More cave formations

Just a couple more wee little things from Cherokee Caverns



Each of those is probably less than 1cm long.

Cave formations

Some nifty water droplets:



Water dripping from a "soda straw":



These soda straws are cool - they're hollow deposits roughly the size of a soda straw, so the water you see is actually coming from inside!  I got a number of pictures of these - I particularly like this one because you have a cool little view of the cave behind it (zoom in for a bit more detail).

New friends!

A couple of friends and I went on a hike up in the Norris Watershed area.  Along the way, I made a couple of new friends, which is pretty amazing for me.

First of, we have Master Eastern Fence Lizard.



This little guy was amazingly tolerant of us holding and petting him.  I suspect it was related to his being 4 feet up in the air.  He jumped off pretty quickly once my hand got closer to the ground.  Still, it was pretty cool.

The other friend I made was Master American Toad.

He was quite wee, and a lot more red/orange than the toads I've seen before.  An interesting find!  However, he was also a lot more skittish than MEFL, so we didn't manage to get any better images.

Another couple from autocross

A few more shots from the autocross at Chilhowee Park a few weekends ago.  In these, I was trying to pan with the cars using a long exposure to give the feel of motion in the photos.  It was a bit difficult given the constraints of where I was photographing.  These two kind of worked.



This one is a bit more successful - the car is in focus and clear for the most part.

Field Trip!

Today was the SANP trip up to Cherokee Caverns to do some cave photography.  This was a very cool trip, organized by Kris Light.  There were roughly 17 of us, plus Jim Whidby, the caretaker of the caverns.  Jim gave us a history of the caverns, which apparently included a restaurant, gunfights, and at one point, a biker gang!

After an hour or so, Jim was done talking, and we got to wander around and shoot whatever we wanted.  With only 17 people, there was plenty of room to spread out and do your own thing.  We were also allowed into a few areas that aren't opened up to the general public on the few times dates each year that the caves are open to them.

This is the view from near the entrance to the cavern:



I'll write up some more details later, once I have edited a few more pictures.  I'm pretty happy with my keeper rate, maybe as high as 25%.

For my mother

Because she's never seen a yellow Lady Slipper.   Of course, neither had I until we found this one at Frozen Head!





Taking good flower photos without a tripod with a telephoto lens is hard...

Autocross

I went out to the Autocross race last weekend at Chilhowee park to take some different pictures from my normal.  Here are a few.

Random shots

Random shots from Seven Islands

My favorite hummingbird shot

I dig the orthogonality of the bird and the branch.  Plus, it's so cute!  Bird was in reality probably 30-40ft away from me.  Taken with the 300mm+1.4TC

Seven Islands Birds

A couple more birds from Seven Islands.  First up is a little bird that feels kinda sad.  This is obviously not a close-up-show-the-detail photo, but it conveys a little bit of something.



This next little guy (or gal!) was a pretty neat find!  I have only seen hummingbirds in the wild once before.  Anyway, I had to be very patient to get this photo - it was pretty much impossible for me to get a photo while it was still in flight.



So that was kinda neat, yeah?  This one is better :)



jlo out.

I couldn't resist toying around a bit more..

A little on the overdone side, but I think I like the effect anyway.

Today's adventure

Quick edit from today's hike up to Sand Cave in the Cumberland Gap National Park.  More to follow, along with a hike report.  Tired now though.



Let me know what you think.

Damselfly, two ways

Here's the original photo, taken with a 300mm lens on a monopod:



And here's what I ended up with after a little messing around in Lightroom:

Bird family

Caught this bird-parent bringing some dinner home...



Mugging for a closeup:


Feeding the babies - you'll notice a small yellow beak poking up :)


It was waaaay to warm to be sitting on a bunch of little birds, but this parent did it anyway.  That's dedication!

Another birdie

Anyone know what this is?  I've been too lazy to look it up...

Trip out to 7 islands

I went out to Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge this weekend to take some photos of the birds out there.  Unfortunately, my timing was a little off, and I got there too early to see the best of the birding. Still, I saw a decent number of them.  Here are the first couple of edited shots.

Dragonfly or damselfly

Check this out - another photo taken handheld with a telephoto lens.  You can actually see the ovipositor or whatever it's called coming out the back of the thing!

Dragonfly at Ijams

This is a dragonfly I shot at Ijams a month or two ago.  Shot was taken handheld with a 300mm lens, so I'm pretty impressed that it's so sharp :)



This is the same shot, but uncropped, and the result of messing with sliders in Lightroom.  I think the kids these days call it "Instragram"

Look, an osprey!

You know you missed them.