photoartflightOsprey Flying Towards Nest
Posted on October 18, 2021
I photographed this Osprey years ago at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. I was going through & cleaning up old hard drives and found images from this trip. We liked to watch & photograph the Ospreys flying to and from the Osprey Platforms along the Drive. This image was from one of our early trips there in July 2006. Back then I was using a 400mm Canon DO lens on a Canon 1D mkII that shot with a 8 megapixel sensor for a 24 meg file at ~8 fps . In today’s world that seems low-res and slow! But it did a pretty good job back then. But you could open the files quite a bit bigger and hold fine detail if you used Adobe Camera Raw and set the parameters for larger prints or severe cropping. Image taken @ f/10, 1/1000 sec, ISO 320.
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron Fly-By
Posted on October 15, 2021
As we were walking along the Wildlife Drive at J.N. Ding Darling NWR early in the morning this Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron flew right by us. I was not expecting a photo subject would fly by us but I was able to get this shot before it flew behind the trees. I guess I should be more aware of what was going around me as I was concentrating to get closer to a photo subject in the tree in front of us. Image taken @f/8, 1/4000, ISO 1250, 400mm DO lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV. I usually do not have my ISO that high but raised it because of the dim early morning light.
3 Ospreys On Osprey Platform
Posted on July 22, 2021
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.
Blue Dasher Dragonflies
Posted on July 9, 2021
A couple of images of Blue Dasher Dragonflies. The Featured Image of the male Blue Dasher was taken with a 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter @ f/8 on a Canon 1D mkIV. To get the smoother background I wanted I only stopped down 1 more f/stop to f/8 since I already lost 1 stop with the 1.4X Teleconverter attached. My usual workflow when (on bright days) using teleconverters for a little more sharpness is to stop down at least 1 additional stop when using a 1.4X and at least 2 stops when using a 2X teleconverter. If I am using a 3X Teleconverter I would stop down 1 or 2 more stops than when using a 2X Teleconverter if I could. But then again a 3X Teleconverter usually is so bad I would just stack a 1.4X & 2X teleconverter. If using an extension tube on Telephoto lenses to get closer focusing I would also stop down at least 1 or 2 more stops for more depth of field.
Distant Dragonfly Closeups
Posted on June 30, 2021
A closeup uncropped image of a Female Blue Dasher Dragonfly. It was in a small pond but off in the distance in the middle of the pond. It was about 8 feet from the edge of the pond. To get this close to Dragonflies that I can not get close to I have come up with a method to get detail images of them. I was using a 400mm f/4 DO lens with multiple stacked extension tubes between multiple teleconverters. With this setup I had to use an on-camera flash with a “Better Beamer” Flash Extender to light the dragonfly because of all the light loss with multiple extension tubes & teleconverters . This dragonfly was about 8 ft out in the water. You can see the flash hotspot on the eye. Changing the order of the extension tubes and different sizes of the teleconverters gives you different zones of manual focus. Also you have to try different exposures because Auto Exposure does not work with all the extension tubes & teleconverters. After trying this for a while you can get nice closeups of distant Dragonflies. Also you usually get nice “clean” & smooth backgrounds. It takes some practice but you can get some interesting images of distant Dragonflies.
Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk From Brigantine
Posted on January 28, 2021
I am still going through backup drives for images to post here. These are from a trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in March of 2014. We were out of the car along the 2 way section of the Wildlife Drive when I noticed a hawk on one of the treetops. I am not great at ID’ing hawks, but I believe it is a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk. Let me know if I am wrong! Anyway, it posed for me for quite a while. I slowly moved closer, little by little & did not want to bother it or scare it off. I was able to get some interesting images before others gathered to see what I was photographing and got to close to the tree it was on. Here are a few of the images taken as I was slowly getting closer until others noticed what I was photographing and scared the hawk off. All images were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x Teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIII, handheld.
TriColored Heron
Posted on November 19, 2020
I was going through bird images looking for one to post instead of more landscapes. I came across this image of a Tricolored Heron. This was from a small local Wildlife Area where I used to live and was a not a common visitor to this small lake. Image taken in early evening with a 400mm f/4 DO lens @ f/4.5, 1/160 sec.
Early Morning Canon Sunrise
Posted on August 16, 2020
I was going through old backup drives and found this image of a sunrise at a local Wildlife Area near my old home. I used to carry a small Panasonic LX1 pocket camera with me when I was carrying my main camera with a long lens. This was handy for wider view images and not have to lug a second larger camera. Now I just rely on my iPhone 11 Pro which does a much better job. Especially if you set the phone for HEIC Raw Images. While I was working on this file I never noticed before a bug on the tip of the lens by the sunburst ray. Panasonic LX1 image taken @ 6.3mm (full frame image equivalent ~ 32mm)
Female Blue Dasher CloseUp Portraits
Posted on July 17, 2020
Two close-up images of female Blue Dasher Dragonflies. I use a variety of techniques to get very close to Dragonflies. The featured image was captured with a Sigma 150mm macro with a 1.4X teleconverter on a Canon 7D. Luckily they sometimes get used to me and allow me to get very close.
Female Blue Dasher Closeup Image – 400mm Canon DO lens, Multiple Extension Tubes & 1.4x Teleconverters, Fill Flash because of light loss with multiple extension tubes & Teleconverters.
Snowy Egret FlyBy
Posted on June 4, 2020
This image of a Snowy Egret is from a previous trip to Florida. I liked the wings in a raised position as it glided by me and the highlight reflections of the sky in the water. Also the Snowy was low enough to get reflections of the highlights & shadows of the water under the wing. Image taken with a 400mm DO lens.
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