roads were still pretty bad.

Anyways, this is stand of birches.

A shot of the road and the birches. There is still some snow on the ground but not that much.

The Old Mackinaw Lighthouse

While at the park taking pictures of the Bridge, might as well get the lighthouse.

A shot from the oblique angle.

This shot was taken near the beach.

A closeup of the tower.



A shot taken from the angle.

The Tahquamenon River

This is just some pictures of the river.

Looking down from the falls. It is pretty much thawed now.

Looking up from the falls, this part is rarely frozen over.

A shot at the mouth of the river.

The Bridge over the River.

Tahquamenon Falls in March

The other part of my 12 Months Series - the Falls. I was even more surprised to not see much snow up here. There was quite a bit the last time I was up here. There was still some icicles though.

One of the first views of the Falls you get.

From another spot along the main trail.

I was messing with shutter speeds and this one is where the shutter speed was slowed way down.

Another shot from the main trail.



A shot to show the icicles near the falls.



A shot from down near the falls.

Same shot with a faster shutter speed.



A close up of the edge. If you get close enough to something, you get an almost abstract shot.

The Mackinac Bridge in March

I wasn't feeling particularly well for a couple weekends of the month and was rapidly running out of weekends to continue my 12 months of the Mackinac Bridge series. So headed up to Mackinac to get some pictures of the bridge.

My requisite shot with some trees. Was surprised to see that the snow was mostly gone but it has been pretty warm for the past couple weeks.

A shot with one of the birch trees.

Just a shot of the bridge. It was a nice enough day.

Another shot of the bridge.

Using the lighthouse to frame part of the shot.

The shot from near the entrance to the Fort.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

My Cat - Zappa

These are a couple of pictures of my cat - Zappa. He is named after the singer because of the little spot of black under his chin and it kind of reminded me of a goatee.

Don't normally like to do cat pictures especially for something like this but I couldn't think of anything else and before my park pictures, I hadn't updated at all this week.

This is one of his normal spots.

A close up of his face.

Gallup Park - Ann Arbor

It was a nice enough day that I felt like going somewhere but I am still getting over a cold so I decided to head over to Gallup Park in Ann Arbor. I went over to my usual spot in the park and there were a bunch of geese, ducks and swans hanging around.

I was surprised how close they let me approach, so I was able to get close up shots of their heads. Normally they are hissing and chasing me away.

A Canadian Goose near the water.

I'm not sure what kind of bird this is, I think it may be some kind of duck but I'm not sure. Could be a goose too. If someone can correctly identify it for me, a picture will be on it's way.

Another close up of a Canadian Goose.

A closeup of a swan. I love the look of these birds. And for these I take away what I said above because one of these started to hiss and bite at me.

The swan in the water.

A female mallard. This one was laying down for a long time until a couple males decided to court her.

Another swan close up. I think this is a young swan because his beak isn't quite orange yet.

Another closeup of the same swan.

A closeup of the whatever bird.

Another shot of the goose.

A male mallard. I never realized thier heads were green but they can also be blue depending on the angle of the light.

A close up of the mallard's head. Notice the bits of blue.

And the mallard swimming away.