Memory Mondays – Week 4 (by Josh)

One of our favorite things to do when we feel like relaxing and watching nature is go to one of our local lakes. It’s always very peaceful and provides great photo opportunities with all of the water, wildlife, and plants. Some of my favorite photos ever came from Rachel on one of our lake outings in August 2008. We had planned to go out on a date together with a lake visit and then dinner afterwards. Unfortunately, I had gotten a bad headache on the drive to the lake and didn’t really feel like squinting through the viewfinder to take photos. I’m so glad that she took the photos that day. She really has a wonderful eye for both which subjects to pick and then the composition of the entire frame.

 

We usually keep on our versatile Nikon 300mm handheld telephoto lens because it’s fairly light for such a big lens, allows us to really zoom in and fill the frame with the subject, softens the background very pleasantly, and lets us not scare the animals by having to get too close. It also has optical vibration reduction that really seems to reduce the effect of hand shaking, which is really magnified when zooming in so much. We also love the golden light of just before sunset, which really seems to give some of the best lighting for photography because of the lack of harsh shadows and overblown skies.

 

I still marvel at the number of excellent photos Rachel took that day around the lake! Every shot seemed like a magazine cover with perfect lighting. Some of the photos include emden geese, mallard ducks, wood ducks, Canada geese, western gulls, pampas grasses, and snowy egrets. The egret photos were just remarkable and I had to show one for this post.

Every beautiful soft feather is detailed and I love how the shot is zoomed in on his profile with his neat long beak, interesting yellow around his eyes, and the wonderful contrast of the deep blue lake in the background. The lake is also far enough away from the background to create a pleasant softness and really makes the egret pop.

 

One of our favorite magazines to read is Birds & Blooms, which focuses on great gardening and bird photos and informative stories. I always think that every one of the photos Rachel took that day should be a cover for that magazine. I ended up feeling much better after a Roy Rogers at dinner and we had a great romantic dinner date. I’m so glad to get to have these excellent photos as a memory of that day.