photoartflightWalk in the Woods
Posted on November 14, 2013
I took a leisurely walk around the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ on Sunday looking for Fall Still Life images. I found a few I liked and also a few general interest Fall images as I was walking along the path. Here are some of what I found. I used my 1D MkIV with the Canon 70-300mm DO lens for the longer zoom range which comes in handy for a wider range of images, especially if you do not know what you will come across while on your walk. It also works well with extension tubes for closeup images when you come across them. The 70-300mm DO makes a great walk around lens especially with the Image Stabilization. I usually carry a 12mm & 20mm extension tubes with me, along with 12″ silver/gold collapsable reflector & 12″ diffuser for either reflecting light into a subject or for diffusing harsh sunlight.
Milkweed Two Image Panorama
Autumn Mute Swans
Posted on November 10, 2013
2 Mute swans flying into a colorful Autumn background. I liked the formation flying these 2 Mute Swans were keeping as they flew few laps around this small lake. They flew lower for the first go round, then on the second lap they gained a little altitude and flew across the colorful fall background. I thought the pair of white swans contrasted nicely with the reddish leaves and the darker grayish area on the right made it look like a B&W image blending into color as the swans flew into it. This was shot with a Canon EOS 1D MkII with a Canon 100-400mm zoom @ 400mm with a Canon 1.4X teleconverter giving an effective focal length with the 1.3 crop of the camera and 1.4X of the Teleconverter of 728mm @ f/8. I usually stop down a little more when using a teleconverter, but using a lens that was @ f/5.6 and with the Teleconverter making it f/8, I chose an f/stop of f/11 to help sharpen it up a little but still give me a shutter speed fast enough to stop the action of the flying birds.
Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker
Posted on November 9, 2013
I was condensing files on my external hard disks and came across these files of Norther Flickers. I had found this Northern Flicker preening in a tree at the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale NJ. I liked the the Red on the nape of the neck with the yellow on the bottom side of the feathers and the sunlight on the eye and face of the Flicker and skimming across the yellow feathers. I only had time for the one photo before it flew down to a lower tree. So I was glad I got at least one in this light.
Colors of Fall Starting to Fade
Posted on November 7, 2013
Here in the Northeast the Fall colors are beginning to fade. I met my friend at the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale NJ one morning to see what we could find before the Fall colors turned into brown, dried out leaves. I thought we had a good chance to find bright subjects that would stand out against the fading or subdued foliage. I decided to travel light, taking my Canon 70-300mm DO lens on a EOS 1D MkIV body which gave me a good focal length range in a small, lightweight package. I also used a Canon Flash set at -1 stop just to help fill in my subjects in the early morning light and helped me shoot handheld instead of using a tripod. The Canon 70-300mm DO has a poor reputation because of its Diffraction Optics, but it is one of my favorite lenses. It is about an inch shorter , but wider than a normal 70-300mm lens. It also has Image Stabilization, but I believe it takes a second for it to kick in, so I take this into account also. Shooting Raw files and adjusting them in Adobe Camera Raw makes this lens shine and a winner. Getting back to photographing, I tried different crops, shooting angles, and combining bright or vibrant subjects with darker subjects or backgrounds. I was also trying to place my subjects on a pleasing softer backdrop, so I used an f/ stop of f/7.1 or f/8 to keep the backgrounds simpler. Hope you enjoy them.
Fall Photos
Posted on October 20, 2013
I spent the morning with a friend at the Greenway entrance to The Clery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ. We were looking for Fall Still Life images in the fields. There had been a rain during the night so there were water droplets all around. All images were with the Canon 1D MkIV with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 OS Macro. Because of the breeze I shot some images at f/4 to help stop the motion with a higher shutter speed and used a 2 shot image stack for the depth of field and also for exposure of the highlights.
Milkweed Pods
Posted on October 15, 2013
Took a walk around Lake Appert at the Celery Farm Natural Area and came across Milkweed Pods by the Butterfly Garden. I thought they looked interesting with side/backlighting. Used a Canon MkIV with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro lens.
Favorite Images from the Celery Farm Natural Area in Northern, NJ – Sunrises & Sunsets
Posted on October 9, 2013
The Celery Farm Natural Area in Northern NJ is a local wildlife area that is close to home so it is easy to get to and wander around with a camera for an hour or two. It has a little over 100 acres to explore. Over 240 species of birds have been spotted here along with a variety of mammals, insects, and reptiles. I used to often get there early for sunrises and see the birds flying through the warm colors. Sometimes I would go back in the evening to catch a sunset. Here are a few images from those early morning/evening photo treks.
Great Blue Herons at the Celery Farm
Posted on September 24, 2013
I was going through some of my old files and found this series taken with my then new Sigma 300 – 800mm DG f/5.6 zoom at a local Nature Area, The Celery Farm in Allendale, NJ. These were some of my first images with this lens and I was quite pleased with the results. It was a challenge to get shots of the Herons flying, especially close in with a 800mm lens. I found zooming out a little to find them in the viewfinder, then zooming in for the actual shot worked well. It also helped that the Great Blue Herons are a LARGE and fairly slow flying bird. It was a fun day watching them fly around the small lake and interacting with each other. A little bit about the Celery Farm. It is a Nature Area right in the middle of densely populated Northern New Jersey. It is a little over 100 acres with a small lake and a path around the lake. The path is a little over a mile long. a few years ago there was a large variety of birds present. The last few years it seems to have quieted down some, but is still a nice quiet area to photograph nature and wildlife.
photoartflight 
