photoartflightSnow Geese Panoramas From Brigantine
Posted on January 1, 2020
Here are a series of panorama images of Snow Geese from a previous visit to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, New Jersey. There were so many Snow Geese in the flocks throughout the refuge the only way to get more detail in the actual birds was to photograph them in a series of panoramas with a telephoto lens. If I just used a wide angle lens the individual birds would be extremely small in the frame and I would have a huge amount of empty sky and foreground. All panoramas were shot with a series of handheld images with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter. Images were then assembled in Photoshop.
11 image panorama, 400mm lens, with 1.4x teleconverter, final image – 99 inches wide @300ppi
16 image panorama, 136 inches x 17 inches @ 300ppi, 400mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter
6 image panorama, 400mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter
Detail section of one panorama
Snow Geese Detail, 400mm w/ 1.4x Teleconverter
3 image Flying Panorama, 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter
23 image panorama, 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter (136 inches x 12.75 inches @300 ppi)
16 image panorama, 400mm lens w/ 1.4x teleconverter (138 x 17 inches @300 ppi)
20 image panorama, 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter (137 inches @ 300 ppi)
Snow Geese Flying Panorama, (4 image) 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter
Osprey Hovering Before Diving
Posted on December 23, 2019
At the end of the year I go through my backup drives to cleanup and delete files no longer needed. I found this Osprey image taken years ago on one of those backup drives. This was taken at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. Image taken with the Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 lens @ 800mm. This was one of my favorite lenses back then. A beast to haul around, but once you were setup in an area, you could really get amazing results working that area for images. It did well with flying birds on a Canon 1D style camera body back then. Between the 1D mk IV body, heavy duty Gitzo tripod and Wimberly gimbal head you were over 20 pounds. So you did not roam around to much with this combo. But it was definitely a fun combo to use and produced extremely sharp images. For birds in flight it was great because you could zoom out to find them flying in the distance, then zoom in to get the shot. I do miss it from time to time but I make due with the 400mm Canon DO and Tamron 150-600mm lenses with teleconverters. Not as sharp as the 300-800mm f/5.6 Sigma, but close enough and my back appreciates the lighter load to carry.
More Sigma 300 – 800mm images below —
Brigantine Sunrise Panorama
Posted on December 19, 2019
I am still going through images I photographed in past visits to my favorite areas and I am slowly working through adjusting my files. The featured image is a sunrise from the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. I was using a 12 – 24mm zoom @ 12mm. I shot 6 overlapping images with a lot of overlapping on each because I was shooting wide @ 12mm. If you do more shots when shooting @12mm they overlap more, so it seems to blend better automatically in Photoshop.
90 Cormorants Panorama From Brigantine
Posted on December 18, 2019
Now that I am retired, I have time to work on files from years ago that I had not finished or even gotten around to. The featured image is a 10 image panorama of a large group of Cormorants swimming down one of the channels along the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. I was on the Wildlife Drive photographing ducks when this group came by. I shot a series of 12 handheld overlapping images to get them all in as they were going by. There are 90 Cormorants visible but there are a few underwater, that surfaced after I had shot that area as I continued photographing the series. For some reason I always photograph my series for panoramas from left to right. Also most of my panoramas are handheld. Mainly because I am photographing something else when I notice an image that I think would make an interesting panorama. Photoshop usually does a good job aligning the images. For this image I was using a Canon 400mm DO Lens with a Canon 1.4X Teleconverter on a 1D MkIV body.
When shooting “moving” panoramas, I tend to try to overlap even more on each section. This helps when one section might have an element that is not what I wanted or liked and I would still have enough images to overlap for a finished image.
The finished panorama with black border (below) is 86 inches long x 21 inches high @ 250 ppi. If I ever print it, it would go even larger @ 150 or 200ppi.
Cropped in sections from the panorama to show detail below.
Hawk Tree Top Take-Off
Posted on December 16, 2019
We noticed a hawk in the trees by the turnaround along the two way section of the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge In Oceanville, NJ. I was photographing the hawk as it was looking around and also at me. Then it moved to the top of another tree. After a while it flew off and was able to get a few shots of the takeoff. I was using a Canon 7D with a Canon 400mm DO lens and Canon 1.4x Teleconverter. (FIeld of View – sort of equivalent would be 896mm on Full Frame Camera). I always have trouble ID’ing hawks. Do not know why. Let me know!
Hawk starring at me while I was photographing it.
Ring-Billed Gull On Ice
Posted on December 14, 2019
I photographed this Ring-billed Gull (2nd Winter plumage) as it was foraging for food on the ice at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, in Oceanville NJ. This series was from a few years ago. I am cleaning / organizing my arrays of hard disks to remove files to free up more storage space. I liked the featured image because the Gull looked like it was lonely on it’s own little ice island. It then continued to move around the ice behind the small ice island looking for food. I usually do not photograph Gulls, but thought this Gull was interesting because of the ice and the little ice island in the clear water. All images taken with 400mm Canon f/4 DO lens.
This ice almost looks like the gull is walking on water
Common Merganser Starting Take Off At Brigantine
Posted on December 13, 2019
Here are some more images taken many years ago at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville New Jersey. I was surprised to see some Common Merganser Ducks back then, especially in December with snow. But they were fun to photograph, especially the Merganser’s interesting takeoff series. All were taken with a 400mm Canon DO lens.
28 Great Blue Heron Landscape Panorama
Posted on December 11, 2019
Since the weather got colder I have been going through old files that I have not worked on before. I started with files from about 10 years ago taken at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. The featured image is a panorama made with 14 images shot back then with a Canon EOS1D MkIII with a 400mm Canon DO lens showing 28 Great Blue Herons. Images (Raw files) shot handheld, and final image assembled,aligned and blended in Photoshop.
Example of 1 image of the 14 images used for the panorama
Smaller Panorama showing 11 Great Blue Herons. I tried first with 5 images before working on the larger version (Can you find the 11?)
Black Skimmer Panoramas
Posted on July 30, 2019
It is a challenge to photograph flying birds for a panorama. After some practice the success rate goes up (hopefully). Basically you shoot a burst of images as you try to cover the area of birds flying you want. Also panning as you shoot, going in the direction they are flying. I found that shooting with a wide angle lens for a large group of birds flying does not give you as much detail as shooting them with a telephoto lens for a panorama. A pretty high shutter speed is also helpful. You might have a few touch-up areas or overlaps to fix once you assemble the base Panorama.
The panoramas below are a group of Black Skimmers on or close to the shoreline. This is a little easier because most of them are not moving, but again you might need a few touch-ups here or there.
Black Skimmers, 4 images, 400mm f/4 DO lens
Black Skimmer Panorama, 7 images @ 400mm & 1.4X Teleconverter
Black Skimmer Panorama, Early Morning, Bad Light, 2 images @ 400mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter
Black Skimmers At Brigantine
Posted on July 28, 2019
More Black Skimmers fishing at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville New Jersey. These were photographed @ 600mm with the Tamron 150 – 600mm lens on a Canon R. They are cropped in a little to concentrate on the Skimmer.
Wider View of Black Skimmer fishing
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