Drew is a photographer and naturalist dedicated to sharing his experiences through photographs and writing. He has recently moved to Ithaca, NY and is exploring the local region and the world beyond.
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It has been quiet around here all summer and I apologize that my brief hiatus turned into a much longer break. However, I have had an extremely busy and productive summer with a lot to show, though not much new photography. I’d like to take a quick moment to announce that this morning my wife and I are headed down to New York City for the next 10 days or so. As you may know, my wife is an archaeologist ,and she will be working on excavating the ship that has recently been found at the site of the World Trade Center. It’s an extremely exciting opportunity and it should make for a fun time in the city.
There is a chance that I will be able to get on site and create a series of panoramas of the ship and the excavation but we aren’t sure yet. Details are still being worked out so I am just headed down prepared to either shoot or work from the hotel. Whatever happens, We will be in the city for at least the next week or so. I’ll post some more details about the project sometime this coming week once I know more myself.
If you are in the City and want to meet up for coffee or a drink, shoot me an email or leave a comment here. Hope everyone has a great week!
I have found that over the last few weeks, despite my best intentions, I have neglected my duties here at Wanderer’s Apprentice. I simply haven’t been getting out and photographing like I planned and thereby don’t have the images to post. The last few weeks and the next few that are coming up are extraordinarily busy for me, so I have decided to take a short break from posting here at Wanderer’s Apprentice.
This doesn’t mean things will be completely silent, but posts will be sporadic at best. I’ve got a lot on my plate so my focus has to fall elsewhere. I am currently in the final stages of launching the website for my Costa Rican project, Canopy in the Clouds. We’ll be going live next week with a soft release prior to a day of meetings at National Geographic about the project on Thursday. The official launch will be coming shortly after those meetings, and we look forward to getting the project out there after two and half years of hard work.
In addition to this major launch, I’ve got two new business ventures in the works, at least one of which should be launching here in the next month, followed by the second later this summer. Add to that the fact that my wife and I are moving next weekend over Memorial Day and trying to get ready for that. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that I have a lot of on my plate and while I hope to share when I get out to photograph, I don’t see that happening as much as I had hoped. I’ll be back in early to mid June depending on my schedule but hope to see you then!
 Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) - Genung Preserve, Freeville, NY Having grown up in central Florida and lived in Texas for the last few years, I am used to seeing warblers during migration, not singing on territory like they do here. This means I have quite a steep learning curve trying to learn the songs of local birds. I am making rapid progress, but there is an incredible amount to learn!
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It was a quiet week on the blog last week and I must apologize. Amazingly, it was probably my busiest week of the year so far, though this week and the next also look quite daunting. It is that time of year, as the semester winds down and summer begins. Yes, I know I am not a student but I still am heavily influenced by the semester schedule and I must admit, I rather like it.
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 Evening in the Everglades - Everglades National Park, Florida I have a quick announcement for those readers in the central New York and Ithaca area. Monday night (yes that’s tomorrow) I will be presenting a talk on the Everglades at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for the Cayuga Bird Club. The meeting starts at 7:30 and I will probably start talking about 8:00. All are welcome to attend. If you’ll be there, let me know so I can say hi afterwards. Sorry for the short notice, but hope to see you there.
 Northen Parula (Parula americana) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York On Friday morning at the Finger Lakes National Forest, one of the better birds of the morning was a Northern Parula. We had at least two individuals but, as typical with Parulas, they were high in the canopy. At one point, I set up on a blooming apple tree to sit and see if anything would come into feed, as I had seen a several Yellow Warblers do just that. A few minutes after setting up, this Northern Parula visited briefly for about 30 seconds. I came away with a couple good frames, the best of which you see here.
 Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York Yesterday morning, I spent a couple hours with another local photographer Raghu Ramanujan at Foster Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest. It was a spectacularly beautiful morning and the woods were alive with warblers feeding and singing. Despite the huge amount of activity, we struggled to create photographs because we couldn’t really get close to many of the birds.
Rather than get frustrated with myself, I decided to switch gears a bit and focus on creating images of the warblers in their habitat rather than close up portraits. While I love the challenge of getting close to warblers and other small songbirds, creating environmental portraits can be even more of a challenge and extremely rewarding when one works.
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 Male Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) - Genung Nature Preserve, Freeville, NY As a birder, one of my nemesis birds for a long time was the Blue-winged Warbler. I have seen all but one or two species of wood warblers that are found in the eastern half of the country but for a long time, Blue-wingeds avoided me. I finally got my eyes on one at High Island, Texas two years ago but it was just a single bird. When we finally decided to move to Ithaca, I knew that this would give me a chance to not only see Blue-wingeds, but hopefully get some photos as well.
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 Unidentified Trillium - Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, New York During this past weekend’s Backcountry Photography class, we asked all of the students to present a vision statement describing what they wanted to get out of the class and provide a theme to help direct their photography. Going into the class, I knew I wouldn’t be doing a lot of photography as I was in instructor mode, rather than photographer mode, but I set out a goal for myself as well. Since we were backpacking and with a large group, I knew that bird photography was going to be difficult. Instead, I simply took my normal lens, the 24-70mm zoom, for demonstration purposes and then also carried my 105mm macro lens.
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 Eastern Newt (Red Eft Stage) (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) - Robert Treman State Park, New York This past weekend, I was one of four instructors for a Backcountry Photography class offered by Cornell Outdoor Education. We left Friday evening and returned Sunday after spending a couple days hiking and exploring Robert H. Treman State Park and Lick Brook Gorge here in Ithaca.
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