Gone to See America. December 2011 Florida Road Trip. Day 8: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Wood Stork in Flight. Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1000, 500 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec).
Wood Stork in Flight. Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1000, 500 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)
Rocky Mountain National Park: “Winter Play Area” in Hidden Valley
Although the pass across Rocky Mountain National Park closes for the winter, much of the lower elevations in the park are kept open. It is only an hour drive from where I am working in Boulder, Colorado. A couple of images taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 35 mm f/2 lens at the “Hidden Valley Winter Play Area”.
Winter Play Area, Hidden Valley, Rocky Mountain National Park. (David J Mathre)Winter Play Area, Hidden Valley, Rocky Mountain National Park. (David J Mathre)
The extended Mathre family was visiting Amelia Island for Thanksgiving, and more importantly to celebrate our parents 50th wedding anniversary. These images are of the Amelia Island Lighthouse taken with a Polaroid DSC-700 digital camera.
Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 6: Kona.
Five years ago I completed a photography workshop on the Big Island of Hawaii with Thom Hogan. While on the way to the airport to catch our return flights, we stopped at Lighthaus Camera. Coincidentally, it was “Black Friday” and everything was on sale. We noticed that the store just received their initial shipment of the newly released Nikon D300 camera. Three or four of the workshop participants purchased the cameras on the spot. I have to admit that mine was an impulse purchase. Over the next four years, I took nearly 55K images with the camera (2007: 3164 images; 2008: 20371 images; 2009: 29355 images; 2010: 919 images; 2011: 628 images). This was my last Nikon DX sensor camera. Since then all of my Nikon DSLR cameras had full frame FX sensors.
The last shooting location for the workshop on that day was at Hawaii Tropical Gardens. I reprocessed an image Onomea Water Falls using Nik Silver Efex Pro.
Onomea Water Falls, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 105 mm f/2.8 macro (ISO 100, f/11, 1/1.6 sec). Image processed with Capture One Pro 6, PhotoShop CS5, and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J. Mathre)
Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 2: Kailua Kona.
One of the first pictures I took while attending a workshop with Thom Hogan in Hawaii five-years ago was this small yellow bird in a palm tree. The workshop group was sitting outside at the hotel getting an orientation for the next few days. Ultimately, I was able to identify this bird as a Saffron Finch — which turns out not to be native to Hawaii.
Saffron Finch in a Palm Tree. Kona, Hawaii. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/8, 1/640 sec). (David J. Mathre)