Wild Delaware

After two weeks in China printing Wild Delaware and two weeks on assignment in Europe shooting a calendar in Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Dublin I’m glad to report that I’m back in the First State and very happy to be shooting wildlife here again. This morning I found Royal Terns fishing in a shallow, brackish pond along the Delaware Bay. Here, a tern takes off with a Mummichog in its bill.

update - Wild Delaware is now printed and in the bindery.  If you have ordered Wild Delaware you should be receiving your copy(s) in early November along with the four free prints.  Here’s a photograph of your intrepid photographer and the cover on top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong.  

It is Wednesday afternoon (September 17th) in China and more than half of Wild Delaware is now printed. The balance of the pages and the cover and dust jacket will be done by noon tomorrow. I chose this printer based on their reputation for delivering the finest quality coffee table books and I have to say I am not disappointed. We brought a beautiful set of color proofs with us to the printer and we have been able to not only match the color but improve the color on press with every sheet.Wild Delaware is being printed on a huge, new Heildelberg four-color, computer controlled, state-of-the-art press. Eight pages print on each side of a sheet of paper that fold down to make 16-page signatures. Below is a press sheet showing eight pages (one side of a 16-page signature).  The printing may look a little strange with parts of different photographs touching other photographs but this sheet - when printed on both sides - will fold down to 16 pages.If you have ordered copies of Wild Delaware you are in for a treat.  The colors and sharpness are amazing.  If you have not ordered any copies of Wild Delaware yet there are still signed and numbered books available that include the four free prints!  Order soon to be sure to get one of the first 1,000 signed and numbered books.  

If you have already ordered your signed and numbered copies of Wild Delaware, here is some great news. You will receive these four prints free with each copy of the book you have ordered!

If you have not ordered your copies of Wild Delaware, now is the time.

This free print offer is for the first 1,000 copies of the book. Each book will be signed and numbered 1 through 1,000 and you will receive these four beautiful lithographs with every book. That’s a $200 gift with each $50 copy of Wild Delaware. Don’t miss out on this great offer, it is limited to the first 1,000 copies.

You can have a signed and numbered copy of Wild Delaware for your coffee table and four beautiful wildlife prints for your home or office.

Signed and numbered copies of Wild Delaware (and the four lithographs) will make wonderful gifts this Christmas!

Wild Delaware viewers have spoken and the Great Egrets win over the Red Fox in a landslide. And I agree.

Here is the cover of Wild Delaware!

Fox lovers take heart… the Red Fox will still be a two-page spread inside Wild Delaware.  Thanks to everyone for taking time to vote.

Sunrise quickly disappeared behind the clouds this morning and a mist fell over the Great Marsh near Lewes making a damp start to the day for the dragonflies.

Russet-tipped Clubtail dragonfly

Gray Petaltail dragonfly

Meet the Argiope aurantia commonly known as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider. These large spiders - the female can grow to three inches in diameter - are fairly common along the edge of wetlands and open fields in Delaware. Their large webs can be more than two feet across.

Delaware has some of the northernmost Bald Cypress trees in the nation and the best place to see these stately trees is Trussum Pond near Laurel. Bald Cypress trees can live for hundreds of years and the wood is valued for its water and rot resistance. There are many old Delaware homes as early as the colonial period covered with cypress shingles.

The most difficult part of wildlife photography is not the photography but knowing where wildlife will be and then getting close. And it always helps when you get a great tip.  Today a friend invited me today to watch the action at his hummingbird feeder. Sure enough, within just a few minutes a tiny male Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrived for a taste of nectar. At less than four inches long and with wings that beat 53 times per second, this little bird can both hover and fly backwards. The Ruby-throated is the only species of hummingbird that breeds in Delaware.

I have been working on my new book Wild Delaware for almost a year now and I have photographed an incredible menagerie of wildlife, insects and plants. But the relatively common Monarch Butterfly had eluded me until this morning. The “Monarch” gets its regal name because “it is one of the largest butterflies and rules a vast domain,” according to Samuel H. Scudder who first published the name in 1874.

Bumble Bees are our only native social bees (the common Honey Bee was first introduced to North America by Jamestown colonists in 1622) and the Bumble Bees were busy sipping nectar and collecting pollen from giant Marsh Mallow blossoms this morning.