Craig Shaknis Photography

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Craig Shaknis Photography

Landscape and nature photography.

04/28/2026

We just got back from a family vacation in Jamaica. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Rockland Bird Sanctuary in Montego Bay. Although last October's hurricane severely affected the bird population in Jamaica, their numbers are starting to come back as more food becomes available. These two images are of the Red-Billed Streamertail (Trochilus polytmus), known locally as the "Doctor Bird". This species of hummingbird is endemic to Jamaica and serves as the island's national symbol. Males are easily recognized by their iridescent emerald-green plumage, black crest, bright red bill, and two, 10-13 cm long black tail streamers that produce a humming sound in flight.

I included a cropped, close-up, image, for you to see the detail in the feathers.

04/01/2026

The ice is just about ready to go out on Long Lake and I am looking forward to the arrival of these beautiful birds, and their chicks.

Spring is almost here!

03/14/2026

I saw an article in today's Portland Press Herald about the migration of Snow Geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Refuge, near Reading PA, and it inspired me to make this post. I used to live not far from there and would visit it this time of year to photograph snow geese.

The pictures below are when upwards of 140,000 snow geese had stopped at Middle Creek on their yearly migration to their breeding grounds in Canada and Arctic region. The reservoir was constructed when the snow geese were almost extinct to give them a rest stop along their journey north.

It's one of the most amazing wildlife scenes I've ever photographed.

02/10/2026

I’ve seen a few videos recently on FB of the now completely frozen over Sebago Lake that caught my interest. After a little detective work, I headed over to Nason’s Beach on the western shore of Sebago Lake to fly my drone and capture some images before tonight’s snow concealed them for the rest of the winter. It didn’t take long for me to find the spot I was looking for.

I really love these abstract images of the frozen lake. The patterns and textures are so amazing. Be sure to zoom in to see the detail. The first image looks like it could have been taken by an electron microscope.

I hope you enjoy these truly unique images as much as I do.

02/06/2026

Sebago Lake has completely frozen over, the first time in six years, so I drove down to Sebago Lake Park this morning to fly my drone to see what I could find.

As I was crossing the ice ridge, there was a massive cracking sound and everything shook under my feet. It may have tightened up a sphincter or two!

After that drama, I flew the drone looking for unique ice formations and captured these two images.

If you like to ice skate, take a drive to Sebago State Park and you will enjoy MILES of clear ice! There were LOTS of people ice fishing and skating and one person riding a motorcycle. There wasn't much wind so no ice boats or kite skaters.

01/04/2026

The weather reports weren’t very promising for last night’s full moon rise, but I headed out anyway. If there weren’t any low/medium clouds on the horizon, I would have been in perfect position. So, I waited about five minutes until about half of the moon was exposed and snapped off a couple of images before the foreground darkened too much. I love how the sky glowed around the moon. Moonrise is always fun to shoot for me, and last night was no exception.

01/02/2026

I made a run down to Portland Headlight late yesterday afternoon to meet up with some of my photography friends for sunset. Although sunset didn’t work out, I did capture a new composition from this arch. In full disclosure, this is a “composite” of two different images. The lighthouse appears somewhat small when shot from this arch, so I blended in another iconic composition for Portland Headlight to make it a little more dramatic.

Happy New Year!

12/28/2025

I've been going through some of my old images and found this one of Caddo Lake in Uncertain, TX that I had not posted. I went there on a self guided tour back in November of 2024. I paddled a kayak every morning through groves of bald cypress like those pictured here. It was such a surreal experience, nothing like shooting in Maine.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.

12/25/2025

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas with family and friends.

Photo of the Aurora in Iceland.

12/10/2025

A lot of people ask, why does the Aurora look different to my eye vs. what I see posted on social media? This article by Vincent Ledvina, the "Aurora Guy", provides a great explanation on why the Aurora is so much more vivid when captured by a camera or iPhone.

Enjoy!

https://theauroraguy.com/blogs/blog/what-does-the-aurora-really-look-like?omnisendContactID=68cfebcaf95dad74eb50ff9c&utm_campaign=automation%3A+Welcome+%2864930ba1efaea2bef1f0fb61%29&utm_content=67e860ebefc244dc882d30bb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=omnisend

12/09/2025

On Saturday, the sun had a strong M8.1 flare that was Earth facing and all of the "experts" were predicting a G3 solar storm for last night. BTW, that's a pretty decent storm. I evaluated the weather and my location options and headed up to the Baxter State Park to shoot the Aurora over Mount Katahdin with fellow photographer Chris Lawrence - . We checked into the Eagle 2 cabin at NEOC, had supper at the brewery, and took a short power nap before heading out at 10:00pm. The skies were crystal clear, the moon was out illuminating the foreground, and the temps hovered around 6 degrees. Unfortunately, there was a little more wind than we had hoped for, which made it a little "bittah". None the less, we set up our cameras and waited for the show to begin. After about three hours of enduring the elements, and not seeing ANY sign of the Aurora, we packed up our gear and went back to the cabin.

I didn't capture the Aurora, but I did snag this pretty nice winter scene of the Big Dipper and the North Star over Katahdin. When I returned home, I learned how to enhance the stars to make the BD stand out and gave the NS a nice embellishment as well.

We have a saying in photography..."You have to show up!, and that's what we did. Although we didn't capture what we had hoped for, it was still a great experience.

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Naples, ME

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http://www.craigshaknisphotography.com/

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