Fields and roadsides > About the photographs

This web site is a successor to my first web site, Roadsides and Waste Places. Most of the pictures there were taken in 2001, and I have so many new pictures that decided to completely revamp the design, and use primarily this year's work. Out with the old, and in with the new! There is a fair amount of species repetition in the image selection. I've tried to pick the best images, instead of a diverse group of species. This year I was also interested in showing different behaviors, and exploring different angles and lighting. Why all the dragonflies? 2002 was a great year for dragonflies.

All the photographs were taken with Canon digital cameras, almost of all them with a digital SLR. I took most of the bird, butterfly, and insect images with a 300mm lens, a 1.4x teleconverter, and sometimes an additional 12mm extension tube. In the remainder,  I used either a 100mm macro lens (flowers, small insects), or a 24-85mm zoom lens (landscapes). Many of the bird and insect pictures were taken with fill flash at -1 compensation to fill in shadows and even out the harsh contrasts of bright daylight.

I retouched some pictures digitally (using cloning) to remove something distracting from the background. These pictures are:
Great blue heron
Chipping sparrow
Soldier beetle
Prickly poppy

The rest of the pictures had levels adjustment and color correction where necessary and sharpening.
I post my pictures at online forums, and many of the pictures here benefited from cropping and other suggestions made by people who commented there. Thank you all!
 

I'd love to hear from you if you have any inquiries, comments, or suggestions. Email me at: twhelan@earthlink.net.

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