10 May2015
Written by Ruth Hoyt. Posted in Blog, Botanical, Landscape
Mothers are special for so many reasons. I hope they all have the best Mother’s Day ever! Photo taken recently in the back yard of Susan & Errol Candy while visiting and teaching photography in Hill County, Texas. Be sure to click on the photo to see the full image and let me know what you think!
Springtime Wildflowers of Hill Country, Texas
24 Apr2015
Written by Ruth Hoyt. Posted in Blog, Botanical, Insects
Prior to my arrival in Texas, I worked mainly on micro/macro photography. Here in Texas I discovered that a constant breeze or wind was the “norm,” a challenge for close-up photographers. I continued what I was doing, but people who were heavily involved in activities involving birds came into my life and my photography took a turn.
Nowadays I love taking the opportunity to return to my tiny world when the opportunity presents itself, and that’s what I’ve chosen to share with you today.
I was out wandering the beautiful Jones Alta Vista Ranch in Jim Hogg County, Texas, looking for potential perches for birds, when I spied a vine loaded with yellow aphids. I had to stop, pull out my tripod and macro lens and take some time to photograph these tiny creatures.
Please be sure to click on the image to reveal the entire image and caption.
Yellow Aphids on Trailing Vine
17 Apr2015
Written by Ruth Hoyt. Posted in Birds, Blog
As I was photographing this Great Kiskadee on the Laguna Seca Ranch, a Golden-fronted Woodpecker landed on the dead snag the kiskadee had been using as a fishing spot. When the kiskadee returned and touched down on its perch, the woodpecker didn’t want the company. The wet kiskadee had to fly off to find another place to dry. Be sure to click on the photo to see the entire image!
Confrontation – two’s a crowd!
06 Apr2015
Written by Ruth Hoyt. Posted in Blog
ALERT: Anytime you visit deep south Texas, you may come across some of these green characters! I saw plenty of them today while guiding photographers on the Laguna Seca Ranch in Hidalgo County.
This morning I made photographs of two of the three Green Jays on this little perch with my Canon 7D Mark II, 300mm f/2.8 lens and 1.4x extender. If I hadn’t had the extender on, or if I had been using my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, I may have been able to capture the image my eyes saw, of the three of them in a tic-tac-toe formation.
You may notice the birds have wet tails. It rained yesterday and during the night, so everything was very wet when we began photographing. The skies were heavily overcast most of the morning and, except for me, the photographers all used fill flash.
Tomorrow we plan to work on some flight shots early, then move to the raptor blind to see what kind of action we can find!
Green Jays (Cyanocorax yncas)
