photoartflightYellow-Crowned Night-Herons
Posted on November 22, 2019
I was going through old hard drives and found this series of images from 10 years ago of a pair of Yellow-Crowned Night Herons that were nesting on a busy side street leading into a park and baseball fields in Northern NJ. It seemed like a strange place for their nest since there were woods and a pond just a couple of hundred feet down the road, but they chose a busy street section. I followed them photographically (from a far distance with a 400mm Canon DO f/4 lens and the Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 lens @800mm and 1.4X & 2x Telconverters) for their nest building and raising the young. The images featured here were when they were first building their nest and displaying near the nest. The featured image was shot with a 400mm f/4 Canon DO lens & 2X teleconverter with fill flash before sunrise with a Better Beamer flash extender.
Early morning, 400mm f/4 DO with 2X Teleconverter @ 800mm, Fill Flash with Better Beamer
400mm f/4 DO with 1.4X Teleconverter – 560mm
400mm f/4 DO with 1.4X Teleconverter – 560mm
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron Displaying – 560mm
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron Early AM @ 800mm
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron @ 800mm
Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Displaying @ 560mm
800mm @ 8 PM
Early Evening – @ 560mm
Early Evening @ 400mm f/4 DO w/2x Teleconverter – f/10 1/250 – Displaying
Early Evening – 400mm f/4 DO w/2x Teleconverter – f/10 1/250
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron Displaying
I had made a pdf e-book on the nest building and the Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron family. This is back cover
Recent Dragonfly Images
Posted on September 1, 2019
Here are a few images of Dragonflies and a Damselfly from a few local parks in our area. Most were shot with a close focusing 300mm f/4 lens with either extension tubes to get closer or 1.4X or 2X teleconverter. A few I used a Canon 400mm f/4 DO with Extension tubes and 1.4X teleconverter. The featured image is a female Eastern Pondhawk that was quite cooperative for extreme closeups. Image taken with Canon 7D, handheld, 300mm @ f/8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400.
Blue Dasher extreme closeup – 2 image focus stack Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 IS, 1.4X teleconverter, w/extension tubes
Blue Dasher extreme closeup – 2 image focus stack Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 IS, 1.4X teleconverter, w/extension tubes (f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO 400)
Damselfly – multi image stack, 400mm f/4 DO with extension tubes, f/8, 1/50 sec, 1600 ISO, camera on tripod
Female Eastern Pondhawk- f/11, 1/320 sec, 300mm f/4 w/ 1.4X teleconverter
Slaty Blue Dragonfly, f/11, 1/160 sec, +1/3 exp. comp, 300mm w/ 2X teleconverter, Single image, flew off before focus stacking images
Slaty Blue Dragonfly, f/10, 1/320 sec, 300mm w/1.4X teleconverter, effective 420mm
Little Egret Panorama
Posted on August 14, 2019
I was photographing along the Indigo Trail at the Ding Darling NWR early in the morning on this day. We finally had found a large number of birds along the trail. It was quite dark under the trees, but we managed to get a lot of images of a variety of Egrets and Herons while they were foraging for food. With this Egret, I liked it’s reflection in the water and it was just keeping an eye on me as I was photographing it. After shooting a few images of the Egret, I shot vertical images for a long panorama. I was traveling light on this walk so I only had the 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. It was quite dark under all the trees so I had to raise my ISO higher than I like. After assembling in Photoshop, I trimmed the left & right sides a little so the Egret would be more prominent in the long vertical image. Then removed some “noise” from using a higher ISO than normal.
Immature Little Blue Heron Foraging For Breakfast
Posted on August 5, 2019
We saw this Immature Little Blue Heron looking for its breakfast. It was just working an area around us and seemed not to be bothered by the many people around. Just kept searching for a meal. After a few bugs it did finally find a small lizard.
Immature Little Blue Portrait – 400mm f/4 DO with 1.4x teleconverter. Two images stacked and blended in Photoshop.
Great Egret FlyBy Series At Ding Darling NWR
Posted on August 3, 2019
I am still working on my files from our Florida photo trip a couple of months ago. Here is a series of a Great Egret flying low and slow by us early in the morning at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. I was using my backup camera, Canon 1D MkIV with a 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.
Black Skimmer Panoramas
Posted on July 30, 2019
It is a challenge to photograph flying birds for a panorama. After some practice the success rate goes up (hopefully). Basically you shoot a burst of images as you try to cover the area of birds flying you want. Also panning as you shoot, going in the direction they are flying. I found that shooting with a wide angle lens for a large group of birds flying does not give you as much detail as shooting them with a telephoto lens for a panorama. A pretty high shutter speed is also helpful. You might have a few touch-up areas or overlaps to fix once you assemble the base Panorama.
The panoramas below are a group of Black Skimmers on or close to the shoreline. This is a little easier because most of them are not moving, but again you might need a few touch-ups here or there.
Black Skimmers, 4 images, 400mm f/4 DO lens
Black Skimmer Panorama, 7 images @ 400mm & 1.4X Teleconverter
Black Skimmer Panorama, Early Morning, Bad Light, 2 images @ 400mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter
White Ibis FlyBy From Lake Woodruff NWR
Posted on July 13, 2019
I am still going thru images from our photo trip to Florida. Here are a few more images from Lake Woodruff NWR of White Ibises we saw flying above us at Lake Woodruff NWR.
