Infrared – ScaredyCatFilms

Highland Park

This year the Lilac Festival seemed to come before the lilacs peaked, and was a little rainy, but that’s good for me, as I visited the park a full week after the closing day, and the flowers and lilacs were just past peak bloom. It was pretty nice, as everything seemed to be blooming on Saturday June 24th this year. Lilacs, Azaleas, Peonies, Dogwoods, and even a few Magnolias were still blooming. About all that wasn’t blooming was the lilies, and ours bloomed a day or two later at home. I walked around the park for a few hours and spotted a few of my favorite lilacs that made it through another year, including the yellowish primrose. It was a nice day, the park is really nice and well thought out. The giant sycamore trees that surround the reservoir are really huge, and way cool. Here’s a few photos.

Newer Pergola Area	Magnolia
Highland Infrared	Deep Purple
Highland Reservoir	Sycamore Trees

More Creatures!

We’ve been catching more and more creatures on our critter cam this spring. This time we think we saw a skunk, and one of the pictures may have a fox visiting our bird bath for water. One night a deer showed up and “trimmed” Tracy’s bonsai plants! Still exciting, still a lot of cats around, and some bunnies as well.

Pretty sure this is a skunk	Night Cat
Possible Fox, or Creature?	Bunny
Bonsai Trimming	Trimmed Bonsai

Cat Cam

Since it is still the middle of winter in the North East, and there isn’t much to do outside, and all I’ve been up to is taking photos of hockey games, today I bring you more offerings from the critter camera. These are some of our best shots yet I’d say, as now we know for sure there are plenty of outdoor cats prowling the area.

More Deer	A Tiger Cat
Two Cats!	Bridbath deer
Fancy Cat	Bunny Rabbit

Ah the excitement, this game camera has paid for itself!

Critter Cam

For Christmas this year I was able to pick up 2 refurbished “Game Cameras” at a very reasonable price. I gave one to my Mom and Dad and one to Tracy for Christmas. Cue the excitement as we wait and see what we can capture with the cameras. We stuck our camera outside at the beginning of February and aimed it at our bird feeders and birdbath water. We caught deer photos the second night the camera was out there. The night mode is pretty good. So far, the deer seem really interested in it, as we have captured a few pictures that appear to be the deer looking right at it or sniffing it. One photo even has one of the cat’s two eyes watching out the sliding glass door. Should provide fun for months to come. Here’s a few photos.

Deer Photo	Deer camera
Monkey Eyes	Backyard Deer

Adirondacks 2012

Sandwiched between my Saratoga trips was the family vacation to the Adirondacks. I got a few hikes in, one an ill advised 3.5 miler in 85 degree heat with a banana and a beer for lunch, had a great time with my family, and had a relaxing time over all. The weather was just beautiful, and very warm. Swam in the lake every day. Just a great year at the lake. Posted a few photos on flickr, and of course here’s a few on the blog.

Mount Arab Infrared	Trio of Mergansers
Climb up Haystack.	Infrared Vee Dub.

Charlotte Beach

This summer I took a walk around Charlotte pier and beach on what turned out to be quite the stormy day. Temps were high when the sun was out. I managed to drive up in the rain, walk around in the sun and clouds, and then leave right when a fierce storm approached. Got some great infrared and regular photographs. My plan was to return again later in the summer a do a ride down the river trail. Haven’t done that yet. These photos were taken June 3rd.

Charlotte Pier	Coast Guard Station
Beach Infrared	Male Mallards are Drakes
Charlotte Lighthouse	River Channel Infrared
Bridge with clouds	Bridge Infrared

I’ve got a full set of the photos I took on my flickr site in the Charlotte Photo gallery.

Penn State Arboretum

After our visit to the air show we had some time to visit the Penn State Arboretum. Although only a small part of the massive grounds have been completed it was still fun to go see. If I know one thing about arboretum’s its that they are great for Infrared Photography. Here’s some photos from my visit there. There are more photos in my Infrared Image Gallery on Flickr.

Penn State Arboretum	Sculptures in Infrared
Infrared Water Plants

Lilacs Peak Early in 2012

Because of the freakishly warm spring this year (in Rochester, March was our warmest on record, and the average temperature was higher than the April average), this year the lilac festival peaked a whole week earlier than the festival (May 10-19). On a beautiful sunny Sunday I went to Highland Park to view the lilacs early, and then home for the Kentucky Derby.

The lilacs were pretty much in peak bloom. Even the lilacs in our yard were blooming. This year the Rochester area also saw a massive influx of Red Admiral butterflies. There were tons of them. I’ve never seen anything like it, they were flying everywhere like flies. Anyway, took lots of photos of the lilacs, and butterflies on lilacs. The majority of the lilac photos are in my lilac flickr gallery.

Beauty of Moscow	Pink lilacs at Highland Park.
Lilac bush at Highland Park.	Butterfly Lilacs
Red Admiral Butterfly	Red Admiral on a white General Sheridan lilac.

After my walk through Highland Park, I went downtown to High Falls, and walked across the Pont de Rennes bridge to the baseball stadium and back. Here’s a few photos from that walk. I have a lot more photos of the falls in infrared on my infrared flickr page.

infrared high falls — Infrared High Falls

Eagle Crag Lake and Swamp 2010

This year on vacation to Eagle Crag Lake in the Adirondacks I took my mom’s kayak down to the swamp at the end of the lake. I’ve done it several times and this year decided to bring 2 of my cameras with for some photos. Its a pretty neat place to go. There is no path or road around the swamp so you are really alone. There is a lot of neat plants and wildlife to be seen. I saw several Kingfisher’s hunting for fish. No beaver’s to be seen or heard this year, but I assume they are around. Here’s a few photos I took, and a panoramic as well. Enjoy.

Lots of dead trees	Plants and Lilies
Kayak in the swamp	Infrared photo of the swamp.
Infrared Beaver Dam

Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies

Tracy’s mom has some huge butterfly bushes this year, and they were just covered with tiger swallowtails this year. I brought along my flaky Infrared Digital camera to try and take some shots to see how they look in IR. It was pretty tough, those butterflies would not stay still, and it was difficult to get really close because they just fly away. I was persistent though, and got a few neat shots.

Swallowtail Butterfly	Swallowtail Butterfly and Bee
Dark Swallowtail Butterfly	Swallowtail Butterfly