photoartflightFlying Great Blue Herons
Posted on July 24, 2020
It seems like Great Blue Herons just glide along in flight for being such a large bird. They do have quite a wide wingspan from ~ 5.5 to 6.6 ft. They can cruise @ 20-30 miles per hour. So they are fun photo subjects especially if they are flying around a small lake and you have long lenses!
Dragonfly Eyes
Posted on June 27, 2020
An assortment of Dragonfly closeups focusing on their eye & face details. Images taken with 300mm & 400mm lenses with extension tubes.
Blue Dasher Dragonfly Wing Detail
Posted on June 26, 2020
This Blue Dasher focus stacked image is made with 2 images, blended. 1 focused on the head area & the other focused on the tail area. Both were shot, handheld with a 400mm DO lens, with an extension tube for closer focusing. This Dasher seemed to have a damaged hindwing on the right side. Images taken @ f/8 to to keep a smoother background so the Blue Dasher stands out. I used Photoshop to align and then blend the 2 images for the final focus stacked image. If I stopped down more to get everything in focus in 1 shot, the background would have been busier and the Dasher would not stand out as much. I tend to like smoother backgrounds in my Dragonfly images.
Great Egret Landing
Posted on June 20, 2020
A Great Egret landing in the early morning light at a small local lake. Image taken with 400mm DO lens with 1.4X teleconverter.
Chipping Sparrow on a Branch
Posted on June 13, 2020
We had gone to a local park, Davidson’s Mill Pond Park, and noticed quite a few Chipping Sparrows flying around. The Sparrows were on the branches that were near the top of the tree. I was using a 400mm Canon DO lens with a 2x teleconverter to get closer and cropped the images slightly.
Female Red-Winged Blackbird
Posted on June 11, 2020
These are images taken from a previous trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. Along the Wildlife Drive you see many birds in the vegetation along the sides of the Wildlife Drive either foraging for a meal or just hanging out on vegetation & bushes. Most of the Drive has water on both sides of the Wildlife Drive which also provides a lot of photo opportunities. Also there are many Gulls overhead that have found clams on the shorelines. They fly above the Wildlife Drive & drop the clams on the road. Once they fall on the road and crack open, they fly off to eat their meal. I guess it easier to open then. We have not had any hit the car, but some came close. So there are many photo opportunities along the Wildlife Drive. On this day there were a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds along the Wildlife Drive. But you have a better chance to get nice images if you do not try to get too close since they will just fly off. I usually use a 400mm Canon DO lens with either a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter so we do not have to get too close.
Vertical View of Red-winged Blackbird, 400mm DO lens with 1.4x teleconverter
Green Darner Dragonfly Laying Eggs In Small Pond
Posted on May 29, 2020
I was photographing this female Green Darner dragonfly that was busy laying eggs in a small pond. It spent a large amount of time doing this so I had plenty of time to photograph the activity. It covered a very large area in this fairly small pond. The featured image is a 2 image panorama to get the reflection of the Darner in the image also. The Darner seemed to be spreading the eggs in a very wide area around the small pond. I was using a Canon 400mm DO lens & some images were shot with an extension tube to focus this close on the female Darner dragonfly when it came too close for my minimum focus distance.
Looking Up
Posted on May 27, 2020
This Great Egret landed on a pile of sticks out in the lake at a local Wildlife Refuge. It kept looking up and glancing around. At first I thought it was looking for a hawk that was screeching nearby. But then I saw a few Dragonflies buzzing around above the Egret. It is interesting to watch the Egret pick them out of the air as they fly by.
Osprey Flyover
Posted on May 20, 2020
It is always fun to photograph Ospreys flying overhead. And the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ usually has quite a few around the Wildlife Drive. Especially in nesting season. I was using a Canon 400mm DO Lens with a 2x teleconverter to photograph these flying Ospreys.
Cattle Egret @ 800mm
Posted on May 18, 2020
Another series of images @ 800mm. This time a Cattle Egret that was balancing on a sign along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. It was interesting to see it hanging on to the sign with it’s large feet. I did not want the sign to show so I was composing more for portraits against the nice blue sky. Because it was on top of the sign, I was sort of looking up at it. Most were taken with a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter. I shot a few different angles and views before moving on leaving the Egret sunning there. Before finding this Cattle Egret on the drive we also passed a small group foraging on the ground.
2 overlapping vertical images @ 800mm for Panorama
First image in series shot @ 400mm before moving a little closer & adding the 2x teleconverter
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