Locust Silhouette

Warm weather on the east coast makes for some fantastic nights to just sit out the deck, have a drink, and just relax. That is precisely what I was doing! I figured a fantastic, productive week at work deserved as much. My backyard is lined with trees behind my fence. There are two types of tree that grow back there. One is the immediately recognizable maple. The other is the Robinia, more commonly known as a "locust." Locusts make up the majority of trees that hang over into my yard. I never really knew what they were called. I guess it was because there is nothing really overly spectacular about them. I remember one person describing them as "tall, overgrown shrubs." Trees like maples, elms, willows, oaks, and beeches all seem to have very distinguishing features whether it be the bark, leaves, or the seeds it drops. Pardon me please. I seem to be straying. Every June, without fail, I will have to clean up all of the small, white petals that this tree drops in my backyard and in my pool.

While sitting out this past weekend, I did notice a pretty cool looking sky. I took the original shot without really tring to include any of the trees. However, I quickly realized that the locust silhouetted very nicely against the evening sky. I then took this one to include more of the tree but also with enough sky for some color.

I haven't done silhouettes in a while. If anyone has any opinions, please feel free to comment!

The Yardbirds continued...

Finally! Out with the bad weather and in with the good! Unfortunately, work has been hectic resulting in less time for shooting. I did manage to get these just before and after the weather broke though. Hope you enjoy!

A continuation of the last post with another photo of Mourning Doves. This time, I finally had some better light. Combine this with the low ISO setting and I got a nice sharp and colorful image.
Unable to identify this one. My best attempt at classification would be some breed of house sparrow as they are frequent visitors to my yard. If anyone knows for sure, please comment or email me as I would like to know exactly what kind of bird it is.

Sun was in and out when this shot was taken. This Common Grackle looks a little fatter than normal. This is a result of its courtship ritual. It consists of puffing out its feathers and making quick herky jerky movements with its head.

I was surprised to get this close (about 15 feet away, zoomed to 250mm). Common visitors to my lawn, this North American Robin was feeding on the new seed and worms. Quite disappointed about the position of the walkway lamp. The location of the bird and the position of the lamp make it difficult to crop effectively (in my opinion that is) as I am not a very good photo editor.

First post in over a week, I know. My consistency will improve for sure. Please stay tuned!

The Yardbirds

No, not the English rock band of the 1960s. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, and Chris Dreja will not appear in this post except for in this sentence. As the rain works its way through the northeastern United States, I have gotten little chance to get out and really get lost in a full day shoot. However, in the small amount of time between rain showers, I was able to capture a frequent visitor to my back yard.If you ask me, Mourning Doves just seem like a cleaner, less colorful pigeon. Almost seems like a bird that you would expect to see hanging around a local underpass (or overpass, whatever you prefer) or perched inside the "a" of a Shaw's Supermarket sign. Take this one for example (above). There doesn't seem to be anything overly spectacular about it at first look. It just sits there perched on that branch seeming very uninterested about the man with the camera pointed at it. But, that is what I started to find very likable about this bird in particular. My normal experience when trying to photograph birds up close involves me trying to find out how close I can get before the bird starts to turn and walk away or shows me that it is aware that I am there. This proves to be irritating at times as I will frequently miss out on a good shot because I was trying to get to close. This one, however, just seemed to hang around. It definitely seemed to know I was there, yet it didn't really seem frightened enough to fly away so I used this to my advantage.This is the same bird pictured above. Since he was intent on staying around, I started to inch closer and closer. No sudden movements were involved as I did not want to take the current situation for granted. As I moved closer, it started to inch down the limb of the tree into a different position but it was still not frightened enough to leave. I was able to take position about 4-5 feet from the limb with the bird about 10 feet above me. About 30 seconds after this shot, the skies opened up again and the sound of thunder frightened the bird enough to get him to fly off to a different location.

The forecast for this week doesn't look to promising, but I will try to look for some opportunities between the showers to sneak out and see what I can find.

Commercial Airliners

Logan International Airport is Boston, MA is a great place to go plane spotting. The main reason for this is its proximity to the city and surrounding communities. This allows me to get some decent close up shots of some nice looking commercial jets.

This is a photograph of a United Airlines Airbus A320. This particular airplane was part of the original United fleet. When I say "original," I am referring to the fact that this plane was not acquired through the merger between United and Continental Airlines (Continental Airlines had an all-Boeing airplane fleet). The post-merger livery for United got a lot of flack from airline enthusiasts, many wondering why United conceded so much of their identity to Continental. To an extent, I can see why there would be some frustration (especially since I do fly United whenever I fly). However, the "United" logo type on the side does look very nice and the blue and yellow globe logo that United adopted is not that bad as I thought it would be.

All American Airlines's airplanes are immediately recognizable. Their silver livery with red, white, and blue stripes is really and will always be one of a kind. In this instance, this AA Boeing 757 is taxiing for departure during the late afternoon. It really is a nice sight when you can see that sun shining off its silvery surface.

Time to go international! This monster is an Airbus A330 from Air One. Air One was the main competitor of Alitalia before their merger in 2009-2010. It still retains its logo and livery and is considered to be the leisure subsidiary of Alitalia. These A330s were designed by Airbus to compete against the very popular Boeing 767 (a staple of long distance domestic, and transatlantic flights). This particular aircraft is just turning off of the taxiway onto the active runway for take off. A few features of this picture that stood out to me immediately were the curvature of the wings and the heat coming out of the engines.

There can be no better way to finish off a post with the "Queen of the Skies" herself. The Boeing 747 is and will always be the most iconic and revolutionary airplane ever created. This particular 747 belongs to Air France, taxiing to the active runway to take off for Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris. It is immediately identified by the quad engines and the double deck hump towards the front near the cockpit. The 747 has undergone changes over its 40+ years of service but has always managed to keep its distinctive shape and curves. Previous models of this aircraft include the 747-100, 200, 747SP, and 300. The current model pictured above is the 747-400. One reason for the 747's distinctive "hump" is for flexibility. Boeing also planned to design this airplane as a cargo aircraft. They figured that if they move the cockpit up higher, they can have room for a massive nose hatch to load and unload cargo through. By keeping this design on the passenger version, they kept the door open for it to be converted into a freighter. The 747 has long dominated the VLA (very large aircraft) market but has recently been eclipsed by the new Airbus A380 as the largest commercial airliner on the market. Boeing has since launched a new variant of the 747 called the 747-8 Intercontinental. It is scheduled to enter service with three airlines at the end of 2011 to ensure that the "Queen of the Skies" will continue to fly.

Logan International Airport in Boston, MA is one of the 20 busiest airports in the United States and handles over 25 million passengers per year. It is so close to the city and surrounding communities which is very convenient for airline enthusiasts. It ranks as the 12th busiest airport in the United States based on international traffic, so you can always catch some good shots of the larger aircrafts arriving and departing.