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Melissa Neadle

@melissaneadle

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📷 Nikon photographer
🌌 Sharing life, dogs, and nature photography.
🗺️ Based in Maryland—have camera, will travel.

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Last month between the clouds and some wildfire smoke, I wasn’t able to go out for Milky Way shooting. Fingers crossed that this upcoming new moon time has clearer skies! Here are some photos from June at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland in the meantime, taken with @jeffberkesphoto. by @melissaneadle

Caught this quiet moment of greeting between mated gannets on the cliffs of Cape St. Mary’s in Newfoundland, Canada on July 31, during my workshops with the wonderful @trav_in_the_bush. Which do you prefer, color or black & white? by @melissaneadle

I was excited during my workshop with @trav_in_the_bush when I noticed some Atlantic puffins hanging out near some wildflowers in Elliston, Bonavista in Newfoundland, Canada. I decided to see if they’d go amongst the flowers and was rewarded with a whole series of shots of puffins with flowers. Here are some of my favorites. by @melissaneadle

A couple of night sky astro shots from June at Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland.
With the main core blocked out by cloud cover, I focused on the other quadrants of the sky along the Life of the Marsh Trail. Led with a wide perspective out on the boardwalk capturing the faint outer band of the Milky Way arch trying to cut through the ambient light pollution from Ocean City, followed by a frame tracking the Big Dipper shining through clouds and lined up nicely with a lone tree. Can’t always give up when the clouds move in! by @melissaneadle

A few frames of some turtles out along the logs and perfectly reflected in the water from an outing earlier this month at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
Managed to catch a massive Common Snapping Turtle quietly breaking the surface in the shallow channels, right alongside a long lineup of Painted Turtles making use of a fallen log to catch the morning sun. Paired a couple of the color files with their black and white conversions to focus entirely on the skin textures and the lines of the reflections. by @melissaneadle

Tried a completely different direction during a morning walk through the woods at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
It was my first time trying this technique, using a slow camera motion with a longer exposure to turn the autumn treeline into abstract, painterly textures. Paired a couple of the color files with their black and white conversions to focus entirely on the graphic lines and structural contrast of the trunks. by @melissaneadle

Captured during a chilly and beautiful morning tracking the shallow wetland channels at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia. The great blue heron was stalking through the water just after sunrise as the fog lifted off the water, catching a clean mirror reflection before the fog burned off.
Thanks so much to @earthskyscience for featuring the first photo in their channels! Included a screenshot of their feature layout in the second slide, followed by the rest of the behavioral series from the morning walk. by @melissaneadle

An end-of-season frame capturing the Milky Way core before it completely disappears for the winter, out at Turner Pond at Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia.
By October, the core stands almost completely vertical right at dusk, leaving a very tight window to shoot before it sinks below the horizon. I stacked to reduce noise and keep the stars pinpoint sharp without a tracker. Included a black and white conversion to look at the structural contrast of the dust lanes. by @melissaneadle

Stumbled across a few incredible web structures during a morning walk through the wetlands at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
I almost never photograph spiders, but the intense color pop on this Marbled Orb-weaver and the morning dew heavy on the Yellow Garden Spider webs made it impossible to pass up the macro setups.
Did you know that the orb weaver is sometimes called a pumpkin spider? So appropriate for October! Happy almost Halloween! by @melissaneadle

A few close up frames tracking American Green Tree Frogs tucked away in the marsh vegetation from an outing earlier this month at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
It is always a fun challenge trying to spot them when they blend this perfectly into the reeds. Paired a few of the color files with their black and white conversions to look closer at the geometric lines of the stalks and the granular textures on their skin. Don’t you think they’re kinda cute? by @melissaneadle

A full sequence tracking a Green Heron managing a massive catch along the wetlands at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia, all beautifully reflected in the water. Scroll through and it’s like you were right there!
Because the fish was way too wide to handle crosswise, the heron had to repeatedly flip and adjust it in mid-air until it could slide it down head-first. I honestly wasn’t entirely convinced it was actually going to manage to swallow it whole.
Anyone else kinda amused by that frame where it looks like the fish is about to whack him right in the face? by @melissaneadle

A star trail composite from a clear night out at Turner Pond at Sky Meadows State Park, a designated International Dark Sky Park in Virginia.
Looking North, there is a great farmhouse nestled under the hills, but the light pollution from nearby town centers was too intense to pull clean star data natively in that direction. To solve it, I harvested the sky stack facing a darker quadrant, then blended the lines back over the farmhouse foreground to save the shot. Included the original camera-on-camera foreground from the session in the second photo. by @melissaneadle