photoartflightSnowy Egret Early AM
Posted on December 27, 2020
These images are from a previous trip years ago to J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida. It is one of our favorite places to visit when we are in Florida. We were walking early in the morning on the Indigo Trail which is off the Wildlife Drive. Usually there are quite a few Egrets & Herons there feeding in the am. The problem photographing in the early am there is it quite dark being in the shade from all the trees & vegetation above. After I took the featured image, I wanted to include the Snowy Egret’s reflection in the water. So I shot 2 vertical images to combine in Photoshop for a long vertical Panorama to include the reflection.
400mm DO Lens with 1.4X Teleconverter, 1D mkIV, Blended in Photoshop
Cedar Waxwing Dining on Insects
Posted on October 17, 2020
I was cleaning up old backup hard drives and found this series of images of a Cedar Waxwing dining on insects caught in a web under a branch. This was many, many years ago early in the morning. I was using a Canon 1D mkIII with a 400mm Canon DO lens and a flash with a Better Beamer Flash Extender to fill in the dark areas. I was on an observation platform and the Cedar Waxwing was almost level with me as I was photographing the waxwing. It is amazing how much better our digital cameras are now compared to the early days!
Unicorn Clubtail Dragonfly Warming On Rock
Posted on July 29, 2020
I found this Unicorn Clubtail dragonfly sunning on a warm rock. I usually never see Clubtail dragonflies in any of my places I go to photograph Dragons & Damsels. These images were taken with a Canon 400mm Canon DO lens with an extension tube and a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon 7D. The wings on the bottom of the image look like there are 2 sets of wings on that side because of the shadow of the wings on the rock. 
Ospreys In The Fog At Brigantine
Posted on July 9, 2020
These images were taken from a previous photo trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. We stayed overnight to get an early start the next morning, but we woke up to a very foggy morning. We carefully drove from the motel to the Refuge anyway thinking maybe it would burn off at sunrise. But the fog stayed for a while and I kind of liked the eerie foggy look of the Refuge in the fog. Adding contrast and opening up the shadows helped with the very flat light with the flying Ospreys against the foggy white background sky. It sort of turned them into a high key white background. It was sort of interesting to be the only ones there in such a large foggy area. All images shot with a Canon 400mm Canon DO lens, some with a 1.4x teleconverter with a Canon 7D to get closer for flight images.
Female Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly
Posted on June 28, 2020
I was photographing dragonflies at a local park when I noticed this female Great Blue Skimmer dragonfly off to the side. I quickly switched from the usual dragonfly subjects and got a few images of this one before it flew off. I was using a 400mm lens with an extension tube to be able to focus closer for Dragonflies. All images were taken @ f/11 giving a little more depth of field yet still have smoother cleaner backgrounds.
Blue Dasher Dragonflies – 400mm With Fill Flash
Posted on June 21, 2020
This is a series of Blue Dasher Dragonfly images taken with a 400mm DO lens, but I also used an on camera flash with a Better Beamer Flash extender to help fill in the shadow details on the dragonflies. Also for some I set the flash so I was slightly overexposing on the subject dragonfly. This way when I compensated for the correct exposure on the dragonfly, the background would be darker and a little more dramatic.
Mating Blue Dashers
Dragons & Damsels Panoramas
Posted on June 19, 2020
Panoramas are not just for landscapes! I enjoy shooting panoramas for a variety of subjects. Plus they look interesting when you print them very large! Here are a series of multi-image Dragonfly & Damselfly Panoramas. I was using Canon & Panasonic Cameras, with a variety of lenses. The featured Blue Dasher Dragonfly image was 5 handheld images taken with a Canon 300mm lens, with extension tubes @ f/9, 1/250th sec. Then assembled and blended in Photoshop. When shooting panoramas handheld, I tend to overlap even more just to be safe & that I got enough overlap to blend nicely. I may not need them, but it helps if you do need more images when assembling them. The images below have some details on exposure & images shot per panorama.
Eastern Forktail Damselfly, 4 image panorama, Panasonic GH2 with adapted Canon FD 200mm Manual Focus Macro lens, blended in Photoshop.
Blue Dasher, Female – 400mm DO lens with extension tubes, Canon 1D mkIV, 3 image panorama, f/11, 1/250
Eastern Forktail Damselfly, 3 image panorama, Panasonic GH2 with adapted Canon FD 200mm Manual Focus Macro lens
Great Egret Early Morning Fly-In
Posted on June 16, 2020
These were from many years ago when a group of us would meet at a local Wildlife Area. These images were taken a few minutes after the sun was starting to rise and had not gotten high enough to light the scene. We were still setting up our cameras. This Great Egret suddenly flew in and I was able to get a couple of images. I had not gotten to upping my ISO yet on the camera, so there is a slight motion blur because of the very slow shutter speed. But I still liked the images because of the straight on Egret landing and it’s wing positions. I also added a little High Pass sharpening on the Egret itself to diminish some of the motion blur. Images taken with 400mm Canon DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.
TaDa! Stuck the Landing! 10 points!
Northern Shoveler Duck In Warm Early Morning Light
Posted on June 12, 2020
I noticed this Male Northern Shoveler Duck swimming towards me in the early morning. I liked the warm light of the rising sun on the water, but as the Shoveler got closer it looked a little annoyed and started swimming faster. It then veered to the side and chased another duck that was behind trees & down a channel so I could not photograph more of the action going on. I was using a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter.
Blue Dasher Dragonfly With Water Mites
Posted on May 30, 2020
I was surprised to see so many water mites on this Blue Dasher Dragonfly! Usually you only see a few mites, but this one was really loaded with them! The water mites get onto late stage nymphs, then emerge with the nymph. As the dragonfly emerges from the nymph stage, the mites transfer to the adult dragonfly.
Closer view to show water mites
