Jun 11, 2013 | Landscape Photography
When I’m down at the river working with the Cliff Swallows, this Eared Grebe keeps me company. I know it has a nest somewhere nearby but its mate must be on it since it I’ve never seen it go to it. How do I know it’s the same grebe? Look at it, see that worm looking thinking coming from its bill, that’s its tongue. If you look, the bottom mandible is broken and part of it is hanging down. If you look at the overall condition of the grebe, it looks like it’s been beaten up. What caused the damage has me asking what happened?
At the same time I wondered is the damage was enough to cause its eventual death. Grebes are divers, going underwater and chasing little fish that they have to catch to feed themselves. As you can see, this guy had no problem in that department! That’s a trout fry its got there, what I fish for in the very same river! Shooting with the D4, (including Di-GPS) Nikon 800f5.6 AFS on Auto Area AF, I track it as if fishes basically at my feet and this little dude is bloody successful! So while I wonder what caused the damage, I have no doubt it will survive. Now just to find its nest and photograph its young when they’re riding on its back. That’s the next challenge!
Jun 10, 2013 | Landscape Photography
For decades the Cliff Swallows have been nesting on this 1920’s bridge structure. The roadway is long gone but the supports remain making great structures for the mud nests of the swallows. I work the colony every spring, arriving at sunrise and shooting for a short period until the light gets hard (which is about 25min). I’ve tried a whole bunch of techniques over the years but have yet to get the photos I have in my mind.
Using my basic bird photography rig: D4, (including Di-GPS) Nikon 800f5.6 AFS (w/TC800-25e), on the Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head (w/ RRS Quick Release mount attached). All this rig was perched on the edge of the river about 20-30′ away from the three structures holding the colony. The “trick” is to photograph the biology while minimizing the tremendous glare from the mud nests. If only our afternoon thunderstorms would form at sunrise, I’d have it easy but such is not the case.
There is a couple of aspects of the colony that are really attractive. First if you’re shooting at eyelevel with the nests which is special. Normally you have to shoot up on them. Second is the blue background, the water of the river that is just three feet below the nests. And as you can see, there is plenty of biology going on. From just hanging out at the colony to bringing in nesting material and the bottom photo, competition amongst each other. While you’re reading this, I’m at the river again trying to improve on what I’ve taken before and photograph what I’ve missed.
Jun 4, 2013 | Landscape Photography
We see it, or rather don’t hear it when we go to our favorite meadow. It’s a sound of spring that means something to me but is slipping away. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, here’s a piece that tells some of the story. This CA Red-legged Frog, a listed species is one that is in trouble and I would truly hate to see it disappear.
May 31, 2013 | Landscape Photography
A really common bird in the lower 48 is the Greater Yellowlegs. Like nearly all shorebirds we see in the winter, the Yellowlegs is a gray, drab bird that the vast majority of the time get ignored. Gray and tan is, gray and tan. But once they get up north to their breeding grounds, they are simply spectacular! So whenever we see them, we get out of the van and set up the gear. Setting up the gear is a ritual we all now do in our sleep. You do it that much since you can’t drive down the dusty roads with it set up to go. It only takes seconds (unless you’re using flash than add a couple of seconds) to get Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head(w/ RRS Quick Release mount attached) is the Nikon 800f5.6 AFS (w/TC800-25e) and D4 in place to shoot.
One of the really cool things shorebirds do up in Churchill in spring is to top the small Spruce trees. Be it to get a view of their territories, rivals, potential mates or predators, up they go. The thing of it is, they don’t have the feet to perch so it’s a balancing act the entire time. That’s where the fun begins. This is when the motordrive really helps.
And then are those times when you have a cool scene but not the greatest light. That’s when the SB-900 / BetterBeamer / SD9 comes out. You lose your motordrive because the flash just doesn’t have the power to keep up with motordrive, so you have to pick your shots. You gotta watch and when you see the preening or just standing up, you know a wing stretch is coming. You either take off your teleconverter (which means you keep the caps in your pocket all the time) or move back so when the wings go up, you don’t cut them off. Moving back lower your flash power so I go with the removing of the teleconverter which means you now have power for two shots rather than one. But no matter where you are, when you stop and roll down the window, you will hear the Greater Yellowlegs calling. Who I think of as the official greeter of the north.
May 30, 2013 | Landscape Photography
What is it about Churchill birds that excites me so? What is it about Churchill birds that get’s me up early and keeps me up late? What is it about Churchill birds that has me standing in snow with my hands numb taking technically bad images of a species I have already in my files? It’s the celebration of life you see in every square inch that is the tundra in Churchill. I don’t know if you’ve watched the news of late, or have friends critically ill, or know of someone who is really hurting, but it’s a part of life that for us all at some times, get’s pretty heavy. Then there I am standing in heaven watching these cool little birds doing their spring thing through a lens with really no honest problems other than being nuts. Here’s a couple of clicks from tonight at The Ponds of a Red-necked Phalarope doin his thing. Not great clicks by any stretch but we photographers see lots on both sides of life and we tend to put ourselves in places and in front of things most others are not as fortunate to do. Why do we do it? There are lots of reasons but I tend to think it’s really pretty simple once you cut through it all. It’s a celebration of life!
May 29, 2013 | Landscape Photography
Oh my..so far behind in stories from the far north. There is a movie being filmed, in Churchill, now, of all things (Midnight Sun is the title) so the bandwidth is like zip so impossible to blog last 36hrs and I’m bursting at the seem to the point that the first sentence I get to type is this massive run on sentence so I think I’ll catch my breath!
I so wanted to improve my Hudsonian Godwit images and what was one of the first shorebirds we found? Yeap, Hudsonian Godwits, a mated pair. Hot Dogs! So, with the D4, 800 w/TC800-24e attached, we started our approach about 80yards out. To break the ice or as I think of it, break the jinx, I shoot a ways out. I also do this to let the subject get use to my coming. Once I take some shots, watch the subject, I start to slowly move up. It’s about now I start getting excited about the possibilities.
With a mated pair, where she goes he goes especially at this point when there is no nest. So we first saw the female, the paler of the two. I no sooner said, “It’s a female be on the watch out for the male” when the male popped out. That beautiful brick red breast is simply spectacular so click, click, click we went.
And so we continued. We would move up closer, click, click, click. We would move up closer, click, click, click until we got to the distance desired and we could work the pair. They were very much in love which meant they totally ignored us. That was great! I was able to blow away my previous images of Hudsonian Godwits. I posted on Facebook & G+ (a couple of nights ago before we lost the internet) that I really like. I wanted to post those leading up to that shot to give you a little of what it took to get that final shot of the male I really like. There is sooooo much more to share, will as the internet allows.
