The Raven

With it's black cape-like wings draping down as it flies, this raven almost has a bit of a batman look to it. We've had lots of ravens visiting our garden in the past week, but they are really shy, and fly off before I can photograph them. This one I got on a lucky shot, though!

Tree Creeper

A tree creeper searching for food in Sauerland, Germany. At this particular spot, there were several of them, all running up the trees looking for insects. Since these birds can only walk up trees and not down, they fly back down to the base for another run. It's very practical for photographing them!

Lines

This is another picture I took for an online photo contest. The theme was 'Lines'. I did a 30 sec. exposure on a bridge over the highway.

King of the Tree!

A blue tit playing king of the tree. 

Sauerland, Germany

Morning Moon

The morning moon seen through our cherry tree.

Heron in Flight

I photographed this grey heron in Belgium, at the Achouffe brewery. They had a fish pond there, which seemed to attract all sorts of wildlife. The heron let us get pretty close to him before he took flight.

Squirrel Alert!

There's a red squirrel thats been coming to visit us in our garden lately. In these pictures he was munching on the fallen sunflower seeds under one of our bird feeders. He's really cute! I wonder how long he'll stay this cute without becoming a problem...

Mischievous!

This chaffefinch is digging through the snow looking for food, and giving me a very mischievous look over his shoulder (or wing, for that matter)!

And the winner is...

I took this picture for a contest as part of a team of photographers in an ongoing online contest. The photographers are matched against each other in pairs, with a different theme for each pair. It was my first time participating, and I was excited to be part of it and take some good photos. The contest is voted on by members of the forum, and the team that gets the most points in the end wins. My theme was "Home Aqurarium", and I ended up winning the vote. Unfortunately, the opposing team had some really great pictures, and my team lost the general vote. I'm part of it again for the upcoming round, so maybe we'll win this time. Anyway, now for the picture. This is Splash, he's an angelfish.

Perfect Perch

Another one from the chaffich, this time in the tree.

Snowy Visitor

This Chaffinch came by our feeder this morning to have a snack. For a good while, there were 3 of them sitting in our apple tree, and flitting down to the feeder from time to time to feast on the grains and such.

Canon 60D ISO 1000 1/400 sec
Sigma DG 150-500 APO at 403 mm f 8

It's Spring!

We had the first fully sunny day in months on Monday, and I took my camera with me. I had a little bit of time to walk around and enjoy the weather. This little robin sat next to me in a hedge, and was SO happy about the weather! He couldn't stop singing his lungs out about it.

Foggy Day at the Beach

St. Peter Germany, 2013

Scanning the Fields

A common buzzard scanning the fields for prey.

Frozen Beach

St. Peter, Germany 2013

 

Taking Flight

Here is the common buzzard that I photographed (while feeding on it's prey), crouching and spreading it's wings just about to take flight.

Seagull Portrait

Husum is a nice little town on the north sea coast of Germany. We spent an afternoon walking around there, and took some pictures in the Harbor. This seagull was sitting on a piling in the harbor, and stayed long enough to pose for me.

A Tasty Prey

We went out searching for wildlife today in the area around where we live. I'm always seeing various birds of prey along the roads through the fields around here. My wife was driving as we saw this common buzzard (buteo buteo) feeding on it's prey. It was luckily on my side of the car, and we stopped to try and snap some shots of it, hoping it would stay for a few seconds. It stayed long enough for me to shoot these 7 shots, then flew off. Here they are, in the order I shot them in.

 

Elbtunnel

I took this picture in the Elbtunnel in Hamburg, While riding through. The exposure is 1/3 of a second, and I zoomed in while the shutter was open. It made for a cool effect, since the car was moving as well.

A Hawish Look

A hawk looking at me from a tree, somewhere on the north sea coast, near Westerhaven, Germany

Mystery Picture

Can you tell what this picture is? I decided to post this in an unusual perspective, as it seems to have a better effect. Please leave comments as to what you think it is.

The Weigh House

This is a picture of De Waag (the weigh house) in Amsterdam. The building is from 1488, and is the oldest non-religious structure in Amsterdam. It was originally one of the gates of the old city wall. I took this picture in march 2009, with a Casio EX-FH20 bridge camera at ISO 400 1/6 sec. I stabilized the camera on the railing of the bridge.

Bird Perch

This hedge sparrow has been a daily visitor at our feeder. He comes by several times throughout the day, and then retreats to his home underneath our garden bench. I really enjoy watching him hop around and pick up fallen seeds from underneath the feeder.

How Many Fish!?!

This little puffin seems to have had a very successful catch! Pufffins generally catch around 10 fish at a time to bring back to the burrough, but can hold many more in their beaks. The record number of fish ever counted was 62! It looks like this one is working his way up there.

Ominous Clouds

It was very windy yesterday. The weather has taken a massive swing in the last week, and it's causing some strange happenings in the skys. I looked out the window yesterday, and saw these incredible formations. I ran outside with the camera to capture it. Here's the result.

Return of the puffins

The puffins are back! Well, at least in my blog. I was flipping through my pictures from Iceland from this summer, and discovered I have yet to process a large chunck of puffin pictures. So, in the next couple of weeks, a puffin will be sticking it's head out every once in a while here. Maybe you can spot him through the grass!

Flying Bullet!

On a walk in the snow this past saturday, we came by tall hedges on the edge of a field in which lots of green finches living in them. As we walked, they flitted around from tree to tree, and formed small flocks on the branches. All at once, many of them took to flight, and shot through the air not far from us. I aimed my camera in their direction and shot photos, hoping to maybe get a decent shot of one of them. This came out of it. A bullet of a bird shooting through the air, feet and wings folded in. The picture isn't terribly sharp, but the action of the shot speaks for itself.

Sunset

Sunset in Hamm. This picture looked almost like this out of camera. I only did some very minor developing (just adjusted the light values slightly) in lightroom. I'm happy with my new Canon 60D!

Candle light

Candle light taken with my new canon 60D camera.

Distant Mountains

Mountains in the distance on Snaefellsnes, Iceland