Meadow Bugs....

A few macro shots from the meadow this morning....

Great Golden Digger Wasp

Great Golden Digger Wasps

Dogbane Beetle

Dogbane Beetle

Snowberry Clearwing Moth

NEOWISE at the CJ Brown Marina

One of my planned shooting sessions for NEOWISE was to feature the CJ Brown Marina in the foreground. Using the Photo Pills App and Stellarium, I was able to determine the best point of view for the image I wanted. 

We arrived at the marina a bit before sundown, and watched as some boat returned to dock. 

Once the sun set, we began to see stars. The comet was fainter than the previous week, but I was able to find it by doing a wide angle shot and zooming in on the camera's LCD screen. Once found, we could actually see it with our naked eyes. I used my Olympus Zuiko 300F4 to get some tele pics. I used the Olympus Live Time mode to watch my image develop on the screen and I stopped the exposure when I reached the exposure I wanted. 

Using the Olympus EM1 Mark3 and the Panasonic 8-18mm lens, I did two Live Time images....one exposing for the comet, and the other exposing for the marina. The two were combined in PSCC by adding the comet layer to the marina layer in layer mode "lighten."

Overall, I was pleased with the final image....

Comet NEOWISE Over CJ Brown Reservoir

Comet NEOWISE can be seen this month in the northeast sky from about 3:30am until sunrise.

I planned to shoot it over CJ Brown Reservoir, hoping to catch the lake's glow and the marina lights.

We arrived about 03:40, and this shot was taken at 03:53. 

I used the Olympus EM1 Mark3 in Starry Sky mode for both shots. The first was taken using the Panasonic 8-18mm lens at F. 2.8. Exposure was 3.2 seconds at iso 2000. The wide angle allowed me to capture some of the rocky shoreline in the foreground. 

This shot was taken with the Zuiko 300mm lens at F4, and again at iso 2000 for a 3.2 second exposure. 

Turtle Dinner

Watching this Great Blue Heron at Old Reid Park wondering what he's having for lunch.

Toss it to get it in position...

It's a little Soft Shell Turtle!

See....

Down the hatch!

Taaaa-Dahhhh!

Meadowhawks

Meadowhawks and Elfin Skimmers have arrived at Cedar Bog. 

Cedar Bog

This is the Ebony Jewelwing....a species of damselfly. They hang out near streams and rivers. This one is from Cedar Bog, in Champaign County, yesterday.

They are metallic green, but can appear blue in some light. The wings of the male look all black in most light, but if you are lucky enough to see them in a shaft of sunlight you can see why they have the name "Jewelwing."

Mobbed Redtail Hawk

GBH

Great Blue Heron Toss Up

Old Reid Dragons & Damsels

Red-Shouldered Hawks

A friend alerted me to a Red-Shouldered Hawk nest in Springfield, so I decided to check it out.

She said she was able to see possibly 3 chicks in the nest, so I was optimistic that it would be viewable and that I would be able to get some images. 

The angle was perfect, and I was able to watch mom and dad deliver meals to the chicks.  

Olympus Live ND and an Great Blue Heron

Watching this Great Blue Heron standing in the waterfall at the CJ Brown Dam runoff, I decided to try a feature of he Olympus EM1M3 camera that I have not used....Live ND.
An ND filter can be applied to your lens as an attachment. The purpose is to control the amount of light reaching the camera sensor so that slow shutter speeds can be used....adding smoothness to moving objects, such as a stream or waterfall. 
The Olympus Live ND mode replicates that effect in the camera by taking multiple images at different exposures and combining them in the camera into a single image. The degree of ND can be selected in the menus, from ND2 to ND32. 
The Heron was a perfect subject, because he was completely still....I snapped a few standard images, and then, noting how nicely he was standing still, I decided to try the Live ND feature. 
I'm pleased with the result...and was able to hand hold this shot, even though using my Zuiko 300mm lens. Olympus has amazing in-body image stabilization which works with the lens stabilization to give up to 7.5 stops of image stabilization!
Here's the base image (without the Live ND activated) and the Live ND version (PS levels, saturation, and sharpening) with EXIF data for both. 

Morning Conjuncture

This morning there was a conjuncture of Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. 
I really wanted to capture an image with a nice foreground.....was thinking over downtown Springfield. 
In order to plan my shot, I used an app called Photo Pills. Using it, I was able to see that I would not be able to get the angle I wanted over the downtown area. I did see, though, that the conjuncture would be nicely composed with the Northridge water tower if I shot my images from the Northridge Bowling Alley parking lot....coincidentally just a couple of miles from us. 
Here's my result....