photoartflightCattle Egret With High Breeding Plumage
Posted on November 13, 2021
I am still going through images that I shot on Photo Trips that I did not get to while I was still working. These are from a trip to Florida a couple of years ago. The images were taken at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery. I was using a Tamron 150-600mm lens on a Canon R. Both images here were @ 600mm. After using the Tamron lens for a while I am quite impressed with the quality of the images & versatility of this lens. Even with a 1.4x or 2x Teleconverter and processing images with Adobe Camera Raw you can get amazingly nice images of far distant birds & other subjects! Or portraits of closer birds. The Canon R would still autofocus even with the 2X Teleconverter. Plus the Tamron lens was easily hand holdable and no need for a tripod. Unlike the Sigma 300-800mm beast of a lens which was 13 lbs, so no handholding that lens for sharp images.
Little Egret Panorama
Posted on October 13, 2021
A Little Egret 2 image Panorama from a previous visit to J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Florida. The Featured Image is a cropped version to fit better in the Featured Image area. Below is the full 2 vertical images panorama showing the Egret & the Egret’s reflection in the water. Images taken handheld with a Canon 1D mkIV with a 400mm DO lens & 1.4x Teleconverter @ f/8, ISO 3200. I upped the ISO to 3200 because it was early in the morning and the Egret was in the shadows. So it was pretty dark under the trees and I was shooting handheld.
131 Egrets In Trees
Posted on December 23, 2020
I am still working on images from past trips. Gives me something to do during these Covid times. This is a 3 image handheld panorama shot with a m43 Olympus OM D-1 with a 14-140mm lens @ 41mm (Full Frame equivalent ~82mm). Then aligned & blended in Photoshop. Just for fun or maybe boredom, I counted about 131 Egrets plus 5 Roseate Spoonbills & 6 Wood Storks. I probably missed a few and could not see what was on the reverse side of the trees. Below are a few cropped in sections.
TriColored Herons
Posted on December 8, 2020
Still going through images from our Florida photo trip last year. This time I am posting Tricolored Heron Images. The images here are still from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery. The featured image was taken with a Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 450mm with a Canon R.
Roseate Spoonbills Splashing
Posted on April 17, 2020
I am still finding images to post from my backup files since we can not go out to even local parks here in NJ. These images are from a past trip years ago to J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. These were fairly far out in the water along the Wildlife Drive. I was using a Sigma 300 – 800mm f/5.6 zoom lens @ 800mm (The Sigmonster as it was called.) With Heavy Duty Gitzo tripod, Wimberly Gimbel Tripod head & Canon 1 Series Camera Body – total weight ~25 lbs. But once setup you could certainly work an area and get great images from subjects near & far.
Pink Wings
Posted on April 5, 2020
More Roseate Spoonbill images from our trip to Florida a few months ago. They are one of my favorite birds to photograph in Florida. They really stand out in the treetops and are fun to watch interacting with each other & other birds.
Sandhill Crane Portraits
Posted on June 19, 2019
On our visit to Lake Wooodruff NWR in Deland, Florida we were lucky to find a few Sandhill Cranes. Years ago when we were there, we saw large flocks of Sandhill Cranes. But on this quick stop we only saw a scattered few.ย All these photos are taken with a 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter as we were walking along the trails there. Lake Woodruff NWR does not seem to gather the large crowds of people as a well known Ding Darling NWR attracts. It has a small parking area and usually you only see a few people as you walk the trails and explore. In a way it is a little strange in that you feel quite alone there in this vast NWR. But it is a huge NWR in area and seems more relaxing to explore there. We visited on our way home so we got there in the afternoon when the birds are less active. Next post will have Sandhill Cranes with a Colt (Chick) foraging with the parents.
Sandhill Crane greeting us on the entrance path on our way in.ย 2 horizontal images to make a Vertical Panorama, handheld. They are a LARGE Bird so even trying to shoot a vertical image Crane did not fit in image area.
Sandhill Cranes deeper in the Refuge
Sandhill Crane Composite – 3 images. Reminded me of a wanted poster
Roseate Spoonbills
Posted on April 30, 2018
These were from a previous trip to Florida. Did not post these then, but was working on older files and found them and decided to work on them. They are a fun bird to photograph and almost comical in some ways. Plus they are a large and colorful bird so easier to fill the image and get interesting poses. It is fun to watch them interacting with each other. You just have to make sure you do not overexpose the whites especially in bright sunlight.
Young White Ibis Feeding Early In The Morning
Posted on February 17, 2018
I am still going through some of my images from our trip to Florida in the Fall. On our visits to the J.N. Ding Darling NWR, we tried to get there early. While I was walking the Indigo Trail early in the morning, hoping to find some birds trying to find breakfast. I came upon a group of White Ibises. The older birds were in the lower branches, working their way through the trees. There was this one younger adult, still showing some dark mottling on the face and neck, foraging on the ground. Again it was very dark, but it helped a little for my exposure that it was a white bird! I still had to use a minus exposure compensation, but I had to go even a little further than usual because I was using average metering, so I got a little higher shutter speed. Which I needed for my 300mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.
White Ibis with Breakfast Bug breakfast – Canon 300mm f/4 IS Lens, Canon Series III 1.4x teleconverter
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White Ibis Formation
Posted on January 14, 2018
As I was photographing the Pelicans I also had quite a few overhead flybys. Here is a group of White Ibis flying by. I was hoping for them to come around and land nearby, but they kept going on their way.
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