photoartflightOsprey Flying Towards Nest
Posted on October 18, 2021
I photographed this Osprey years ago at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. I was going through & cleaning up old hard drives and found images from this trip. We liked to watch & photograph the Ospreys flying to and from the Osprey Platforms along the Drive. This image was from one of our early trips there in July 2006. Back then I was using a 400mm Canon DO lens on a Canon 1D mkII that shot with a 8 megapixel sensor for a 24 meg file at ~8 fps . In today’s world that seems low-res and slow! But it did a pretty good job back then. But you could open the files quite a bit bigger and hold fine detail if you used Adobe Camera Raw and set the parameters for larger prints or severe cropping. Image taken @ f/10, 1/1000 sec, ISO 320.
Osprey FlyBy At Blackwater NWR
Posted on March 9, 2021
An Osprey Flyby image taken on the Wildlife Drive at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland. This was from a few years ago and never got around to working on them. Luckily I had time to shoot a vertical image as it quickly flew by providing a frame filling image with very little cropping. Then the Osprey circled back and I got a few more images as it flew by in the opposite direction. Featured image taken with a Canon 400mm f/4DO lens on Canon 1D mkIII. (f/8, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400, aperture priority).
Osprey Flyover
Posted on May 20, 2020
It is always fun to photograph Ospreys flying overhead. And the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ usually has quite a few around the Wildlife Drive. Especially in nesting season. I was using a Canon 400mm DO Lens with a 2x teleconverter to photograph these flying Ospreys.
Osprey Hovering Before Diving
Posted on December 23, 2019
At the end of the year I go through my backup drives to cleanup and delete files no longer needed. I found this Osprey image taken years ago on one of those backup drives. This was taken at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. Image taken with the Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 lens @ 800mm. This was one of my favorite lenses back then. A beast to haul around, but once you were setup in an area, you could really get amazing results working that area for images. It did well with flying birds on a Canon 1D style camera body back then. Between the 1D mk IV body, heavy duty Gitzo tripod and Wimberly gimbal head you were over 20 pounds. So you did not roam around to much with this combo. But it was definitely a fun combo to use and produced extremely sharp images. For birds in flight it was great because you could zoom out to find them flying in the distance, then zoom in to get the shot. I do miss it from time to time but I make due with the 400mm Canon DO and Tamron 150-600mm lenses with teleconverters. Not as sharp as the 300-800mm f/5.6 Sigma, but close enough and my back appreciates the lighter load to carry.
More Sigma 300 – 800mm images below —
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.
Osprey Fly By
Posted on July 12, 2018
I usually do not get an Osprey flyby, low over the water in a side view. I liked how it’s wing tips reflect in the water. It had just come out of the water before this, then flew right across where I was setup with an 800mm lens. Usually they seem to fly away from my position. Once in a while you get lucky.
Osprey Fishing Sequence
Posted on June 10, 2018
This is a set of images of an Osprey fishing series. I was photographing this Osprey flying overhead when it saw something and went into a dive to catch a meal. I lost the Osprey in my viewfinder on the way down but got it again as it hit the water. I kept shooting while it caught it’s prey, surfaced and flew off. The final image is when it circled around and flew by me with it’s fish in its claws.
Osprey With Meal
Posted on March 9, 2018
Ospreys are one of my favorite birds to photograph. It is fun to see them diving into water to get a meal. Plus to see them defending their nests against other Ospreys or birds of prey. They also seem to really stare at you as you are photographing them as in this photo. They are very agile in flight which gives you some interesting photo opportunities.
Osprey Diving In…..
Posted on August 22, 2016
I photographed this female Osprey diving in to grab a stick for the nest. The nest was already built, but I guess it was for repairs. I shot this series earlier this Summer, but have been busy with work. I liked the out-stretched talons and the look of concentration as it was going after something. Canon 7D, 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon 1.4x Series III Teleconverter.
The Osprey kept picking up sticks for a while, returning to the nest, where there were a few chicks.
Osprey FlyBy
Posted on July 22, 2016
On our last visit to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville NJ, there were a lot of Ospreys.They were on Osprey Platforms, on posts, on trees, on the ground and busy fishing so it gave quite a few opportunities for photography. This male Osprey flew close by when I was photographing another one on the ground in the grasses.
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