photoartflightGreat Blue Heron Portrait
Posted on June 3, 2022
I photographed this Great Blue Heron at a local Wildlife Area where I used to live many years ago. It was on the shoreline early in the am along the path and I took a few photos and went on my way so not to bother the Heron. Image taken at 7am with a Canon 400mm DO lens, 1.4x Teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIV. I had the lens f/stop set wide open @ f/5.6 to get a softer smoother background. Because I had a 1.4x Teleconverter on the 400mm DO lens my lens aperture wide open went from f/4 to f/5.6.
Osprey Fishing In Early Morning
Posted on March 14, 2021
I am cleaning my backup hard drives to remove files to clean up space and to remove files I do not need or duplicates. I found this series of an Osprey fishing at the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ. These were taken at 7 am so there was not a lot of light so I was happy they came out as well as they did because the Canon 1D mkIII was a little “noisy” in low light. The refuge years ago was a Celery Farm and after that they raised carp here before it became a town Natural Area. So you can see a small splash of orange color in the featured image by the Ospreys talons. The Osprey was not able to hold on to the Carp and dropped it before the next image.
TriColored Heron
Posted on November 19, 2020
I was going through bird images looking for one to post instead of more landscapes. I came across this image of a Tricolored Heron. This was from a small local Wildlife Area where I used to live and was a not a common visitor to this small lake. Image taken in early evening with a 400mm f/4 DO lens @ f/4.5, 1/160 sec.
Colorful Sunrise Flyout
Posted on March 24, 2020
I am going through files looking for images I had not posted before. These are from a local wildlife area where we used to live. Early in the morning hundreds of blackbirds would fly out at sunrise. With the colorful sky and clouds it was an interesting sight to see, plus the sound was interesting also. 
One of the Last to Leave
Posted on December 10, 2013
I took a walk around the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale NJ, early Sunday morning. The lake and streams were pretty much frozen over. It was 27˚ and was very quiet around the frozen lake. I came upon this Great Blue Heron along this little stream of moving water. It was one of the only unfrozen sections with open water. I think he was looking for a meal and seemed totally unconcerned with me being close by. I took a few shots and then moved on so I did not disturb or stress him. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, 70-300mm DO IS f/4-5.6 @ 200mm, f/8 , @ 1/50 sec, ISO 1250, -0.67 exposure compensation.
This Great Blue Heron had a couple of friends keeping him company in this small section of open water.
800mm Fly By
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.
Swan Babies
Posted on December 3, 2013
It is getting colder here in New Jersey, so I was going back through the archives to clean out files. I found these images of this Mute Swan nest and the Swan Cygnets from the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale NJ. I used a Canon 20D with a 1.6X crop with the Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 zoom which gave the reach I needed to photograph the Swan Babies on the nest. With the 1.6 crop sensor it has an effective focal length of 1280mm. I used a -0.33 exposure compensation with aperture priority so I would not blow out the whites on the Swans. In some of the photos you can see the egg pieces from a freshly hatched cygnet. Hope ou enjoy them.
Canon 20D, Canon 100-400mm f/4-5.6 @ 100mm, effective focal length 160mm
Leaf above Ice
Posted on November 25, 2013
Going over files from last year and found this one. When the weather starts getting colder, I like looking for interesting ice patterns in streams or along lakes and hopefully with an item in the composition for a focal point. I found this leaf stuck in a small twig above this ice formation. I liked the early morning low sun backlighting the leaf, adding warmth, highlighting textures & patterns in the ice. Photographed with a Canon Eos 1D MkIII with a Canon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM @ 300mm, 1/100 @ f/8, ISO 400. I also used High Pass Sharpening in Photoshop to help bring out details & textures in the ice and leaf.
Autumn Swan Taking Flight
Posted on November 23, 2013
I used this series of selected images from one Swan’s takeoff to make one art print. I liked this Swan’s takeoff against the colorful Fall background, showing changing wing positions and the splashing of it’s feet trying to get airborne. I started with more wing positions, but the print got too long so I limited it to six images. Even at 6 images the final print was 96″ x 14″. Placing it on a black background also made the images really stand out and I used a gradated grey text as a subtle title accent so it did not detract from the images.
Swans FlyBy
Posted on November 16, 2013
One from the achieves, a pair of Mute Swans flying together. I used a Fuji S2 with a Nikkor 80-400mm zoom. With the Swans flying across from left to right, I used a little slower shutter speed, but panned along with the moving swans. This gives the background a streaking out of focus look while keeping the swans relatively sharp.It takes some practice, but it is worth the effort and comes in handy to make your images look a little different. I liked how the swans seem to be gliding by. close above the water, casting a shadow below them to add depth to the image.
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