This is the visitor I had in the backyard. This pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) was feasting on insects in a recently cut down tree. I would have liked to have left the tree standing as it died as an attraction and food source for the wildlife that moves through the yard. Alas, the tree was too close to the house and presented a threat to the house. Image was taken with an Olympus OMD Mark 10 II with a 75–300 mm lens and then cropped.

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Can’t wait to go. Will be there the last week of February. Have been reading about the Big Bend area these past few weeks. Looking to spend as much time as possible off the beaten path trying to immerse ourselves in the vastness of the region. Your pictures capture the feeling for the uniqueness of the beauty that I hope to experience while in the Big Bend region. Thank you for sharing.

As you are aware of the lens’ focal length (mm) is doubled to obtain the equivalent value for a full frame camera. So a 300 mm is equivalent to a 600 mm lens. Both Olympus and Panasonic have some fine professional grade lenses that would match the quality of your camera.

The two camera bags shows why I switched from Nikon to Olympus. I am heavy into Nikon with two bodies, one which is a D7200, and multiple lenes from small primes to super telephoto 200-500mm. I like the system a lot and still find that I use the Nikon frequently but it seems only near home base. The weight has become an issue when traveling long distances. I now have an Olympic camera system base on the OMD Mark 10 II. The Olympus camera kit does everything my Nikon does but with much less weight and size. Very happy with my decision and choice of the Olympus.

Olympus vs Nikon

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And.....the Gulch is the new and upcoming area not to be missed. The new Nashville is one interesting city to explore. Lots of photo ops. Hope you can make it back.

You captured the life of the music side of Nashville very nicely but how about showing why the city is called the Athens of the South. Any pictures from Centennial Park?

Wow! Such a tip in pure desolate, unspoiled country is what takes my breath away and you pictures capture just that feeling. You made my day.

Thanks for taking us along on your road trip it has been very enjoyable. Such great pictures. I look forward to even more. Thanks for sharing.

That’s a keeper! I really enjoyed your capture as it is my vision of what the west is like to this Adirindack resident. Thanks for sharing.

Looks interesting. I have an old microscope so i could use the objective lenses but the lighting system is even more interesting. Thanks

I play at micro photography and stacking but not enough to be proficient. It is a diversion when I can’t get outdoors. I liked seeing how you set up your gear and good to see that it is not really necessary to have expensive lighting. I have started to migrate from Nikon to Olympus because of the internal automatic interval focusing that Olympus has. Still have to stack the individual images in post editing. It is fun but for me still very challenging. Enjoyed your images as well as the description of the process.

What a stunning picture. I love the expanse of the landscape that you captured. I would like to have seem more of the building thunderstorm as I think it would have added more drama to the picture. Still a great capture!

Thanks for the stunning photos of your trip. Nice memories you will always have.

Thank you for posting such beautiful images. There is such a great urgency to protect the dwindling open space from commercialism. I may never be able to experience these special places personally but I’ll rejoice knowing that they are there and be able to enjoy them through responsible people like you. Thank you.

How dumb of me! The NWR is south of Charleston, SC. Sorry about that miss information.