Mar 10, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
It has been many years since I’ve been to Ding Darling NWR. Spent so much time there back in the day, film days that is because it was the mecca for wildlife photographers and bird photography. The Refuge has changed a lot in the 30+yrs I’ve been venturing to it. I remember all to well back when it was a dirt road, dust everywhere and photographers around every bush. Then with a hurricane here, water change there, the birds started to be fewer and so the photographers. The once slam dunk for Roseatte Spoonbills and thousands of waders in the viewfinder slowly faded away, and with it the hoards of photographers. Early in 2000, when I planned to shoot at Ding Darling, I would only plan on a couple of hours in the mornings and then head elsewhere to shoot the rest of the day. Well, that was not the case yesterday!
After the great weekend at the FCCC conference, we headed to Ding Darling yesterday for what I thought would be just a morning shoot. We were greeted in the first pond (there are three as we count them) by a group of Roseatte Spoonbills. The top photo is from this first encounter. This “sky pointer” is in gorgeous breeding plumes and a great example of a sexy spoonbill. Well, it was a great start and unknowns to us, just the start of what became a marvelous full day on the refuge! The bird life, variety and access was phenomenal all day at the refuge. Other then the traditional wildlife photographer break for ice cream, we shot all day at Ding Darling. It was magnificent! We ended the day with a gorgeous sunset and with the White Pelicans which entertained us all day. Shot the majority of the time with the D4s / 800mm w/TC-1.25e and the Df / 300 PF on my shoulder for the overhead flight shots. I have lots of stories, thousands of images to share over time but just wanted to say, if you want that old time Ding Darling experience, it’s alive and well there today making Ding Darling a must again for wildlife photographer … the magic is back!
Mar 9, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Friday morning found us at Harns Marsh Preserve with forty really great folks. We were there with the FCCC field trip and for Sharon & I, it was our first visit to a very well know location for bird photography. Now, like any location, just because you saw the birds there yesterday, doesn’t mean they will be there today. It has been scouted, lots of birds seen prior to our arrival but being wildlife, well, they picked up and moved on. No matter, it was a gorgeous morning so with D4s / 800 w/TC-1.25e attached, we all started to walk the perimeter of the Marsh. One great subject appeared pretty quickly. This Anhinga was T’d up drying its wings. What was cool was the really nice background in really nice light for the Anhinga. Why was it nice light for the Anhinga? If you looked at the reptilian tail it has, you only see those distinct bars in the right light. That barred tail is what really makes the “snake bird” look reptilian. The key in make the shot was a very narrow angle of view so the dead sticks on the right and the blue water on the left could be excluded from the background. With those images safely on the CF card … time to wiggle on.
We walked down the path a ways and had Sandhill Cranes with colts, ducks, herons and then some time with a Bald Eagle. After that, the light was getting hard and it was time to get back to the convention. On the way back, a River Otter was spotted. I hustled on down in time to see it porpoise through the water and then periscope for a second to check us out. I watched as it submerged and ventured underwater to a island of vegetation. I walked along with it along the shore hoping for a better shot.
As you can see, we did get a much better photo up. Ya, the light is a tad on the hard side but it’s a clean shot and with so little of Otter biology in our files, I took advantage of it. The Otter hauled out to the left of where you see here and spent a good couple of rolling, sliding and shaking in an attempt to dry itself off. And in between of all of that, it would take a moment to make sure we were behaving. It was a really fun encounter that, if we hadn’t made the walk we would have never had seen the Otter and had the fun. When it comes to wildlife, I just love a good surprise!
Mar 6, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Sharon & I are down in FL for the weekend for the FCCC Conference (come by and say hi!). And here like everywhere in North America (even had one on the ice in the Arctic), the Great Blue Heron waits for the wildlife photographer. I think there’s not a wildlife photographer, anywhere who hasn’t photographed with great earnest the GBH. They are big so you don’t need a lot of lens to get a great image size. They are pretty darn forgiving for all the silly things wildlife photographers do so build our patience. And they really aren’t too bad lookin. And these graceful birds, well, even with all their good intentions, they don’t always come out looking as majestic in some photos as they should. They definitely come under the banner of common, so we must strive to portray them in an uncommon way. There are many ways of doing this, in this instance, I was lying on the sand shooting with a slowish shutter speed to capture some movement while freezing other. Shooting with the D4s / 800mm on a Panning Plate, I used foreground and background as part of the competition. Then I was tight and waited for that gesture to make an unusual photo of this common critter. So, if you’re a wildlife photographer, at some point a Great Blue Heron gave you some time to practice your craft and set the hook as a wildlife photographer a little deeper. So, go out and capture that uncommon photo and pay homage to the GBH!
Feb 23, 2015 | Landscape Photography
The Oregon coastline has some amazing natural features and one of them is Thor’s Well. You could kinda think of it as a blowhole in reverse. The big show is as the water drains back through the hole after a wave washes in. Seen some amazing photos of it so when on the coast last weekend with our dear friends Scott & Kalebra, we went to check it out. Now this wasn’t a photographic weekend, we were just goofin so in that spirit, we did no homework that normally goes into making one of those classic photos. In fact, we didn’t even really know exactly where Thor’s Well was (a turn out on the highway). Well, luck was with us.
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So here’s the deal. You want to be at Thor’s Well when sunset and high tide are at about the same time. This would be ideal for getting the cool sky (if you’re not cursed with the OR Coast marine layer) and the best flow through the hole. With this, it is a given you are going to get wet! In fact, in a big tide action or during a storm, it might be really dangerous going after this shot! Well, we were there while the tide was still rising at sunset which for us, worked out. There was a moment when we had a killer sunset with great God beams, but no wave action. And the wave action is really the biggie in this whole thing. I was shooting with the D750 / 18-35AFS (on a RRS tripod with rock claws) and the key I think, was the Vello Wireless Shutterboss.
So you’re standing there watching the waves. Not everyone performs, in fact, few ever really do the “biggie” that floods 360 around the hole giving you the great blurred water feel. You can see in the series above just about every version of blur but the perfect one. I never got it. You can see the great sunset, but how little the water performed. And then there is the timing. I varied shutter speed from 2-8sec and this was because often, you only could get one click in per wave. You have to guess how much water is going to come up, overflow and then slip back down. If your timing is off or, shutter speed too slow, you don’t get “the” shot. The single image you see above is my favorite, but not the best. Don’t get me wrong, standing out there with Scott was great fun! Seeing his face when that last, big wave hit just when he said, “Just one more” is something I’ll never forget. It’s a gorgeous part of our wild heritage that I’m so glad we got to enjoy with friends!
Feb 23, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Definitely NOT one of the most attractive members of our wild heritage, the Black Vulture. That head, black, withered, craggy, nasty skin tends to be, I don’t know, a turn off? And the fact they eat dead and smelly stuff, just doesn’t endear them to anybody either. Photographically though, they are a bitch to shoot. That’s because they are all black. In the Costa Rican rainforest they are everywhere and a very important part of its ecology. In the spotty light of the rainforest, a black subject on a white branch is an exposure nightmare! In making the uncommon out of the common, the Black Vulture needs just a kiss of light to bring out the cool texture in their plumage. At the same time, that head no matter how ugly needs a little love too. Making this shot was actually, pretty easy once you made the walk and dealt with the humidity. Walking down the steep trail into the valley, you are able to shoot right across at eyelevel where the Black Vultures like to roost as the sun rises. Reaching them with the D4s / 800mm w/TC-1.25 once zooming with with your feet is a synch. Then, it’s simply fine tuning where the rig is set up to peak through the vines and make the shot. And making the whole click come together is that small spot of light barely kissing the Vulture but not the branch. Look for that light, think of making the common uncommon and use the lens to bring it all together in the viewfinder!
Feb 19, 2015 | Landscape Photography
I love clouds! When we were in Costa Rica, we had some killer mornings when we hit the beach. We would often see the lightning from the Lodge before heading down (ya, it was dark when we started our day) so knew there were thunderstorms out over the Pacific. We had already been treated to some great skies earlier in the week so was anxious to get down to the sand. While our goal was to work the lagoon, you just can’t pass up a magical sunrise!
I hit the beach with the walkin around bird rig, D4s / 800AFS but had along with me of course my faithful friend, Nikon 1 V3. This amazing little camera just does a killer job with subjects like this. As you can see, as the storm broke up, it created amazing shapes tapping into the rising sun. So, shooting in Cloudy WB, I worked the columns of color. I shot it many ways but it’s these two images that have caught me imagination. Now if all the clouds were the color of the color columns, the photo simply wouldn’t work. But since they rose higher in the sky and caught the sun before the base, we lucked out. Oh, what a gorgeous way to start the day!
