Special Request

This posting is by special request. This image was taken from almost the same spot that my "Winter Morning" image was taken. I had actually wanted to re-create the image, but it just was not the same. In looking around I turned 90 degrees and faced the rising sun. The three shrubs made for an interesting scene - the fog was lying in a drainage just behind the shrubs. Ironically, my camera battery died just after taking this image. I never have tried selling this online because it is hard to show on the web. It did take second place in a photo contest for the Traverse City Visitors Center. Questions or comments are always welcome.

Spring Wildflowers

As promised, here are the first of the spring wildflower photos. This wonderful red trillium is known as a Wake Robin. It is not as common as the white trillium, so it is quite a treat to find as many as I did. The second image is the spring beauty. This is one of the first wildflowers to bloom and I have found it blooming even before the last of the snow melts. Finally, everyone in the north country recognizes the white trillium. This trillium carpets the forest floor in the spring. These images and more wildflowers will be added to my hopefully soon to be created second Michigan Wildflowers poster. The first can be viewed on my website at http://www.tomhaxbyphotos.com/galleries/PostersHTML/PostersGalleryHTML.html

Hope that you can get a chance to experience the beauty of springtime.

Parting Shots

Last day in the UP for awhile. Will be glad to get home to greener pastures - literally. This has been a pretty good trip - it has been good to spend a lot of time outdoors after a long winter. I am pretty satisfied with many of the images that I have been able to capture. Disappointed that I did not get any spectacular hawk photos or even see an owl. But will leave with these images. If you like check back and I will continue to post as the spring wildflowers are just around the corner. Tahquamenon Falls was great and one of the images will be on my website or perhaps added to my Waterfalls Poster. Finally, I learned to not lose my head when everything does not go according to plan.

Recovered UP Waterfalls

Have you have ever had the experience of expecting that your digital images are on a memory card and then seeing that somehow they are all deleted? That happened this evening to me. After spending the afternoon photographing waterfalls, I came back and started to transfer the images. &^%$# there was nothing showing on the card except maybe some corrupted files. So, after some panic, I tried a software product available for download over the Internet. It worked!!!! So here are several of the images from the Wagner Falls area. Wish the light had been a little less harsh, but sometimes you have to be lucky. Headed home tomorrow and on to spring wildflower photos.

UP Michigan Trip Day 3

Have spent a couple of days in Michigan's Upper Peninsula photographing birds and scenery. People have all been nice although they may seem happier now that spring has started to arrive. I cannot believe that there is still snow on the ground, and in places, lots of it. Have spent most of my time in the Paradise - Whitefish area. Very historic with the Shipwreck Museum and the Lighthouse at the Point. Unfortunately, the Museum does not open until next weekend. Many of the hotels and restaurants are closed too. This morning I was on the shore hoping for a georgeous sunrise. Alas, it was good but not great. The sunset here is from yesterday morning. This is one that I took of the Whitefish Point Lighthouse. The beach is a pebble beach and although I thought I might be able to get a great shot with the stones there were too many footprints (there are a lot of people who like walking the beach) and the compositions just did not work. Here is the best that I could come up with. Well, gotta go run, like maybe over to the Seney Wildlife Refuge. Comments are always welcome.

UP Trip Continues

Well the UP trip has continued to bring good luck and weather. I am up in the Tahquamenon Falls -Whitefish Point area. Unbelievable the number of hawks gathered here for the big jump over Lake Superior. Also, I visited the Tahquamenon Falls today. Unbelievable the amount of water going over the falls. This is the spring snowmelt runoff. Since everthing else is still brown and because I could I decided to try an abstaction.

Then I tried getting some photos of hawks. But as so often happens I found something else to photograph. A Northern Flicker was kind enough to pose for me. Actually, this took about 1 hour or more of mostly standing still. Not much on bird identification but believe that this is a female as it lacks a mustache. Been up since 5:00 this morning and got a pretty good sunrise over Lake Superior. Will try for a sunset over the Lake this evening. Hope that the good weather holds out for another day or so. Comments are always welcome.

Greetings from the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan. I am up here hoping for the spring hawk and owl migration. Well today, though I saw a few hawks, no owls, my bigger find was the sandhill cranes. There were a group of three in the woods near wetland areas. Here is one of them. Have a new rented lens a Nikon 500 mm F4 which is doing a bang up job so far. Tomorrow may be more opportunities. Thanks for looking.

New Poster Available

I now have a new poster available. It is of Michigan Barns. Michigan has many classic barns of different sizes, shapes and colors. One of the red barns has an interesting story; the owner fell out of the loft and broke his collar bone. Once in the hospital it was discovered that he had a heart problem, so I guess that falling out of the loft saved his life. This is one case where I actually met the owners and they were really nice people who not only allowed me to photograph the barn but shared their stories.