photoartflightSnow Goose Coming At You
Posted on February 9, 2018
When we were at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in NJ, we were looking for Snow Geese. We were glad to see huge numbers of Snow Geese there in multiple locations. I waited for large groups taking off, but they seemed content to just make a lot of noise squawking away.
We did see a few small groups or single geese flying around and even coming right at us, like the featured image.
It was still fun to see large groups in the distance covering a large area, even though we missed the large takeoffs.
White Ibis Fly-By
Posted on February 5, 2018
I am still going through my images from our trip to Florida from last November. There were quite a few White Ibis foraging for food and a few flying around in the Refuge. As I was photographing the White Pelican panoramas, this Ibis flew by. I liked the featured image with the Ibis as it was coming towards me, giving a more interesting angle plus had wings in an elevated position. We were traveling “light”, so I was using a Canon 300mm f/4 with a Canon Series III 1.4x teleconverter.
As the Ibis was almost in front of me, it did not seem to be as interesting an angle. Plus the shadow on the wing was not my favorite view.
Kayaker Rowing By- 2 Shot Panorama
Posted on January 19, 2018
Sometimes you just shoot what happens to go by you. I was waiting early in the morning, for some birds to fly in, when this fisherman in a kayak rowed by. So I shot a quick two shot panorama, handheld, as it went by. Sometimes just to see if it works or to get practice for multi-image moving panos. I was using a 300mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. On a moving pano, I try to get the area with the most movement in one non-blended section and the section with less movement in the “overlapping” section. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. But it is fun to give it a try!
White Ibis Formation
Posted on January 14, 2018
As I was photographing the Pelicans I also had quite a few overhead flybys. Here is a group of White Ibis flying by. I was hoping for them to come around and land nearby, but they kept going on their way.
Early Morning With American White Ibises Foraging In Trees
Posted on January 13, 2018
Getting to the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge early in the morning I was looking for photo subjects. When I was there it was not the best time of year for an abundance of photo subjects, but it was still fun to see what I could find. And it was nice to be in the Florida sunshine. You could hear rustling of leaves and knew a few birds were foraging in the lower branches of the trees. So I was waiting for them to come to me so not to scare them off. With all the branches it was hard to get clear shots of them, but it shows how they forage. This group had about a dozen Ibises, but most were hidden by the branches. Not great images but it was fun to watch them.
Snowy Egret Flyby
Posted on January 12, 2018
When I photograph at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel Florida, I like working an area. If you wait and look around you can find photo subjects that basically come to you. If you constantly move around your subjects see you coming and move away. Shorebirds working a Shoreline coming up to you, Cormorants or Anhingas surfacing near you and my favorite, birds flying over or by you. I like photographing birds in flight instead of just sitting there.
Little Blue Heron Flyby, 300mm f/4, 1.4x teleconverter
Immature Bald Eagle, very early in the morning near sunrise. Very little light, and far out in the distance. Severe Crop of image.
Cormorant Drying Wings
Posted on January 11, 2018
As I was photographing the Pelicans, this Cormorant flew in and started fishing in the water. After a few minutes it surfaced nearby. It came on shore to spread its wings to dry out. It is amazing how long some of them stay in this pose. This one stayed for about 10 minutes. Same pose, just looking left & right, so 1 shot of this tells it all. It also seems the Pelicans do not get too close to the Cormorants, where small shorebirds mingle in with them. Shot with 300mm with a 1.4x teleconverter.
The Cormorant flying in between two already there.
Cormorant after coming out of the water, getting ready to dry it’s wings.
American White Pelicans @ Ding Darling NWR
Posted on January 9, 2018
It is fun to watch and photograph American White Pelicans. Especially in groups. They seem almost comical the way they interact with each other. It is interesting to see how sometimes they are actually graceful and at other times just klutzy. But I guess I am the same way. Also they are a large subject, easier to photograph. You just have to watch so you do not overexpose the whites and keep the feather detail.
Peek a boo, I can still see you
One point landing
Stretching
More Little Blue Heron Images
Posted on January 9, 2018
Here are some more photos of the Little Blue Heron from a previous post. It was early in the morning with not many subjects to photograph. I came upon this Little Blue along the Wildlife Drive. It was working it’s way through the bushes, above the water. The trees were blocking the sun, so it was fairly dark, so I shot a series of bursts hoping to get a sharper image in one of them. Being in the shade, I was shooting at 1/50 sec at ISO 800, handheld. I do not like raising the ISO on this camera above that, so I got what I could.
Great Egret Wing Positions
Posted on January 6, 2018
While I was photographing at Ding Darling NWR in Sanibel, FL, this Great Egret flew by where I was photographing White Pelicans. It flew in front of me from left to right. As I was adjusting my files I thought it would make an interesting image showing the different wing positions as it flew by. I did not have the camera set at a high frame rate, but I thought it was still interesting.
In Camera Raw I selected the whole series, made my adjustments and opened them in Photoshop, each on its own layer in the original file. I selected the blue background and inversed the selection to select the Egret on each one. I made a new file that would fit them all in horizontally. I selected a blue sky color from the first of the series and a blue sky color from the last of the series and graduated the color from left to right for the background sky. Then added a slight bit of noise into the sky.
Now that I had my sky background, I went back to each Egret image and selected the layer of each Egret and put that Egret image in a new layer, in sequence to show the wing position sequences. If I was at a higher frame rate I would have gotten more wing positions, but I still had fun putting it together.
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