Tiny little grass snake

  Probably the last snake for this year...

As it's already a bit cold this small guy didn't even bother to escape.

On a rainy day

On a rainy day if you are not too keen to get out and get wet, you can always stay inside and make images of things you have at home. Here's some wilflowers shot with a smart phone and edited in camera...

Wild fall flowers

  Just edited a few images with a laptop and using Nikon Capture NX-D. Not really my favorite combination, but have to do, otherwise no chances to update this blog during this and upcoming week. Flowers are a great subject. I usually shoot portrait type of images of flowers, just one or a couple of flowers in a nice tight group, but when there is a whole field of wild flowers of course you have to do some wide shots of the colorful fields and why not even a closeup shot with a 10 mm wide angle lens. Here you are... three shots from this week...

   

Grey herons... nope, but purple ones

  A couple of days ago we noticed that there's quite a bunch herons at a nearby place. First time we noticed them I didn't have a camera with me, so no photos. What I thought they would be, was grey herons because there's a nesting site nearby the town. The next time we went by the same place I didn't wait to see them, I thought they'd already gone. To my surprise they were still there and when we approached they took of with quite a noise. Good thing was that I had my camera with me, but the bad thing, as I said,  they took of and I didn't expect them to be there so I was not prepared to for a shoot. Anyway I managed to make a couple of birds in flight images. Yesterday when I opened the images I noticed that the birds I'd thought are grey herons are actually purple herons. So a new species for my life list.  Here they are...

  Here they are just after the take of...

  One who was a bit late...
 

   And finally the group flying in formation.    

An intimate portrait

  Fire bugs are pretty common insects, you can see them here and there and often many at the same time. It's not uncommon to see these invertebrates to be fastened to each other from their butts. That means that a male have found a female and they are breeding and soon there is more of them, actually a lots of them. However, I like these interesting small bugs. They are brightly colored and a nice subject for photos.

Kitten

  Quite a bit of negative space in this image but I still like it. Probably wouldn't get trough QC in stock agencies, too much of noise and such. But here in my blog I can always publish what I want so here it is, one more cat pic.

  

A garden spider in the garden

  It's been a pain to try to make an image of our newest guest in the garden. Hes artwork is usually most beautiful in the morning when covered in dew.

  But to make an image of the artist her self has been a hard task. Every single morning you can see that she has been working on her web during the night, but in the morning she' gone. She's hiding. She's waiting for a prey, like this...

 
  Hiding behind the apple leaves and having control over the fine strings of her web with just one small touch of her leg. And if and when some poor insect flies to the so beautiful but so fatal trap...

  She's ready, but so was I too!

A tradition for the fall

  Somehow it seems to be hard to find any vipers in the beginning of the season. Probably it's just me, don't know the places etc. But something happens every single fall and it happened today too. We were walking a path, the same path as last year and the year before, and there it is, a nose-horned viper basking and just waiting a photographer to pass by and make a few photos. So here's a couple of images of that photo shoot. Enjoy! I did!

Macros with a flash

  In most of my photography I rely on ambient, natural light. I think that the sun is the best light source existing. Today I thought I'd make an compromise and try to shoot a couple of macro images with my old and faithful sb-600 speedlight unit. For the purpose I fastened it on a tripod and adjusted it so that I could use it wireless and off-camera. In these next three images the strobe is placed on the right side of the camera and quite close to the subject and the power is 1/16 of full power.

   A shield bug larvae on fig leaf...

   Bees enjoying an overly ripe fig...

   A snail on a zinnia.    

Out in the field again

  Even if I love to be out in the field alone, it's always nice to be accompanied by like minded. Yesterday I had the chance to guide Kenneth Rosenlund around in the valley. Kenneth is a professional bird and nature artist. If you want, you can check out hes work from here. We started the morning from a nearby pond. Nothing to see, just a couple of birds and that's it. When we left the place I noticed that one of my favorite hills is covered in fog, so a small stop and a couple of clicks with the camera...

   After half an hour the mist started to get away from the sun and I had the chance to watch how you paint an bee eater. It's amazing what someone talented can do with a brush, paper and colors. Amazing, or what do you say?

  Not only the bee eaters were there, but quite a bunch of red-backed shrikes too and I even managed to shoot one golden oriole.

  When the bee eater portrait was ready, my friend wanted to paint a landscape. As you see you can use a car not only for driving, but as a stand as well.

Mean while I took a walk and photographed a couple of sand lizards and three puppies I found in a concrete pit full of carcasses and gut parts... gross

The day ended in Sofia with few more golden orioles. As said, it's always nice to get out in the field with people who are interested of the natural world.