photoartflightGreat Egret Flying Into Tree
Posted on January 5, 2021
On our visit to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge we saw quite a few Great Egrets around the Refuge. This one was foraging in the grasses along the Wildlife Drive and flew into a group of trees along a turn on the Wildlife Drive. It was usually a great spot for photographing Night Herons.It stayed in the tree for quite a while just moving around on the branches. All images were taken with a Canon 1DmkIV with a 150-600mm Tamron lens @ 600mm.
Snow Geese 30 Image Panorama From Brigantine
Posted on January 3, 2021
We decided at the spur of the moment to take a trip in state to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division. We thought that concentrating on just driving & photographing on the Wildlife Drive we would not be close to any others visiting there. We were surprised how many people were there, but it was fun to get out and photograph again. It was a Great Day and was fun to take your mind off Covid-19. The cloud formations were Great in the am and there were quite a few birds to photograph. I was mainly looking for large flocks of Snow Geese to photograph. Usually they are in multiple groups in the water scattered along the Drive and flying around the Refuge. But on this day they were mainly only in 2 very large groups quite far out along the Drive and not flying through the Refuge. Except 1 or 2 that flew by far out in the distance. So on the one large group I decided to shoot a panorama that turned out to be 30 images shot with a Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm on a Canon 1D mkIV, handheld. I wished I had used the Canon R instead for finer detail, but I was using that with a Wide zoom lens.
Great Blue Heron Panorama
Posted on November 28, 2020
A three horizontal image panorama of a Great Blue Heron. There times when I am out walking at a Wildlife Refuge when I come upon a photo subject that is too close for the lens I am carrying. In this instance I was walking along the Wildlife Drive near the entrance and saw this Great Blue Heron standing in the water. I was too close for the lens I had with me so I shot three overlapping horizontal images to combine for a vertical panorama. It seems rare when you are too close to get the whole bird in. Usually you do not have enough focal length for what you see and want photograph. If you can shoot a series of images quickly before the bird moves you can make some interesting panorama images. The Featured Image is 3 horizontal images taken with a 300mm lens on a Canon 7D. Assembled & blended in Photoshop. I usually always photograph from the head down for the series or the head then to side for however many images you need.
Black Skimmers From Edwin B. Forsythe NWR
Posted on November 14, 2020
While cleaning up some of my backup Hard Drives I found these images from a previous photo trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ. I never worked on some these before, so I thought I would use them here. These were soon after I got a Canon R and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. I was surprised that this combination worked pretty well on flying Black Skimmers.
49 Cormorant Panorama From BRIGANTine
Posted on November 11, 2020
I was cleaning up backup Hard Drives and I found this panorama of Cormorants. This was taken last June at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. I was using a Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 600mm with a Sigma 2X teleconverter for a focal length of 1200mm. The Panorama is made with 9 horizontal images, aligned & blended in Photoshop. Even with the Sigma 2X teleconverter I was using autofocus with the Canon R. For some reason the Canon R does not see the Sigma 2X Teleconverter and still thinks the lens with the teleconverter is a f/6.3 aperture. Even the Adobe Camera Raw info data states it is f/6.2 (not even the f/6.3) lens.
Snowy Egret Fishing
Posted on August 4, 2020
I liked this graceful pose of this Snowy Egret. I was shooting bursts as this Snowy was fishing, dancing around in the shallow water. When I was adjusting files this one was my favorite pose from the series.
Ospreys In The Fog At Brigantine
Posted on July 9, 2020
These images were taken from a previous photo trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. We stayed overnight to get an early start the next morning, but we woke up to a very foggy morning. We carefully drove from the motel to the Refuge anyway thinking maybe it would burn off at sunrise. But the fog stayed for a while and I kind of liked the eerie foggy look of the Refuge in the fog. Adding contrast and opening up the shadows helped with the very flat light with the flying Ospreys against the foggy white background sky. It sort of turned them into a high key white background. It was sort of interesting to be the only ones there in such a large foggy area. All images shot with a Canon 400mm Canon DO lens, some with a 1.4x teleconverter with a Canon 7D to get closer for flight images.
Female Red-Winged Blackbird
Posted on June 11, 2020
These are images taken from a previous trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. Along the Wildlife Drive you see many birds in the vegetation along the sides of the Wildlife Drive either foraging for a meal or just hanging out on vegetation & bushes. Most of the Drive has water on both sides of the Wildlife Drive which also provides a lot of photo opportunities. Also there are many Gulls overhead that have found clams on the shorelines. They fly above the Wildlife Drive & drop the clams on the road. Once they fall on the road and crack open, they fly off to eat their meal. I guess it easier to open then. We have not had any hit the car, but some came close. So there are many photo opportunities along the Wildlife Drive. On this day there were a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds along the Wildlife Drive. But you have a better chance to get nice images if you do not try to get too close since they will just fly off. I usually use a 400mm Canon DO lens with either a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter so we do not have to get too close.
Vertical View of Red-winged Blackbird, 400mm DO lens with 1.4x teleconverter
Osprey Flyover
Posted on May 20, 2020
It is always fun to photograph Ospreys flying overhead. And the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ usually has quite a few around the Wildlife Drive. Especially in nesting season. I was using a Canon 400mm DO Lens with a 2x teleconverter to photograph these flying Ospreys.
Cattle Egret @ 800mm
Posted on May 18, 2020
Another series of images @ 800mm. This time a Cattle Egret that was balancing on a sign along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. It was interesting to see it hanging on to the sign with it’s large feet. I did not want the sign to show so I was composing more for portraits against the nice blue sky. Because it was on top of the sign, I was sort of looking up at it. Most were taken with a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter. I shot a few different angles and views before moving on leaving the Egret sunning there. Before finding this Cattle Egret on the drive we also passed a small group foraging on the ground.
2 overlapping vertical images @ 800mm for Panorama
First image in series shot @ 400mm before moving a little closer & adding the 2x teleconverter
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