Assunpink

Today my photo journey brought me to Assunpink Wildlife Management Area with my sister. We were on the hunt for fall foliage and found little to none. The dry weather has really slowed fall actually "beginning." My main focus was to find "signs of autumn" but it was hard to come by.

The Assunpink Wildlife Management area is located in extreme western Monmouth County, in the approximate geographic center of the state. Despite its proximity to encroaching development, it is still a haven for wildlife native to the area, as well as a stopover for migrating birds. Assunpink’s 6,298.56 acres offer many attractions to the human population as well. The name Assunpink is said to have originated from a Lenape Indian word that can be translated “rocky place that is watery.”



I was about to lay my sweater down in some brush so I could sit down on it and when I did my sister told me to LOOK down at something that had moved....it was a Praying Mantis! I had no idea how she spotted it since it was the exact color of it's surroundings (isn't nature amazing?!)

I don't recall ever having seen one in person (I may have but have no clue) and the two of us spent the next 25 mins crawling through the brush trying to photograph the praying mantis from various angles (now if only someone could get a photo of the two of us! It woudl have been a sight to see!)

For NOT having a macro lens I'm extremely happy with how these came out. I used the 18-200VR lens and I manually focused for all shots.



I watched it devour this large bug bite by bite...eeek!



I ended up with a lot of great landscapes and nature shots...maybe we'll go back when the leaves finally change (if they don't die first!)



"Jen of the Corn" @ Assunpink

I decided to take a quick self-portrait of myself in the cornfield! LOL!



On the way home we looked for more "signs of autumn" and found some things that were reminiscent of fall:













Preparing the crops for winter:

Played with Panorama Today

Wasn't insprired at all while driving home from work for any photographic opportunities (I couldn't think of anywhere different to photograph).

So, I went home and set up the tripod to try out taking shots for a panoramic stitching.

I didn't have any kind of "breathtaking" scene so I just took a 360 degree view of my back yard.

This is how the panoramic stiching of about 10 photos came out in Photoshop CS3. Click on the image to view it a little larger (I saved it at 3 feet wide so this sample doesn't give it much justice)....



After this exercise I'm excited to try this out with a beautiful scene. If I create enough of them I'm thinking of making a "panoramic" section on my website.

I also worked on converting a few photos to Faux IR (infrared) again (I love this technique!) These are 2 favorites that I converted:



This is my "creep-ified cornfield":




If you'd like to see more of my Faux (fake) IR conversions click HERE. If you like this kind of photo editing there are many more conversions on the site that that you might enjoy!