Sharing Brian Loflin’s feature article in Bird Watcher’s Digest

Fellow photographers (especially the bird-loving ones), just wanted to share my former boss / mentor / lifelong friend Brian Loflin’s latest project—a feature article in the current issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest highlighting South Texas photography ranches and bird photography. Brian writes, “These photography ranches earn a secondary revenue stream from this type of activity instead of / in addition to the traditional consumptive activity of hunting. In my wildlife photography course, I try to instill the benefit of participation in, support of and aid in building these activities.”

You can check out Brian’s photography and learn more about this wildlife photography workshops here.

I hope you enjoy the article, which begins on page 58 of the pdf. Click here to download: Loflin-birdwatchersdigestJul-2019

Curl

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Capillaries

I shot this image at a rest stop in Arkansas en route home to Virginia this week. My friend Greg purchased the new Nikon D850 (which I have been dreaming about) and let me play with it on this trip. I knew I’d love it! Now to just find some spare change in the couch ($3,300 to be exact).

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Smart Phone Nature Photography Workshop at Green Spring Gardens

Here’s the info on my first smart phone nature photography workshop at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA (Saturday, May 5, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm). The class will cover smart phones in general (Android and iPhones welcome)!

Smart Phone Nature Photography
(Adults) Learn techniques to improve your smart phone nature photography with the help of professional photographer Cindy Dyer. Get a better understanding of composition, color and lighting and how to use your camera settings to capture what you intend. Practice what you learned with an in-class garden photography shoot, critique and lesson on editing. $52/person. Code 290 232 6001.

Register at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/parktakes or call 703-642-5173.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone photos / Snapseed app borders

iPhoneography: Birds & branches

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 7Plus, Snapseed border added

 

iPhoneography: Last of the fall leaves

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 6s / Snapseed app border

iPhoneography: Saturday sky

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 7 Plus / Snapseed app border

 

iPhoneography: Love me some clouds

Ah, those skies. My, how I love me some purdy skies. This was the sky in Northern Virginia on July 30 of this year. It was out of this world. All of these shots were made with my iPhone 6s from a shopping mall parking lot!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 6s / Snapseed app border

 

Sunflowers

Sunflowers at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management area, shot in macro mode with Camera+ app on iPhone 6s (diffused sunlight with a tri-grip diffuser)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

iPhoneography: Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 6s / Snapseed

 

iPhoneography: Botanicals

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iPhoneography: Landscapes

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Cloudspotting

Perhaps it’s the lack of tall buildings to block the view, or maybe the weather patterns are different in the region, but the skies in Texas are just spectacular (and nearly every day they offer up something worth photographing!). I shot a plethora of sky vistas and cloud formations while I was in Texas for my niece’s wedding in October. This one caught my eye in the parking lot outside a Vietnamese restaurant in San Antonio. I immediately saw a face and thought, “Einstein!” I shared the image with my FB friends and the conversation took flight. My favorite response was from my FB friend and fellow blogger, Erik Gauger. He described in detail what he saw and then used his creative skills to bring the figure to life. (FYI, I’ve blogged about Erik’s gorgeous, award-winning photography/narrative/nature/travel website, but in case you missed it, check it out here: http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/)

iPhone 6, processed in Snapseed © Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

iPhoneography: Texas sunset

iPhone 6 / Snapseed app

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

iPhoneography: Yep

iPhone 6 / processed in Snapseed app / text applied in Font Candy app

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Moss-covered lava rocks in south Iceland

From the Iceland archives (June 2014), moss-covered lava rocks in south Iceland. This place was hauntingly beautiful—I felt like I was on another planet! I love the light in this shot—storm clouds in the distance, sunlight breaking through in the foreground.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Six-spotted Fishing Spider

Six-spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes triton); it’s so hard to get perfect depth-of-field with these tiny subjects, but I’m happy with the overall look of this shot regardless (thanks to my friend Michael Powell for the identification). Re: size—this one was probably about an inch or so long (they can get up to 2.5 inches!). The lily pad was a smaller one.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Itsy bitsy frog

The teeniest of frogs—barely a 1/4″—in one of the ponds at Lilypons this morning

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Mating Red Milkweed beetles

Mating Red Milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus); photographed at Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Flying lessons soon…

I photographed Mama Dove and her big babies again on Tuesday of last week. I checked yesterday and everyone has left the nest, but Mama and Papa are in view, behaving like sentinels, so I know the babies are now in their “flying lessons” phase and probably resting safely somewhere in my garden!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Inchworm, inchworm…

I spent quite a while photographing this little inchworm as he made his way along the jagged path of an Autumn fern stalk this afternoon. Here’s something I didn’t know until I did some homework: this little inchworm is actually not a worm—it is the larvae of a Geometer moth (exactly which type, I haven’t a clue). The word Geometer means to “measure the earth,” which is what the inchworms appear to be doing when they move in this looping crawl. They have two to three pairs of legs at each end so they can “inch” their way through life. (Now I can’t get the inchworm song out of my head!)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Forget-me-nots

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Flame Skimmer dragonfly

I think this is a Flame Skimmer dragonfly. Photographed at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX

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Road trip in Iceland: Sunset

Last night in Iceland…I got to see the sun set (it’s rare to see it since it sets well after 11:00 p.m. in the summer!). And actually, I don’t think it ever really quite fully sets—there are more than 20+ hours of sunlight in the summer!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Dyrholaey Nature Reserve

The Dyrholaey Nature Reserve, home to numerous cliff birds, is located not far from Vik in southern Iceland. The place got its name from the massive arch that the sea has eroded from the headland. (The name literally means “door-hole”). When the sea is calm, big boats can sail through it. There has even been a maniacal daredevil pilot that flew through the arch with a small-craft airplane. (This formation isn’t shown in this shot, by the way. I just wanted to give you the origin of the reserve’s name!)

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Road trip in Iceland: Water, water everywhere!

Water, water, everywhere in Iceland (and some great cloud formations, too)!

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Road trip in Iceland: Meandering stream

Another random beautiful stream on another random mountaintop in luscious Iceland!

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Road trip in Iceland: Greener than Greenland

Iceland is greener than Greenland (or so I’ve read). This color abounds in my travels—such a happy shade of green! Yesterday morning I captured this shot on the walking trail to the Solheimajokull Glacier (actually called a glacier snout), in the southwestern outlet of the Myrdalsjokull icecap. River Jokulsa discharges it, and is sometimes called “The Stinking River” because of its emission of sulphuric acid from sub-glacial high temperature areas. (It didn’t stink, by the way.)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Stack ‘o gulls

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Snow falling on crabapples (view from my kitchen)

(Doesn’t sound quiet as poetic as that book, Snow Falling on Cedars, does it?)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.