We had a flock of cedar waxwings stop by this weekend to feed on the red berries in our backyard. The ideal shot of waxwings is a back profile, where you can see the red tips on the feathers and the yellow tail tip. That said, I liked the background (and berry) in this image. And you can kind of see the red and yellow. Hopefully they’ll be back again sometime this week and I’ll try again. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.

I found this tiny garter snake the other day when I was looking for salamanders. Couldn’t have been more than 8 inches long and thinner than a pencil. I used my macro lens without flash, so I had to open up the aperture to get enough light, making for a very narrow depth of field. I love the way you can see that thin line of focus as it slices through the image from the snake’s body to the left of its eye, then through the eye and onto the right side of the body and then up onto that stick just to the right of the snake. No more than a quarter of an inch of focus on a single plane running from the lower left to upper right. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 1600, f/4.2 at 1/50th of a second.

On Friday night another of the solitary young adult bears paid a visit. This time I was able to get a second flash hidden behind that tree. In fact, he/she (based on those ears this one appears to be either a female or a young male) is looking straight at the hidden flash about four feet up and attached to a second tree just behind the visible tree. This setup allowed for some nice back/side lighting and illuminated the misty rain drops. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 500, f/11 at 1/160th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

I got out into the woods behind the house today with my macro lens. Turning over a few fallen tree trunks revealed a nice assortment of salamanders, among other creatures considerably smaller than bears. I believe this to be the dusky salamander (correct me if I’m wrong as it’s just a guess based on an internet search). He/she allowed a few photos before scampering away under the leaf litter. Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm macro lens, ISO 800, f/14 at 1/80th of a second.

Of the black bears that have walked through my camera trap, this is the only one that I’ve never actually seen. The white on the chest kind of reminds me of the Asian black bear or sun bear, both of which sport a similar patch of white fur. I captured, or should I say the bear captured, this image about three weeks ago. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 20mm) ISO 500, f/8 at 1/125th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

At dawn, the birds start coming out and they take an occasional photo of themselves. I see lots of these white-throated sparrows around the yard, distinguishable by the two patches of yellow above the eyes — although barely visible in this shot. But I did think the backlit rain added a nice element to the composition (click for larger view on big screens). Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm) ISO 500, f/14 at 1/160th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

At the risk of repeating myself, here’s another of our local opossums. These guys are especially well suited to a backlit setup with all those whiskers and scraggly hair. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/14 at 1/160th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

Raccoons are the one local resident that I thought I’d see more of. I guess the ones in our yard don’t come out until after midnight. Perfect for the camera trap. This guy paused on his way across a fallen log to check out my camera. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 28mm) ISO 500, f/14 at 1/160th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

Once I moved my camera trap so that the beam crosses over the top of a fallen tree, I’ve been getting a lot more of the small woodland creatures. Including the very small. This is a deer mouse. Possibly reacting to the flash of light. I did capture a few other shots of mice simply going about their business as the flash fired. Who knows, this might even be the guy I saved from my cat a few weeks ago and released into the back woods. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 800, f/14 at 1/160th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

Throughout the summer, a mother bear and her two cubs were regular visitors to our yard. We saw them maybe four or five times. And they returned for a visit last Friday. The cubs have gotten big, as this guy was apparently trying to show me. Although he looks more like he’s trying to play an upright bass with that tree. Either way, nice to see them and be able to capture a bunch of images as they came into the middle of the backyard, played for a bit, looked for a few apples from our lone apple tree, then headed back into the forest. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 800, f/6.3 at 1/400th of a second.