Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

Bull thistles have popped up all over my wildflower garden this summer, and Goldfinches have been watching them closely all season long. The bull thistles started blooming a few weeks ago, and when I look out of my upstairs office windows late in the day I see the finches reveling in the thistle seed. They also gather the down for their nests, and this is the time of year when they lay eggs and raise their young.

I took a few lazy stabs at photographing these guys in past years and in the last few weeks, but recently decided to get serious. I broke out the Pentax SMC A*400 f2.8 and 1.7x teleconverter / autofocus adapter, and rummaged through my closet for a suitable flash bracket. It's been years since I used this setup!

Last weekend I did not have much luck - every time I stepped out the door the finches flew off. So this afternoon I setup the camera and big lens peeking around the corner of my wife's car, grabbed a book and some beer, and sat back to enjoy the afternoon, reading. It took a few hours but eventually the finches came back to the thistles, and when they did they no longer seemed concerned about me or my efforts to photograph them. With a little luck, I'll get a few more shots before the summer is over.

Click on the images for larger files.

Here are a few IR shots of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo. taken with an infrared converted Pentax K10D. Click on the images for a larger file.

2012’s unusually hot and dry June and July have kept the dragonflies (and other critters) at bay, so I have few new shots to share. In the spring this year looked like it would be a great season, but my hopes are shriveling up like the brown grass in the fields. The pond I like to frequent in the ALlegan Foest has dropped over 4 feet from its peak last fall, and may be back on it’s way to becoming the vernal pond that it was when I first found it over 10 years ago.

I’m awaiting the arrival of summer’s red dragons - the various red meadowhawks - but in the meantime here are some lingering early summer species:

Widow Skimmer

I seldom am able to photograph males in the their full glory - blue/grey body, white bands on their wings. Here is a fully matured male and a male starting to mature below:

Blue Dasher

These are still abundant - male and female shown below.

Calico Pennant

Halloween Pennant

Let’s hope for a little rain and the arrival of the meadowhawks.

A few photos from the St. Louis Zoo, taken last week (June, 2012). For all but the last shot I used a Sigma 135 - 400 f4.5 - 5.6 lens and Pentax K5 - which proved to be a great combination. Click on the images for a larger file.

Not an animal on exhibit at the zoo, but one who was just visiting:

Oops - pulled out the Infrared Converted K10D by mistake at first: