photoartflightCormorant With Fish
Posted on June 9, 2022
Cormorants are interesting birds to photograph. They fish underwater and then “pop-up” when they catch a fish. But it is amazing how they can swallow the fish whole. Sometimes it takes quite a while for them to finally get it down! I have also seen them catch a leaf underwater and then look surprised at their catch when they surface. They also have a very interesting eye color! The color of their iris has variously been described as blue-green, turquoise or aquamarine but whatever word you use the color is unique. The Featured Image was taken at the J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Sanibel, Florida with a 400mm Canon DO lens on a Canon 7D.
Soaring Swallow-tailed Kites
Posted on March 22, 2022
On one of our trips to Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in Florida we saw quite a few Swallow-tailed Kites flying above us. They were fun to see soaring as we were walking the trails. Usually they were really high up in the sky or far off in the distance so we never got good images of them. But the images here are from one visit when they were soaring right above us near the parking lot. They were still really high above us but I thought they were still interesting images. All images were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter on a Canon 1DmkIV.
When You Can Not Get Close To Your Photo Subjects
Posted on March 17, 2022
Many times when I am out walking in a Wildlife Refuge to photograph birds I either cannot get close because they are high up in the trees or there are other things in the way to get close. Or they are flying some what in the distance. So if you are shooting “RAW” camera files such as Canon CR3 Raw files you can use “Enhance” in Photoshop to nicely uprez your images for severe cropping. Or if you want to really Print Large images. Works well for both applications. It also helps to run a noise reducing software after uprezzing. I had made my own Photoshop actions to uprez images but using “Enhance” in Photoshop is easier to use. The Featured Image is severely cropped from my “Enhanced” File. Sometimes I also use Nik Define software to remove some “noise” in the image if I am using a high ISO.
Whooping Cranes Flying With Sandhill Cranes At Lake Woodruff NWR
Posted on March 4, 2022
On our trip years ago to the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in DeLand Florida we were surprised to see a few Whooping Cranes flying and forging with the Sandhill Cranes. It was fun to see them interacting with the Sandhill Cranes. They were mostly far out in the fields but I managed to get a few images with them flying together in a flock. Image taken with a Canon 1D mk III with a Sigma 300-800mm lens @ 800mm with a Canon 1D mkIII.
More Sandhill Crane Panoramas From Lake Woodruff NWR
Posted on December 29, 2021
I am still going through Sandhill Crane images that were shot for making panoramas since they were so close to me as I was photographing them. Usually it is a reverse problem where your subjects are too far away as you are photographing them. All images in this post are taken with a 300mm lens on a Canon R. The Featured Image is a 2 horizontal image panorama combined in Photoshop.
Lake Woodruff NWR Multi-Image iPhone Panoramas
Posted on October 11, 2021
Many times when we are out walking in Wildlife Refuges I carry a main camera with a 400mm lens or a 150-600mm zoom lens and a m43 camera with wide angle 14-140mm lens. I also have in my photo vest a few Teleconverters just in case I see something interesting farther out for the full frame camera. But as I am getting older I am using my iP11 Pro more for the Wider or Multi-Image Landscape Panorama shots. The Featured Image is made with the iP11 Pro using the 1.5mm lens (Full Frame Camera Equivalent ~13mm). I shot 14 images, shooting 3 rows of 4 images and then 2 images in the center just as a precaution to make sure the images line up successfully. When using the iP11’s 1.5mm lens I overlap the images even more than if I was using the 4.3mm or 6mm lens. Photoshop does a good job lining up and blending the multi-rowed images from the iPhone..
Lake Woodruff NWR Sunrise
Posted on February 3, 2020
When we were at Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge I mainly used my iPhone 11 Pro for landscapes. I did not want to carry 2 larger cameras, so I used long lenses on my main camera and relied on my iPhone for landscapes. I have found that when shooting a series of images to blend for panoramas, you have to overlap the images even more on the iPhone than with a regular camera. I did not want to use the panorama feature on the iPhone because you usually get an odd warped distortion or curved section in the middle of the panorama even if the subject is straight across from you. I think this is mostly because of the extremely small lenses for the sensor in the iPhone. I also used the 16:9 format in the iPhone for many of these images instead of the standard 4:3 format.
The featured image is 3 horizontal images stacked vertically. I shot these with the 1.5mm lens, 4:3 format, iPhone 11 Pro. (Full Frame Equivalent is 13mm)
4 horizontal image Panorama, 1.5mm lens
7 horizontal image Cloud Panorama, 6mm lens
8 Image Panorama, 1.5mm lens (At corner of path where path turns 90 degrees) This is also the look you get when using the built in pano feature in the iPhone even if it is not at a corner, but is a straight horizon in front of you. It distorts the sections right in front of you because it is closer to the lens. That is why I shoot multiple images and assemble them in Photoshop.
2 Image Panorama, 1.5mm lens
3 Image Panorama, 4.3mm lens
4 Horizontal Images, Vertical stacked Panorama, 4.3 mm lens
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