On the Wing: Nature Photo Night at the Library!

Fifteen people young and “older” came together at the Chesapeake Central Library the other night to show their nature photos, and wow! we had a good time! Some came to show photos and some came to watch, and everyone enjoyed themselves. (Photo, left, taken by Bill Niven)

The library has a meeting room with a ceiling projector that hooks up to our laptop, and projects onto a big movie screen, so anyone who brought their photos on a USB device or a CD was able to show their photos “super-sized.” Everyone discussed the subject of each other’s photos and we all learned a lot about local nature, wildlife, and where to go to experience it. And we also enjoyed starting new friendships with people who share the same interests. We will continue to have a photo-sharing night at the library on a regular basis – more on that later!

The people who shared their photos have kindly given me permission to post some of them here. I would love to show all of them but I can’t, so we’ll have to limit it to two (maybe three) photos per person – and it’s very hard to leave any out. Please enjoy the show! ---

This beautiful Tri-Colored Heron was photographed by Chris Williams. Chris has just started to photograph birds and nature, but he has been a birder for over a year. He also photographed the "Woody Woodpecker" below (the actual name is the Pileated Woodpecker). This bird is the largest woodpecker species in North America, and can be very difficult to photograph well. Great job, Chris!

Nora Leonard took this gorgeous close-up photo of a dragonfly (below), and managed to keep it in sharp focus. The colors are beautiful, and she used the depth-of-field features of her camera to blur the background, which emphasizes the subject of the photo. This dragonfly species is the Halloween Pennant, and is a female (The male has the same pattern but has a darker, reddish/orange coloration).

Nora also took the next photo, an amazing capture of a Black Bear along Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She says that right after she took this photo, the bear scooted back down the tree and ran away, and she was amazed at how fast it moved!

Judy Ferguson came upon a field of Black-eyed Susans and captured this beautiful image:

You might know Judy and her husband as the owners of a "Virginia Grown" farm here in Chesapeake. In addition to being known for the honey, eggs, vegetables and more at their popular produce stand, they are known as the "Mule People." People constantly pull off the road by their farm to look at their mules and show them to their kids. Well, mules are "nature," and Judy brought this fun photo of one of her mules, "Virginia":

Our youngest photographer was Serena Bynum, who has just begun to take pictures but has a great "eye" for photography. She took a walk around her Chesapeake neighborhood, and found the beauty in things we pass by every day but might not notice. Serena noticed, and took the next two excellent photos:

Spring Tulip

Ivy in the Fog: I think this has a Medieval feel to it!

Bill Niven took the beautiful autumn photo at the beginning of this blog entry. You don't have to travel hours to go to the mountains to find these magnificent colors; he took the photo at Oak Grove Lake Park right here in Chesapeake last fall. The subjects of Bill's photography vary widely, and he showed a good diversity of photographs. Below is his magnificent close-up of an Iris, followed by a sunrise picture in Virginia Beach.

We really had some talent in the room at our program, so I can't resist adding just a few more photos here, even though I intended to limit them. I'll end on this note, and encourage you to just enjoy the nature that's right at your doorstep. We're going to have another photo night in June, so take some photos this spring and come share them with us!