BIF – Osprey

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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm IS DO f/4, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/11, 1/500 sec, ISO 400

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Osprey Getting Nest Building Materials

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.

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Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon 1.4X Series III Teleconverter @ f/7.1, 1/1600 sec, ISO 1250

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Black and White at Brigantine NWR

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.

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Eagles and Raptors at Blackwater NWR

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.

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Peregrine Falcon at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, Brigantine Division

 

Another location we like to photograph in is the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. We never know what we are going to find when we go there, it is more like a Treasure Hunt. There is an eight mile Wildlife Drive along with various walking trails. Each season brings different photographic subjects. We go mainly for the birds, but if it is a light day for birds, we can go on to deer & other mammals, turtles, landscapes, sunrise/sunsets, macro subjects – bugs, dragonflies, wild flowers or combinations of these. Part of the fun is you never know what you will find. This is an example of what we came upon. We were going down the Wildlife Drive and saw this Peregrine Falcon sitting on a post right on the edge of the Drive. We are used to seeing them flying around the refuge or off in the fields. They are also seen often sitting on the Osprey platforms when the Ospreys are not using them . We slowly drove closer thinking it would just fly off. It just kept looking at us as we got closer. Not wanting to bother him, we drove on the far side of the road. He never left and seemed like us being there was of no interest to him. We spent a couple of minutes taking some shots of him, but we were so close we got these portraits. We then moved on so not to bother him, but he was a great subject.

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