The awesome power of mother nature

I have mentioned a couple of times that last Saturday the South and East USA got hit by some mighty big storms which yielded a huge amount of Tornado's, North Carolina had twice as many in that 1 day than it normally does in 1 year, The TV was on as it was happening and we tracked the main storms in our area by watching the Doppler radar on my laptop, The biggest storm in our area come up highway 1 and hit South Raleigh dropping a tornado there then lifting and going up the main strip of capital boulevard before continuing up highway one where it again touched down and caused all kinds of devastation right up to the coast and into Virginia, The storm had a huge amount of power behind it which is unknown in this area, We knew how lucky we were by the scenes on the TV, Yesterday (Wednesday) we offered a school in the Southern Raleigh area our help to get the kids back in a safe environment, Its only 10 miles or so as the crow fly's from where we live, Its quite a poor neighborhood and that seems to always be where the most damage is done, There were lots of people turned out to help and when things where getting sorted i was told that a few streets away the real nightmare was, I popped down for a look and boy was i shocked, In just a few streets the full impact came to light as nearly every house in that small area was damaged, Not just a few fences or shingles removed but completely totaled, The tornado that came through was a F3 so winds over 130mph, This is a heavily populated area and its incredible when you see the damage that nobody there lost their lives, A lot of the cleanup was well under way with trees already cut up or in the process of being cut and removed but it still looked awful and i cant imagine how scary it must have been when all those trees started to crash down, The older houses seem to have big trees surrounding and very close to them, I think its to give shade and keep out the direct summer sun and help cool the house and this was the problem last Saturday as most trees that fell or were snapped off hit a house, Lots of tree fellers in the area clearing the way so that the power guys can get in an get these people some electricity-the ones in livable homes anyways

 Damage to local stores

 Local Cisco employees helping out at the school

All images taken with a Nikon D7000 and 24-70 which is a great walk around kit, Its very important for a photographer to carefully document these scenes of devastation as although its now yesterdays news for the TV companies, For the people affected its a life changer that will go on for some time

Dave

Local Area-Raleigh

Well like Martin i have been giving some rooms a touch up with the paint brush as we have the outlaws arriving next month so i haven't been too far afield, But then i haven't really needed to, I live in suburbia and have been pleasantly surprised just how much wildlife comes into my very small garden, Siding onto a farm obviously helps as that where the deer,possum and raccoon appear from but every tree and bush has some form of bird,butterfly or bug in it, I have a small low water container in the garden which helps attract things into garden in the hot weather from squirrels to hawks all have a drink an a bath in it, The hummingbirds are now constant visitors to the nectar feeder and woodpeckers and crows at the fat feeder, The usual suspects of cardinals and goldfinch eat at the seed table and now i have 2 buddlia (butterfly bush) there are swallowtails and skippers constantly in and around the garden,I have been trying various things to attract more and varied species into the garden, I cut a small orange in half and after a day there were all sorts of bugs and flies on it, The Black Widow unfortunately has been killed off but i did enjoy spending some time with her and i am sure if i look hard enough i will find another, There is a very small stream just down the road and the other day i popped down to have a look to see what was around it and came across a Water Snake,which was laying on a rock catching some rays, A first for me, I only managed to shoot it from distance and it bolted off when i moved-it was 92 degrees after all and the snake was plenty warm enough,I didnt really mind not getting too close to it as it made me think about the composition and by having it low in the frame shows some habitat, Its amazing what you find when you look for it and people living in the community have no idea whats close by as they go about their everyday lives,

Local Patch-Raleigh

Things are hotting up in my local area as spring kicks in-out and in again, The spring migration is in full flow and every visit to lakes show more and more ospreys, Yesterday i revisited the nest and there were 4 ospreys circling over, One would drop onto the nest and the other 3 would swoop down,The one on the nest would literally back flip as if you grab the swooping bird,then all fly off and have some fun in the air calling each other before doing it all again, I did get some shots,nothing spectacular but the account is now well and truly open,The weather yesterday was very grey which made metering difficult so i used manual mode and after a couple of test shots i realised that to get a bird in flight properly exposed i would need to completely blow the sky which was fine as it was a horrible grey anyway, I used the Nikon D3 along with the 600+1.4x but the conditions meant that i needed to go up to ISO 800 and sometimes ISO 1600, The D3 is famous for its high ISO capabilities but in order to get grain free ISO 1600 shots you need to have the exposure bang on,Any adjustments in processing will bring the grain out,
The garden is going very well with more and more birds turning up everyday as well as different mammals,The usual suspects are still coming like cardinals,junco,sparrows (2 types now) woodpecker,tufted titmouse,pine siskin and a sparrowhawk but we now have new guests that are regulars like American goldfinch that are just coming into breeding colours,Nuthatches (2 types) warblers,bluebirds and yesterday whilst in the hide a brown headed cowbird-what a crazy name-no udders and doesn't moo,still nice to see and a great addition to the portfolio,
Mammal wise i have deer coming every night along with 2 possums,2 grey fox and the other night a raccoon and lots of squirrels-not too bad for a small town garden,
All this means that i can grab the camera and spend a pleasant hour or 2 in the hide when the conditions allow,I haven't tried for the mammals yet as most come out when its dark so will need a couple of extra flashguns for that but will continue to feed them to get them into a routine,

Dave

Local Patch-Raleigh-Winter returns

After 2 days of heavy rain it was forecast last night for snow-3-6 inches they said so i went into the garden and repositioned the hides just in case, First thing this morning i opened the blinds and there it was nice and crisp and white as a sheet, I quickly got dressed in layers and put some fresh bird seed out and got ready,Within 5 minutes i had Dark eyed Junco,Mourning Dove,Cardinals and finches fighting for the food,I spent a couple of hours shooting before i fancied a coffee, I noticed a small flock of Cedar Waxwings come and go when i was in the hide so after the coffee i decided to take a drive around the estate and see if they were around, I quickly found a flock of about 50 sitting in a small tree in somebodies garden next to the road so i slowly drove up and began shooting,They were very relaxed and i soon got some shots before they dropped onto the bushes and started to eat the berries,They moved a couple of times but seemed to like coming back to the same gardens,Really nice to be able to shoot these beautiful birds with snow around, It would have been nice to be able to use some flash as there black band around the eye makes it hard to see the eye if you dont shoot at the right time but there was not enough room in the car to use flash, All in all i must admit i am extremly pleased with a few of the shots and they will make nice greeting cards,When i returned to my house i looked out of the winow to check the bird feeders and there was a white tailed deer eating from the bird table so i managed a couple of shots of the deer in the snow-what a great morning
I should have mentioned that the images were exposed for Manually-spot metered off of snow in the same light as the birds then 2 stops added

Dave

Local Patch-Raleigh-Keeping an eye open

Winter is always a good time for bird photography, Not only are the birds on the look out for food to survive the winter- so easy to attract to your garden, Winter migrants come down from the frozen north to spend the winter in warmer climbs-and who can blame them, When i lived in Europe you could tell if there was going to be a harsh winter if flocks of Waxwings arrived, Well i have noticed a couple of groups of waxwings over the last couple of months but they dont seem to stay in one place for long and soon move on, On my way back from dropping my wife of at work this morning i noticed a flock of birds on my estate that looked from a distance like waxwings so i grabbed the binoc's and went and had a look-yep about 50 in a garden backing onto the church, I went and grabbed the camera and went back,I could see them sitting in the trees in lovely light but they were too far away so i went into the church where they were very close but badly backlit, I took a couple of grab shots but knew that i would be unhappy with them, I drove back and forwards for a while and then a small group landed in one of the front gardens and i managed a couple of better shots, Then i watched as more flew over my car and landed in the bushes near our communal pool then started to feed on the berries there, I slowly turned the car around and made my way to them, The didnt seem to mind and although still back lit they were in the open so i continued to shoot for about 10 minutes before a dog walker sppoked them back towards the church, I am about to go back out and will take the flash with better beamer just in case the light is wrong and i can light them with fill flash-fingers crossed,They say my head is in the clouds when its actually in the trees and bushes-Keep you eyes open-the migration will soon end as i have noticed buds on the trees and a sure sign that spring is on its way

Dave