What's that? A Light? At the end of the tunnel?

This blog has been silent for a while.  Okay, anybody looking at the last date that this thing was published could have said that.  School has been busy.  As John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."

I have done very little work inside blinds in the time since my last blog entry.  Over the Christmas holidays I spent a little bit of time inside the blind at San Angelo State Park.  This was mostly to test out a new tripod and remind myself what it was like to make images again.  It had been three months since I had made a single exposure.

As it turned out, my best image that trip was outside of the blind and without the benefit of my tripod.  But hey, things happen.

I missed the opportunity to shoot in the blinds around the Dayton area.  School made it too difficult to get out of the house.  I did not shoot another image outdoors until last weekend.

Okay, what is on the agenda?  I head back to Texas for good in June, but I expect that most of that month will be occupied with moving, unpacking, and getting settled in.  I'm hoping for a trip out to South Llano River SP in July, but we'll see what is on my agenda in the new job.  A good portion of August will have me on the road again, but by September I will be back in Texas and with hopefully cooler temperatures and to reassess what my fall will look like.

Other news of note.  Kathy Adams Clark will be doing a workshop at Block Creek Natural Area April 29th-May 1st.  The good folks at Block Creek promised to provide more details soon so head over there for more info.

Nosajio, the author of the White Noise blog, has had very kind words to say about the new blind at Pedernales Falls SP.  Bill Yeates had kind words to say about a blind that I thought was pretty bad at the time in Fredericksburg.  He reported great quantities of birds in the blind and reasonable light.  I also stumbled upon talk of some blinds either up or going up in Midland.  More to come on that as I get additional information.  Sadly nothing new about the proposed new blind at San Angelo SP.  I'm afraid that one has run out of steam.

I also found a phone message on Google Voice from back in December that I need to follow-up on and perhaps something good will come of that as well.

Expect over the next couple of months a couple of notes here and there as I start to blend back into the Texas woodwork.  Happy shooting to all of you.

Image:  Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii), San Angelo SP, San Angelo, Texas © Jim Miller - jmillerphoto.com 

Photo Blind Map Update and Upcoming Workshop at Block Creek Natural Area

I spent part of my weekend doing some much needed maintenance to my Texas Photo Blind map.   It had been far too long since I took the time to verify and update the information so now it may be reasonably correct, or at least as correct as the websites I used for reference.  I added a couple of sites, but sadly had to mark a couple others as either closed or unable to find.  As always, contact the owners of the particular properties to ensure that all of the particulars are correct.  I built an accompanying spreadsheet which I may share via Google Docs in the next week or so once I am certain that I can share it without sharing everything else I do in that forum.

Also in doing my updates I discovered the Block Creek Natural Area will be hosting Larry Ditto's "Texas Hill Country Birds and Autumn Colors" workshop November 4-6.  I'm not sure how much of the workshop will be in the blinds and how much will be wandering around, but Larry's work is superb and I have heard that he puts on an excellent workshop.  More information can be found at Larry's website.

Image:  Male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), South Llano River SP, © Jim Miller - jmillerphoto.com

News and Notes...

Little bits of news and notes are trickling in every once in a while.  I am hearing decidedly mixed results about the blind at San Angelo State Park.  Bob Zeller reports that the fall birds are arriving, with the most notable arrival being the White-crowned Sparrows--a true harbinger of Jack Frost packing up the car and heading for my beloved West Texas.  However, another couple photographer friends of mine have reported that fall has brought a narrow species spread and the predominance of blackbirds and doves is still in full force.  Timing and weather affect that blind more than any other I've ever dealt with.  Fingers crossed for some species diversity and great images during this time of year before winter hits and the angles of light become less favorable.  I have not heard any word lately regarding the planned but delayed 2nd bird blind.  If someone could provide me some updated info I would be very appreciative.

Bill Yeates was down recently at South Llano River State Park near Junction and reports that species spread was also pretty narrow, with the blinds currently being dominated by Northern Cardinals.  In my mind that is not necessarily a bad thing--I love the Northern Cardinals.  But at the same time, there comes a point where one more picture of a particular species is just one more picture of that species.  He did bring home a couple of images that would have been lifers for me: an Eastern Phoebe and a Gray Catbird.  Bob Zeller has posted those images over at his site and I invite you to wander over there to see Bill's great images.  Gosh, we need to convince him to get into the blogging business one of these days ;)

I'm still waiting to hear some word regarding the goings on at Pedernales Falls State Park as well as word about any fall workshops that might be going on at the various private blinds in the Hill Country and/or South Texas.  Any news regarding these subjects would be appreciated.

My 2011 calendar, Dragonflies 2011 is now available for sale for $16.99 + S&H.  Yes, they are dragonflies rather than birds.  What can I say--this summer during my exile from Texas has been all about Odonates.  Of the 12 different images there are 11 different species.  The repeat (the Widow Skimmer) has a male for one month and a female for another.  I am very pleased with the images and the production quality and invite you over to Lulu to take a look.  My plan for 2012 is to have a Northern Cardinal calendar as well as another dragonfly (or possibly a damselfly) calendar.

Images:
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys), San Angelo State Park, © Jim Miller - jmillerphoto.com
Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera), Twin Creek Metropark, Germantown, Ohio, © Jim Miller - jmillerphoto.com

Lub-dub....Lub-dub....Lub-dub....

Still alive and kicking in this neck of the woods.  The season of bird blinds opening up in my home away from home in Ohio starts in about a month.  I will be doing a report or two from Possum Creek Metropark and Spring Valley Wildlife Area as the calendar moves to October and the blinds start to open up.

Further along on the calendar, my time in Ohio will end towards the tail-end of March.  Hopefully by the first or second week in April I will be back in Texas (this time for good) and these reports will occur with much greater regularity.

In spite of not having any blinds to shoot out of, my life list has grown this summer.  I've added the Eastern King, Cedar Waxwing, and Red-bellied Woodpecker to my list.  That life list sits at 80 birds, but I know there is likely another 10-15 that are in my pictures that I just haven't recorded, to include a significant number of shorebirds from a workshop I attended a couple of years back and some shots from my time in Iceland.

Also on the horizon is another blog that I will be participating in to ensure that I am staying within the defined lanes of the other two blogs that I write for.  My vision is that this blog will only be news from the various blinds in Texas and my personal and shared blind reports, keeping other things photographic out of it.  Of course, where there is crossover I will probably post in both places or say, "Hey, I wrote about blah blah blah over at the other blog," or "A shot I made from one of the blinds is now available for sale.  More info over at the other blog."

So stay tuned...more good news on the way...

Image:  Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), Siebenthaler Fen, Beavercreek, Ohio, © Jim Miller

Lightroom 3 & Adobe Photoshop CS5 - The First Month

My digital darkroom received a major remodeling back about a month ago. Adobe finally released Lightroom 3.0. It was been in a public beta for an extended period of time and I used it off and on since the public release. I am a legacy Lightroom 1.x user and I am a "skip a version" user when it comes to Adobe products--Adobe's "Major" version number updates are typically not enough to get me to make the jump, but there is enough change every two versions to make me jump ship and engage the learning curve again. I was also using Adobe Photoshop CS3 so I upgraded to both CS5 and LR3 at the same time.

Things I liked moving from LR 1.x to LR 3.0:

• Dual screen support: Admittedly this was available in LR 2.x, but since I didn't make the jump I didn't have it. Then again, I wasn't running dual screen on my computer either, so having the capability wasn't much of a selling point for me.
• Graduated ND filter: Again, this was something that was in LR 2.x, but it was not nearly as smooth or useful as the current edition.
• Plug-in Support for Flickr and SmugMug: This is a gee whiz, but it's a nice gee whiz. For folks who want to throw the initial images out on Flickr to share with family and friends, this is a nice feature. For studio work, I can see a great deal of good to be had by being able to push directly to SmugMug or other providers so that event images can be processed quickly and made available for customers.
• Tethered Shooting: For studio and event shooters, this is an incredible feature. If clients can see what the shot looks like before they leave, they can provide feedback and re-shoots can be done on the spot rather than later. Happy clients should equal more sales.
• New Slide Show Mechanism: Great improvement from previous attempts. This could eliminate or greatly reduce my reliance on software packages like Pinnacle's Studio. I can't wait to fully explore this one.

So now about a month into my new dual software experience and I have a few thoughts...

Even though it is a newer piece of software and software tends to get larger rather than smaller through it's evolution, Lightroom 3 is far quicker than Lightroom 1.x. Granted that right now my main processing folder only has 2010's images and they total just under 1,100 (or in the old days, about 3 shoots worth). But I find that except for the initial switches into the different modules (i.e. develop, web, etc), that Lightroom 3 is lightning quick.

Dual-screen support is incredibly useful in Lightroom 3, especially during dust removal and initial meta-tagging.

I've also found that there is so much to this program that I do not know that it is going to take some time to truly feel 100% comfortable with it. The features that I know that are carryovers from Lightroom 1.x are still very intuitive and I have successfully processed a number of images. But I also know there is so much there that I don't know that it is going to take some time.

Photoshop CS5 runs beautifully as well. What I knew of CS3 works great. I'm still learning the other features and am anxiously awaiting for mid-August when Scott Kelby's CS5 book is released so I can really get into the guts of what I need to know.

Overall it has been a smooth transition. I can't wait to (a) get the books to help me along the learning path, and (b) to make more images in the camera so I can take them into the digital darkroom.

June 18th Report - San Angelo State Park

Just a short note regarding the blind at San Angelo State Park. I was able to visit the morning of the 18th for about an hour and was generally impressed. Water was flowing, the grounds were very well maintained, and the birds were plentiful. The species spread was kind of narrow, but I also didn't spend the amount of time I usually do at the blind. Far too many things going on elsewhere during my trip home and not nearly enough time to do everything that I wanted to do.

The highlight of the visit was a Wild Turkey hen and three or four offspring that made it into the general blind area. Only one of the offspring was brave enough to venture close enough to get a good look, but his siblings were definitely in the brush and while obscured, were definitely identifiable. Of all of the trips I made into the blind, this was the first time I had seen Wild Turkey chicks.

No pictures for right now... I left my memory card from that particular shoot at home. I'm hoping that it will show up in the mail in the next few days and I will share then.

Another Workshop On the Hoizon

I'm still alive and well here in the rust belt. Not much shooting for me of late--no free time is one of the dangers of going to grad school full time. Membership has it's privileges, I guess.

I received word today from Sean Fitzgerald that he is offering a 2nd workshop at Los Madrones Ranch near Austin. The dates are May 28th - May 30th and the cost is a very reasonable $990. Sean does some outstanding work and I've heard nothing but very positive reviews about the workshop experience with him. More information can be found at this website or you can call 214-213-4193 .

I also received an e-mail from Bill Yeates, one of my photographer friends back in San Angelo. He has been spending some quality time down at South Llano River State Park and sent me some pretty images of an Indigo Bunting, a Lark Sparrow that was partially albino, and warbler that neither he nor I was able to identify. He also reports that he saw Painted Buntings, Black-throated Sparrows, and a number of other warblers. As you have read in these blogs before, I am consistently impressed with the blinds at South Llano River State Park and big kudos need to go out to the staff, management, and tireless volunteers for creating and maintaining what may be the best public land birding experience west of San Antonio.

On my current local front, I found what could be an outstanding blind here in the Dayton area. I will do an initial site report on it when I can find some time and I can get some other questions answered.

I hope that your bird photography experiences are going well during this spring. I hear wonderful things about the amount of precipitation that Texas has gotten and how pretty the wildflowers are. I don't foresee a trip home any time soon. I have a couple of weeks with no classes, but I need to spend some quality time on my thesis research. In fact, as soon as I finish this out, I have another 14 page scholarly paper I need to read before I start slaving away again at the keyboard. Just ten months to go...I can't wait ;)

Image: Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), Possum Creek Metropark, Dayton, Ohio, © Jim Miller