photoartflightBlack-crowned Night-heron Preening
Posted on September 13, 2015
I saw this young Black-crowned Night-heron busy preening along the path at the Celery Farm Natural Area. It was busy for quite a while, so I captured quite a few poses. It was fun to get so many neck positions and head angles. I also liked the reddish eye against the green of the duck weed in the water. I then left him alone to carry on.
PreDawn Sunrise
Posted on September 12, 2015
I got up early to try photographing the Pre Dawn Sunrise. I liked the mist coming off the lake. I shot a series of exposures and blended them together. Not as a HDR image, but more as an image blending darks and lights together. Featured image, 12mm, main exposure – 0.8 sec @ f/8, 1250 ISO, bracketed with exposure compensation, +&- 3 stops, choosing a few to blend.
Great Egret Landing In Morning Sun
Posted on September 2, 2015
It was a slow morning at the Celery Farm Natural Area and then, with the early morning sun coming up, a Great Egret Flew in. I liked the reflections in the dark water, adding some interest to the usual Great Egret shots. Although the sun was coming from behind I exposed for the bright white wings and then opened up the shadows a little in Adobe Camera Raw. I like shooting Egrets with strong backlighting coming through the wings and interesting reflections in the water. These are from a series of about 30 to 40 images.
After Flying In the Great Egret was Successful and Caught a Small Fish. Maybe it was an appetizer.
Great Egret Preening Feather
Posted on August 10, 2015
We finally saw a few more birds at the Celery Farm Natural Area. A Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Herons, and a Kingfisher with some smaller birds thrown in. This Great Egret flew in to a pile of sticks in the water not to far from us. It started preening and feathers started blowing away in the breeze. It was very harsh contrasty light, so I tried some fill flash and underexposed a little.
Blue Dasher Panorama
Posted on August 3, 2015
This Blue Dasher flew in where I was setup for photographing Dragonflies. This is a 5 image panorama blend with overlaps. The Blue dasher is only about 1.5″ long so not to scare him off, I was using a 300mm lens with a 1.4X teleconverter with multiple extension tubes so I had ample working distance. I assembled the images in Photoshop. I got many images as the Blue Dashers were quite abundant in the area.
Black-crowned Night-heron
Posted on August 2, 2015
I went to the Celery Farm Natural Area to look for Different Dragonflies. I had given up on finding any interesting birds as lately it has been very quiet there. Walking in over a small bridge there was a young Black-crowned Night-heron waiting for me. I was surprised but shot a series of images before it flew off to the far shore.
More Eastern Tiger Swallowtails – Different Location
Posted on July 13, 2015
I was at the Celery Farm Natural Area in northern NJ trying to find an Osprey, but no luck. Hardly any of the usual birds were around. A Black-crowned Night-heron fly by, but mostly Canada Geese in abundance. But the Swallowtails were busy in the bushes by one of the lookout towers. So more Swallowtail photos on a different bush.
And a blue dasher to add a different color to the group.
Pic-A-Boo Black-Crowned Night-Heron
Posted on June 15, 2015
This Black-crowned Night-Heron was staying somewhat hidden behind this tree. Just peeking out, keeping an eye on what was going on. I was hoping he would come out and fish for a meal. He stayed there for most of the morning and was there when I left.
Mother Wood Duck With Ducklings SwimBy
Posted on June 1, 2015
This Wood Duck family, at this local Nature Preserve swam by, in their typical line formation. There were 10 Ducklings, hopefully the Snapping Turtles will not get to many of them. So far this year seems to be a slow year for the Wood Ducks. Usually at this time of year there are many more Wood Duck families swimming around the Lake.
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