Apr 16, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
It might still be cold from winter in many locations, the critters though know it’s spring. Our Red-shafted Flicker is on our chimney drilling away to announce his studness to the ladies. Our Brewer Blackbirds are back and dive bombing our dog in the meadow. And four boxes now have Mountain Chickadees calling them home. Oh ya, it’s spring. So, what are you going to do about it?
These images are a couple of my first nesting shots, the top with the F3 and the bottom with the D1. And this year, I’ll be out with the Df /80-400VR3 working nests. I’m going with the Df because of the WU-1a which permits wireless operation while seeing what’s happening through the lens. A “nest” has been created and sits in my office as a test platform to make sure it’s all working as planned. If all of this is totally greek to you, I have two resources for you. There is a post here on the site on Nesting Birds and there is a 5lbs book, Captured that you can buy. Photographing nesting birds is time consuming but is very rewarding. The time to start planning and finding the nests is now. Get your bins, get out in the field, find the nests, do your homework and explore an incredibly fascinating process of our wild heritage!
Apr 3, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
I love photographing gulls, learned long ago that if you just watch them for five minutes, they will do something silly. Well, we were at the Yaquina Head Light for our K&M Adventure last week and the gulls were just starting to go nuts with nesting season. What makes this location so amazing beside the gorgeous lighthouse is the offshore islands the birds like to nest on which are just an arm’s reach away! We’re talking gulls, murres, puffins, gillimots, cormorants and even Bald Eagles. Simply an amazing gathering of life in spring.
Shooting here is fun too. You drive literally right up to the spot, not even a 100 yard walk. It doesn’t take much in gear, I shot with just the D4s / 80-400VR3 but you can easily go longer. It would be a great spot for a 600mm / 800mm but you just have to deal with the public who seem to always come up when you have your eye to the viewfinder and ask, “Whatja shooting?” It would seem only photographers can see the thousands of white birds on the black rocks.
I went short for the very simple reason, looking to make the uncommon out of the common. You have a couple of important things going for you in these regards. First, you can get so physically close. Next, you can get access really early to take advantage of the cool lighting. Lastly, you have a white subject and black background. All of this permits us to have small, very small subjects that visually pop in the frame. And with it being spring, there are all sorts of antics. In this frame above, I like the shadow of the gull in the foreground that was about to fly through the frame.
And then there are simply their gestures. What is really cool is these opportunities are available to all across the globe. Gulls, which receive very little respect or love, are key members of our wild heritage. Studies have shown that if they were to disappear we would have a serious loss of our air quality. Pretty darn amazing to think the “garbage eaters” of the wild kingdom are linked to the air we breath. But then, Mother Nature has tons of surprises and it’s up to us to share them through our photography and their stores.
Mar 20, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
Mar 18, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
When I was out a week ago with the Gtr Sage Grouse (couldn’t get out this AM, wind too big), there was one unique individual. This lone male wanted not only to be on the other side of the road, it wasn’t even on a lek. In fact, he was on this little mound you see here near the Owen’s River (fog in the background) on the edge of a flooded meadow. Prior to sunrise, I saw it take flight far in the background of the main lek on the edge of the sage and fly over to this spot. It got my attention because it flew for a time right at me as if it were going to join me in the cab of my truck!
Why is this so unique? Well, for this individual it might not be. This male might just know something about attracting the females I have no hint of. On the other hand, it might be a whack-a-doodle whose DNA might not go no further. And those questions always entice me because while Mother Nature probably has the answer, we probably never will. To get even a hint to the answer, one would have to mark this individual and then watch it basically 24/7 during the entire lekking season. And even then, the answer would be a sampling of one which in science makes it an oddity as much as anything else. But I live to see these oddities.
Shooting with the D4s, 800f5.6 w/TC.25 resting on the Puffin Pad, I didn’t photograph this lone male until after the other grouse had left the lek. I actually drove up the road 3/4 mile to where I could turn around, came back and parked, reset up and shot. Where all the other grouse had left, this lone male stuck. I really wanted to get back out this morning to see if he was still using this mound, hopefully my next visit I will get a little more of an answer. This is why I love being a wildlife photographer. I love when they make me wonder why!
Mar 8, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
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Took the D4s out shooting this morning and I can honestly say, it’s not your D4!
Headed out to the Greater Sage Grouse lek and at 05:13 heard the familiar sound of a male calling. Been working with this population for 25yrs now so know them pretty well. I shot the entire time from the cab of my truck with the D4s, 800f5.6 w/TC.25 resting on the Puffin Pad (just like in the video). The sun doesn’t hit the lek until 06:31 so I sat in the dark just listening for a while. Slowly, the ambient light levels rise and I can see the ghostly white forms jetting about the lek. At 06:00 I started to shoot when I normally wouldn’t have wanting to test the high ISO quality of the D4s. Shooting at ISO3200, I made come clicks as the males make claim to their particular piece of ground. At 06:06 the first territorial battle broke out and it happen to be right in front of me. You can see some of the results from that battle sequence above. When I say some, the D4s when I hit the hammer ripped and its buffer lasted longer than the battle with 81 images captured!
The D4s has a TON of new settings and means of customizing every button and I’ve not even scratched the surface there. The two new things I tried this morning were the higher ISO and the Group AAF. The ISO3200 performed very impressively. Understand, there sun has not come up yet, I’m shooting in no light. Yes, there is a little noise in the images above but those images are straight out of the camera. With my normal setting in ACR, you see no noise and that’s impressive! But Dave Black was right, I freakin love the new Group AAF! OMG, does that thing rock in speed and accuracy. Keeping in mind that I am shooting from the cab of my truck and handholding, I shot 984 images this morning and only deleted 18 because they weren’t sharp. That’s impressive. I mean, shooting at 1000f/8 in no light and have that kind of AF performance … OMG!!!
There were 17-21 GSG on the lek this morning, the first morning I’ve found them on the lek. Just prior to sunrise, 06:27, a coyote came through the back of the lek the same moment a Golden Eagle popped over the rise. This combo flushed the grouse and it’s then I saw the six females that were hunched down in the clump of sage as they flew with the males to the safety of the deep sage brush. Four males remained and finally at 06:41, they walked off to the sage.
It was a great morning of grouse watching, they are such a cool bird! And it was a delight to take the D4s out basically cold turkey and have it perform so bloody great. The rest of the weekend I’ll be nose deep in the instruction book to see what other treasures are to be found. I know there is mtc!
Mar 7, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
Spring is trying to sneak out from under this winter’s cold grasp. Grouse are one bird species that truly celebrate the coming of spring in a big way. Gathering on leks all around the globe, the males dawn their best plumage, rise very early and start to dance and call in their attempts to attract a mate. Leks, typically an area of topography that can be as small as a spot on a log to as big as a couple of acres, come to life just prior to sunrise and then the activity peaks as the sun hits them and then fades away not too long after the sun is shinning on the lek. It’s a fascinating right of spring the grouse pursue in their drive to create the next generation.
I’ve been very fortunate to photograph all the grouse of No America except the Ruff Grouse. These are simply really cool birds I love to watch and photograph. Above are the Greater Prairie Chickens whose mating ritual is dramatic and hilarious all at the same time. Below are the Greater Sage Grouse, large birds that dance up a storm ending when they inflate their air sacs calling for love across the sage. The Sage Grouse are literally in my backyard and I started looking for them this week to see if the annual celebration as begun. It’s been real quite so far but signs are it’s about to burst. Grouse are generally a long lens, low light, walk very softly photography proposition. Sadly, many leks have been closed off because of human disturbance. But other leks on refuges have tours that I highly encourage you to participate in. If you get hooked on this annual wildlife ritual, hopefully you’ll work with biologists to gain access and then share your photos. Many states no longer have any grouse, they’ve become extinct. Some are listed as endangered and fighting for their existence. The Attwater’s Prairie Chicken (below) is one that is just hanging on considering one hundred years ago, there were over a million of them. They all need your photography to tell their unique story!
