After a 2-week road trip, I arrived back home last evening. I had a wonderful trip to the Pacific Northwest, my first ever in that geographical area. The main emphasis was to photograph the wonderful waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge in northern Oregon, along with the many spring wildflowers popping up everywhere. What a spectacular sight! If you happen to live in the Gorge area, I hope you are able to get out and enjoy the amazing scenery you have in your back yard! I know I was thrilled to see all the great landscapes … so much that I’ll likely return in the near future!
As you can probably imagine, I have hundreds of images to go through and edit, but am hoping to start featuring some of the trip later this week. Meanwhile, today’s post features some images I captured yesterday at the Loess Bluffs NWR (formerly named Squaw Creek NWR). On my way back home, I stopped Saturday evening in nearby Rock Port, Missouri. After a restful evening, I got up early and stopped by Loess Bluffs NWR of a day of shooting the many wildlife opportunities there, before driving the 2+ hours to my rural Missouri home. Today’s post features one of our most beautiful ducks, the Wood Duck. As I drove the 10-mile auto route of the refuge, I found several “woodies” in a wooded area of the refuge. Here are a few of my favorites:
These beautiful ducks are quite skittish, as they are hunted during duck season. But using my car as a blind was the key to being able to photograph these guys.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D Mark II body
- Canon 100-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6
- Handheld, with IS “On”
- ISO 500
- Aperture f/5.6
- Shutter 1/400 sec. and 1/800 sec.