Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: sga

On the bridge at Maple River State Game Area , north of St. Johns. Do notice Joan's Garmin Forerunner watch, dwarfing the watch on her other wrist. Photo taken 9/8/2013. We originally bought a matched pair of Forerunners ( model 305 , I think) to use as cyclometers (bicycle speedometers) 'round 'bout 2009. I'd been using a different fitness watch for a few years, but a system update on my computer had rendered it obsolete. So we bought these. They were fine for bicycling; we'd mount them on the handlebars. We'd also wear them when, like here, we were deliberately exercising. But for general use they were pretty ugly. They were excellent exercise watches, though. Nowadays we own a matched pair of Garmin's Vivosmart HR+ watches. Joan wears hers as her main watch, while I mostly wear my Galaxy Active2 . The Active 2's a decent watch, but (despite its name) a horrible activity tracker. So if I'm counting steps, or miles, or elevation changes ("stairs"), the Garmin's on my other wrist.

Long experience says I'm horrible at identifying pipers--even with the bird in front of me and a book in hand. Somebody help! (Thanks.) I was (also) a horrible photographer at Maple River State Game Area. A good share of the problem was actually the birds--except for this fellow, the only birds we got close to were swallows--but another issue was the photographer. I was overexposing egrets, getting the focus wrong on shorebirds, and having autofocus issues trying to photograph the rare heron or sandhill that flew half-way near us. So my absolute best shots were slightly-out-of-focus herons on the far shores of the ponds. Enjoyed the walk, though.

Again. (I have more.)

Another Maple River photo.

Another photo from the Maple River State Game Area, north of St. Johns, but taken a year and a half ago

One last photo from our walk at the Maple River State Game Area. St. Johns, Michigan.

From our recent visit to Maple River State Game Area.

This is Unit B, looking west from from the viewing platform.

Another photo from our recent visit to the Maple River State Game Area. As I've said, most of the birds near the paths were sandpipers. But there were water birds where there was water, and my long lens was able to get some photographs.... Near dead center in this photograph is some other bird. Anyone want to ID it for me?

Another photo from our wander around the Maple River State Game Area, north of St. Johns. Where we expected water we found mud flats. Where we expected Ducks & Geese & Cranes & Herons we found Pipers. A fine afternoon.

Never used to see Cormorants much of anywhere. Despite the caption I wrote for the Sandpipers pic, we did see other birds at Maple River. But few were close by....

At Maple River State Game Area, north of St Johns, Michigan. This is not as sharp as I'd hoped--I had the ISO set too high--but at the smaller sizes the photo looks fine.

Maple River State Game Area, north of St. Johns, Michigan.

A year ago Joan & I wandered around the Maple River State Game Area, out beyond St. Johns. An excellent place to spend an afternoon. ========== My first notion for the April 21 photo shot--photograph something reflected in the car mirror--wasn't remotely successful. So I shot a few photographs of Levon Helm's book and picked the best for 366 Snaps . While I'm not entirely happy with the photo, it was intended more as a memorial/tribute than anything else. The Band's pretty much my favorite musical group, and Levon was among my favorite performers. Largely by coincidence I was listening to his music when I learned he'd passed away last April 19. So I grabbed his book--it was already in my reading queue--and started reading his account of his life. Since the photo-a-day outtakes consisted entirely of pix I'd already rejected or boringly similar alternative versions This Wheel's On Fire , today I've gone with a photo I took later in the day.... ========== This photograph is an outtake (well, really just another April 21 photo) from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 17 Title of " roll :" Mirror Pics Other photos taken on 4/21/2012: The Nikon 1 got a bit of a workout, since I shot about 150 pix of birds at our feeder (predominantly of a single Chipping Sparrow , actually). At Maple River I shot over 200 pix with the V1 and a couple dozen more with the Cybershot.