photoartflightHappy Mothers Day
Posted on May 12, 2019
Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms!
A few images of young birds in nests from a recent photo trip.
Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons At Magnolia Gardens
Posted on May 11, 2019
On our way down to Florida, we stopped at Magnolia Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina. One of our favorite places to walk around and see what we can find to photograph. The flowers were a little past prime but it was still fun to walk through. They have quite a few Peacocks roaming through the Gardens making quite a bit of noise as they are squawking away as they roam. They seem very tolerant of people though. Attached to the Plantation is an Audubon Swamp Garden with trails to walk through. It is an interesting place to photograph and you never know what you will find to photograph. Here is a series of this Yellow-crowned Night-heron we saw along the way.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron @ 600mm
Young Great Egrets
Posted on May 4, 2019
The featured image shows a little older set of young Great Egrets. They were just hanging out at the nest waiting for food for when their parents return. Below are a few other Great Egret nests with younger birds showing their “fuzzy” look. The images were shot at 550mm and 600mm.
Great Egret – Breeding Plumage
Posted on April 29, 2019
This Great Egret was at the very top of a tree that was loaded below with other nests of various types of birds. It really stood out against the bright blue sky. Photographed @ 600mm with a Tamron 150-600mm lens.
Same tree, off to one side
Tricolored Heron Nest With Eggs
Posted on April 26, 2019
I have not posted recently because we were traveling to a variety of spots for a photography vacation. The featured image is a Tricolored Heron Nest in a rookery at one of our stops. The image is a 2 image panorama @ 600mm and I did not want to zoom out to get it all in so I went with 2 handheld shots to assemble for the final image. I also wanted to show a little more to the right & left around the nest. It was an interesting spot to photograph with a wide variety of nesting birds with probably over 100 nests throughout the rookery. I was trying out a 150-600mm lens and it seemed to work extremely well with a Canon R mirrorless camera body. Especially with the White birds in bright sunlight, all types of Egrets, Herons & Wood Storks, etc. The Canon R did not blow out any of the highlights and had amazing detail in the “whites”. It especially worked well with the fine feathery Breeding Plumage
Tricolored Heron Eggs in Nest
Another single image from a 2 image series showing nest, but cutting off right bill. 2nd image would show more to the right background.
Immature Cooper’s Hawk
Posted on April 2, 2019
While I was by my carport I heard a Hawk making quite a racket, squawking away. I looked up and saw this Immature Cooper’s Hawk on a tree branch right above me. I went in and got a camera to get some photos. Another hawk flew in and then they both flew off. It was fun to see them by my home!
Female Wild Turkeys
Posted on March 19, 2019
I was checking out a new lens to see how it would work with a Canon R Camera. Sometimes, especially since I am getting older, I want to travel with fewer lenses to make life easier. I was looking at the Sigma 60-600mm, but it weighed a lot more. So I am trying a Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens to see if I like the images. This is not a full setup test, just a first test to see how the lens handled. I was just sitting outside my home photographing tree branches and other subjects to see the sharpness of the lens when I saw this group of Wild Turkeys coming towards me in a wooded area. The Male stayed further back in another yard, but the females were closer. I did not have a tripod with me so these are all handheld which was a challenge because they were in the shade so not a lot of light, but I tried a variety of shutter speeds, High ISO settings and f/stops. This also gave me an idea of how good the lens stabilization was. Wide open @ f/6.3 still gave me a limited slow shutter speed, so I increased ISO to get the shutter speed up somewhat. You will see some feet might have a slight blur from movement because of the lack of light. Also I tried a few teleconverters but the only one that would work on the Tamron was a Sigma 2X, but it did not pick up the teleconverter info and thought it was still an f/6.3 lens. It auto focused fine and and was quite responsive. The other teleconverters just gave me an error message on the Canon “R”.
The featured image was shot, handheld @ 375mm 1/200 sec, ISO 1600
Female Turkey, 600mm, 1/1250 sec, f/6.3, 3200 ISO (because of shade)
Female Turkeys, further back, In extreme shade, 600mm w/ Sigma 2X Teleconverter, 1/125 sec, f/6.3 (handheld) ISO 6400 (because of the lack of light and the 2X teleconverter. The f/6.3 is wrong, but the Canon R did not “see” the Sigma teleconverter, but still autofocused fine and was precise.
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