Posted on August 19, 2014
There were 2 Ospreys, flying around the first observation platform along the Wildlife Drive, fishing off in the distance at about 9:30 in the morning. I was waiting for one of them to cross over the moon, but they never did.
Category: Birds, Blackwater NWR, Cambridge MD, Blog, Skyscapes & Clouds, Wildlife Tagged: Blackwater NWR, Moon, osprey, Osprey Moon
Posted on August 10, 2014
This Osprey was circling and fishing on the far side of the lake. The first attempt she did not catch anything. On the second attempt she caught a small fish and flew off. She hit the water hard and made quite a large splash. The following is the sequence of hitting the water, then exiting flying off with her meal. The whole sequence was under 5 seconds.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: osprey, Osprey Fishing
Posted on February 22, 2014
Here is another BIF – Bird in Flight. This time it is an Osprey that was circling over the water then came in closer. Ospreys are a little harder to get good shots because their heads are always turning side to side, looking below, so you might get a nice wing position, but the head is at an odd angle or looking away. I also add some positive exposure compensation for the darker feathers under the wings. You still have to be careful not to go to far and blow out the whites. You have the same problems with Eagles. I then open up the shadows under the wings a little in Photoshop. I usually do not like to use fill flash when photographing flying birds, I prefer to work on my raw files to open up some of the darker areas.

Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm IS DO f/4, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/640 sec, +0.67 Exposure Compensation, ISO 400

Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm IS DO f/4, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/800 sec, +0.33 Exposure Compensation, ISO 400

Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm IS DO f/4, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/640 sec, +0.67 Exposure Compensation, ISO 400

Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm IS DO f/4, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/640 sec, +0.67 Exposure Compensation, ISO 400

Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm IS DO f/4, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/500 sec, ISO 400
Category: Birds, Blog, Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel FL Tagged: Canon 400mm DO, Ding Darling NWR, J.N. Ding Darling NWR, osprey, Osprey in Flight, Raptors
Posted on January 31, 2014
This Osprey was roosting in the trees nearby and then flew off to look for its meal. This time the Osprey flew towards me which gave me an opportunity to get a few shots before it got out of range to photograph. After it went “fishing”, it came back and landed back in the trees to have its meal.

Going Out for Lunch
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 IS, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Handheld, f/10, 1/2000 sec, ISO 1250, +1 Exposure Compensation

Lunch Served
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO f/4 IS, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Handheld, f/10, 1/2500 sec, ISO 1250, +0.67 Exposure Compensation
Category: Birds, Blog, Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel FL, Wildlife Tagged: Canon 400mm DO, Ding Darling NWR, J.N. Ding Darling NWR, osprey, Osprey in Flight
Posted on January 8, 2014
We saw a lot of Ospreys flying through the refuge throughout our visit. When you did not see them, quite often you could hear them shrieking in the distance or hear them in trees along the Wildlife Drive. We often saw them carrying sticks or other nest building materials, bringing them to the nest.
Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon 1.4X Series III Teleconverter @ f/7.1, 1/1600 sec, ISO 1250
Posted on December 4, 2013
Again from the archives, This Osprey had just hit the water, missed his catch and flew across in front of me. I was tracking him hoping he would come up with a fish, but I liked the small water droplets in his wake and the wing position even without his catch. I was using a Sigma 300-800mm zoom at 800mm, with a Canon EOS 1Ds MkII on a Wimberly Gimbel head. The Sigma is a non stabilized lens so you have to be careful and use long lens techniques, especially at 800mm, to get sharp images. I have a series of images, but was my favorite.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Equipment Tagged: Allendale NJ, equipment, Nature Photography, osprey, Sigma 300-800mm DG Lens, The Celery Farm, wildlife photography
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.
Posted on September 25, 2013
Here is a brief selection of birds from the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. Some are Summer visitors and the Snow Geese are Fall and Winter Visitors. Brigantine has a huge variety of birds & wildlife. Eagles, Ospreys, Egrets, Herons, shorebirds, gulls, terns, skimmers, rails, down to smaller birds. The birds here are White with Black (or Dark Brown). In bright light these can be a challenge to photograph and not blow out the whites and still retain detail in the dark areas. If they have black or dark brown coloring on them or a dark bird next to them, I capture in raw formats, depending on the make of the cameras. I usually underexpose slightly for the whites to retain details and open up the dark or shadow areas in the processing software. I use Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop or Lightroom. Sometimes I will do additional processing for sharpening in Photoshop and I use NIK Color Effects to bring out some additional details in the whites. You have to be careful not to add too much and bring out noise. Brigantine looks like it is coming back after Hurricane Sandy hit last year. We like Brigantine because of the wide variety of Birds & Wildlife photography, Landscapes, Sunsets, Sunrises, Macro – Bugs & Flora, the list is endless.
Category: Birds, Blog, Brigantine NWR, Oceanville NJ, Favorite Locations, Photo Tips, Uncategorized, Wildlife Tagged: Brigantine NWR, Great White Egret, gulls, nature, osprey, photo tips, Raptors, skimmers
Posted on September 14, 2013
We enjoy going to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge outside of Cambridge, Maryland. You never know what you will find, so it is like going on a treasure hunt. It is a large refuge, so even though there are large numbers of birds & wildlife, some might be far out in the distance for photography. Long lenses are good to bring here, but if you are patient & observant you can find a lot of photo opportunities. Blackwater has a Wildlife Drive plus walking trails. It is known for its large population of Bald Eagles and also has some Golden Eagles. It has one of the largest populations of Bald Eagles on the East Coast, which nearly doubles in the Winter months. In the Summer months Ospreys return and quite often you see them interacting with the Bald Eagles. Also look for a variety of Harriers, Herons, Egrets, Swans, Ducks, Pelicans, Snow Geese, etc. Here are a few Eagles, Osprey and a Harrier.
Category: Birds, Blackwater NWR, Cambridge MD, Blog, Favorite Locations, Photo Tips, Uncategorized, Wildlife Tagged: Blackwater NWR, Canon Cameras, eagles, harrier, osprey, Raptors
photoartflight