Bonnie Rannald's Photo-Explorations in focus with nature. : April 2013

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Spring Birding at Stillwater

A Day of Bird Watching with the Nikon

An early morning drive in April 2013 to Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, near Fallon, Nevada turned out to be an excellent day for bird watching.

In the distance, just approaching the Environmental Education area a huge nest was spotted in a tall cottonwood tree.

Switching to my Nikon 500mm 4.0 lens, I realized this was a Great Horned Owl sitting on her nest.

Across at the picnic area, the Cliff Swallows were busy building their nests of mud.

With the abundance of flying insects, the swallows should have plenty of food to subsidize their diets.

At first, I thought the insects were mosquitoes, but I did not get any bites and they weren't interested in my bare skin.

As I was leaving, a Double-crested Cormorant waded out in the shallow water and posed while I carefully steadied the Nikon 80-200mm 2.8 on the truck window.

I hope to do a return visit in early May to check on the progress of our feathered friends and see what new arrivals have stopped by during the spring migration.

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

Photography places me in the moment where I can share that moment in time. It becomes a life story as represented by my interaction with the scene. The happiness and beauty or the sorrow and strife; how I focus leaves a lasting impression that might touch the viewer on a spiritual level.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

All rights reserved, world-wide and images protected by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). All photography, graphics, text, design, and content is copyrighted by Bonnie Rannald and should not be copied, down-loaded, transferred and re-created in any way without the express consent, in writing to Bonnie Rannald. For information on Bonnie Rannald licensed, right-managed images, please submit a written request.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Historical Hoover Dam

Creating the Photograph

Between 1995 and 1998, I was doing a lot of commercial photography for the Las Vegas Insider View Point, which was the number one informational guide of Las Vegas. One of my projects was to come up with an interesting shot for the magazine’s cover of Hoover Dam while the new visitor's center was under construction.

So many times when you go to do outdoor photography, you never know if nature will cooperate. I planned the Hoover Dam shoot after carefully watching the weather and hoping for a clear, calm day. On this morning, the sky was a pale blue and the Colorado River as calm as it will ever be along the mountainous terrain. I decided to use my Mamiya 645 camera with the wide angle 45mm 2.8 lens and AGFA 50 ISO film. For the magazine cover, I shot in vertical format. While I was there and since the lighting was so nice, I also shot a number of horizontal frames.

That year, I had been invited to exhibit my photography at the National Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism, which was held in Las Vegas. A decision was made to include the Hoover Dam photograph in the exhibit. It was printed to 20" X 24" on Kodak Duratran, and then custom framed to 28" X 32" in a multi-layer matte with tan linen wrap, oak fillet and picture quality acrylic.

For more information or to order this historical Limited Edition photograph, please follow the link to my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/CUSTOM/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=32&products_id=173

Framed Hoover Dam Photograph