photoartflightAnother Blackwater NWR Bald Eagle
Posted on February 21, 2024
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is one of my favorite places to photograph. As I have written in other posts here Blackwater NWR is a large NWR so many of the photo opportunities are far off in the distance. So you have to have long telephoto lenses to capture many of the Birds & other Wildlife you come upon here. After photographing at Blackwater for more than 15 years I have come up with ways to get interesting images of distant birds & wildlife. The Featured Image was taken with a Canon 1D mkIV with a 2X Teleconverter. The Canon 1D mkIV sensor has a 1.3x crop factor so with a 400mm lens & 2x teleconverter the actual focal length is more like using a lens with a focal length of 1040mm. If I want more reach I would use a Canon 7D with a 1.6x crop factor and with a 2x Teleconverter focal length is ~1280mm. I am testing how these actions work with my 150-600mm with a 2x Teleconverter for 1920mm. Also I have made Photoshop actions to up-rez images even more with very successful results. I have also added some other lenses to try these Photoshop actions on.
Hawk Portrait @ 800mm
Posted on February 14, 2024
A close-up Hawk Portrait taken with a Canon 1D mkIV with a 400mm DO Lens with a 2X Teleconverter. With the Canon 1D mkIV 1.3 crop factor I was shooting @ 1040mm which helped to have a smooth uncluttered background.
Golden Eagle Vs. Bald Eagle
Posted on February 11, 2023
I was going through my backup drives to clear out images I do not need and came across these images of a Golden Eagle going at a Bald Eagle at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. We had seen comments online that there was a Golden Eagle that was staying around the Refuge giving visitors a good chance of getting some photos. I probably posted some before but I re-adjusted some of the images for more detail and better color. All Images were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 2x Teleconverter giving me a focal length of 800mm on a Canon 1Ds MkII. With the 2X Teleconverter my f/stop wide open was f/8 so I stopped down 1 more f/stop to get a little more detail.
Great Blue Skimmer Dragonflies
Posted on August 5, 2022
A series of Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly images taken with a Canon 300mm lens on a Canon R. Most images shot with a 1.4x Teleconverter @ f/5.6 or f/6.3 to get smoother looking backgrounds. On the image of the Male Great Blue Skimmer I wanted more detail on all the wing damage so I stopped down to f/16 and used a 2X Teleconverter.
Female Eastern Amberwing Dragonflies In Our Gardens
Posted on August 1, 2022
In a previous post I showed male Eastern Amberwing dragonflies in our gardens. On this post I am showing Female Eastern Amberwing dragonflies. The female Eastern Amberwing dragonflies have dark rusty-brown
wing patches. The males do not have these dark wing patches. All Images here were taken with a Canon 300mm f/4 lens with a 2x Canon Teleconverter on a Canon 1DmkIII.
Common Terns At Brigantine
Posted on May 24, 2022
I usually do not photograph some of the smaller birds I see at Wildlife Refuges. Usually they are far off in the distance or are very skittish and fly off. On this trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR these Common Terns were more cooperative. All images here were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 2X Teleconverter on a Canon 1DmkIV. The last image in the series was actually a panorama shot as it was flying right at me and I wanted to get the right wingtip in also. So I quickly shot a series of images hoping to get the right wingtip in also for my final pano image.
Osprey Nest On Platform At Brigantine
Posted on May 18, 2022
Images are from a trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, NJ. There are many Osprey Platforms scattered along the Wildlife Drive at Brigantine to get interesting images of Ospreys in and near their nests. Also you can see them flying into the Platform to feed the young and get interesting Osprey nest images if you have long lenses. The Images here are along the first straight away upon entering the Wildlife Drive with Atlantic City blurred in the background. The images were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a Canon 2X Teleconverter on a Canon 1DmkIV.
Great Blue Heron Landing
Posted on December 19, 2021
A series of images of a Great Blue Heron coming in for a landing at Lake Appert in the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, New Jersey. It was interesting since it was coming in directly in front of me as I was photographing the Heron! Images were taken with a 400mm DO lens with a 2X Teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIV.
A Series Of Blue Dasher Dragonfly Images
Posted on September 7, 2021
Here in NJ Dragonfly season will be ending soon. I am seeing fewer Dragonflies & Damselflies at our local parks, Wildlife Refuges and even our yard. Here is a collection of Blue Dasher Dragonfly images from a variety of local Parks & Wildlife Refuges. The Featured Image was taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens, Canon 2X Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV @ f11 & with Fill Flash. Dragonfly distance from camera ~15 feet. Some images were also taken with Extension Tubes on the lens, but Extension Tubes do not show in the RAW Data in Adobe Bridge so I did not list them in the image info on each image.
Great Blue Heron In The Grasses
Posted on September 4, 2021
As we were driving along the Brigantine Wildlife Drive looking for photo subjects we came upon this Great Blue Heron standing in the Grasses. It was quite far out so I put a 2X Teleconverter on my 150-600mm lens to get a closer image. It came out fairly well considering the Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 600mm with a 2X teleconverter (1200mm) is somewhat pushing the sharpness of the lens & image. Stopping down more to f/16 helped quite a bit plus using more Sharpening in Camera Raw when adjusting my images also helped. Usually when using a Teleconverter, I stop down more than I usually do when not using a Teleconverter. For example – when using a 1.4X teleconverter I stop down 1 more f/stop than usual. When using a 1.7X or 2X Teleconverter I stop down 2 stops more than usual. I flattened my layers & duplicated the final layer to have a duplicate layer above my final layer. Using Filter > Other>High Pass Sharpening I had a Grayscale duplicate image above my final color layer. The Grayscale layer was then changed from Normal to Overlay in the layers palette and I lowered the opacity of the High Pass layer to about 40 percent opacity. This just adds a little more Crispness or Sharpness (on the image edges) since I was using a 2X Teleconverter on the Tamron 150-600mm Lens. When using a Grayscale High Pass layer technique it is best to not go too “heavy” on the opacity of High Pass layer. Usually I only go to 20% or 30% opacity on the High Pass layer, but really depends on the image you are working on. This technique can also help sharpness when printing images on an Ink Jet Printer which is basically spraying the ink. But for Inkjet printing I would lower the High Pass layer even a little more. It takes some practice but helps. In my old commercial photo studio before I retired we also did a lot of Wide Format printing for our Corporate & Advertising Agency clients. I had 2- 60″ wide HP Printers for indoor display & fine art graphics & 44″ & 63″ Epson Printers for outdoor graphics or indoor specialty medias. Give this technique a try, but do not overdo the opacity of the High Pass layer. Again it takes some practice, but comes in handy.
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