photoartflightBelted Kingfisher Fishing
Posted on January 11, 2020
I am cleaning up and going through my external hard drives and came upon this image of a Belted Kingfisher trying to catch a meal, photographed years ago. This is an image as it hit the water. It is interesting to see the large water splash from the impact of the small Kingfisher! Unfortunately it is a severe crop because it was on the other side of a small lake, but I still thought it was interesting to see. So please excuse the “roughness” of the image!
Alligators From Ding Darling NWR
Posted on December 26, 2019
I am going through my backup drives trying to clean out files for the New Year that are not needed or duplicates. But in the process I am finding files I have not used or adjusted. Work always seemed to get in the way! Here are a few from a trip years ago in 2011 to the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. All images were taken with a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens on a Canon 7D. We were walking the Indigo Trail & Cross Dike Trail and came upon a couple of alligators sunning themselves. The featured image with the alligator was in the shade under some branches near the edge of the water as we walked past. For some reason it seems like it is almost smiling in the images.
Same Alligator from farther away before I decided to get closer. ( 400mm, Canon 7D )
This Alligator below was further down the trail from the featured Alligator. Again I shot 2 images for the panorama. I have since changed my technique by shooting more images for my panoramas. With adding more images for the panorama at different focus points, I can use an f/stop of f/8 or so. This way I get a more even focus across the whole panorama. If I do not need them I just skip to the next frame in the series of images. But at least I know I have enough images to use for making the pano. It is amazing how fast these alligators can move when they want to.
Another Alligator further down the trail – 2 – 400mm images stacked panorama @ f/11, assembled in Photoshop
Ospreys In Flight
Posted on November 25, 2019
One of my favorite photo subjects are Ospreys in flight. Over the years I have enjoyed photographing them in many different locations. Quite often you can see in the photos their eyes keeping an eye on you. The featured image was taken at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. Featured image was taken with a 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter. Other photo locations for the images here were the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Briganine Division and The Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ.
Osprey In Flight
Posted on September 11, 2019
I was going through some older backup drives and found these files I never worked on from a Blackwater NWR trip about 8 years ago. I remember them now because these were taken on the Wildlife Drive when there used to be an Osprey platform close to the Wildlife Drive. This Osprey Platform was near the last turn before the straight way to the exit. This Osprey put on quite an aerial show. It was so close I clipped its wings a few times. I did not want to stay too long in case I was bothering the nest. But it was so close to the busy Wildlife Drive I would think it was used to cars. Maybe that is why it is now gone.
Buckeye Butterfly @ Plainsbore Preserve
Posted on September 5, 2019
While we were looking for photo subjects at Plainsboro Preserve, I spotted this Buckeye Butterfly working this flower. The Butterflies and Dragonflies all seem to have a look of wear & tear now this time of year. But it is still fun to get some photos. I was using a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with an extension tube for closer focusing. This Buckeye had quite a bit of wing damage.
More Sandhill Cranes From Lake Woodruff NWR, Florida
Posted on July 2, 2019
I am still going through images from Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge on Florida from our trip there. It was nice to see a few Sandhill Cranes as we walked around the Refuge. This pair had a colt (Sandhill Crane chick) with them. We kept a considerable distance from them, but we were surprised they were so non-concerned about our presence there. They just concentrated on foraging in the grasses. I was using my backup camera with a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4X teleconverter for a focal length of 560mm. So we were not really that close to them. When you see them on the ground it is amazing how large they really are! When you photograph them flying or far off in the distance you know they are large, but seem even bigger when you are closer to them.
Sandhill Crane Flyby from Lake Woodruff NWR
Posted on June 13, 2019
Here are a few more images from our photo trip to Florida. We picked a few of our favorite locations to visit plus some we passed along the way. Years ago we liked Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in DeLeon Springs, Florida. It had suffered quite a bit of damage from hurricanes years ago. We have not been back for many years since then. So on our way home we stopped at Lake Woodruff NWR to see how it was and see what we could find to photograph. It is a huge refuge at 22,000 acres. The refuge contains a myriad of habitats, among them are marshes, swamps, creeks, hammocks and uplands.
Some of our favorite subjects here are the Sandhill Cranes & Swallow-tailed kites. You usually do not see them often at other refuges in Florida. On a previous trip years ago we saw a Whooping Crane in with the large flock of Sandhill Cranes. It was fun to see and photograph them, especially flying by.
On this trip we only saw 1 pair of Sandhill Cranes with a colt walking along the dykes and another one that did a close flyby. I will start with the flyby images of the Sandhill Crane.
