photoartflightOspreys On Osprey Platform
Posted on March 18, 2021
A photo of an Osprey bringing nesting materials to the nest on an Osprey Platform along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ. This was from a few years ago in May. But can not wait to photograph the Ospreys in the upcoming months along the Wildlife Drive. There are quite a few Osprey Platforms along the Wildlife Drive giving many opportunities to photograph them. You need a fairly long lens unless you want to severely crop your images. These images was taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 2X Teleconverter.
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 With Nest Material
Posted on March 2, 2021
I am going through back up Hard Drives to cleanup drives and make room for newer images. But I keep coming across some interesting images that impede my progress. These were taken in 2006 at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. I was setup along the Wildlife Drive with the Sigmonster 300-800mm f/5.6 zoom on a tripod with a Wimberley Gimbal Head. I was waiting for a group of birds in the water to come closer when this Osprey flew by with nesting material and I was able to get some images as it flew by.
Osprey 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.
Ospreys In The Fog At Brigantine
Posted on July 9, 2020
These images were taken from a previous photo trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. We stayed overnight to get an early start the next morning, but we woke up to a very foggy morning. We carefully drove from the motel to the Refuge anyway thinking maybe it would burn off at sunrise. But the fog stayed for a while and I kind of liked the eerie foggy look of the Refuge in the fog. Adding contrast and opening up the shadows helped with the very flat light with the flying Ospreys against the foggy white background sky. It sort of turned them into a high key white background. It was sort of interesting to be the only ones there in such a large foggy area. All images shot with a Canon 400mm Canon DO lens, some with a 1.4x teleconverter with a Canon 7D to get closer for flight images.
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.
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 In Tree Sunset
Posted on March 19, 2020
As the sun was setting and the sky was glowing orange I noticed this Osprey in a tree along the Wildlife Drive at J. N. Ding Darling NWR on our way out of the Refuge. I liked the stark dark Osprey & tree silo against the colorful sky. Image taken with 400mm DO lens.
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 —
Ospreys In Flight
Posted on November 25, 2019
One of my favorite photo subjects are Ospreys in flight. Over the years I have enjoyed photographing them in many different locations. Quite often you can see in the photos their eyes keeping an eye on you. The featured image was taken at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. Featured image was taken with a 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter. Other photo locations for the images here were the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Briganine Division and The Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ.
