photoartflightSurfacing Cormorant
Posted on January 1, 2014
I was following this Cormorant fishing in the water below where I was setup with a Sigma 300-800mm zoom. He kept popping up and then diving down again looking for his meal. I caught him just as he surfaced with the water flowing down his beak and head and thought it was an interesting look and helped show how they fished. Canon EOS1D MkIV, Sigma DG 300-800mm f/5.6 zoom @ 800mm, f/8, 1/400 sec. ISO 640., effective focal length 1040mm with MkIV 1.3X crop sensor.
Mr Pelican Finds a Free Lunch
Posted on December 30, 2013
We have been traveling the last week and spent 5 days at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida. Got lots of great photos and have a lot to edit through. Here is a Brown Pelican that came upon a fish laying on the ground and could not let it go to waste. See the animated gif below, the last image. I was hand holding the camera for this sequence so it jumps a little bit. Canon EOS 1D MkIV with a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with a Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, 1/640 sec, f/11, @ ISO 1250. Effective focal length of 728mm with the 1.4X Teleconverter and the 1.3 crop sensor of the MkIV.
American White Pelican Panorama
Posted on December 24, 2013
We are spending Christmas at Sanibel Island in Florida with lots of photo opportunities at the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Here is a 5 shot panorama of a lineup of American White Pelicans. The photo looked more interesting as a panorama rather than using a shorter lens and cropping into the image. Taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mk IV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon 1.4X MkIII Teleconverter, 1/200 sec @ f/8, ISO 400. Manually stitched together in Photoshop. Effective focal length 728mm with the 1D MkIV cropped sensor.
Ospreys at J.N. Ding Darling NWR
Posted on October 27, 2013
Because of my busy work schedule, I usually do not get to work on some of my personal files as soon as I would like. Going through my Ding Darling files I found quite a few that I wanted to work on. Here are some Ospreys from that trip. It is fun to photograph them fishing an area for their meal, diving into the water to catch a fish. Ding Darling is so large that it is hard to get Ospreys fishing. Usually you see them here flying by to another area or in a tree eating what they have caught. All images here were taken with a Canon 7D with the 400mm f/4 DO with a Canon 1.4X teleconverter giving a effective combined focal length of 896mm at f/5.6. This combination works well when you are photographing in a large open area plus it is extremely hand holdable for fast moving subjects. With the 7D it is important to shoot Raw images and use Adobe Camera Raw or the Canon Software that comes with your camera to process your files to control your image noise for cleaner images. If you ever get to Ding Darling look for them flying through the refuge or sitting in trees along the Wildlife Drive, either resting or eating their catch. Also note that J. N. Ding Darling’s Wildlife Drive is closed on Fridays. Hope you enjoy them.
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- Done for the Day
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- Fly By
Roseate Spoonbills at J.N. Ding Darling NWR
Posted on October 24, 2013
One of my favorite birds to photograph at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge is the Roseate Spoonbill. They are colorful and quite animated large bird which gives photographers a host of photo opportunities. Also being a large bird helps in photography in the vast areas of Ding Darling. Most of the images here were with the Sigma 300 – 800mm lens at 800mm. The photo at the top of the page shows a Roseate Spoonbill montage in a landing sequence. The others are just random shots around the refuge. If you are ever in Sanibel look for them. They are entertaining and fun to watch.
Spreading its wings, Canon 1D MkIV @800mm, effective 1040mm
Napping Canon 1D MkIV @ 800mm, effective 1040mm
Flyby, Canon 1D MkIV @ 400mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter, effective 728mm
Coming In, Canon 1D MkIV @ 400mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter, effective 728mm
Splashing, Canon 1D MkIV @ 400mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter, effective 728mm
Different Kinds Of Panoramas
Posted on September 26, 2013
Panorama basically just means wide view, but for photographers panoramas can mean many things. Most use a wide to short telephoto to make panoramas with multiple images. Often when I am out in the field, I am only carrying a 400mm lens, usually with a 1.4X Teleconverter. But quite frequently I see a shot that is too wide for the equipment I am carrying. Even if I had a wider lens, I would not have time to switch and still get the shot I wanted. So I shoot a series of shots of my subject and manually stitch them together in Photoshop. You can also try automatically stitching them in Photoshop or PT Gui. For just a few shots I use auto exposure. But if I am shooting many shots for a long or tall panorama, I switch to manual exposure so the exposure does not change, this makes it easier to combine for the final image without exposure shifts from section to section. I have used this for everything from birds, turtles, birds on top of tall trees, to dragonflies and other interesting subjects. Or if see an image that is perfect for a panorama, but I envision a longer thin crop without a lot of extra image that detracts from what I want. I do not want to crop to my panorama from my regular file because I want a large image, either for a double page spread or maybe a large print, and want to hold the detail with all the added pixels. In another scenario, I see a large bird landing with a wide wingspan, but cannot fit it all in, so a quick series at 10 fps gives me a few images to work with. Or you see a Black-crowned Night-Heron sitting in a tree and you also want to show the bird in its habitat with a lot of detail. Give it a try, it is simple to do and comes in very handy.
Blackwater NWR, Cambridge MD
Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel, Florida
Closeups with 400mm f/4 DO with, 1.4X teleconverter and extensions tubes
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Bombay Hook NWR, Smyrna, DE
Steamtown National Historic Site, Scranton, PA
Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge – Sanibel, Fl
Posted on September 17, 2013
One of the places we like going to is Ding Darling NWR in Sanibel, Florida. Trouble is, with my work it is tough to get the time to go that far. Also with the lenses I bring, it is tough to fly. The last time we went was about 2 years ago, but I never really got the time to work on my images. I was going through one of my external back up drives and found my images, so I thought I would post some of them here. This is just a quick sampling out of about 2000 files from that trip. It helps to bring a long lens here, the longest you have. There is a lot of activity and interaction between the birds and long lenses help capture that. If patient though you will find quite a few close to the shoreline, you can even get some headshots with a 300mm to 400mm lens. I was using a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter or a Sigma 300-800mm DG Zoom Lens. Also there are great sunrises and sunsets here. You just have to time Sunrise with when the Wildlife Drive opens, so certain time of the year you will miss Sunrise. Ding Darling is closed on Fridays so you have to plan for that also. There is also Indigo Trail which is 2 miles long and starts at the Education/Visitor Center. There are 2 other trails along the drive, Wulfert Trail & Shell Mound Trail. Also off the main Refuge is the Bailley Tract, which is open every day. There are also many other areas to photograph wildlife on Sanibel & Captiva Islands. There are beaches, wildlife boat tours, lighthouse, and along the main bridge to get on the Island.
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