It looks like a White Christmas this year in the Helderbergs

This picture was taken on the night of December 9. Then it snowed pretty much for two days.

This is a view from our field onto a barn and dog yard. While it is a beautiful picture, it also brings back a memory of all the inconveniences of winter in the country: being snowed in and feeling isolated, a need to get a long driveway plowed, a dog yard filled with snow etc etc.

These two pictures were taken after a sunset, without a flash or tripod. The ISO setting was 20000.

Young dogs love to play in the snow. This picture shows Luna and Volt having a lot of fun for as long as it is not too cold!

Winter has arrived

On Wednesday, a day before Thanksgiving, first winter storm arrived. We probably got around 8-10 inches of snow, enough to affect travel plants for many. We were invited by friends who live 35 minutes from us and on Thursday afternoon roads were in a good condition. The snow is still with us and it still covers trees and bushes. The sight is magical.

This is our dogs' yard during the storm.

A view from our kitchen window on Wednesday afternoon.

Thanksgiving morning, just after sunrise.

On Friday morning we realized that we must have quite a few deer around here judging by the number of their tracks in the snow.

If the snow stays on the ground, it will be pretty much the end of tracking season for. We will continue to hunt if it does not get too cold.

The beauty of hunting season

15 minutes after sunrise on the opening day of gun season: a view from our blind

The Helederbergs in their autumn glory: the colors are peaking

I know that a tracking season is in a full swing and there are so many stories and pictures to share with readers of this blog. But this fall has also produced some exceptional colors so I am going to post a sample of my pictures. They all have been taken in this area in the last two weeks. There is no other place I'd rather live in September and October.

This picture shows a small swamp just 3 miles from our place in Berne, NY. Several years ago a hunter harvested a black bear here that was over 500 lbs. By the way, ten days ago or so one of our trail camera caught a short video of a pretty big, fat bear on our property, just ten yards from our dogs' fenced field.

A view from our property onto the Helderbergs.

A view from our driveway onto our neighbor's land across Route 443.

Woodstock Lake, Berne, NY

Few days ago we had our first frost, and this was a view from our front porch.

I was running errands in Cobleskill today, and this was a view of I-88. It looks like colors are in their peak.

The Helderbergs - summer in its glory

Even though I have not posted any nature pictures here for a while let me assure you that I still take them, almost every day. Most of the time I post them on Facebook just because it is easy to post one-two pics at a time without any special story or report to go with them.

We are overrun by rabbits. We did not expect it because the winter was pretty severe, but it seems that many of them have survived and reproduced. You can see them just about everywhere - in our enclosure, by the driveway, in the middle of our fields and even int he woods. This is good news.

It is also exceptional year for wild flowers. The picture below was taken in June. Now the fields have been mowed.

Not a great year for bees, but we saw quite a few of them when sumac was in a full bloom.

We see quite a few birds around our place, and this American Robin fledgling risked its life and tried to get to our dogs' yard. I prevented it from happening and hopefully it survived.

We see at least two different flocks of wild turkeys. These ones came out onto a mowed path to get dry after a severe thunderstorm and downpour.

A new generation of barn swallows was born in our barn, and the young birds have already left. However, just yesterday I noticed a new nest in a different part of the barn.

We see a regular guest to our pond - Great Blue Heron. This picture was taken at a swamp by Tabor Rd in Berne.

This is also where I took a picture of this family of Canada Geese. They were resting by the road and when they saw our car, they walked to the water and swam away.

As always summer sunsets are spectacular and they really make me appreciate all the beauty around us. There is no other place that I'd rather be...

A rare sunset

These two pics were taken yesterday at sunset. John and I stood in front of the house with our jaws open. The colors disappeared within 5 minutes. The whole experience was quite incredible.

Amazing autumn colors of the Helderbergs

By far this is my favorite season and the pictures show why. It looks like this year we are going to have vibrant, rich colors, and I hope to spend quite a bit of time outdoors with my camera. It's good for my soul.

Visit my photography blog at http://naturecalendars.blogspot.com/

A new photoblog for my nature photography

This picture shows Fox Creek behind Fox Creek Market store in Berne, NY. It is probably 300 yards from our place. Colors are definitely starting to change. The water level is really down. Hard to imagine that two years ago Fox Creek was turned into a raging river when Tropical Storm Irene hit us. But unfortunately we still see  a serious post-Irene impact in many places of this area. 

Last year I started a photoblog but I have not kept with it. September and October are so beautiful in the Helderbergs that I decided to reactivate the blog. It is at http://naturecalendars.blogspot.com/ So if you'd like to experience the nature the way I see it, please visit the site from time to time. Also a lot of my pictures are posted on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jolaphotography. Come and see us there!

Beauty of a summer day (and evening)

I hope that you see as much beauty around you as we do.

Summer days and sunsets, puppies, dogs, flowers, birds, moths and macrophotography

It has been a hot and humid summer so there is not much blood tracking training going on here right now. We have been working diligently with Mielikki's puppies, which turned 9 weeks old on Friday. Now 50 yard deer liver drags are too easy for them, and we will have to start working them on longer and more difficult scent lines. They are truly a great bunch and raising them have been a pure joy.

This picture of John mobbed by puppies was taken two weeks ago when our friend Dan came to play with the pups. I snapped the shot when John talked to Dan. It might be now my favorite picture of John ...ever.

When the days are so hot and humid we appreciate even more having a small pond not too far from the house. This picture was shot a week ago when we had a bunch of friends over and went to the pond around sunset.

Tuesday is now 15 months old. Last summer she did not show much interest in the pond. This year I took her there together with Bernie, who is a water-crazy dog. I thought that his enthusiasm might pull her in. I was right, she went in and now she learned that she can swim, and it is not a big deal. I don't think she will ever love the water the way Mielikki, Bernie and Joeri do, but now there is hope that she might actually get used to it. Every dog is different. Sky, Tuesday's brother, likes the pond and he has fun swimming and blowing bubbles through his nose.

I took this picture two days ago around sunset. Unfortunately this Mourning Dove had a reason to mourn as it lost its mate. The pair hang around the dog kennels for several weeks, and I thought that sooner or later we might have an accident. Well, it happened. I heard huge commotion, a lot of barking, and found one dove being munched on by Bernie. Bernie left just a few feathers. The remaining dove was sitting on the fence pole. I have not seen it since the incident, and I hope that it can find a new mate.

Summer sunsets in the Helderbergs can be stunning, like this one.

Yesterday I took a macro photography workshop organized by Capital Region Photography Meetup Group. I really enjoyed the outing and taking pictures at the grounds of Five Rivers Environmental Education Center.

I have never heard of Hummingbird Moth until yesterday. These are fascinating insects, they look like tiny humming birds, and their wings move so fast that they (the wings) appear, most of the time, invisible. This was a real challenge for my camera. I had to push ISO really high and then had to remove the "noise" in the picture. The flowers, called monarda/bee balm, were covered with bees and pollinating moths.

I hope you enjoy your summer as much as we do!

First day of summer brought a gorgeous weather

Summer has arrived "officially"! This spring because of our busy schedule and poor weather I did not take too many nature pictures so last morning I decided to go out with my camera no matter what. Our fields are beautiful now with the abundance of wild flowers. I hope to go out more often in the upcoming weeks. I was very pleased with some shots and might actually print the photographs and hang them in our house. A word of explanation is needed though for people who are not involved in photography. These days taking a picture is just a first step in creating an artistic image. Through digital editing you might end up with the image that does not resemble an original picture that much. Some call it cheating. But photographers have always manipulated images through the use of filters and various darkroom techniques. Now digital processing takes it to a completely different level. So the below pictures were enhanced, especially colors and texture, but nothing was added to them or erased. I like the outcome and hope so do you.