# Emerald Water



## SCraig (Jul 6, 2012)

Summer here treats many of the lakes and ponds badly.  They will get a heavy scum of green algae on top that makes them look like green pea soup, or in other words just plain nasty.  Occasionally, though, one will remain clear and just get a deep green emerald color to it.  The lake at Centennial Park was that way today, clear and emerald green, and in places still as a mirror.


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## Joel_W (Jul 6, 2012)

Nice set. Pics 1 & 3 are tied for my favorite.  We get that Algae scum on most of our local ponds here as well.


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## SCraig (Jul 6, 2012)

Joel_W said:


> Nice set. Pics 1 & 3 are tied for my favorite.  We get that Algae scum on most of our local ponds here as well.



Thanks, Joel.  I don't like the crop on #2 but I didn't get the whole  duck in the shot (stupid!) and a landscape crop looked worse.

Do you get the "Green Scum" this badly?




This is one of my walking spots but only in the spring, fall, and winter.  In the spring I avoid it like the plague.  This is a small pond beside the main lake but the main lake gets this bad as well.


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## Joel_W (Jul 6, 2012)

Got the same conditions here as well. Look at it this way, it's mother nature not some screw up.


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## SCraig (Jul 6, 2012)

Joel_W said:


> Got the same conditions here as well. Look at it this way, it's mother nature not some screw up.


I guess you're right.  It's still nasty looking though.

The place I used to work has ponds all around the buildings.  The maintenance guys there worked their tails off all summer long to keep those ponds cleaned out, and they managed to do it.  It sure made a difference to.


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## FireDiva (Jul 6, 2012)

It's always been my thought the algee was place there for a reason.....feeds all kinds of wee water creatures....love the shots, so clear,


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## SCraig (Jul 6, 2012)

FireDiva said:


> It's always been my thought the algee was place there for a reason.....feeds all kinds of wee water creatures....love the shots, so clear,


It may feed them but it also blocks oxygenation of the water.  Oxygen is only dissolved into the water at the surface, and if the surface is blocked no oxygenation can take place.

The main lake doesn't get completely covered, probably 50% overall.  I'm not sure how big it is, probably 100 acres or so.  The algae tends to move toward the banks, and some of the coves get completely covered.  There is a wide band probably 50' wide or so all the way around it, and covering the smaller coves.  It really ruins the appearance of it.


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## FireDiva (Jul 6, 2012)

How long do you figure the lake's been there?


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## sam7771 (Jul 6, 2012)

Number 2 is my favorite the way the water is coming off the bill and how soft the bird look amazing

you fail before sucsess


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## Cpi2011 (Jul 7, 2012)

Very nice set of photographs, what a nice shot excellent lighting and wonderful sharp image. Thanks a lot for sharing !!


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

FireDiva said:


> How long do you figure the lake's been there?


Since 1914.  It's a man-made lake with a spillway at one end that controls the level.  It was originally impounded in 1914 by the L&N railroad company to provide water for steam locomotives and for watering livestock at a nearby switching yard, and to serve as a hunting and fishing preserve for the railroad officials and their guests.

Yes, I did have to look up that date   The area is named Radnor Lake and it's one of my favorite walking areas except during the summer.  It consists of 1200 acres literally surrounded by Nashville (Click Here for Google Maps).  There are a lot of photos from the area on This Page of my web site.


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## unpopular (Jul 7, 2012)

ARGHHHHH DUCKS!


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

Cpi2011 said:


> Very nice set of photographs, what a nice shot excellent lighting and wonderful sharp image. Thanks a lot for sharing !!





sam7771 said:


> Number 2 is my favorite the way the water is coming off the bill and how soft the bird look amazing
> 
> you fail before sucsess



Thank you both.  Those photographs were taken at Centennial Park, also in Nashville.  This topic has gotten a bit confusing since there are two different lakes being discussed 

I like the image of #2 but I dislike the crop.  The duck was dipping his head under the water looking for food on the bottom (it's a shallow lake) and each time he came up I shot a couple of frames.  This was the best in terms of showing the water cascading off his head but I failed to get the entire duck in the frame when I shot it.  This was the best crop I could come up with but I still don't like it.

The lighting was what I first noticed when I walked up.  The sun was shining deep into the water giving it that emerald green color, and it was actually really pretty.


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

unpopular said:


> ARGHHHHH DUCKS!


Did you figure that out on your own or did someone have to help you?


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## unpopular (Jul 7, 2012)

LOL. What's up with ducks? Why do people take so many photos of them? Is there something I'm missing out on?

(new PBS program: the joy of photographing ducks)


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

unpopular said:


> LOL. What's up with ducks? Why do people take so many photos of them? Is there something I'm missing out on?
> 
> (new PBS program: the joy of photographing ducks)


Could be that you're missing something.

I don't know what it is, I just love to watch them.  We get a LOT of ducks and geese through here in the winter, and while lots of people hunt them with a shotgun I have always preferred a camera.  There are dozens of species, each with varying color schemes.  Many species are not native to this area and migrate here during the winter.  They will fly a thousand miles to spend the winter on the same lake each year, and then fly a thousand miles back to the same lake that they spend the summer on.  They do this based purely on instinct, no maps or GPS, they just instinctively know where "Their" lakes are.  I personally think that's pretty interesting and I like to photograph them.

Admittedly these are "Native" birds and were probably born on that lake and spend their entire lives there.  I still enjoy watching them play and squabble though.

To each their own.  I enjoy watching them, you don't.  We'll both survive


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## unpopular (Jul 7, 2012)

The truth is at photo.net I got a bunch of rude comments from a guy who had a single blurry photo of a duck swimming away from the camera. Now I'm jaded!

---

One image I really wish I caught was this one neighborhood, very "nifty fifties", each house had it's duck or duck couple, each duck sitting next to the mailbox. They were like perfectly lined up, at first I thought they couldn't have been real. It would have made a funny parody on suburbia.


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

unpopular said:


> The truth is at photo.net I got a bunch of rude comments from a guy who had a single blurry photo of a duck swimming away from the camera. Now I'm jaded!


I wouldn't recommend taking it out on the subject simply because the photographer was a prick.  If I did that I wouldn't have anything left to photograph.



> One image I really wish I caught was this one neighborhood, very "nifty fifties", each house had it's duck or duck couple, each duck sitting next to the mailbox. They were like perfectly lined up, at first I thought they couldn't have been real. It would have made a funny parody on suburbia.



I've seen them like that to but they were always plaster ducks.  Kind of like back in the 50's where every house in the state of Florida seemed to have at least one pink plaster flamingo in the yard.  That even spread far enough north that we had some of them here in Tennessee.


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## unpopular (Jul 7, 2012)

Yeah, I know. I totally thought they were fake until they started moving away as we walked by.


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

unpopular said:


> Yeah, I know. I totally thought they were fake until they started moving away as we walked by.


Perhaps they were paid by the USPS to guard the mailboxes.  Or they were air mail delivery pilots.


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## FireDiva (Jul 7, 2012)

Dispite the aglee issue, I find the emerald green beautiful......your shots are as wonderful....


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## PixelRabbit (Jul 7, 2012)

Very nice shots, gorgeous colours! 
I think the second one is the right composition, if you had the whole duck in it there would be way too much white and the beauty of the water falling would be lost.


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## SCraig (Jul 7, 2012)

Thanks, both of you.  I appreciate your comments.

I did get another shot of that white duck, with the whole duck in it this time, but he was just floating around and there as no water falling off of him.  It shows that green water off pretty well though.


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## FireDiva (Jul 8, 2012)

Look what the green lake offers in terms of the reflection....love reflections.


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## SCraig (Jul 8, 2012)

FireDiva said:


> Look what the green lake offers in terms of the reflection....love reflections.


The reflections were what actually what I noticed first when I got there.  The duck was just floating around on that water that was just smooth as a mirror in places.


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## HughGuessWho (Jul 8, 2012)

SCraig said:


> Joel_W said:
> 
> 
> > Nice set. Pics 1 & 3 are tied for my favorite.  We get that Algae scum on most of our local ponds here as well.
> ...



We use to call that stuff "duck butter". LOL, don't even ask me why. They say it grows on top of the water when the oxygen level is low in the water.

I'm glad to see you were able to find a clear patch to get the 3 very nice shots.


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## raygunboost (Jul 25, 2012)

I think iv'e seen the break one b4  nice job tho.


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