Mason Neck

I went to Mason Neck this morning. It was cold and overcast. I walked along the beach until I spotted a pair of eagles sitting in a tree. I tried to get closer, but one flew away before I could get a few clear shots.

This one also flew away. I wandered back toward the parking lot and saw this osprey.

This bird was kind of boring; he was quiet and alone and still. After I pressed on, a juvenile bald eagle flew out over the bay.

Back at the parking lot I spotted this red-shouldered hawk.

I decided to linger a little longer, hoping to catch some eagles. After a little more walking, I shot this bird.

Finally, I had enough and headed home. On my way, I spotted this red-shouldered hawk right next to the road.

Birds in the Neighborhood

I went for a walk in my neighborhood last night, saw a bunch of cormorants flying around the lake. I tried a few shots of them. In post-processing, I'm learning just how hard it is to take a back-lit photo of a black bird in fading light.

Black Cormorant

Then I slogged through the muddy/overgrown ground along the lakeside to try to get closer to a group of hooded mergansers who have taken up residence on the lake. They swam away and were too far away to shoot. So I kept walking along shore looking for a red-shouldered hawk I saw there recently. I was surprised to see the silhouette of a very large bird perched on top of a dead tree. It looked like an eagle. I took a look through the camera just as it flew away, definitely an eagle. It flew toward the dam, circled over the woods beyond the dam, then turned back and flew toward me. In the fading light I got some shots of it. Again - dark bird, fading light: tough to photograph well. Here's the best shot of the sequence, edited to get as much detail as I can without going crazy with noise.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Great Falls

I finished that last post and went out to shovel snow. Then I decided to go to Great Falls to photograph it with snow on the rocks. Here are a couple of photos, processed with Nik.

Great Falls on St. Patrick's Day

Great Falls Panorama

Great Falls

I've recently gotten into photography. Well, I've dabbled for years and only recently gotten serious. Well, serious for me...

So I've shot enough to have a sense of what I like doing and I have enough of a catalog now that I can show a few things from photography outings in a thematic way. Today's theme: Great Falls of the Potomac. It's in Great Falls National Park, which straddles the border between Virginia and Maryland.

I've been there several times in the nearly 20 years that I've lived in Virginia, in all seasons. I've taken the typical tourist shot, like this one from the overlook on the Maryland side.

Great Falls from the Maryland Overlook

I made the previous photo on a hot, humid, Summer morning. Even after some work in Lightroom, it seemed uninteresting. Then I saw that the Nik Software suite was really cheap, well, cheap is relative. The price dropped a lot. So I bought the software suite and revisited some older photographs, with results like this.

Great Falls: Nik Color Efex Pro

It's the same photo, cropped, and processed to bring the sky and colors out a little more. Then I thought, why not get creative? I got a neutral density filter and a tripod and went back on an Autumn morning to get something new. Here's my first attempt at long-exposure photography, taken from the same location.

Great Falls: Long Exposure

I tried Nik software again, but didn't find a look that I liked. After I got bored with the falls, I started paying attention to the changing sunlight. It was sunrise after all. So I took the ND filter off and started shooting away. Here are two different renderings of the same photo, one with just a little Lightroom work, the other with some Nik effects.

Great Falls in Autumn

Great Falls in Autumn: Nik Color Efex Pro

I think I like the Nik version better, even though the colors aren't realistic. And here are a few more shots from that Autumn visit.

Great Falls

 

Great Falls: Nik Color Efex Pro

Like every other photographer, I wish I had a better camera body, or better lenses, or that perfect camera bag (which I'm convinced doesn't exist). I can even get into a long evaluation of camera carrying straps (I settled on a Black Rapid strap). My current thing to spend money on is bird photography. After much deliberation I finally bought a 300mm prime lens and a 1.4 teleconverter: entry level gear for a bird photographer. Well, it's not just for birds. It's also for photographing my son's sports activities and for other wildlife besides birds. Of course new gear = practice required. Back to Great Falls I went, this time on a frozen Winter day. I went with just the new lens, no zoom, no wide angle lens. Here's a series from that visit.

Great Falls: Ice at the water's edge

Great Falls Grafitti

Great Falls: Frost, Rocks, and Rushing Water

Great Falls on a Frigid Winter Morning

Remember that I said I got the lens for bird photography? I didn't see many birds when I went back looking for birds. Oh there were plenty of Canada geese, which are year-round pests here. What I really wanted to shoot were bald eagles. I saw one perched on a tree on Conn Island. It's an island: I can't get closer without swimming or boating. This was the best shot I could get before he/she flew away.

Bald Eagle: Conn Island in the Potomac River

So much for this photographic study of Great Falls. For anyone interested in visiting:

• The light is better in the morning on the Maryland side; it's better in the evening on the Virginia side.
• Conn Island is a heron rookery.
• There is a bald eagle nest on Conn Island, clearly visible from the Maryland shore along the C&O Canal towpath, at least it's visible during Winter.
• There are usually a few black vultures to be found at the falls area.
• Mather Gorge below the falls is full of hiking trails from which to view the rocky Potomac River and the birds that live within.
• The rapids are popular with kayakers. You'll probably see lots of them if you visit in Summer.