Picture of the Week (POTW) #11

Picture of the week for the period 15 - 21 August 2010. Yours truly hand launching the ultra micro Champ RC airplane last Sunday morning. Donna and I took advantage of there not being any wind and headed out to a large grassy area (which you can see needs to be cut!) to fly the Champ some. This was also taken pre-propeller incident :). Donna took this using her Rebel T2i and 18-200 lens. Exposure was 1/750th at f/5.6, camera zoomed to 72mm, ISO 200.

Hand Launch
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Picture of the Week (POTW) #10

Picture of the week for the period 15 - 21 August 2010. I shot this female Banana Spider (Argiope aurantia) this past weekend while Donna and I were walking around in the Cypress Gardens Swamp. While I don't especially care for spiders what I really liked about this picture was the spider web. It's pretty amazing how spiders can create these webs. I shot this using my Canon 7D and 70-200 f/4 lens. Eposure was 1/250th at f/5.6, ISO 500. Lately I've been using Auto ISO more. Even though the camera seems to pick a higher ISO then I would have though the images are turning out well so I'm going to stick with it for a while.

Female Banana Spider
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Picture of the Week (POTW) #9

Picture of the week for the period 8 - 14 August 2010. It's not everyday that you see three birds all feeding from the same feeder at the same time -- at least around here this isn't something that I see happening very often. Not too long ago I moved the sunflower seed feeder so that it extends above the fence. This has proven to be a smart move. Now that the birds have discovered it it's not uncommon to see doves lined up along the fence waiting their turn to get some of the seeds and this pair of House Finches are regular visitors to our back yard. It's pretty cool to watch the birds feeding from it. I took the picture below using Donna's Rebel T2i and EF-400 lens. The camera/lens were mounted on the Induro CT314 tripod and I was using the ballhead and GHBA Gimbal Head. Exposure was 1/30th (which I find somewhat surprising given the bright side lighting) at f/5.6, ISO 100. At the top left is a male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), on the bottom is a female House Finch and standing on the fence post is a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura).

Three on a Tree
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Picture of the Week (POTW) #8

Picture of the week for the period 1 - 7 August 2010. This is the large knob as it is known at Pilot Mountain State Park in King, North Carolina. If you view the larger version you can make out a few birds soaring around it. Most of what we saw were either Turkey or Black Vultures though there's supposed to be several Hawks in the area as well. Donna took this with her Rebel T2i, 18-200mm lens, zoomed to 33mm, 1/250th at f/5.6, ISO 100. Not that I'm keeping count or anything but I think this makes 3 weeks in a row that we selected on of her pictures.

Pilot Mountain State Park, King, NC
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Picture of the Week (POTW) #7

Picture of the week for the period 25 Jul - 31 Jul 2010. Donna took this one while photographing a Ruby-throated hummingbird at our window feeder. This is the same hummingbird pictured in the Bad Hair Day post. In this one as you can see the hummingbird is looking into the house while our cat, Tiger is looking out at the hummingbird. She shot this with her Rebel T2i and EF-S 55-250 lens at 55mm. Exposure was 1/90th at f/4, ISO 125 (the camera must have been set for auto ISO to get that kind of ISO number).

Looking in and Looking out
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This is two weeks in a row for Donna. Looks like I need to step up my game a bit.

Picture of the Week (POTW) #6

Picture of the Week for the period 18-24 July 2010. Donna took this one Saturday afternoon not too long after I took the John the Heron shot. She took this using her Rebel T2i and EF-S 55-250 zoom lens. Exposure was 1/90 at f/4.5, ISO 400 and lens zoomed to 74mm. I really thought I had a great hummingbird shot we would have selected but in the end I agreed that this one would be better so that we have something other than birds. I 'spose I should have called it Bird Picture of the Week. 


This week we had a pretty easy time picking the POTW because, for some strange reason, we didn't take a single shot prior to Saturday so we ended up going through a much smaller set of photos than we normally do.

Picture of the Week (POTW) #5

Picture of the week for the period 11 Jul - 17 Jul 2010. Saturday morning Donna and I were headed to Cypress Gardens (every 3rd Saturday is free admission for us). On the way we spotted a turtle crossing the road. After we passed it I turned around and went back to make sure it made it across the street safely. Not sure why I do that but I've done it at least 4 or 5 times in the past couple of years. Anyways this is a Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) and he was a big one and strong! At one point he was trying to go back into the street and I was trying to prevent him by blocking his path with a piece of PVC pipe I found nearby. With his low center a gravity it was quite a challenge to convince him that he really didn't want to go back across the street. I finally got him headed in the right direction and once he was marching off through the grass I took this shot.


This was taken using Donna's Rebel T2i and our recently purchased EF-S 55-250 zoom lens. Exposure was 1/250th at f/5.6, ISO 400 and the lens was zoomed out to 179mm. I shot this while laying on the ground to try and get as as close to an eye-level perspective as I could.

Picture of the Week (POTW) #4

Picture of the week for the period 4 Jul - 10 Jul 2010. This is what you get when you pile your brother, your wife, your daughter, her boyfriend, your brother, his wife and his son into a Honda Pilot and you're on your way to Norfolk Virginia to watch a movie early Sunday morning.


This was taken using Donna's Canon Rebel T2i and Quantaray 18-200 lens. Focal length was 18mm, 1/60th of a second at f/4.5, ISO 100. The camera was sitting on the dash of the Pilot and the shutter was triggered using the build in timer.


Pictured from left to right you have -
Front Row - me and my brother Lew
Middle Row - Lew's wife Dodie, our daughter Steffanie, and my wife Donna
Third Row - Steffanie's boyfriend Justin and barely visible is Lew and Dodie's son Stefan.

Picture of the Week (POTW) #2

Picture of the week for the period 20 - 26 June 2010. I took this one of a Male Eastern Bluebird that has taken up residence in our birdhouse. He was bringing some dinner to Mrs. Bluebird but she wasn't in the birdhouse at the time. We are really enjoying watching the birds and how the interact with each other. They seem to be a bit less weary of our presence in the backyard as well. We don't know how long they've been occupying the birdhouse but we know there are 4 eggs in the nest. According to Birds of the Carolinas Field Guide, Second Edition: Companion to Birds of the Carolinas Audio CDs it takes 12 to 14 days for the eggs to incubate and then 15-18 days of fledging before the young birds will be ready to fly. This shot was taken handheld with my Canon 7D with the EF-400 f/5.6L lens. Exposure was 1/500 second @ f/5.6, ISO 400.

Picture of the Week (POTW) #1

Recently I wrote about my idea for a picture of the week Blog Post. Now that Donna and I are through with our Project 365 we've started our POTW project. Below is our first choice and I have to say it was tougher than I had expected selecting one image from a week's worth of images. This was taken at the Dungannon Heritage Preserve in Hollywood, SC, by Donna. It was taken using her Canon Rebel T2i which was mounted on a tripod. The lens was the Canon EF 70-200 f/4L with 1.4x extender. Focal lengh was 280mm, 1/350th of a second @ f/6.7, ISO 400.

New Photography Idea - Picture Of The Week (POTW)

Donna and I are approaching the end of our 365 Project. Unfortunately we missed a few days along the way and some days I just took a picture of anything so that I could have a photo for that particular day. This morning I had this idea pop into mind so I had to write it down before it slipped away and was forgotten. Our 365 Project ends on 12 June 2010 which is the day before our wedding anniversary.

So here's the idea. Starting 13 June 2010 I'm going to start doing a Photo Of The Week (POTW) challenge. The rules are very simple. Take all the photos you want during the week and at the end of the week select one photo from all that you took and make it your POTW. The challenge will run for a year and at the end of the year Donna and I will take all of the POTW photos and have them published in a book that we'll proudly display on the coffee table.

So what do you think? Anyone care to join me?