photoartflightMore Black Skimmers From Brigantine
Posted on July 3, 2019
It is fun to watch Black Skimmers working in pairs. While we were at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge we noticed this pair of Black Skimmers working this area along the Wildlife Drive. They kept flying across the main channel of water along the Drive, then turning into a perpendicular channel flying away from us. Then they would return and repeat their flight path, skimming along the water as they flew by. It is fun to photograph them when you have fairly smooth water to see their paths behind them to visually see the arcing paths they take while fishing in tandem.
Black Skimmers banking to return for another pass
Black Skimmers @ 600mm
Returning Skimmers crossing paths
Black Skimmers changing direction
Black Skimmers At Brigantine
Posted on July 1, 2019
Black Skimmers are some of my favorite birds to photograph as they are fishing and skimming along the water. This group was working an area in the channel along the Wildlife Drive near the entrance to the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division. I was shooting @ 600mm, but they were covering a large area, going down one of the channels moving away from me, then turning around coming back to me and going to the right. Then they would repeat their pattern. Time after time fishing the channels and then swinging around to skim along the other direction. There were 2 groups of 2 fishing there. In another post I will show images of the 2 skimming together.
I was using a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm lens and was surprised the Canon R tracked them so well. I even tried a few with a 2x teleconverter and still auto-focused well.
Panoramas of Osprey Platform – Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge
Posted on June 25, 2019
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. We usually like the wide variety of birds, but there were not as many shore birds as usual. And many birds were way far out in the distance. Lots of Swans, Some Black Skimmers, Terns, Great Blue Herons, Egrets, etc. Mostly the usual subjects. But all of the Osprey platforms had active nests with visible chicks. We usually concentrate on the platforms further down the Wildlife Drive, mainly because they are closer to the Drive, but you also do not get the Atlantic City skyline in the background. The Ospreys were not flying much, but it was still fun to photograph the nest activity. The featured image is a 4 image panorama shot with an Olympus m43 camera @84mm. I wanted an image to portray the nest platform in the landscape. All the reat were taken with a 150-600mm Tamron lens. I was quite impressed with Tamron 150-600mm on the Canon R. I had taken it on our trip to Florida and was amazed at the fine feather detail of breeding plumage birds. It auto-focuses nicely, was quite sharp. And the details were amazing. Even pushing the limits by adding a 2X teleconverter, I was impressed. It also kept up with skimming Black Skimmers working in the channels. On this day the clouds were also amazing.
3 img pano – shot @ 1200mm, Canon R Tamron 150-600mm lens, 2X teleconverter
shot @ 1200mm, cropped a little, Canon R, Tamron 150-600mm lens, 2X teleconverter
shot @ 1200mm, Canon R, Tamron 150-600mm lens, 2X teleconverter
Overall landscape, Olympus m43 Camera, 14mm
Snow Geese Panoramas from Brigantine
Posted on March 7, 2019
Sometimes when I find a large groups of birds I try a few panoramas, just for fun. On this day I found a very large group of Snow Geese, mostly sleeping, so I thought I would give it a try. There was not much else around, so why not. They were not moving and stretched a long ways along the Wildlife Drive. The featured image (which will probably not show much detail in this blog) was 35 images, handheld, for a finished panorama of 550 inches long by 15.5 inches high. It took Photoshop quite a while for it to process the panorama and then I had a few touch-ups here and there because of the length. I was trying a new Canon R with a 400mm f/4 D.O. lens and 1.4X teleconverter. It was not very bright out so I should have raised my ISO and stopped down more for increased depth of field, but I thought it might be enough when I photographing them. So the foreground is a little soft, but it was still fun to try.
Cropped section to show more detail
Another Closer Cropped section
Image taken later when they started to move around. Single Image showing limited depth of field on foreground because I was focusing on the flying birds landing in background.
Starting to wake up and move around
Everythings Ducky
Posted on March 7, 2019
Some more images from our trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. We saw a large variety of Ducks on our visit there. Some were in large groups and others were either a pair or just single ducks swimming by. Most, as usual were farther out in the channel, but a few cooperated and swam closer by. All shot with a 400mm D.O. lens with a 1.4X teleconverter on a Canon R. The sky was very overcast when were photographing the ducks, so I did my best to brighten my Duck subjects. The featured image is a Male Northern Shoveler Duck. Always loved that green head with bright yellow eyes!
Red-breasted Merganser Duck
Hooded Mergansers
Bufflehead Ducks
Male Northern Pintail Duck
Male American Black Duck Swimming by a Female Northern Shoveler Duck
Pair of Northern Shovelers Feeding
Birds Of A Feather Not Flocking Together
Posted on March 4, 2019
While I was photographing the Snow Geese I noticed this group of birds in the foreground. I thought it was an interesting combination with the Canada Geese, a pair of Ducks and the lone Gull. The other 4 were asleep and it looked like the Gull was keeping watch over them.
Sleeping Snow Geese
Posted on March 3, 2019
When I was photographing Snow Geese at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, I concentrated on some very long panoramas with up to 35 images each. After I had photographed those, I also tried a few different shorter detail panoramas with only 3 to 9 images. The featured image is made with 3 horizontal images, assembled & blended in Photoshop. I could have used a wider lens and cropped off the top and bottom, but I wanted to have more detail in the images of the individual Snow Geese. For the image below, I wanted a little more height so I shot 9 vertical images for the panorama. These were shot with a Canon R with a 400mm D.O. lens with a 1.4x Teleconverter.
9 vertical images, handheld panorama w/ 400mm & 1.4X teleconverter
Flying Brant Ducks with Atlantic City Skyline
Posted on February 26, 2019
As I was photographing clouds along the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division, this group of Brant Ducks took off. I thought it looked interesting as they flew over this little jetty of land in the water’s edge. Then they banked and flew farther to the right and over the Atlantic City Skyline you could see in the distance. The sky was constantly changing depending on which direction you were looking at. The cloud cover went from heavily overcast and ominous looking to blue sky with nice feathery clouds. But it did make for a wide variety of cloudscapes in one outing.
Olympus OMD-1, 14-140mm lens @ 48mm
Immature Bald Eagle At Brigantine
Posted on February 23, 2019
While we were photographing Ducks & Geese in the water along the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division, we noticed this large dark bird along the far shoreline that had just landed. I thought it might be an Immature Bald Eagle because of the large size and dark coloring. I shot quite a few series of this bird as it flew short distances along the far shoreline and it kept moving farther & farther down the shoreline, landing multiple times along the way. When I got a chance to work on my files I remembered this series and started to work on the Raw files. I was using a Canon 400mm DO f/4 lens with a Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter so for that distance away the bird was extremely small in the frame. First I opened the Canon R raw files as 54MP, instead of the standard 30MP. I did this to get a little more pixels to work with since the Eagle was so small in the file and bumping up the faux pixels when opening in Camera Raw sometimes still retains more detail. This helps to get an image somewhat usable with a little more pixels, be it they are faux pixels. These are extreme (Very Extreme) crops so the quality is not great, but it is fun to see it was an Immature Bald Eagle with what looked like a Duck in its talons. It made its way up the shoreline, stopping multiple times for a snack on the way. We were on the Wildlife Drive (so we were quite far away) and these are just a few images from the series as it was working its way down the far shoreline.
Eagle taking off after a wave of Canada Geese flew over the Eagle
Immature Bald Eagle with Atlantic City Skyline across the water
Sleeping Mute Swans At Brigantine
Posted on February 21, 2019
When we first got to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ, it was an overcast day and very early in the am. On the first leg of the Wildlife Drive, by Gull Pond, I found these sleeping Swans. I was photographing them and then they started to move around giving me a few more options for photos. Then I heard a piercing rattle and knew it was a Belted Kingfisher. It landed a few trees away from me, but I was able to get a few images, even though it was not large in the frame and had poor light before it flew on. I wish it had been a little sunnier, but I got what I could. All images here were with a Canon R, 400mm f/4 DO lens with a Series III 1.4X teleconverter.
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