Reflections Of Last Week...

Today's photograph is a reflection of last weeks training at work. The week before we trained on one of our rescue boats, and last week we trained on our new fire boat with the boating season approaching and the docks filling up at City Island water calls are sure to pick up. We (the Harrisburg Fire Department) protect the Susquehanna River with two boats and a raft. Even though the boating season will not get into full swing until this weekend (I forgot Memorial Day was a week early) we have been busy the last few weeks with numerous runs to the river. This photograph was taken on our new fire boat, if you look closely you can see the water flowing from the deluge gun mounted on the bow. Yes that is me on the right taking the photo, Lt. Devoe on the left and it is Capt. Eiceman's glasses as he pilots the craft.

Recently I sold my D2X and replaced it with a D90. My main camera is the D300 with the D90 as a back up. I went with the D90 because it gives me the option of shooting high definition video. In an attempt to get used to it and learn the camera I have been taking it to work the last couple of weeks and using it there. This is the first photograph I have posted using this camera. In the near future I will be posting more photos from the river and maybe a video or two. I think I am going to like it, but it is not the D300.

CLICK THE PHOTOGRAPH TO BETTER VIEW THE REFLECTION.

Air Force 1...

Finally I have found some time to take part in Sky Watch Friday again. This photograph was taken on Sunday May 17TH at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland during an air show for Armed Forces Day. This is Air Force 1 with President Obama on board lifting off and heading for Notre Dame University. Click the link to visit other sky watch photographs from all over the world.

War Time Photography...

War time photography from Armed Forces Day at the Army Heritage Center in Carlisle.

More Armed Forces Day Photos...

By now you have listened to me preach enough about how much I love the events put on at the Army Heritage Center in Carlisle, so from now on I will keep these post short and just leave you with the photographs to view.

Cleared For Landing...

This photograph was taken at Merritt Island, Florida this past February. This is a Roseate Spoonbill coming in for a landing. This is my third week participating in Bird Photography Weekly, but my first doing it the day I am supposed to, finally I am not a day late. Click the picture below to visit other bird photographs from Bird Photography Weekly.

More From The Army Heritage Center...

The nice thing about the Armed Forces Day event at the Army Heritage Center in Carlisle is that many eras of the military are present from Colonial times, French and Indian war, Vietnam, WW1, WW2 the Civil War and more. That also gives me the chance to mix up those photos and maybe keeping everyone out there from getting bored with my photos. I have been trying to learn the art of aging a photo, these have been made to look like tintypes and I tried overlays to make them appear older, I am not happy with the results but I will keep trying until I get it right or give up. That is all for this week, I hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend.

Air Show At Andrews Air Force Base...

As I said earlier in the week Shane and I got to do allot of shooting this past weekend, that will give me a chance to mix things up on here for a change. Today's photos are from the Joint Service Armed Forces Day and Air Show event at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland. The weather could have been better but at least the rain stopped in the morning. It was chilly and the skies remained grey and cloudy, a blue sky with fluffy clouds would have been great but it wasn't meant to be.

I will say now that I do not know one jet or plane from another so I will not attempt to identify any of the aircraft. The top photo was taken inside a large military cargo jet and yes that is Shane on the left. All my photos of the air show (flying) were shot with the 70-200 lens.

Armed Forces Day 2009...

Okay, some of you asked for a change from birds so here it is. These photos were taken at the Carlisle Army Heritage Center this past Saturday during the Armed Forces Day events. I choose these photos because I was approached by one of the men in the photo about my images, by the way if you follow this link to a previous post Battle Of The Buldge Part II... the man in the last photo here is also the man in the last photo there. Not to worry after close to 2000 shutter releases this weekend I will not be running out of military photos anytime soon. I now have something to mix in with the bird photos until I can get someplace else for some more new images.

It was a great day for history and a fun time shooting, I met Rich Bistline, Woody and Wyatt and of course my son went along, sorry I missed Bill during the day. Now to plan for the next event like this coming up the first weekend in June.

Nesting Robins...

Were expecting, baby Robins that is. They are nesting right beside my garage, this view is through the window and provides me with some great viewing. With any luck for me and them they will hatch some young and I will get to watch and photograph them growing. I added the luck part because as I was watching them this past Saturday a crow came swooping in for the attack and chased away the Robin. When the coast was clear they quickly got back on the nest.

I upload and do scheduled post all the time, since I did this post there has been a change in the robins situation. The day after I took these I noticed two young robins in the nest with one of the adults feeding them. At the time I did not want to get close so I did not get any photos, later that night I noticed that the robins were not coming back to set on the nest. After checking it yesterday I found it to be empty, I guess nature took its course and the young robins lost.

I am a day late again this week with Bird Photography Weekly, I will catch on one of these days.

Wow!, What A Weekend...

No, this photograph has nothing to do with the past weekend. It just happened to be the only photograph I had ready and it was this or nothing. I considered not posting today, recently the hits the site receives has declined and life has just been to busy to spend time on it, with summer approaching the time I want to spend in front of this machine gets less and less also. With all that being said today's post is my first live post in six months or more. Normally I upload and do scheduled posting, I like to be two to three weeks ahead of schedule, but time has finally caught up with me, I have one already posted for Tuesday so the rest of the week will be catching up. This is a Coopers Hawk, he was the one I photographed this winter feeding on a rabbit in a nearby field.

This weekend was an action packed military event for my family and I. On Saturday Shane and I met up with Rich Bistline http://hfd60.blogspot.com/ and Woody and his son Wyatt http://woodysphotography.blogspot.com/ at the Army Heritage Center in Carlisle for Armed Forces Day. Unless you are new to this blog you have seen photos and heard about this event many times. Following the awesome living history we headed to the Giant Center (sorry no photos from this the BASTARDS at the Giant Center no longer let me take my camera in) for the opening game of round three of the playoffs. By the way the Bears lost 3-2. We got up early Sunday morning and headed 125 miles south to Andrews Air Force Base for there Joint Services open house and air show. For Shane and I this was our first ever air show, that also means it was the first time we have ever shot aircraft so I don't know what to expect from our photos. I am downloading the 15 1/2 gig we shot as I type. And I hope to get to look at them sometime today. I must say this was a great time and it will more than likely become an annual family event. We enjoyed it enough that we are planning on heading to Dover Air Force Base for their air show in June.

Finally we had a photographic weekend, I recorded about 1,800 shutter releases putting my camera over 21,000 in one year of shooting and Shane shot the same amount or maybe a few more (lets hope he does something with them and post to his blog). It also will give me something else to post and mix in with the bird photographs. Recently I had someone say give me a break with the birds, well here is your break.

Now for a next three days at home before heading back to work, for anyone out there looking for something to do my lawn needs mowed, the house needs cleaned and I am opening the pool over the next two days, if that is not enough you can help with my honey do list.

I almost forgot to mention that while at Andrews, Air Force 1 with President Obama took off for Notre Dame, we did not see the President himself but it was really neat to see his jet take off, and yes photos to follow.

Yes, More Front Yard Birds...

This will be short today, I just wanted to share a few more of my front yard friends. They were kind enough to pose for some portraits. Of course it is the least they could do with all the food I give them. Have a great weekend.

Battle Of The Buldge Revisited...

Since Armed Forces Day is this Saturday I thought I would revisit some of my Battle of the Buldge photos I took this past January. I upload and do scheduled post so this entry was made over a week before the Armed Forces Day events. If the weather is nice I will have many new military photographs from Colonial times to Civil War, World War 1 and 2, Vietnam and more to post in the near future form the Carlisle Army Heritage Center this Saturday. My next military event will be in Reading in June, I am really looking forward to that one also.

Eastern Bluebird...

I finally got some Eastern Bluebirds in my yard to photograph, they wanted no part of me so I had to take them from a distance but they still finally showed up. For me this may be the prettiest bird there is, to learn more about the Eastern Bluebird follow the link http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/id. Now if these birds would just occupy the house I put out for them.

Yesterday I mentioned the amount of bird I have seen in my yard this spring, for anyone that may be slow the number 16 was different species not total birds and that went up yesterday when I had a White-breasted Nuthatch eating from my backyard feeders. Many times of the day like now I can look out at my feeders and see six or seven different species at a time and over 20 birds total feeding.

House Sparrow...

This is a House Sparrow to learn more about this bird follow the link http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Sparrow/id. At last count I have had at least 16 different birds, chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels and groundhogs (they are not welcome here) eating from my feeders this spring. If I ever identify a bird wrong please don't hesitate to let me know, some of these birds are so similar that I have trouble at times to identify them. If you have ever clicked the links I put up then you have seen it is a great site for birds. I also use a couple a books one in particular, National Geographic Field Guide to Birds, Pennsylvania and an application I downloaded to my itouch called ibird. If you have and itouch I highly recommend this application as it is a fantastic tool.

I am a day late but I am participating in Bird Photography Weekly, it is much like Sky Watch Friday but about birds and on a smaller scale. Click the link below and visit other sites with great bird photographs.

Great Egret...

This is a Great Egret, this bird was photographed during my February trip to Florida. This was one of the many birds I photographed at Merritt Island, note the Boat Tailed Grackle on the ground below the Egrets feet. To learn more about this bird follow the link http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/id.

Common Merganser...

This is a male and female Common Merganser, I photographed them a few weeks ago in a local stream. They were some distance from me as the were shot with a 400 mm lens making it 600 mm with the conversion factor and then cropped in significantly. To learn more about this bird follow the link http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Merganser/id.

More Skywatch Alaska...

It is skywatch Friday again. I want to thank everyone that stopped by last week and left the great comments. Because of time and weather I have not had the chance to get out and shoot anything lately so I have to keep going back to older photos. This one comes from Alaska again, if I remember correctly is was taken at Portage, further down the turnagain arm from the photo last week.

Don't forget to click the link on the left to see more great skies from all over the world. And a big thanks again to the staff of Skywatch Friday for putting together such a great program. Maybe when I retire I will find the time to do other ones like My world Tuesday and Camera Critters Saturday.

Gas Pump...

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago in Gettysburg at the Eisenhower farm. As Forrest Gump would say, "that's all I have to say about that."

Morning Dove...

This Morning Dove is another one of my yard birds. I always make sure I have plenty of feed on the ground for the Dove's and Mallards, now if the chipmunks would just stop filling their cheeks with the seed. Follow the link to learn more about the Morning Dove http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/id.

More Than Birds In My Yard...

This spring I have counted more than 15 different bird species in my yard, many male and female. But birds are no the only thing eating from my feeders, there has also been squirrel, rabbits and chipmunks. After allowing the corn to run empty this squirrel decided he would raid the bird feeder, he struggled but still managed to get hat he wanted. The rabbit photos was taken early in the morning, after grazing on the flowers he decided to jump into the flower pot and do some bathing. It is hard to tell in the photo but it was taken early in the morning and shot at ISO 2000, 1/30 second at f2.8.

Auto Accident With Confinement...

This past Wednesday morning while coming home from the Barbour's an auto accident was dispatched for the intersection of Church and Mulberry roads, Silver Spring Township. Since it was dispatched as a rollover and it was on my route home I thought I would stop by and take a few photos. I should insert here that I go no place without my camera, it is always on the seat beside my.

I arrived just before the first rig to find a pickup truck that had rolled onto its side and came to rest on all four wheels after being struck by a tractor-trailer. Soon after apparatus began arriving from Co. 31 (Silver Springs), Co. 33 (New Kingston) and Co. 27 (Citizens of Mechanicsburg). Crews found on person injured and confined to the pickup.

The photos follow along with the functions the firefighter performed, in the first shot they are stabilizing the truck to prevent movement. In the second photos they are using the spreaders (jaws) to pop the passenger side door and in the third in fourth photos they removed the glass and used the cutters to cut the hinges and completely remove the door. The last photo they are spreading stay dry on the fluids that spilled from the tractor.

That is all for this week, tomorrow the Hershey Bears open at home against the Baby Pens in the first game of the second round of the playoffs and the Washing Capitols open at home against the NHL Pens in the first game of the second round of the playoffs. Go Bears and Caps, send those Penguins scurrying across the ice.