photoartflightSunrise 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.
One Tree – Many Photos
Posted on September 13, 2014
We went to the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, Brigantine Division a few weeks ago and I am still going through my files. Along the Wildlife Drive, near the end before the wooded area, is a small grove of trees. Usually you see an occasional hawk, egrets or small birds there. Once we even saw a Bald Eagle. But on this day it was filled with a variety of birds. We saw Black-crowned Night Herons, Immature Black-crowned Night Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets and in the back under the branches was, I believe an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron. It was fun to see that variety in the same tree.
Egret Bookends
Posted on September 11, 2014
We came upon these 2 Egrets along the Wildlife Drive. Each one was looking the opposite way and each was standing on one leg, the opposite leg. I thought it looked interesting and a little amusing. The left was a Snowy Egret, the right Great Egret. Throughout the time we were there, we saw large numbers of all types of Egrets giving us a large amount of photo opportunities.
Great Egret Catching Breakfast
Posted on July 5, 2014
This is the same Great Egret as the blog before. He was very good at catching fish and just kept working the area in front of me. Some of his meals were small and some seemed very small, then he managed to get a few larger fish. This is one of the larger meals he caught.
Great Egret with Breakfast. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO IS f/4 lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/800 sec, -0.67 exposure compensation, IDO 400
Great Egret with Breakfast. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO IS f/4 lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/800 sec, -0.67 exposure compensation, IDO 400
Great Egret Landing Sequence
Posted on July 4, 2014
Last week at the Celery Farm Natural Area, a Great Egret was fishing close by. He was good at catching fish and seemed very intent on what he was doing. Suddenly he just took off almost straight up, then landed almost immediately a little to one side. I think maybe a snapping turtle got too close. I thought the sequence with the different Great Egret wing positions was interesting so I setup a 7 image septych file for a print (7 images either related or separate, to tell a story or convey a final image). When finished it is 125 inches wide. I was setup for a vertical image, so I did not have time to change to a horizontal, but I still liked the Egret’s classic wing positions in a row of images.
Great Egret Fishing. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, Semi-backlighting, f/8, 1/400 sec, ISO 400, Open shadows in Adobe Camera Raw
Great Egret Shaking Head w/ water droplet pattern. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, Semi-backlighting, f/8, 1/320 sec, ISO 400, Open shadows in Adobe Camera Raw
Great Egret Fly By
Posted on June 6, 2014
I was at the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale NJ in May and saw three Great Egrets roosting in a tree in the distance. I took a few shots, some looked like they were in breeding plumage. Suddenly they took off, one by one and flew off through the trees. One circled round and flew right in front of where we were. I only had the chance to get off a few quick shots as it flew over, but I thought the texture of the white feathers from underneath the Egret was interesting. Then one of the others flew by from the other direction.
Great Egret Fly By Canon 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec, ISO 400
Great Egret Roosting Showing Breeding Plumage. Canon 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec, -0.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400. Sometime when I see a subject through the trees, but branches are in the way, I shoot with the lens wide open and focus past the branches that are in the way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Here it worked.
Great Egret Roosting Canon 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/9, 1/1000 sec, -0.33 exposure compensation, ISO 400
A Study in White
Posted on February 8, 2014
Here is a selection of White Egrets – Snowy and Great Egrets. They were roosting in the trees near the end of the day. It was getting dark and was cloudy, in some ways it was easier to get good exposures of the white birds, without the bright sun, but I had to raise my ISO higher than I usually use. They seemed somewhat territorial when another got too close. It was fun to watch and hear them interacting with each other.
Closeup
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 800 sec, ISO 1600
Got an Itch
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 1250 sec, ISO 1600
Side Portrait
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 1250 sec, ISO 1600
Stacked Egrets
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 250 sec, ISO 1600
One of These is Not Like the Other
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 4500 sec, ISO 1600
Keeping Watch
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 1250 sec, ISO 1600
Waiting for Night
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 1600 sec, ISO 1600
End of the Day
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 1000 sec, ISO 1600
Hi
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld @ f/4.5, 1/ 1250 sec, ISO 1600
Uh-Oh!
Posted on January 30, 2014
This Great Egret caught his morning meal. The fish just seemed to have a look of surprise or maybe it was the look of the coming doom. It took quite awhile for the Egret to finish its meal and seemed to have difficulty swallowing it down. It kept flipping it in the air and catching it again, maybe for a better position for swallowing the fish. This was early in the morning and still a little dark. I pushed the ISO to 2000, which is about as far as I like to go on a Canon MkIV for noise, and still try to stop the motion of the Egret shaking its prey. I removed as much noise as I thought possible in Adobe Camera Raw. Using a 1.4X teleconverter gave me an f/stop of 5.6, so I added 1 more stop to help give a little more sharpness. I usually do not like using a 1.4X teleconverter wide open, so being “Old School” I used f/8 for a slight increase in sharpness because of the Teleconverter.
Two Mouths
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 IS, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO 2000
Eye to Eye
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 IS, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/320 sec, ISO 2000
Great Egret – Shy, Bad Feather Day or Just Wet from the Rain?
Posted on January 26, 2014
Found this Great Egret along the Rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. The Rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is a great place to get closeup shots of wild birds in their natural habitat. The alligators are below the boardwalk, a lot of birds build nests right above the board walk in the surrounding trees, because they feel safe from predators. I saw about 20 nesting in one tree alone. The only problem they have is the occasional meal they provide the alligators if they are too close on the ground. The best times are early in the morning before they fly out or later in the day when they come back to roost. Sometimes the nests are so close you can get great shots with even a 200mm lens. We were trying to get there on our way home, but got delayed and did not get there until they were almost closing. It also started to lightly rain and got darker. We went in anyway and I got quite a few interesting shots, even with the lack of light, gray skies and the rain. I used a high ISO and opened up the lens to help stop the action, ( More my movement from handholding the camera on the gray day, The Egret was standing very still).
Egret Eye Closeup
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 lens, f/4.5, 1/640 sec, ISO 1600
Egret Closeup
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 lens, f/4.5, 1/640 sec, ISO 1600
Egret Portrait
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 lens, f/4.5, 1/640 sec, ISO 1600
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