Sleeping Mute Swans At Brigantine

At the end of the Wildlife Drive at Brigantine there is a nice corner view of Doughey Creek. Sometimes you can see an Eagle off in the distance in the trees that are not visible from the other main Wildlife Drives. On this visit there were a couple of Mute Swans sleeping close to the Drive right before you exit the Drive or before you can go around for another visit on the Drive

Sleeping Mute Swan, Canon R @ 600mm, When it was closer to the bridge near the exit on our Round on Drive
Sleeping Mute Swans, 6 Image Panorama, Canon R @ 600mm
Sleeping Mute Swan (keeping an eye on me) Canon R @ 600mm
Mute Swans Sleeping, 5 Image Pano, Tamron 600mm, f/16, Canon R
Brigantine Wildlife Drive Map

Panoramas From Brigantine

A few days ago we went to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ to see what we could find to photograph. Usually there are large flocks of Snow Geese, Canada Geese & a variety of ducks throughout the Refuge this time of year. Most of the large groups of birds were fairly far out but that gave me the opportunity to do lots of hand-held panoramas. For cameras & lenses I was using a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm lens, a Panasonic LX1 pocket camera, an Olympus OM-D 1 with a 7.5mm Fisheye Lens and my iPhone 11 Pro. We also were able to get a few images of different Bald Eagles that were around the Refuge on this trip. On this post I have a few multi-image panoramas of flocks of birds around the Refuge with Atlantic City in the background. The Featured Image is a 29 image pano shot handheld with a 150-600mm lens @ 150mm on a Canon R. This was taken along the Wildlife Drive with the Atlantic City Skyline in the distance. The final image is 90 inches x 16 inches. Very Long Panoramas are not Great to post here because I have to downsize from 75-90 inches to 1200 pixels so I loose a lot of the detail in the images, but at least you can see the view I was trying to show! In future Posts I will be showing panoramas with flocks of birds & Brigantine Landscapes without Atlantic City in the background!

Cropped Main Image to Show Detail, 29 Image Panorama, Canon R, 150-600mm @ 150mm
Atlantic City from Wildlife Drive, 19 Image Panorama, 150-600mm @ 150mm, Canon R
Atlantic City View From Wildlife Drive, 3 Image Panorama, 6.3mm Lens (Full Frame Equiv. ~28mm), Panasonic LX1

Bald Eagles From Brigantine

We took a trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division to see what we could find to photograph. I was not sure of what we would find but it turned out to be a Great Photo visit. I was hoping for large groups of Snow Geese and we definitely found multiple groups of them around the Refuge. Most of the groups of Snow Geese were far out in the various pools, so for those images I shot a series of images for long panoramas of the large groups. One large group of Snow Geese far out in the water, shot with a 600mm lens, was a series of 64 images with a final image size of 507″ long. On the first area we were photographing in I was shooting some landscapes when Kathy pointed out 2 Bald Eagles in a distant tree. So it was going to be a Good Photo Day!

Pair of Bald Eagles, Canon R, 150-600mm lens @ 600mm

Cloudscape & Snow Geese High Flight Panorama

On a trip a few years ago to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife I noticed this flock of Snow Geese flying high above me. I took a couple of images but because the Geese were so high above me it did not look that interesting. Then I decided to shoot a quick 2 image series for a panorama to show a wider view of the flock of Snow Geese flying in the interesting clouds above. I was using an Olympus OMD 1 with a 14-140mm lens @ 14mm. The panorama was assembled in Photoshop, letting Photoshop align & blend the Panorama.

Brigantine Feeding Gulls Panorama

Quite often you will find large groups of Gulls, with a few other birds in the mix, feeding in the water channels along the Wildlife Drive. The Featured Image is a handheld 7 image panorama of a group of mainly Gulls with a couple of Snowy Egrets in the mix. Because they are actually moving along as they are feeding I shot my 7 images as fast as I could to help with the blending & to minimize their movements on the overlapping edges of the 7 images. I also upped my ISO to 1250 to get an even faster shutter speed (1/2000 sec) to minimize the fast movement of the camera’s swinging arc & also because of the moving Gulls. It also helps to shoot in the same direction the group is moving. I was using a Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm @f/11 on a Canon R.

Cropped In Section of the Panorama to show detail

Brigantine Cloudscapes & Landscapes

The cloudscapes were Great on our visit to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville New Jersey. For the Landscapes I was using 3 different setups depending on what I was trying to show in my images. For really wide views of clouds & landscapes I used an Olympus OMD-1 with a 7.5mm Fisheye lens (180 Degree FOV) or my iPhone 11 Pr0 with the 1.5mm (Full Frame Equivalent Field of view ~13mm) or the 4.3mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent ~26mm). I corrected the Fisheye lens Distortion of the 7.5mm Fisheye lens on the Olympus in Photoshop using the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter that is accessed under the main “Filter” listing on the top menu Pull Downs. For the far out or distant landscapes with flocks of birds I was using a Tamron 150-600mm lens on a Canon R (Some with a 2X Teleconverter giving me a 300mm to 1200mm).

The Featured Image is a 3 image panorama taken with a 7.5mm Fisheye Lens on an Olympus OMD Camera.

Brigantine Landscape Panorama, 8 images, iP11 using 6mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent FOV ~ 52mm)
Brigantine 4 image Panorama, iP11 Pro, 1.5mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent FOV ~ 13mm) Assembled in Photoshop
Early Morning Skyscape , iP11 Pro, 1.5mm lens, (Full Frame Equiv. FOV ~ 13mm) 3 Horizontal Images, Stacked Vertically, Pano Assembled in Photoshop
Brigantine Landscape, 3 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens, OMD-1
Brigantine Landscape, iP11 Pro 1.5mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent ~13mm)
Brigantine Cloudscape, 7.5mm Fisheye, Olympus OM-D, De-Fisheyed in Photoshop
Brigantine Landscape Panorama, 6 images @ 150mm, Canon R, 150-600mm Tamron

3 Ospreys On Osprey Platform

I photographed these 3 Ospreys along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, NJ. In the Spring & Summer months there is a lot of activity at the Osprey Platforms along the Wildlife Drive. Some Platforms are fairly close to the Drive, where others are a little more distant from the Wildlife Drive. Usually the closer ones are crowded with cars lined up so I tend to like the ones further away and shoot with longer lenses. Usually I am photographing them in-flight coming & going from the Platforms but here I liked the 3 lined up in a row looking like a family Portrait.

Osprey Landing, 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV (560mm) @ f/9, 1/640 sec., subject 154 ft away
Osprey Landing, 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV (560mm) @ f/9, 1/640 sec., subject 154 ft away

Ospreys On Osprey Platform

A photo of an Osprey bringing nesting materials to the nest on an Osprey Platform along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ. This was from a few years ago in May. But can not wait to photograph the Ospreys in the upcoming months along the Wildlife Drive. There are quite a few Osprey Platforms along the Wildlife Drive giving many opportunities to photograph them. You need a fairly long lens unless you want to severely crop your images. These images was taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 2X Teleconverter.

It is amazing the materials they use to build their nests.