The Ohio Nature Blog

Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve

2012-05-13T15:16:00.002-04:00

It has been so long since I have sat down at this computer to upload an image here or to type anything that I have second guessed which clicks I need to make. Could someone put a few drops of oil in the right places so I can get up and running again?

I have recently been working on my high dynamic range photography technique. There's nothing like a formal course to do this- I'm using my education funds to take an online class through Columbus State. Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve proved the perfect spot for taking HDR photos. The deep shadows of the gorge underneath the ledges can be brought to the light using HDR. This image has made the rounds on facebook, but I wanted to post it here as well. This space was getting rather dusty. Ahh.....thank you, whomever found the oil can. I'm starting to move again.

-Tom

Honey Locust Dawn

2012-03-23T21:30:00.003-04:00

Close-up of honey-locust silhouetted against a morning sunrise. March 20th, Delaware, Ohio.

I'm alive- Yes, it's been a while. I needed the break. And I haven't been idle. Megan and I took the boys to Orlando for a week in late February. We didn't even go to Disney World, but we did spend plenty of time with Megan's parents, and the boys love being with 'Bah and Gram.

Over the past month, I've been slowly developing a new site, www.tomarbour.com. This site will feature my nature photography, offering both inspirational images as well as nature photography tips and gear recommendations. Thank you for the bookmarks, follows, and subscriptions at www.tomarbour.com

-Tom

Red-bellied Woodpecker

2012-02-21T19:45:00.001-05:00

Female Red-bellied woodpecker, showing a hint of her Red Belly

I think I learned from good buddy Jim McCormac that the red-bellied woodpecker was named back in the day when Ornithologists used guns, not binoculars, to get a closer look at birds. The red belly of this species isn't obvious. Here's a female red-bellied from Deer Haven Preserve. You can just get a hint of the reddish feathers on her belly. With the bird in the hand though, this feature might stand out fairly easily.

This concludes my bird series from Deer Haven Preserve. I need some new pictures- I'll have to be creative and bring my camera to work, perhaps- How about a week of mosses?

-Tom

Lean & Mean

2012-02-20T15:05:00.002-05:00

Dark-eyed Junco, Deer Haven Preserve, Delaware County

So normally, we're used to seeing dark-eyed juncos sitting on top a snow pack of about eight inches with their feathers all puffed up to keep them warm, right? Not this virtually snowless winter- They're looking lean and mean. Well, maybe not mean. Perhaps cute is a better word.

-Tom

Who Are You & Why Are You Taking My Picture?

2012-02-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

I downloaded a few more pictures of my photo session of Deer Haven Preserve. I was hoping to share with you an image of a female hairy woodpecker, but I wasn't happy with any of the shots that I got. I was shooting with a low shutter speed. I couldn't get my timing down to photograph her when she wasn't moving. Oh well!

But I did find this gem- A male northern cardinal "caught in the act".

-Tom

Cooper's Hawk

2012-02-15T19:44:00.002-05:00

Immature Cooper's Hawk- Deer Haven Preserve, Delaware County, Ohio

Our State Bird

2012-02-10T14:15:00.002-05:00

The Northern Cardinal, Ohio's state bird. But did you know six other states claim the Northern Cardinal as their state bird as well? I'm not sure when the Northern Cardinal became Ohio's state bird, but it's hard to think of any other species that would be a better choice.

-Tom

White-breasted Nuthatch

2012-02-06T19:56:00.000-05:00

I'm alive! Megan was just saying the other day that we just haven't been able to catch a break recently. I suppose that's life with two little kids. In the past month, we've all been sick. Megan had a sinus infection for about a month, and I had one for two weeks. The boys had colds, and Weston eventually developed an ear infection. Fortunately, now that he has tubes, the infection is easily treated with drops.

I spent last Sunday afternoon at the Delaware Preservation Parks Deer Haven Preserve photographing birds and staffing the nature center. There's a small stump about two feet away from the window glass that makes a wonderful way to see small birds close-up. Up until the Cooper's hawk made an appearance, this white-breasted nuthatch kept coming for more sunflower seeds. If you haven't visited Deer Haven Preserve, it's a great place to watch and photograph feeder birds.

-Tom

Fishing

2012-01-17T05:45:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why, but there's something deep inside my soul that gives me the ability to stand on the side of a lake, river or stream all day long, and toss and retrieve a lure or bait for hours. Until it gets dark. It's just so hard to put the fishing pole down. I can remember camping at Atwood Lake, in my early teens, getting eaten up by mosquitoes, basically doing the mosquito dance at dusk, until I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. I don't care what type of fish I catch, I have always loved fishing. I can thank my dad and my grandfather for that passion.

They got me started at a pretty early age. My earliest fishing memory is Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake Park, a private retreat area for Goodyear workers outside of Akron. It isn't private anymore- in fact, it's now a state park. But there, probably at the age of five or six I remember catching a tiny little bluegill and a nice fat crayfish. The rest is history.

I don't remember my grandfather fishing very often. He just didn't participate in the sport very much in retirement. I think by that time, he put most of his effort into golf. But when he passed on last February, I went through his THREE tackle boxes, and found some pretty amazing fishing tackle spanning decades of fishing history. I've been going through it this weekend. I'd like to select the most valuable and interesting pieces and mount them on a shadowbox to hang in the wall. Heck, I think there's enough stuff to fill three shadow boxes.

Although I don't do it much anymore, fishing is something that first sparked my interest in nature and wild animals at a very young age.

-Tom

Maine Glow

2012-01-16T13:58:00.000-05:00

While we were visiting Megan's parents in Maine this past holiday season, I did what I always do there- I take plenty of photographs. Since I've been going there five years now, I have to make a conscious effort to find new images. It's SO easy to just take the same pictures year after year.

One late afternoon, just as the sun was dropping, I decided to walk through the woods surrounding their home.. The dominant trees of this particular area are balsam fir, white pine, hemlock, red oak and yellow birch. Even though the light was really great, I couldn't find a subject that was interesting enough to my eye. I then turned around, and noticed the small but specatular patches of light where the setting sun came through the forest. I used my telephoto lens to single out these areas of reflected and refracted light, shooting straight into the sun. Making sure I didn't look through the camera at the sun, I snapped several images that I was really happy with. I've never quite made this type of photograph before here, but I am really pleased with these. Yes, there are plenty of lens flare, normally considered a "problem", but to me, the technical flaws are what makes these images interesting.

No matter what you're doing, be it looking for rare plants, searching for wildlife, or photographing the natural world, take time to look at things a different way- you never know what you might find.

-Tom

Photography Exhibit January 21 - February 18 in Crestline, Ohio

2012-01-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

I'm quite excited to announce that I'm going to be doing another photography show. This time, I've received an invitation from Crawford Park District Director Bill Fisher to exhibit my work at Lowe-Volk park near Crestline, Ohio. I'll be showing sixteen of my most compelling works (i hope). I'll be at the nature center on Saturday January 21 for a reception. I hope my friends in north central Ohio will be able to make it!

Here are the details from the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum:

The Crawford Park District will begin its nature photography exhibit featuring native Ohioan Tom Arbour at 1 p.m. Jan. 21, providing an opportunity for visitors to meet Arbour and view samples of his work. The exhibit will be in Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center, 2401 Ohio 598. The nature photography exhibit will continue through Feb. 18. Arbour is a wildlife research technician for the Ohio Division of Wildlife's Olentangy Wildlife Research Station. His interests include a wide variety of natural subjects, but he is particularly interested in close-ups of insects and sweeping landscapes. Although his work is primarily Ohio-based, he has a large body of work from his wife's home state of Maine. He has recently photographed nature subjects in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Carolina, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Arbour's photography has been exhibited at the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center of Worthington and the ODNR headquarters in Columbus. His nature photographs have appeared in multiple ODNR publications and web pages. He is perhaps best known to Ohioans for his Ohio Nature Blog (www.ohio natureblog.com).

I hope to see you on Saturday, January 21!

-Tom

Sunset

2012-01-05T20:37:00.001-05:00

Lately I've been showing photographs of the sunrise, but this evening, I photographed the evening sunset. I was struck by the contrast between the natural lines created by the gnarled bur oak limbs and the crossing angles created by the contrails just above the horizon.

-Tom

Ruffed Grouse

2011-12-30T19:45:00.001-05:00

And we're back! Over the river and through the woods from Grandmother's house in Maine, where we spent the Christmas holiday. Thanks to everyone at Little Pond for hosting our family for almost a full week. I think grandma, grandpa, great-grandma, and the aunts and uncles had fun playing with Brody and Weston. Megan and I appreciated the help just looking after the kids- keeping tabs on them is a full time job!

During this trip, I had the opportunity to photograph this pair of ruffed grouse. Relatively uncommon in Ohio, the ruffed grouse is a popular game bird species in Maine, where they are often referred to as "partridge". My in-laws have told me they see grouse occasionally, but they had, up until this week, eluded me at Little Pond.

I had just come in from outside when Megan started whispering for me rather loudly from the other room. I am well familiar with that loud whisper, so I grabbed my camera to see what she had spotted. These birds were foraging in the grass just outside the house, apparently eating clover, as evidenced by the little bit hanging from the male's beak. Megan spotted them out the window as she was coming down the stairs.

I only had about a minute, but I was able to get a fairly decent photograph of the female and a "blog-able" image of the male. You'll be sure that I'll be on the look out for ruffed grouse the next time we visit Little Pond, Maine.

-Tom

Muskingum Dawn

2011-12-23T20:51:00.002-05:00

It's hard to beat the gray. It seems as if we've had quite a bit of it lately. Rain, and few snowflakes, but little color or interesting winter weather so far. There are those few magical moments, however, each morning, if we're lucky, when the sun rises up between the thick deck of clouds and the horizon. I snapped this shot as the first light of day bathed across this typically harsh landscape in Muskingum County.

Merry Christmas- I'm hoping to catch a few snowflakes in Maine.

-Tom

Muskingum Sunrise #2

2011-12-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

I freaking love the Iphone. I love it even more than last year, when Megan bought it for me as a Christmas gift. I literally took about 30 seconds to capture this image Tuesday morning. Yes, I did spend five minutes post-processing in Photoshop CS4 tonight, but I was just bringing out the tones captured by the phone. We think of winter as being void of color, and for most of the day, that is true. But sometimes, for a few minutes each morning, this happens.

-Tom

Muskingum Sunrise

2011-12-09T20:29:00.001-05:00

It's been a while. As our boys grow (Weston is closer to 3 than 2, and Brody is closer to 1 than 0), I find myself spending more time with them and Megan. Tonight I took a few hours to organize my basement office and finally add all the photos I have taken in the DSLR-era to my lightroom catalog.

This morning I had the pleasure to witness this spectacular sunrise. The tree? It's a tulip poplar- Liriodendron tulipifera. One of the first things I learned about trees from my grandfather was that tulip trees are always straight- I mean really straight. They take advantage of tree fall gaps in forests and shoot up quickly before the canopy closes once again. But when a tulip tree doesn't have competition and is growing on extremely poor soil, than you have things like this happening. This would be a great tree to photograph the tulip-like flowers of this species. Typically the flowers are 50 or so feet into the canopy, but on this tree, you could practically pick them from the ground. I'll have to remember that come next June.

-Tom

Warm Night in the Suburbs

2011-11-26T20:07:00.001-05:00

Tonight I debated this question: Do I go outside and photograph something new, or work on older photos I have not yet processed? Here's my answer.

-Tom

More Winter Birds

2011-11-22T05:30:00.000-05:00

Female House Finch

Female House Sparrow

Song Sparrow

All of these birds took my instruction to "look to your left" quite well.

Tom

Brothers

2011-11-20T08:01:00.001-05:00

-Tom

Northern Cardinal

2011-11-19T19:19:00.001-05:00

Today I again hosted "the lodge" at Deer Haven Preserve in Liberty Township, Delaware County. This nature center is a great place to watch and photograph any bird that will come to a feeder. This male cardinal caught my eye on a gray afternoon. He kept preening his feathers- allowing the darker patches of underlying skin to show through. It was interesting behavior to watch, but those two patches don't make for the best photograph. Unlike a fashion photographer, I can't just yell "wardrobe!" and have three assistants rush in to re-arrange the feathers.

-Tom

Welcome the Gray

2011-11-15T19:54:00.001-05:00

Fall is over- the only leaves that remain green are on the non-native bush honeysuckles. The landscape is devoid of color, but with the leaves gone, the underlying structure, patterns, and lines are revealed.

-Tom

Today in Delaware County

2011-11-14T20:46:00.001-05:00

The corn is off the fields, finally.

-Tom

Big Run Preserve Sneak-Peek

2011-11-13T20:08:00.001-05:00

Ben Gelber, meterologist for our local NBC affiliate, recently interviewed my friend Frank about the future Big Run Preserve in Delaware County. I haven't been there, but from Frank's interview, it looks like it is a spectacular area. I've always wondered if any of the ravines of the Olentangy between Columbus and the city of Delaware had red-backed salamanders- and now I know. I commend Ben Gelber for spotlighting central Ohio's natural history. You may remember his piece from 2009 on Gypsy Moths at Highbanks Metropark that featured yours truly.

-Tom

Tech Highs and Lows

2011-11-12T10:08:00.001-05:00

I had been on a roll, photography wise, through October. Recently, several things have conspired against me that have resulted in a throttling of my creative flow.

First, I had a memory card go bad. And it was the second time that this memory card had failed. It became corrupted on a trip to Maine but I was able to recover the lost images that included my best dragonfly-in-flight image to date. but this time I had no such luck. I'm throwing the card in the trash. Technology fail #1.

Late last week, we upgraded to Time Warner's Road Runner Extreme cable internet service. It was great for a few hours. I mean speedy, you might even call it Ferarri fast. But then we would keep getting breaks in the internet flow about once very hour. It was maddening- I had to troubleshoot everything- the cable modem, our router, our uninterrupted power supply, our cables. When I finally determined the problem wasn't on our end, Megan called Time Warner. They gave her the typical "there is intermittent service in your area and the technicians are out working on the problem". What a load of B.S.! When our service continued to be wonky the next day, Time Warner came out and replaced our cable modem. Technology fail #2.

Couple the two tech fails with two 2:40 a.m. wake-up calls this week, and I've been thrown far from my creative groove. I'm looking to find it again this weekend.

-Tom

Frosty Morn'

2011-11-01T20:47:00.001-04:00

'twas a hard frost across northern Delaware County this morning.

- Tom