photoartflightGreat Egret In Golden Light
Posted on November 12, 2014
This Great Egret landed on the branch sticking out of the water. Then it started to fish for a meal. It was quite successful with its fishing endeavors. When finished the Egret flew off.
Great Blue Heron Fly-By
Posted on November 10, 2014
I was at the Celery Farm Natural Area on Sunday. It was cold, but a beautiful sunny day with no wind so it was quite pleasant. There was some activity, but fairly far out. A variety of ducks were starting to show up, Buffleheads, Ruddies, Teals, etc. A Cormorant flew in and was fishing, lots of Canada Geese, etc. Then 2 Great Blue Herons flew in. One made a close pass low to the water and it looked interesting with the water reflecting under his wings.
Little Green Herons
Posted on November 9, 2014
This Little Green Heron flew across the Lake into the tree across from me. There were2 other Greenies there already. When the third one landed they started interacting with each other giving me some interesting photos. This lasted for a few minutes until the one heron flew off.
Fall Morning Color With Great Blue Heron
Posted on October 19, 2014
Photographed this Great Blue Heron foraging for food at the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ. I liked the darker colors along with the heron’s reflection in the water.
Osprey Flyby
Posted on October 6, 2014
I thought Ospreys had left our area because of the colder weather, but I was surprised to see this female Osprey fly in. It circled for quite a few passes, looking for a meal, but eventually moved on. They are always fun to watch fly and glide by.
Female Osprey circling looking for meal. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO, f/7.1, 1/1000 sec, +0.67 exposure compensation, ISO 320.
Great Blue Heron In Morning Light
Posted on October 5, 2014
I was leaving the Celery Farm Natural Area when I saw this Great Blue Heron on a fallen tree in the water. He had interesting backlight from the sun rising behind him, highlighting his head and beak, so I tried a few shots.
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon 1.4X Series III Teleconverter, f/8, 1/80 sec, -0.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400, handheld.
Great Egret In Morning Light
Posted on September 28, 2014
I found this Great Egret preening in the early morning light this morning at The Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ. I like how the light was shining through the feathers giving dimension and textures from the side/backlighting. The Egret stayed for quite a while on this pile of sticks giving many photo opportunities. When time permits, if the subject is staying for a while, I try different compositions using horizontal or vertical panoramas, and/or focus blending. In time this Great Blue Heron came closer, but was too far behind to get both in focus. I shot 4 shots to create a focus stacked panorama of the two birds. I manually combined them with masks to keep the out of focus background with the bird images in focus.
Great Egret Preening. Four Shot Panorama w/ focus blending. 2 across, 2 down. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/400 sec, -1.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400
Great Egret Preening. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/640 sec, -1.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400
Great Egret. 4 shot vertical panorama. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/500 sec, -1.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400
Tired of Posing. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/800 sec, -1.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400
Sunrise at The Celery Farm Natural Area
Posted on September 14, 2014
I got up early to see if there would be an interesting sunrise at The Celery Farm Natural Area. Years ago we used to get some really colorful sunrises with thousands of small birds taking off into the sky. Times have changed with a much smaller amounts of birds filling the sky above the trees, hardly noticeable above the trees in this wide shot. The sun rose to the right of the main view of Lake Appert, but the trees hide the actual sunrise. There were a handful of Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets fishing and flying laps around the Lake. Also there were many raptors flying around the Lake pre-sunrise, some being chased by the small birds.
Great Blue Heron’s Sunrise Breakfast – Cropped In
Great Blue Heron’s Sunrise Breakfast @ 896mm, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO 800
Raptor sunrise Silo @ 896mm, f/10, 1/400 sec, ISO 400
Sunrise Raptor Landing in Tree after being chased by small birds, 896mm, f/10, 1/320 sec, -1.33, ISO 400
Cloud Formations on the Far Shore.
Canada Geese Sunrise Flyby
Small Birds Taking Off Into Sunrise on Far Shore
Suns Up – From Camera Platform
Great Egret FlyBy – Sun lighting through the wings. Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, Canon 1.4X Series III Teleconverter, f/8, 1/1000 sec, -0.33 exposure compensation, ISO 320. Effective focal length, 896mm. Handheld.
Wings Not of a Feather Flock Together
Posted on September 14, 2014
While this Great Egret was fishing on this pile of sticks, I noticed a large amount of Dragonflies buzzing around the Egret. Before this I have seen Little Green Herons standing in the same spot picking off the Dragonflies out of the air. I recognized Common Whitetail Dragonflies, but there were many other types buzzing around, especially quite a few really large ones.
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