Klamath Basin – Jeanne Hoadley Photography

Great Blue Heron

I drive past him each day in the swamp where he stands

on one leg, hunched as if dreaming of his own form

the surface reflects. Often I nearly forget to turn left,

buy fish and wine, be home in time to cook and chill.

Today the bird stays with me, as if I am moving through

the heron’s dream to share his sky or water—places

he will rise into on slow flapping wings or where

his long bill darts to catch unwary frogs. I’ve seen

his slate blue feathers lift him as dangling legs

fold back, I’ve seen him fly through the dying sun

and out again, entering night, entering my own sleep.

I only know this bird by a name we’ve wrapped him in,

and when I stand on my porch, fish in the broiler,

wine glass sweating against my palm, glint of sailboats

tacking home on dusky water, I try to imagine him

slowly descending to his nest, wise as he was

or ever will be, filling each moment with that moment’s

act or silence, and the evening folds itself around me.

-T. Alan Broughton

I’m looking forward to return to nice weather this week and getting out to shoot again. But in the meantime I am enjoying the chance to revisit older images and think about them in a more creative way. Out of about two dozed frames of Great Blue Herons in flight this is the only way that came out any where near in focus. But the bird was a little too close to the edge of the frame so I did a little Photoshop artistry and came up with this image that I really love for its simplicity.

Day 35 – Coyote

Coyote

Sweet Coyote

Don’t ask, don’t tell,
Sweet coyote, desert owl.
Cactus eyes, sand-dune skin
The warmth throughout, the heat within.

-Sarah Spang

I decided that I had invested enough time at the wildlife refuge yesterday to skate a little today. And there were so many good pictures that I hated to not share them. This coyote is marred by the bit of out of focus weed in front of his/her face but given that I had only a split second to get the shot before coyote moved I think it turned out pretty well. I was convinced that I had not held the camera steady enough but the eyes are sharp and that’s what counts.

Day 34 – Snow Geese

SnowGeese

Snow Geese

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!
What a task
to ask
of anything, or anyone,
yet it is ours,
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.
One fall day I heard
above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound
I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was
a flock of snow geese, winging it
faster than the ones we usually see,
and, being the color of snow, catching the sun
so they were, in part at least, golden. I
held my breath
as we do
sometimes
to stop time
when something wonderful
has touched us
as with a match,
which is lit, and bright,
but does not hurt
in the common way,
but delightfully,
as if delight
were the most serious thing
you ever felt.
The geese
flew on,
I have never seen them again.
Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.
Maybe I won’t.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters
is that, when I saw them,
I saw them
as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.

-Mary Oliver

I’ ve been trying for months to find the time and right weather conditions for a trip over the mountain to the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuges. My calendar and the weather forecast finally aligned today so I said “I don’t care what else I have on my to do list. I’m going.” And I’m glad I did. I came home with over 300 images though I suppose most of them will have to go to the recycle bin. Those critters just refuse to sit still. But I was pleased to see some snow geese at Tule Lake and though I did see a few bald eagles and even got their portraits this image spoke to me most about the joy seeing the birds lift off in a flock as one. I thought about using Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese, which is my all time favorite but I thought “No, everyone has heard that one.” So when my google search turned up another Mary Oliver poem about snow geese, I was delighted, as I am delighted to share it with you.

Red Tailed Hawk

Hawk

Rarely do I get this close to a Hawk without it flying away. This one seemed more curious than scared. I could wish it had been sitting on a fence post or tree but you take what you can get. At first glance I thought this was not a Red tail but after looking more closely I could see that though its chest is not as light as some it does have the distinctive darker vest and a look at my bird books confirmed that this has to be a Red tail.

I did some heavy cropping and converted from horizontal to vertical. I may have gone a little too close on the turn wheel and its shadow. I tried shooting vertical from the car blind but it just didn’t work too well and with wildlife you don’t have the luxury to mess around. I can’t tell you how many “Gone birds” I have photographed in my life. Anyway, just a little vibrance and saturation and some sharpening for the final image.

Bald Eagle

Eagle_Nov

I had to make it a quick trip to the Klamath Basin ahead of an incoming cold front and before Holiday and other obligations sucked up my time. But I can at least report that indeed the Eagles are beginning to return.

Post processing was a little difficult with this as the bird was backlit and in shade but I got a lot of help from Color Efex pro in bringing out the detail in the feathers. Some burning and dodging on the head also helped.

Pelican

Pelican_portrait2

I didn’t have a chance to get out and shoot this week and it is probably just as well since I am way behind in post processing of my Klamath Basin images. This one is from August. I have hundreds of shots of pelicans out swimming in the lake but when I zoomed in to check sharpness on this one I thought it would make a great intimate portrait if I cropped in a lot. Love that diagonal line of the pelican’s beak.

In post I did the usual. Detail, saturation, darken edges, a little noise reduction and some final sharpening. On this one I also added a border for a little more visual interest.

Red Tail Hawk

Hawk

It was back to the Klamath Basin this week and the stars of the show this month were the hawks. On the second day there it was cloudy and there were hawks roosting in every tree and on many a sign post. But this one was taken on the first day when there was more blue in the sky. I love the way he is just hanging on by a few toes. I learned a new trick for identifying a Red Tail Hawk in my bird class. Though they come in many color configurations, they always have the dark belly bad which shows up well here.

In post processing I first cropped to a vertical. It is kind of a miracle that this one came out sharp in the first place as I was shooting hand held out the passenger side from the driver’s seat so I couldn’t take advantage of my bean bag. Long story short, it would have been nearly impossible to shoot this vertically in that situation.

I brightened it up a little using levels in Photoshop. Then into Color Efex Pro for detail, saturation (brilliance/warmth) and a little highlighting on the center and darkening on the edges. It looked a little noisy to me so I took it through Topaz DeNoise then used smart sharpen in Photoshop to recover some of the sharpness that was lost in the denoise process.

I’m behind the curve on my Klamath basin blog so look for a couple of catch up posts at http://jeannehoadley.com/Klamath by the end of next week.

Snowy Egret

Snowy_egret

It was back to the Klamath Basin for my monthly visit yesterday. I made it a quick trip as I expect to spend more time in September and October during the fall migration. Still, in spite of a very hazy start and a very windy finish it was a pretty good day with at least 25 species noted.

But as far as photographs, I liked this Snowy Egret for the reflection and, though you may not be able to see it on the smaller version, you can actually see his yellow feet in the shallow water. That and the drops of water falling off his beak and the ripples where he just made stab at hunting make this a definite keeper for me.

Mt. Shasta

Even when the birds are making themselves scarce it is worth a trip to Tule Lake just to see the beautiful views of Mt. Shasta. In this image I was experimenting with Topaz adjust and found the vibrance preset did a good job of cutting through the haze. I also added some saturation and sharpening and added a border, which may have been a mistake as it crowds the top of the mountain a little.

American Avocet

I spent three days in the Klamath Basin this week and thought I might come home virtually empty handed, at least in terms of new and interesting birds. In the last hour of the last day I decided to stop at the wildlife viewing kiosk at Tule Lake and there I found one American Avocet, two Black Necked Stilts, three long billed dowitchers, and three killdeer. Proving once again that persistence pays off.

In post processing I did most of the usual tricks, ie detail, saturation and darkening the edges. I also did alot of spot healing and content aware fill in the upper part of the water to remove distracting junk from the water. Not sure I went far enough with that. I’m also wondering if this should have been a vertical. Always room for improvement.