Out at sunrise to see the 1-2″ of snow that was forecast, hoping for one of those beautiful mornings where the boughs are powdered in white.  Instead, the weatherman failed again and we had a breezy morning with no snow at all.  But the sky was clearing and the light was a somewhat unusual blue, so I hung around.

The end of the year is coming and I’ve spent some time looking back at my work, and in doing so I’ve realized that although I’ve owned several telephoto lenses, I don’t use them very much except for specific subjects.  So in an attempt to broaden those horizons, I spent the morning shooting exclusively with the 70-300mm IS.

Boat left behind

Goldenrod Past

The strengths of telephotos are many, but one of the primary attributes is their ability to isolate subjects and separate them out from the background clutter.  With the boat and mooring post, the background falls away, but remains a viable element in the scene; it’s important that it’s there, since it adds to the story of the boat.  In the case of the dead goldenrod plant, the distances between the lens, subject, and BG are much less; the BG has gone completely smooth and out of focus.  Which is fine here, since it doesn’t matter – a smooth, solid color simply does the job.

Following Lackawanna State Park, I stopped by to see Frederick.  The last time I’d seen him was before Christmas, but he was still doing fine and didn’t seem to be starving; he ate a few bites and then stood on a sunken branch in the middle of his pond and preened.  Still with the telephoto, it was easy to fill the frame with him.

Frederick feasting

This is why I love working with Frederick, the opportunity to get close enough to see behaviors like this, and capture them.

Frederick stretching his wings