Andy_Allen

A single slim branch with two Monarch butterflies hanging from it, facing away from each other. They have their wings closed, displaying the yellow underside of the wing, covering their joined abdomens as they mate. The background is a bright Bokeh of greens and blues as the sunlight filters through the trees.

A little bit of sexy-time in the trees; two Monarch butterflies linked together at the abdomen, mating. Nice to know they’re making more Monarchs for the future.
Taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

#Insects #macro #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A large white and black fish eagle against a blue sky. The wings are fully spread and we see the underside of body and wings as it turns to drop onto a fish in Haskel Lake, Sepulveda Basin.

An Osprey wheeling around to dive on potential lunch - my contribution to #raptor #birdoftheday. Taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A large light brown bird, a little smaller than a crow, with a long brown tail, strutting right to left with its foot lifted to take its next step. The background, just out of focus, is of bright yellow mustard blooms.

A female Great Tailed Grackle strutting her stuff on a concrete bench at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles, CA.

As active, noisy and impressive as the male grackles are I think it’s these that are really in charge!

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Beautiful!

They turn up around here now and again and are stunning! Thanks for posting those pictures. 👍

I may be wrong but that looks to me like a Red Shouldered Hawk. Either way those are wonderful pictures of a beautiful hawk!

A bright blue Dragonfly with green eyes perched on a bare stick at the edge of Haskell Lake. The background foliage is blurred and the golden hue suggests that this is early morning sunlight.

In between zipping around at up to 30mph (apparently) you might get lucky and have a dragonfly perch up close on a convenient twig. I got lucky.

Taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

#Insects #macro #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A larg-ish light brown and gray flycatcher with a slight crest and distinctive rust red wings and tail. I had not seen this bird before this summer and it took me a while to figure out what it was. It was larger than I expected for a flycatcher but handsome nonetheless.

Ash Throated Flycatcher at the Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Black and White version. A Great Blue Heron standing on a boulder in the L.A. River - hunched up in its full breeding plumage, looking grumpy. This old GBH is king of its patch and fiercely defends this area of the river from any threats. At this time there were four other GBHs sitting a ways away on the rail atop the dam, far above the river, waiting for it to leave so they could come back and fish. (I hadn’t seen that many GBHs there at one time - it reminded me of the holding patterns waiting to land at LAX on a busy day.)

Color version. A Great Blue Heron standing on a boulder in the L.A. River - hunched up in its full breeding plumage, looking grumpy. This old GBH is king of its patch and fiercely defends this area of the river from any threats. At this time there were four other GBHs sitting a ways away on the rail atop the dam, far above the river, waiting for it to leave so they could come back and fish. (I hadn’t seen that many GBHs there at one time - it reminded me of the holding patterns waiting to land at LAX on a busy day.)

Great Blue Heron early morning at the Los Angeles River near the Sepulveda Dam, L.A.

(As usual, more info in ALT text.)

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Wonderful! - I’m looking forward to seeing more. 🤗

A lean, full size young Coyote, paddling through the L.A. River at a shallow part. The early morning sun is lighting the Coyote up as it walks through a patch of warm, golden light from the left. Despite sitting low behind the scrub the Coyote was well aware of me, likely even before I saw it. It kept an eye on me as it went past, but didn’t seem too intimidated by my presence. I had earlier that morning photographed the Mom on the same route carrying prey - going home to feed the latest brood no doubt.

A young Coyote crossing the Los Angeles River at Sepulveda Dam, L.A.

This is one of the juvenile Coyotes from the family that maintain their territory around this part of the river.

#wildlife #photography #fujifilm

This is a pretty big grasshopper - about as big as my thumb, and took 10 frames of focus bracket to get any decent depth of field. This was the first time I attempted such a large stack - made all the more complicated by being completely manual. I haven’t got the steadiest hands, so it took a lot of fiddling around to align all the frames to be able to do the stacking. I’m very pleased with the result in the end though. Fujifilm X-T5 Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Macro Godox V350 + AK Diffuser 1/125 sec - f/10 - iso 800 ACR + Photoshop

Gray Bird Grasshopper; Los Angeles river at Studio City, LA.

(Photography info in alt text)

#Insects #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A Great Blue Heron, silhouetted against a deep orange early morning sky, glides down to the Los Angeles River with wings outstretched and legs dangling.

An early morning Great Blue Heron descending to the Los Angeles River at Sepulveda Dam, L.A.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A high key photo of a large, fluffed up brown bird with a large beak and long tail. It’s changing direction on it’s perch; looking to the right over it’s shoulder.

A juvenile Great Tailed Grackle at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

Not quite as sleek as its adult counterparts, but it’s doing well in the attitude department. And look at those claws!

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A glowing orange butterfly patterned with white spots, flying close over white wild flowers, against a blurred green background.

A glowing orange butterfly pictured from above, patterned with black spots and perched on white wild flowers, against a blurred green background.

A glowing orange butterfly patterned with black and white spots, perched on white wild flowers, against a blurred green background.

This is a Gulf Fritillary butterfly, taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles. There is a small flower-filled meadow at the South of the reserve that catches the morning sun and makes the butterflies glow like they’re internally lit.

#Insects #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A Black and White photo of a large white Heron-like bird standing amongst water plants, turning and staring at something (edible no doubt) just out of frame.

A Great Egret on the LA River at the Sepulveda Dam, Los Angeles, CA.

In the middle of grooming this bird spotted a possible snack and locked eyes on it.

I was looking to make some black & white pictures and this one was perfect for it.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

That’s a beautiful picture. I saw one for the first time in L.A. yesterday. It took quite a bit of research (on eBird and iNaturalist) to figure out what it was.

A macro shot of a tiny, young, light brown Mantis, parallel to the camera, angled down towards the right of the picture. It is grasping on to the green, hairy stalk of a tree leaf.

This little mantis was barely 1” long, hanging out on a tree leaf. This was a four frame manual focus bracket, stitched together in Photoshop.

Taken by the Los Angeles river at Studio City, LA.

#Insects #wildlife #photography #fujifilm #macro

A small, delicate, off-white butterfly with its wings closed above its back, sitting on a deep green leaf. The background is very out of focus, creating a smooth blurred effect in the same deep green.

According to iNaturalist this butterfly is a Garden Whites. It looks much whiter on the top of its wings when they are open, but I like the subtle yellowish green of the underside too.

Taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

#Insects #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Great pic! Your B&W choice works perfectly. 😎👍

An early morning shot of a large white Pelican perched on a partially submerged log showing its large, bright orange webbed feet. It is clearly basking in the bright morning sun shining from the left.

American White Pelican at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, L.A.

I don’t see these Pelicans perch often, they seem most comfortable in the water or air. Seeing their huge webbed feet I can understand how they can look so effortless while swimming so fast.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Wonderful high key shot! You really made the minimalist thing work. 🤗👌

That’s adorable! 🤗❤️

YouTube video by National Geographic The Little Brown Bird (Full Documentary) | National Geographic

A wonderful short documentary on how America's most endangered songbird is saving a landscape and the efforts to save this bird from extinction.

#birds 🪶 #nationalgeographic #thelittlebrownbird

A golden, early morning shot of a medium sized, mottled brown heron with piercing red eyes. there is a couple of stray feathers on it’s right wing that are sticking out and catching the early morning sun.

Juvenile Black-crowned Heron at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, L.A.

Early, misty morning and this little guy was all floofed up against the chill. I like the way those couple of errant feathers pick up the sunlight.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A dark close up portrait of a large gray-brown finch, its outline ringed by golden light. Some of the light can also be seen through small gaps in the foliage behind it.

California Towhee at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, L.A.

With only a little light through the dense foliage I had to use 10,000 ISO! I wasn’t sure it would be useable, but the Fuji sensor and Camera Raw noise reduction gave a remarkably good result.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Close up portrait of a Great Blue Heron atmospherically lit from behind and framed by a few reed leaves.

Great Blue Heron at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve. Los Angeles.

This from a spot in the reeds where the birds stand in the shade while softly backlit by the sun’s reflection off the water.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A large white bird with a huge pink and yellow bill, swimming calmly on the dark water, lit by the early morning sun.

American White Pelican at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, Los Angeles.

This is from early spring before they left for their breeding grounds. You can just see the breeding season ’horn’ starting to grow on the top of its bill.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

A small grey bird, slightly lighter underneath than above, with a thin fairly long beak. It has a definite white ring around its eye. It is perched on a thorny branch backed by out of focus greenery.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, L.A.

I frequently don’t know the names of birds I have photographed and then have to fully search the Merlin app. And females or juveniles like this one are harder to identify. I hope I got it right. 🤞

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm

Normally a large blue and grey bird, in this picture the GBH is back lit by the morning golden hour sun and the whole picture, including the bird, is in set in gold and brown colors.

Great Blue Heron, Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve, L.A.

It looks like GBH is doing the rooster thing at dawn, but it had just been preening and was shaking its head and clacking its bill trying to get rid of the fluff; some of which is visible in the picture.

#birds 🪶 #wildlife #photography #fujifilm