photoartflightOsprey Defending Nest
Posted on February 23, 2021
On a visit years ago in the Spring to Blackwater NWR there was a lot of activity around the Osprey Nests along the Wildlife Drive. It was in mating season and the Ospreys were busy on the nests. This image was when an other osprey kept trying to get to the nest. On this pass the defending Osprey almost went upside down with claws out defending the nest. Plus there was a lot of screeching of the birds going on. This was the best image of the series because the more it was going up to defend the nest I cut off some of the Osprey in the image. Not sure if there were eggs in the nest or just wanted the nest. Image taken with a 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4x Teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIII.
Early Morning Blackwater NWR Landscape
Posted on July 8, 2020
Many times when you visit the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, you can see Eagles early in the morning on snags or on tree branches as the sun is rising. It is fun to see how many you can find to photograph.
Snowy Egret FlyBy
Posted on June 4, 2020
This image of a Snowy Egret is from a previous trip to Florida. I liked the wings in a raised position as it glided by me and the highlight reflections of the sky in the water. Also the Snowy was low enough to get reflections of the highlights & shadows of the water under the wing. Image taken with a 400mm DO lens.
Osprey Bringing Nesting Material to Nest
Posted on May 22, 2020
Some of my favorite photo subjects are raptors (Eagles, Hawks, Ospreys, Falcons, etc.). This is an Osprey bringing nesting materials to build the nest, from a trip years ago to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ. Image shot with a Canon 400mm DO lens.
Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly Detail Shots
Posted on May 14, 2020
One of my favorite subjects are Dragonflies & Damselflies. The trouble is l have a wide variety of favorite subjects! This series was shot a few years ago at a somewhat local tree covered stream in Mahwah NJ. I could not get real close because of the stream they were over so I used a Canon 400mm DO lens with extension tubes. This enabled me to get somewhat frame filling images with a very smooth background. With the extension tubes I lost quite a bit of light so I used a Canon flash for filling in the shadows somewhat. Also because of the extension tubes, I had a limited depth of field that gave me extremely soft smooth backgrounds.
The Featured image was shot at f/8, 1/200th second @ ISO 1250, 2 images for a focus stack to get detail in the left wing, with an exposure compensation of -1.33 because of the fill flash. This also made the background a little darker
Image taken @ 1/60 th sec., f/11, -0.67 Exp. Compensation, ISO 1250
Image taken @ 1/125 th sec., f/8, -1.33 Exp. Compensation, ISO 1250
Great Egret Gliding By
Posted on May 9, 2020
An image of a Great Egret flying by at a local wildlife area near where I used to live. It had a small lake so you had a good chance of getting close images of a variety of birds flying by. They also placed branches in the shallower water for the birds to land on for more chances to get some interesting images.
Bald Eagle Soaring At Blackwater NWR
Posted on May 1, 2020
I am still going through my backup hard drives for images to post on the blog. I think we will finally be able to go to some local parks tomorrow to get some recent images to post on the blog. One in particular usually has Bluebirds this time of year. The images posted here are from a previous trip years ago to Blackwater NWR in Maryland. They were taken soon after we got there early in the morning as the sun was rising. To bad the Eagle was flying away from me, but I liked the colorful sky that helped make the images interesting. All images were taken with a 400mm Canon DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a 1D series body.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
Posted on April 28, 2020
These were taken years ago at my pond in our old yard. I did not realize that when we removed a 20×40 ft pool and put in a large pond it would turn into my outdoor Macro & Wildlife Studio. Got lots of interesting images there. Also got to try many different techniques to photograph small subjects across the pond.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly – 400mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter
Snow Geese Fly By
Posted on April 24, 2020
This large group of Snow Geese was flying in a long & low to the water flock of birds. The white Snow Geese overlapping the bright sun lit water really blended in with the bright water, but I thought it was still an interesting image. Image from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago. Shot with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.
Red-tailed Hawk FlyBy
Posted on April 2, 2020
Another image from years ago taken at a local Wildlife Area. I noticed this hawk in a tree by the parking lot. As I was photographing the hawk in the tree it took off and flew by me.
