photoartflightSleeping Mute Swans At Brigantine
Posted on January 25, 2022
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
Panoramas From Brigantine
Posted on January 21, 2022
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!
More Sandhill Crane Panoramas From Lake Woodruff NWR
Posted on December 29, 2021
I am still going through Sandhill Crane images that were shot for making panoramas since they were so close to me as I was photographing them. Usually it is a reverse problem where your subjects are too far away as you are photographing them. All images in this post are taken with a 300mm lens on a Canon R. The Featured Image is a 2 horizontal image panorama combined in Photoshop.
Roseate Spoonbill Above Me
Posted on December 21, 2021
This is from a previous trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm & Rookery. I was just going through external Hard Drives to clean up some space and found this Roseate Spoonbill image. I thought it was an interesting image because it was looking down at me as I was looking up at the Spoonbill to photograph it. Also the pink Spoonbill really stood out against the background of the bright blue sky. Image taken with a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 309mm.
Lake McCormack Panoramas @ Audubon Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on November 23, 2021
We went to the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve to photograph some more Fall landscapes and panoramas. This time I was using a 17-40mm lens on a Canon R. The six horizontal images for the Featured Image were taken @ 17mm. I loaded the six images into one Layered Photoshop file and let Photoshop automatically align & blend the layers for the final image. The vertical pano image below was also taken @ 17mm, but these were taken in a vertical format to have more height for the panorama. This pano is made from 3 images.
Tricolored Heron With Breeding Plumage On Nest
Posted on November 16, 2021
These images of a Tricolored Heron in Breeding Plumage on the nest were taken a couple of years ago on a photo trip to Florida. These were taken at the Rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. I was using a Tamron 150-600mm lens on a Canon R. This combo worked great for getting images in the Rookery because there were so many photo opportunities, some were far off but many were extremely close, almost too close! I was fortunate to come upon this Tricolored Heron in High Breeding Plumage on a very close nest. It is only in High Breeding plumage for a few days. During the peak of the breeding these herons have the distinctive coloration of red eyes, purplish feathers, pinkish legs and bright blue bill. The Tricolored Heron is also known as the Louisiana Heron. The Featured image was taken @ 600mm & cropped slightly.
Cattle Egret With High Breeding Plumage
Posted on November 13, 2021
I am still going through images that I shot on Photo Trips that I did not get to while I was still working. These are from a trip to Florida a couple of years ago. The images were taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery. I was using a Tamron 150-600mm lens on a Canon R. Both images here were @ 600mm. After using the Tamron lens for a while I am quite impressed with the quality of the images & versatility of this lens. Even with a 1.4x or 2x Teleconverter and processing images with Adobe Camera Raw you can get amazingly nice images of far distant birds & other subjects! Or portraits of closer birds. The Canon R would still autofocus even with the 2X Teleconverter. Plus the Tamron lens was easily hand holdable and no need for a tripod. Unlike the Sigma 300-800mm beast of a lens which was 13 lbs, so no handholding that lens for sharp images.
Wood Stork Fast TakeOff
Posted on November 9, 2021
Now that I am retired I am going through images from previous photo trips that I did not have a chance to work on or post here. I was photographing this group of Wood Storks that were together in the top of this group of trees. There were a few nests scattered there in the treetops and they were making a lot of noise about something. Then this Wood Stork hastily took off. I guess the others did not like it being there. It landed a few trees away by another nest. Image taken with a Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 500mm with a Canon R.
Great Egrets In Florida Trees
Posted on November 7, 2021
Now that I am fully retired I am going through files from previous Photo Trips to post. The images here were taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery a few years ago. The Featured Image was taken with a Tamron 150-600mm @ 309mm on a Canon R. The Tamron 150-600mm lens worked Great at the Rookery since birds were both near and far in the Rookery giving you a lot of opportunities to get interesting images without carrying a lot of Gear! There were quite a few nests there also since the alligators below the boardwalks helped protect the nests from predators climbing up to raid the nest here!
Great Egret Catching A Snack
Posted on October 12, 2021
Going through Backup Drives working on images that I did not have time to adjust or work on when I was still working. This is from a photo trip to the J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Florida 2 years ago. As we were walking along the Wildlife Drive I noticed this Great Egret working its way in the water channel along the Drive. It got to a sunlit section and I was able to get a couple of images before it flew off. Images taken with a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm with a 1.4X Teleconverter @ 840mm, f/16, 1/640 sec. Because it was in the bright sun I also set the Camera to a -2/3 exposure compensation to hold detail in the white Egret.
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