NANPA - Texas Hill Country Regional Event-Block Creek Natural Area

Saturday morning started with a small thunderstorm just south of Fredericksburg. The ranches suggested that we wait until it passed. I went with Mike Murphy's landscape group. It was going to be 4-wheel drive territory, so I was happy to be a driver. I asked about whether we'd need 4 high or 4 low. He thought low, but it had just rained and the steep uphill was MUDDY - I ended up in 4-wheel low and we went right up that muddy hill!

Two weeks prior there had been a prescribed burn on another property that got out of control and burned through the Langford property. I was amazed at how many things were sprouting up through the ash! My afternoon photos show it better, but notice how much green grass is growing in the blackened ground. When I saw how the fire came up the valley and the ridges, I thought about how scary it must have been to watch that wildfire coming your way.



This yucca plant looks pretty burned, but look how much new growth is coming from the base:



There were several places where the fire left beautiful patterns in the wood in the trunks of the trees.



Fire is a natural process that helps clear out underbrush making way for new species. For photographers, this was a unique opportunity to enter a burn zone and photograph the leaves now yellowed, the blackend trunks and the sooty soil. Even though we were here in the spring, the yellowed leaves and cloudy weather makes this look more like a fall landscape.



I know that within the next couple of years, there will be so much new growth that this burned area will be transformed. I hope I get a chance to go back and see the beauty that will come from the flames.

It was still cloudy (a little on the dreary side in terms of lighting) so I knew that I was more likely to have luck with my Photographer's Canvas images.

This is my favorite of the ones I've worked so far. I went beyond what came out of the camera using two filters from Topaz to complete my vision.



My title for this one is "Dancing Trees" because I almost see human figures in these bent and twisted trunks.

NANPA - Texas Hill Country Regional Event

I spent this past weekend in Fredericksburg, Texas at the North American Nature Photographer's Texas Hill Country Regional Event. We had photographers: Kathy Adams Clark, Sean Fitzgerald, Mike Murphy, and Laurence Parent. As we came into Thursday, the weather forecast was not encouraging: rain and thunderstorms for the next several days. I was not daunted, some of my best photographs have been taken on rainy days.
We woke Friday morning to radar showing a strong thunderstorm heading straight for Fredericksburg. The two groups going to Block Creek Natural Area headed on out and got there before the storm broke. Kathy Adams Clark's group photographed hummingbirds from the porch. My group, led by Sean Fitzgerald enjoyed some great slide show presentations as the rain hammered the metal barn roof. The worst of the storm passed and my group got into their photo blinds.

While there wasn't great light for photography, it was certainly a good time for capturing behaviors and wet birds. I really enjoyed watching this house finch as he shook both himself and his head trying to rid his feathers of excess water.




That really is a head there- what a spinning top he created with his head!




I heard someone complaining at one point about just getting finches and sparrows . . . but I'm pretty sure this is a clay colored sparrow . . . not one I see at my house!



While I have also photographed the golden fronted woodpecker in Amarillo, it was fun to see it again here in Central Texas.



A treat even for the ranchers was this rose-breasted grosbeak - a first for their property.



The prettiest bird of the day was the painted bunting. I had loaned my big lens to one of the other participants, so I was shooting with my 100-400. He really never came close enough to a good perch for any of us to get a great shot that morning. But I hear that on some of the other days, some of the photographers got some good shots of this colorful bird.



We did have much better lighting later in the event. There were several different blinds that attracted more species such that each photographer probably came home with a different mix of birds depending upon where he/she was sitting. I didn't get back during the better lighting, but I found myself promising myself another visit to Block Creek Natural area so that I could take my time at all the blinds. One of the nice things about the blinds at Block Creek Natural Area is that you have the opportunity for up close and personal images of the various birds. I hope I get back soon. And I hope I can visit some of the other ranches that are part of the Texas Hill Country Nature Photography Alliance.