Trees

Left: Beech trees photographed from about 200 yards away through a telescope (June 21, 2011). This was a test of a homemade 0.5× focal reducer, which I attached to a Celestron 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain to increase its field of view.
Center: Beech tree through telescope
Right: Forest in the morning (60-mm Nikkor lens)



Oak trees about 200 yards away photographed through 8-inch telescope using an 0.5× focal reducer to bring the focal ratio to f/5. This was part of the same test of the astrophotography setup. The focal reducer worked satisfactorily on large objects like these trees, but introduced excessive field curvature when photographing stars.



Left, center: Photos of a bug on a pine tree, from 100 yards away, using an 8-inch telescope. The telescope just barely reaches focus for objects this close. Who needs a macro lens to photograph bugs when you can just point an astronomical telescope at them and photograph them from half a mile away?
Right: Trees covered in ice



Left: Forest
Center: Forest
Right: An unidentified six-foot-tall weed growing in somebody's front yard. This person badly needs a lawnmower.



Fog in the late afternoon trees, facing southwest, photographed August 12, 2010. This was the first time we got fog during the daytime since I moved here. Normally, fog only appears at night when I am trying to photograph the stars.



Left: Pine branches dripping in the fog.
Center: Trees in winter.
Right: Amazing symmetry of a bush viewed from above.

Animal photos

Fireflies crawling around on the ground at night (June 21, 2011, 10pm, time exposure). There was a small amount of ambient light from the sky and a nearby commercial building. These images were 3×3 binned in software using Imal .




Left: Wild Turkeys, photographed in March 2010.
Right: Turkey vulture flying over West Virginia forest, photographed on November 25, 2011. Known as "buzzards" to the locals. These birds are actually very intelligent (for birds). They have excellent memories, and exhibit great curiosity about anything new on the ground. They flew slowly overhead in a circle one day when I was working on my car. Why do vultures circle overhead whenever I get near my car? I am a very good driver.

Snowscapes

Most of these photographs were taken on the day of the big snowstorm on February 6, 2010.

Left: Facing northeast. Snow-covered trees and field, 10am.
Center: Snow-covered trees.
Right: Hemlock branches bending to the ground under the weight of the snow in the morning.



Left: Facing southeast. Amazing contrast between the orange sunlit snowy trees and blue trees in shadow under a clear blue sky.
2nd: Intense peach-colored glow in early evening in the snowy woods.
3rd: 80-foot-tall trees under a blue sky.
4th: Facing southeast, 4pm. Late afternoon orange sunlight starting to create an otherworldly peach-colored glow under the snowy trees.