Two weeks ago, I planned on spending the morning packing for Florida, but this morning I awoke with few plans for the week and the sun still below the horizon, so I got dressed, picked up my camera and got in the car to see what the morning might hold.
As I turned north on Bolivar Road, the clouds to the wast seemed to have some interest, so I pulled in the field and took out the 75-300. First, I captured an image of the clouds behind the hill and cell tower with intentions of making a black and white picture, but the light was low and the image noisier than I wanted at 6400 ISO. Then it occurred to me to switch to Handheld High Resolution (HHHR), which (by averaging a series of exposures) has a cleaner file when the conditions allow, and they did.
Then, as the sun began to rise toward the horizon, I turned my attention to the clouds approximately 10-15 degrees to the north. While most of the sky was a not-so pretty purple, the 75-300 afforded me an opportunity to focus my attention on a narrow band of sky where the color an light were most intense. The resulting capture and intensity of light makes the sky look as if it were ablaze.
I then decided to drive through the eastern portion of the town looking for deer. I wouldn’t see any, but I did find this osprey. I photographed this bird from my car for 10-15 minutes before I drove away with the bird in the same spot as when I had arrived. Before then, though, I would capture a multitude of images, trying HHHR and basic captures. I had success with both, but my favorite was not an HHHR image after all.
I would continue to drive into the village to park at Sullivan Park with intentions of walking Lake Street to Dyke Road and the Lions Park at Chittenango Creek. On my way there, though, the light reflecting off the roof of a village barn caught my eye while I was driving through town, so I doubled back to capture a fun abstract image.
Now I could continue to drive to Sullivan Park as planned.
Surprisingly, the park seems to be a place for turkey vultures to congregate; I saw over 20 of the large birds in the trees in the area. Here are a few captures:
As I walked from the park toward the cemetery, I would pause to capture some images of the petals that had fallen from the tree blossoms that line the street.
The Lion’s park would be mostly uneventful. I paused near the lot to take a picture of a flower and a fairy house before turning north to walk the trail along the creek. The high key flower pleases me, despite its simplicity.
I came across a kingfisher while I was walking the creek. While I was walking north, it elected to fly south. When I returned to walk through the lot approximately 15 minutes later, I would first hear, and then see see the bird. I would grab a quick image from a distance before I slowly tried to move closer and from a perspective that didn’t muddy the scene. Alas, this would be my only capture before the bird would fly all the way back to the northern end of the creek from where I just came.
So this is the first try this year. There will be other chances, I think. I have seen kingfishers on the canal at Poolsbrooke, at Cazenovia Lake, and now at Chittenango Creek. They are around, but they are skittish, so perhaps it won’t happen for me this year, but I’ll have to wait and see.
I would walk back through the village along the creek and return to the car at Sullivan Park taking my camera out only one more time to try to capture an image of a blue jay near The Grand, but it flew away before I was able to point my lens at it.
Maybe next time.