Untamed Images Blog

A male Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) perching among mustard flowers.

Over the past two weeks while hiking in Rancho San Antonio County Park I have been greeted by the spring song of the lazuli bunting. As they have done for many years, in mid- to late-April, male lazuli buntings appear near the water tank on the north side of the Coyote trail. This year has been no exception. I first photographed lazuli buntings in precisely the same location in April of 2003. On April 23rd, 2004, I photographed the singing male lazuli bunting shown in this photograph, again in the same spot. Last year, on April 24th, I captured the image featured in this post in beautiful light just as the sun began to rise.

The same location has been reliable for house and Bewick’s wrens, song sparrows, violet-green swallows, western bluebirds, and occasionally ash-throated flycatchers. But for me, it’s the lazuli buntings that always steal the show.

First, let me welcome you to my new blog. If you are reading this post you are joining me at the very beginning. My name is Michael Pollack and my nature photography business is called Untamed Images. You can read more about me here http://untamedimages.com/about.

The main purpose of this blog will be to serve as a vehicle for sharing my photographs. In the past, I have shared groups of images in galleries on my website at http://untamedimages.com/galleries. In these galleries, I often present batches of photographs from a trip to a photographic destination, but I also have themed galleries such as “Birds” and “Landscapes”. I periodically add to these themed galleries, but before starting this blog I lacked a convenient way of informing my followers of new work added to existing galleries. I will still add new galleries periodically, but with this blog I will be able to highlight individual images that I feel are worth sharing.

I also intend to use this blog occasionally to share my thoughts regarding tools of the trade for photographers. Whether it’s a new piece of camera gear, or an photo-specific software application, I will be writing unbiased evaluations of the equipment that I employ in the field and in the digital darkroom.

As readers of this blog you have the ability to comment on my posts. I hope you take advantage of that functionality and regularly share your thoughts with me.

Michael