The Fragile Butterfly -- Photo Story #4

     Many people know what a monarch butterfly is. Their orange and black signature colors make them easy to identify. What people may not know is how fragile and how susceptible they are to change. Up to three million monarch butterflies from the U.S. and Canada travel up to 2,000 miles to a forest west of Mexico City. Their sensitivity to change was shown after rainstorms in January 2002, which led to freezing temperatures. It killed about 250 million butterflies.

    Logging is also a problem. Even though there are butterfly sanctuaries, the logging edges right up to them, destorying the extra protection from wind and freezing temperatures. In the past decade, nearly half of the forests that monarchs depend on have been destroyed. The Mexican government and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) try to preserve forests to help butterflies. They have even offered to pay landowners to not cut the trees. Numbers have been shown to be the lowest for returning butterflies from Mexico in years.

There are sites to donate to, including WWF, to help preserve the monarch butterfly population.

A group of butterflies gather around the plants along Lake Bemidji.

A butterfly rests on a flower to suck the nectar.

Birds of Northern Lake Bemidji -- Photo Story #3

     I knew the lake was a great place to get pics. I had an idea I was probably going to get pictures of birds. Instead of looking for a particular bird, I drove to the north end of the lake and found a gaggle of geese (if that is the right term) and a few ducks swimming by. To make it interesting, I decided to find a spot on shore, and instead of focusing on a specific bird, I would let the geese and ducks come near me to see what kind of shots I would get.

    I had to be patient, but it was a great experience to see what would happen. I used the telephoto lense and used manual focus. I wish I would have used automatic because it's a lot easier but it was fun to experiment with focusing my own shots. I noticed that I had picked a horrible spot for taking pictures, because all the birds were swimming in the opposite direction I wanted them to. After twenty minutes or so, some started swimming closer to me and I snapped a way.



Several geese swim between me and a boat of fishermen.




A close up shot of one of the geese.



A duck swims pass a group of geese.

   



A duck flapping its wings in the lake.





Bees Pollinating -- Photo Story #2

        As I was taking pictures of butterflies drinking nectar, I realized there were also bees enjoying the flowers. I took some pictures of them, not expecting to use them. The pictures turned out nicely and I think it gave a good perspective on the bees and what they do exactly. I first was using the telephoto lense when taking previous pictures, but I switched to the normal lense and adjusted it to macro. I was able to get really close shots of the bees without disturbing them.

       I looked online to see what the bees were doing and how they prepare for winter. I found that the bees are gathering nectar, by going from flower to flower. Since these bees don’t migrate, they simply store as much nectar as they can in their bodies. As it digests in their bodies, it releases heat and keeps the nest warm and protects the other bees and the queen bee from dying of cold temperatures. They also collect nectar and pollen to feed to the colony’s larvae. Some of the pollen collected from the bees is deposited on other flowers to help them thrive.

A bee captured in midflight is choosing a flower to land on.




A bee searching for pollen and nectar in the flower.



A frontal shot of a bee on the flower.



A clear shot of the pollen collected at the bees leg.



Scavenging Squirrels -- Photo Story #1

       Compared to my other photo stories, I knew exactly what I was looking for and where I should go to capture it. There is a lot of action going on at Diamond Point Park; families grilling, children running around on the beach, people walking their dogs, and what I was looking for–squirrels. I brought my camera equipment to the park around five o’clock on a thursday evening, and all I had to do was choose a spot to stand. The park was full of squirrels collecting nuts and acorns, running up trees, and chasing each other.

       The problems I had with the camera and capturing the small creatures was focusing on them. I noticed the white balance was too cool and made everything look cloudy and blue. I switched the white balance to shady and it made everything look warmer and more accurate. Since the squirrels move so fast, I had to mess around with the ISO which was affecting the aperture. I went from 100 to 200 and finally 400 seemed to work the best, which makes sense since the sun was low. It was also hard to get close to squirrels because they seem to be constantly moving and they are very jittery. I would take a step forward, and the squirrel would take off up a tree.

       After spending a good hour taking pictures of squirrels, it’s easy to pick up their patterns and how they act. I’ve always seen squirrels but I’ve never paid that much attention to them. I enjoyed it! I thought it was interesting and the challenge to it was also fun.





The squirrel found a snack and ran up a tree to devour it. I starting noticing squirrels habits while I was taking these shots. The squirrels would be frightened from the ground so they scurried up a tree. Half way up the tree, almost every time, the squirrel would peak back to see what was coming.





One of my favorite shots, the squirrel has finally relaxed and is eating. Bits of acorn were flying everywhere as he was eating. It would have been a great shot for video, because I couldn't capture that on photo.



Another shot of a squirrel getting ready to eat. I really enjoy this photo because of the background colors with the leaves and how well the photo turned out.