photoartflightSnow Geese
Posted on December 31, 2016
I was going through some external hard disks and found some images I had not worked on. For this post I am using Snow Geese images taken at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge taken in November a few years ago. There used to be flocks of thousands of Snow Geese in the Winter months at Blackwater NWR but in recent years they have moved to different locations. The noise of thousands of Snow Geese squawking as they take off or land in huge flocks is amazing. These photos are of a lone pair coming in for a landing.
A different group of birds flew by as I was shooting the above Snow Geese – 3 Marine FA-18s.
More Wild Turkeys
Posted on December 29, 2016
It seems I keep finding Wild Turkeys. I had moved a few months ago and neighbors said to watch out for the Wild Turkeys, because they could get aggressive if you startle them. I had not seen any before, but now you see groups wandering around.
This group was walking under some trees as I came home from the store. It was raining lightly, but I went in and got a camera to get a few shots. It was dark where they were, under the trees and the light rain did not help. I used a 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4x Series III teleconverter. Between the rain and being overcast and dark under the trees, I was shooting at 1/60 sec., so shooting bursts I got some that were fairly sharp.
Wild Turkey shaking off some of the rain
Mute Swan Portraits
Posted on December 28, 2016
I was at a local park looking for subjects to photograph. They have some trails through the woods and a large 2.5 acre pond. There is usually a pair of Mute Swans in the pond. I did not see any at first, but then one of them appeared on the far side of the pond and eventually came fairly close to where I was. These were shot with a m43 camera with a 100-300mm Panasonic lens. So in Full frame equivalence, that is equal to 200-600mm, quite a bit of reach in a small lightweight easy to carry setup. It is surprisingly sharp if you are careful. Still prefer my standard Canon gear, but sometimes I just do not want to carry it all!
Assorted portraits and views at various focal lengths up to 300mm, depending on the distance of the Swan from me.
Rain Drops @ ~2X
Posted on December 27, 2016
These were photographed after a light rain. I used a m43 Panasonic Camera body with an old manual focus 200mm f/4 Canon macro lens with a Canon FD to m43 adapter. With the small m43 sensor and the Canon macro at 1X, I got an approximate 2X magnification on these photos. I was moving in and out focusing, so that is why I say approx. 2X. I like this combination because I get a 400mm macro view with more depth of field by using the 200mm lens. The m43 systems are fun because it is easy to put almost any lens on it and get auto exposure. Just set the f /stop you want, which is handy in closeups for depth of field settings and the camera chooses the shutter speed. Plus I have the camera setup so I see the depth of field in real time in the viewfinder. I do not have to hit a preview button. Some larger leaf images are probably closer to 1X.
Some Fall Leaf Still Life Images
Posted on December 27, 2016
Here are a few more Fall Leaf Still Life photos. These are how I found them, the way they fell naturally. I like looking for interesting leaf compositions, seeing different colors, textures and shapes and how they work with each other. I know we are now in Winter, but did not get a chance to post them before. All were shot with a Canon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS lens. Not the sharpest lens, but can focus fairly close-up and is 28% shorter than a normal 70-300mm lens. This was the 2nd DO lens from Canon. With the right post processing you can pull out quite a bit of detail.
Wild Turkey
Posted on December 26, 2016
We saw this Wild Turkey walking along a path at the end of the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. I was hoping it would turn slightly so I could get a better photo, but it just kept walking away from us. This was the best view of the series. I had heard them and saw them far away, but this was the first one I saw somewhat close by.
Meeting House
Posted on December 22, 2016
I usually do not photograph buildings, except for my commercial work. But we moved to a Condo community a few months ago. It looks like an old New England Village. This is the Meeting House, which looks like a Church you would find in New England. During one of my walks, I liked the light on the building and even the bare tree limbs, which seemed to highlight the building more. I had wanted to photograph the building with all the fall leaves, but the leaves overpowered the building. I did like the blue sky and clouds showing through the leaves.
Snowy Owl
Posted on December 20, 2016
Snowy Owl photos from the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ, photographed a couple of years ago. I was going through older files, cleaning up folders and sorting out images. We had heard there were two Snowys around the Wildlife Drive. We actually spotted them a few times, but they were quite far out in the fields along the shoreline. This was photographed with a 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 2X teleconverter, and cropped fairly tight. Not the best image, but a Snowy!
Fox on Ice
Posted on December 19, 2016
This was shot at the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, NJ. The fox was very far out on the ice, so it is not a great shot. But I thought it was interesting to see a fox out on the ice wandering around the Canada Geese. I did not see it go after any of the Geese, so not sure what it was looking for.
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