Apr 13, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
We took a short break from chicken and grouse and made the drive down to the Platt River for the evening flyin. It’s a spectacle that’s really hard to put into words and the still click doesn’t express it well enough. That’s because when there are 20k cranes filling the sky from behind to on the horizon to the water in front of you, the “360” visual and audio is something that has to be experienced in person!
Lesser Sandhill Cranes
captured by D5 / 300PF / TC-14eIII
The Cranes are on the Platt near Kearney, NE for just about 6 weeks typically. They are coming from the south on their way north. This evening, I went with the bridge on Elm Island to watch the flyin to the river night roost. Some nights there are a few birds that pick this location, last night it was thousands! So standing on the edge of the road with the D5 / 300PF / TC-14eIII, all you had to do was look for the great background, match it up with the symmetry of the flight and go click. I love see the crane on the Platt each year, as they’re headin north!
Apr 11, 2018 | Landscape Photography
We had the privilege and fun today of working the fire line of a control burn up in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Fire is an important part of tallgrass prairie as well as one of the best ways to remove the evasive Salt Cedar.
One of the best parts of the fire (besides the fire) are the folks working the fire. I had a hard time taking my eyes off the firefighter with his cowboy hat and dog who worked the lines. And his truck which is so cool, with its American Flag. I stayed a safe distance away shoot with the D5 / 300PF.
How big was the control burn? This Fisheye look tells it all. It went off smooth as silk, burning just the acreage required. Thanks for the fun Calamus Outfitters!
Apr 11, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Greater Prairie Chicken
captured by D5 / 800mm
I’m up in Nebraska with one of my favorite birds, the Greater Prairie Chicken (at my favorite place, Calamus Outfitters). So I’m up literally with the birds. And then we’re in the blinds well before the sun even thinks of peaking its head out, so I’m still up, literally with the birds. And I enjoy every minute of it!
Today the fun was watching the males getting up on the fence gate and try to “strut their stuff” while doing a high wire act. It really never worked out well so they ended up back on the ground to dance to the ladies. But the best part was about 30 minutes after this, the females got up on the fence. Now they don’t strut their stuff. They just flew up there where the guys could see them, got them all spooled up and then, did nothing! After about twenty minutes, they just flew off leaving the guys literally, eating dirt. It was great fun, at least from my point of view. And tomorrow again, I’ll be up with the chickens!
Apr 9, 2018 | Landscape Photography
The editor who published my first text/photo package gave me advice I use to this day. “Make every word count for ten!” I put this advice to work not only in my writing but in my photography. There are many ways to bring the viewer’s attention to the subject. Mystery is a powerful yet complicated technique that doesn’t always present itself to us. Those times it does like with deep shadows or clouds and fog, we need to recognize the opportunity and jump on it.
Here’s a couple of examples of one idea from a month ago in Yosemite. Yosemite Valley is a spectacular granite carving the towers above the valley floor. What’s one way we can say a mountain is really high? Have the tops of the mountains shrouded in clouds. At the same time, if we don’t actually show the mountain tops, hide them and just hint at their existence, does it trigger one’s imagination? That was my thought process when I grabbed the D850 / 70-200f4 and carefully optically isolated just pieces of the great granite wall and used its rugged beauty set against the soft clouds to tell its story. The vast majority of the subject is hidden but the story still comes through. So next time the opportunity arises ask yourself, “Can you hide the subject?”
Mar 26, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Sharp-shinned Hawk
captured by D5 / 800mm
From the office in the softest voice possible, Sharon said, “Get in here slowly with your longest lens!” I slowly walked into the office to see Sharon pointing cautiously out the window. There on Tree 2 about eight feet in front of Sharon was perched our winter, Sharp-shinned Hawk. We’d seen it many times, mostly perched right out in the open like it was right now. A gorgeous bird, I grabbed the D5 / 800mm which is always set up when I’m home and walked out to the the shot. That’s what you see below, the first shots. I always take a couple of shots in this kind of situation so we have at the very least a visual record of birds that come on the property. But looking through the viewfinder I saw I had two major problems. The obvious one is the background, the not so obvious but bigger problem, snow flare!
The solution to both issues was moving to the left, which I did and shot the Sharpie until he continued on with his hunting. Now how did I see that snow flare? If you look at the two photos, see how in the bottom one there are no “blacks” in the bird? Look then at the background and compare the two, the loss of black is even more evident. Finally, look at the color between the two. The issue with snow flare is it is bounced light, light coming from above and then bouncing off the snow from below. Where you normally expect flare is shooting towards the sun, with snow it can come from any direction. As that bounced light strikes the front element, it causes the least noticed flare which is loss of contrast and color. Now in getting rid of the snow flare, I ended up with a background which might be a tad better but it was the best I could so with the snow flare. The best part is we have a visual record of a cool bird that munches on other of our cool birds!
Mar 21, 2018 | Landscape Photography
I love photographing blurred water as much as the next photographer. I love photographing bubbles because that’s the white in our photographs that blur during our long exposures. I’ve written about many different ways of blurring the water over the years except my one favorite way. The most common way we go about this is basically level with the flowing water and then look for the patterns of the bubbles that blur. Just a few times I’ve found water from a different vantage point providing me with my favorite way to photograph flowing water, from above!
The bridge over the Merced River in Yosemite afforded a great view that came with little risk but lots of challenge. The photo I wanted when I peered over the wall was directly below as a tad behind. There was no way I could set up the tripod in a conventional way. I was shooting with my favorite small travel tripod, the Oben CT-2491 which goes flat and being lightweight, easily to hold over the edge. What made the whole thing doable was the D850 fold-out monitor that I could touch to focus and fire using it’s “silent shutter”. This permitted a solid hand on the rig while creating no movement while firing. So with great ease, I was able to enjoy creating some new favorites from above the bubbles.
