{"id":100822,"date":"2021-07-30T05:43:04","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T11:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=100822"},"modified":"2021-07-30T07:24:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T13:24:42","slug":"western-grebe-me-and-my-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/30\/western-grebe-me-and-my-shadow\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebe – Me And My Shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

An older photo I’d forgotten even existed. Plus a report on our current drought and the disappearing Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

On August 11, 2016 I photographed this Western Grebe at Bear River MBR as ‘he’ rose in the water to perform a wing flap. I took an entire series of photos of him as he flapped away but I pretty much dismissed them, probably because of all the green goo so prominent on many of the whites of his ventral surfaces.<\/p>\n

Then I forgot all about them until yesterday when I stumbled upon them again while looking for something else. My reaction to them yesterday was about the same as it had been previously until I noticed, for the first time, the shadow on his right wing in this single photo in the series.<\/p>\n

I really like that shadow so I’m surprised I hadn’t noticed it before. It’s very obviously a shadow of his head and upper body, its contrast stands out well against the whites of the wing and it appears<\/em> to fit perfectly on the wing – especially along the upper margins of the head portion of his shadow. The little wedge of light peeking through the junction of his lower neck and upper back helps to define the shadow even better.<\/p>\n

I’m a fan of shadows when they’re interesting and well defined and for me this one fits the bill. Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS – It’s raining! <\/em><\/p>\n

And it has been ever since I got up at 3:40 AM and noticed lightning to the north through my window before I turned the kitchen lights on so I could plug in my coffee pot. It isn’t a downpour but it isn’t a sprinkle either and it’s been coming down steadily most of the time. Hope it continues.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s a link explaining one of the reasons I’m so very concerned about our current mega-drought. If you watch the video Jaimi Butler, wildlife biologist and Coordinator of the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College, is a personal friend of mine. I’ve donated images to the GSLI. <\/em><\/p>\n

Believe me, Jaimi’s tears are real. And justified.<\/em><\/p>\n

Great Salt Lake Is Shrinking Fast: Scientists Demand Action Before It’s A Toxic Dustbin<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An older photo I’d forgotten even existed. Plus a report on our current drought and the disappearing Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[338,334,8,366],"tags":[731,49,3123,5868,5085,5271,311,322,739],"class_list":["post-100822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","category-ecology-and-environment","category-western-grebes","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-drought","tag-great-salt-lake-institute-at-westminster-college","tag-interesting-shadow","tag-jaimi-butler","tag-utah-2","tag-western-grebe","tag-wing-flap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/western-grebe-0268-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-qea","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100822"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100855,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100822\/revisions\/100855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}