photoartflightTree Swallows From Davidsons Mill Pond Park
Posted on May 6, 2021
The Eastern Bluebirds and the Tree Swallows were really going at it to secure the nesting boxes that are scattered about the park. Quite a few are along one stretch of the main open area. A lot of activity, but they were all over the place so with the camera & lens I was using I did not get any of the action shots. I was using the Canon R with the 150-600mm Tamron lens with a Sigma 2X Teleconverter for a focal length of 1200mm. Here are a series of images of the Tree Swallows around some of the nesting boxes.
Eastern Bluebirds Return To Davidsons Mill Pond Park
Posted on May 4, 2021
Eastern Bluebirds have started returning to Davidsons Mill Pond Park. I wanted to go photograph them but decided to use a very long lens so as not to bother them as they are finding their homes in the BlueBird Boxes scattered around the park. There is a lot of activity around the nesting boxes because the Tree Swallows are also trying to take over the Bluebird boxes. So a lot of back & forth between them. I decided to use a 150-600mm Tamron lens @ 600mm with a 2X teleconverter with a Canon R giving me a focal length of 1200mm. The Canon R can still autofocus with that combination of the 150-600mm Tamron lens & the Sigma 2X Teleconverter which helps with my old eyes! It was a fun photo outing and hope that soon the Dragonflies are next to return! I also smoothed out out the backgrounds somewhat because of the flowering trees & branches in the background to give a smoother clean background with the Bluebirds.
Northern Cardinal Outside Our Front Door
Posted on February 24, 2021
For a while now we have been enjoying the visiting birds on the top of our neighbors tree across from our front door. Today it was a very colorful male Northern Cardinal. So I shot a series of images using a Tamron 150-600mm lens with a Sigma 2X teleconverter on a Canon R. This gave me a final focal length of 1200mm so I upped my ISO since I was handholding the camera. The Canon R autofocused fine with this combination. Images were taken @ 1/500 sec, f/11, 1000 ISO. As I was photographing him, he kept an eye on me in the first few minutes. After a while he just kept looking to the left & right.
More Bald Eagles From Blackwater NWR
Posted on February 14, 2021
During our visit to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland we did see quite a few Bald Eagles flying in the distance. But many not close enough to photograph. We did finally find a few to get somewhat closer images. These images are also cropped in quite a lot to have the Bald Eagles large enough to see in the image. The Featured Bald Eagle was in a tree by the Entrance to the Wildlife Drive.
Blackwater NWR Mergansers
Posted on February 13, 2021
On our visit to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland, I was looking for some different photo subjects than the usual ones we see. I did find some Mergansers in different areas along the Wildlife Drive. The Featured Image is a Hooded Merganser. It was swimming in a small water channel under a bunch of trees so I hardly could make it out in the shadows. It was just one black blob moving in the water so I adjusted my exposure in the camera to +1 stop hoping that would be enough to get some detail. Then when working on the image in Adobe Camera Raw, adjust the shadows in the Raw file to bring out more detail in the shadows and reduce the noise in the image. So it seemed to work out ok. This was taken with a Canon R with a 150-600mm lens @ 600mm. Then near the end of the Wildlife Drive I found a pair (male & female) of Common Mergansers swimming in the channel.
Blackwater NWR Snow Geese In-Flight Panoramas
Posted on February 12, 2021
On our visit to Blackwater NWR we saw quite a few large groups of Tundra Swans & Canada Geese, but I was looking for large groups of Snow Geese. There was one large group way out in the Blackwater River, but none close to photograph. Also saw one large group in the distance behind the Visitor Center but could not get a clear image of them from the Wildlife Drive. After driving one loop of the Wildlife Drive we stopped by the Visitor Center to photograph a large group of Canada Geese in the fields by the Center. Then off to the left of the Visitor Center I noticed a large group of Snow Geese flying in. It was still early so I liked the color of the sky behind them. When photographing multi-image panoramas of flying birds I tend to photograph them from the far end of the direction they are flying and shoot my series as quickly as I can. So if the group is flying to the right, I start my series on the far left and shoot quickly going along with them to the right to capture the whole group. If you go the opposite way you get more uneven spacing and more spacing between the birds in the group. Which is harder to touch up for the final image. The featured image is 5 images shot with a Tamron 150-600mm @600mm on a Canon R. These are about 80 – 122 inches for the original file, so making them so small in length for the post I loose some detail in the image.
Blackwater NWR Bald Eagle Nest
Posted on February 9, 2021
We finally decided to do a day trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge Maryland. Once there we mainly photographed from the car on the Wildlife Drive. Most of the large flocks of Snow Geese, Tundra Swans & Canada Geese were quite far out from the Wildlife Drive so I concentrated on what I could photograph. Also large flocks of birds flying were also off in the distance. There were some smaller groups of birds so I also did some smaller multi-image landscapes of the scattered birds to fill the image so it was more interesting. We did see quite a few Bald Eagles but all were very far off either flying high or in distant trees. Even photographing @600mm I had to crop some the images significantly. But I also did get a lot of multi-image landscape panoramas with my iPhone since the cloud formations were amazing on this visit. This featured Bald Eagle nest was on the final leg of the Wildlife Drive near the exit across from Pool 5B. The nest image was a 3 image panorama @600mm, then slightly cropped to center the nest. I could have fit it in 2 images, but it seems to blend better with an extra image. The nest was a little further down from where I photographed the Bald Eagle below.
Mute Swans Swimming In Gull Pond
Posted on January 11, 2021
On our recent trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ we saw 2 groups of a pair Mute Swans. They usually do not stay around this long as it gets colder this time of year. One pair were in Gull Pond by the 2 way section of the Wildlife Drive and the other pair were in the water by the end of the Wildlife Drive in Doughey Creek. It was fun to see and be able to photograph them swimming in the waters at Gull Pond. I was not able to photograph them at the end of the Drive because so many cars were blocking the view of them waiting to photograph them so we just drove past the cars to go through the Wildlife Drive again.
Great Blue Heron By Waters Edge
Posted on January 10, 2021
I was surprised on our visit to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ that there were quite a few Great Egrets & Great Blue Herons still around in January. The Featured Image was a 2 image portrait. It walked by me and was so close I wanted to show a little more of the neck. So I quickly shot 2 images @600mm for a pano portrait of the Heron. The images below are a series of images @ varying focal lengths as it was foraging in front of me.
Canada Geese Panoramas Along Brigantine Wildlife Drive
Posted on January 9, 2021
Some additional images from our trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ. The main attraction here is the Wildlife Drive that circles around the main visitor areas. It is about 8 miles long, one way, circling the main active viewing areas. In the early Spring there are multiple Osprey platforms along the Drive for watching Ospreys building nests and see them feeding their young. They also have multiple trails for exploring and a Visitor Center.
