May 10, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
The weather finally broke so at 05:15 Sharon and I were at Mono Lake with the new 800f5.6 AFS on my shoulder. I had my typical setup, Gitzo 5562GTS, Wimberley WH-200 with Moose Cam (Contour, with the only change being shooting with the D800 as my D4 and half of my gear is in for their annual CLA at Nikon. I was happy as a pig in clam shit to be out shooting critters! It was a brisk morning but not even a stitch of wind with clear skies. With the dirt still wet from the “storm” that went through, I figured the critters would be out and busy, making up for the days of snow, hail and rain. We walked and walked, looked and looked, nothing! Seriously?!
Carrying the rig over my shoulder as I always have, I swear it felt a little lighter than with the 600AFS but I know that’s because the 800mm rig is slightly better balanced on my shoulder. With time to kill, I started to check simple things like, how close can I get with the 800mm and focus on a critter? Manually focusing, I can be 18′ away from a subject and have it sharp. This is not how close it focuses with autofocus, but manually which is what I do most of the time when up close. At this distance at f/5.6, the DOF is bloddy narrow as I discovered when the first Violet-green Swallow appeared. Now being the middle of May, there should be a bucket load at the Tufas but all we had was this one. So as the sun came over the horizon, I had it in my sights and started to shoot. I was way too far away but it was the first bird we’d seen this morning so I wasn’t waiting. I wanted to photograph some critters in the worst way!
OK, I got a little closer, made some more clicks and then it flew off. Bastard! So there we stood, in the gorgeous light with no one to play with. So we kept walkin, lookin, checking all the normal haunts for swallows but with none in the air, I was feeling a little low. Then we came across some Canadian Geese with goslings! Goslings already, pretty big ones no less. While cute and all, shooting them with the 800mm seemed, well, a little anticlimactic after waiting three days to shoot so we just watched them as they strolled by. It was a gorgeous morning at Mono Lake though, looked like I should have been after landscapes rather than critters. We continued walking….
About 45min after sunrise and the nip disappeared from the air, I started to hear the swallows but didn’t see any. Then one came in from high above and landed. I now had two and then, lucky for me, a female showed up! Yeap, being spring and all, soon we had male swallows coming from everywhere to woo the one female and I could finally go to work. The swallows perch on the Tufas for brief periods as they do flight displays, fight with each other, all those male things they do in spring to get the attention of the female. The 800AFS had zero problems focusing from perch to perch as the swallows moved about. The AF speed is great and when the opportunity afforded itself, I would walk in slowly to get as close as I could to continue shooting. Only once did I walk too close that I couldn’t focus. That doesn’t count all the times the swallows landed so close I couldn’t focus no matter what. And was the Moose Cam on all of this time? It was running, I just haven’t edited it to post.
Sharon then saw another group of swallows on another set of Tufas so we wandered over to them. This is where I struck gold and had a male land on a Tufa right in front of me after taking a bath. For five or six minutes it groomed its feathers while calling to the other swallows flying by. On top of the Wimberley, the 800mm was real easy and fast to swing around to keep up with the action. You must be wondering if I was chimping all this time to see the results? Nope, didn’t check them until getting back to the office a short time ago and could see them on the 24HD Cintiq. That’s when I was blown away by the spooky sharpness of the 800AFS! I mean, this is one very sharp lens! It is also very obvious that the DOF at MFD is nothin, not even from the tip of the bill to the back of the eye on the swallow. Well, with these images in the can and the light getting hard, we started walking back towards the truck.
We spent time where we normally see Least Chipmunks but they didn’t want to play. Looked for the cottontail rabbits, none to be found. We kept walking back up the path. As were strolling up looking about, I heard the distinctive twitter (song not social media) of a Green-tailed Towhee. A second later saw it singing from the top of a big Tufa. While not a great perch, I walked to it. Then a female flew up from below it and they were off flying through the sage. I was just about to move on when the male came back and perched on a much better, smaller Tufa. I made a couple of clicks and moved closer. Made a couple of more clicks and then it sang! Those are the shots I love to get in spring.
For the next ten minutes I was able to work the towhee, getting closer and refining the background. The 800mm focal length has always been my favorite because of the ease of manipulating the background, in this case grabbing rabbit brush way off in the distance just getting its spring green. Now as my good friend Kevin pointed out this morning, the 600AFS with 1.4x gets you to the same place and this is true. Well, not too long that female reappeared and my subject jetted off through the sage in hot pursuit once again. So ended my first outing with the new 800AFS lens. Sitting now at my desk looking at the results, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Nikon did an amazing job with this lens! This morning’s shoot was just with the 800mm itself, I didn’t attach any teleconverters to it. I will in due time but for now, I want to learn just what the lens will do on its own. mtc.
Mar 6, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
As we had been doing everyday, we were in the field and shooting to greet the sun. This morning we were in sea kayaks in a croc filled lagoon shooting. Out on the lagoon once the light had gone hard, we had a few moments to paddle around to enjoy the incredible beauty of where we were (I insist on that!). By staying in one place and simply doing a 360 turn of the kayak, I could see three, THREE species of Kingfisher! All new species for me and as a birder, this is nirvana! I simply can’t express verbally or in photographs the immense richness of Costa Rica’s wilderness! We slowly paddled in birding our way back while trying to get out of the increasing heat of the sun (I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much in my life!). I do have to admit, having the croc there watching us as we disembarked from the kayaks was fun, some others in the party didn’t see the humor.
I had two D7100 bodies with me, one with the 28-300 and the other with the new 70-200VR3 (I really love that lens!), both on straps and both in seabags just in case a croc got me, we could save the cameras. We have priorities! With the kayaks all brought back to shore, covered to protect them from the white wash of the locals, we started to walk down the beach, back to where we parked the Rover. We were walking along and our truly amazing guide Gary (this kid really impressed me!) pointed to a pile of white, what look like deflated balloons in the disturbed bowl of sand. We were quite a distance from the surf and on the edge of the vegetation. Gary said, “This is a Black Sea Turtle nest and it looks like it just hatched last night.”
Just then Gary dropped to his knees and started digging like a dog going after a long, lost bone. The sand was flying and before we knew it he was down to his shoulder in the pit he had dug out with his hand. Then he said, “Found one!” and he pulled out a “baby” Black Sea Turtle. It had hatched and got stuck behind a root deep in the sand. Lana & Gary explained that this was pretty common which is why Gary started digging. The first, then second, third, fifth, tenth baby sea turtle was placed in our hands as Gary continued to find more and more stuck in the roots. When our hands were full, Lana said to take just a couple of steps and put the turtles on the sand. It was bright, hot in the sun and the water was a longs ways off but the baby turtles have to make the trek themselves to embed the beach in their senses so when it’s time for them to comeback and lay eggs, they can find the beach. Damn, Mother Nature is just so darn cool! How in the hell does this biology start in the first place?
That long distances in the hot sun though is not what the baby turtles are meant to do. They should have gone in the cool, protective cover of night. Knowing that the odds are that 1 out of 20 survive the first year and Gary had recovered nearly two dozen, we wanted them all to make it to the water. On this big, empty expanse of a beach, don’t think these humans making a fuse didn’t get some attention. Not from other folks as there are none on this deserted, gorgeous beach, but rather from those wanting to make a meal of the turtles. The magnificent Mangrove Black Hawks appeared out of nowhere when the first turtles were put on the sand. So in between bringing water to keep the turtles cool, we stood over them providing aerial assault protection. Now if them baby turtles would have stayed together and all gone at the same pace, things would have gone smoothly. One had a slightly injured front flipper and while it didn’t just go in circles, it didn’t make a straight line either to the water’s edge. Some went fast and some seem to be taking in all the sights and before we knew it, they were scattered about the beach. Then a scream went up as the aerial assault was launched!
With moves worthy of a Heismen Trophy winner, one of the group made a move foiling the hawk stoop on the baby turtle, ending up with with a talon of sand rather than an easy meal for its attempt. While mother nature is amazing there are times to us, it seems cruel. But that’s why so many eggs are laid, so many hatch because the odds of one turtle making it back are slim. Finally with what seemed like hours past, the turtles started to reach the water and safety. Smaller than the palm of your hand, it seems unbelievable they head out into the big expanse of the Pacific ocean without any hesitation. With our protecting duties comin to an end, I picked up the D7100 and started to shoot. The D7100 instantly grabbed focus, locked on and blasted away. I didn’t have to think about the camera, just the photograph…and protecting the baby turtles! I’d never seen such a thing in my life, doubt I will again and I was going to have at least one click of this miracle of life. To Lana and Gary from Luna Lodge, it’s just what they do because of their fulltime involvement with the environment and protecting of the rich biodiversity of Costa Rica. For our little posse though, this was a very special event, a wonder of nature none of us will ever forget!
Feb 25, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
It was our very first day at Luna Lodge, Costa Rica and we were in meetings about our shoots for the next two weeks. We were in the open dinning area overlooking the rainforest when Gary, our guide came up to use kind of excitedly. “They found a Two-toed Sloth and it’s really low!” The species (Two-toed being the harder to find) and being low were both the important part of the statement. “You want to photograph it?” It was on the list so we suited up with gear and headed out.
With the D7100, 70-200f4 & TC-20e3 in hand, we got in the Rover and headed down the canyon. In not too long of time, there we were right next to the Sloth. Man, what a cool animal! Not really much bigger than a watermelon, there is “sat.” It wasn’t going anywhere until nightfall so we could take our time to make the shot. There was a number of avenues through the forest to get the shot, I looked for the one bringing out the character of this unique critter. I had to shoot stills and video so I was busy. In my mind, the priority was the stills first, video second so that clicks were being made.
It was all going really well. In fact, despite the tremendous pressure I was putting on my self to produce, I was having fun. The one feature about the D7100 I enjoyed was the dynamic range. You’ll notice in this photo the highlights on the leaves in the background aren’t blown out, the camera held the detail, which made the shooting just a little easier. With the stills in the can (I shot everything on Lexar 64GB 600x SD cards), I moved to get the video. I needed to shoot both DX and Cropped video (New feature for a Nikon DX camera). So I moved over to capture some more forest for movement in the video since the sloth wasn’t moving, a hair! With it all set up, there I stood whispering with the rest of the group what I was doing.
The D7100 was on the Really Right Stuff Tripod / BH-55 just running away. I had set up so I was standing on the edge of a cliff with the tripod right in front of me. The group was at my three o’clock and the sloth at my ten o’clock. The filming was going great, really cool stuff being captured. I was standing there behind the tripod talking with the group when, all of a sudden….NO MORE MOOSE! The tripod was there and the D7100 was still running, but I had completely disappeared!
Without any warning, the edge of the cliff gave way and like an elevator ride, I went straight down into the tangles of the rainforest below! One moment I was looking at the gang and the next, I was staring at rock and dirt! I didn’t know what happen but all of a sudden, I heard a bunch of excited voices and hands grapping me. They got me up and back on top of the cliff without seeming too much problem and amazingly, I didn’t have a scratch on me. But I had injured my right wrist in the fall, fractured it (didn’t tell anyone until after we left Costa Rica). Everyone was pretty calm, making sure I was OK and then after a short time, looking at me, they all broke out in full blown laughter shaking the monkeys from the trees!
I didn’t get it until I looked where they were staring. They were all starin at my crotch! I looked down to see that my convertible pants had completely and fully, blown out from front to back leaving EVERYTHING hanging out! I mean everything! Well, I finished the video and we all got back in the Rover. All I had to do now was figure out how to get through this five star lodge and to my bungalow without embarrassing myself further. And there you have the glamorous life of a Nikon shooter on assignment for a new product launch on his first day….. and there’s more to come!
(Note: This photo was taken with D7100, 70-200f4, TC-20e3 and this is a Jpeg from the Raw file, no processing)
Feb 14, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
As photographers, we seek that great light. And many of the great photographs we enjoy, one of the first comments is, “great light!” And one of the first comments made when a photograph doesn’t measure up is, “bad light.” And yet, some of the historically most important photographs we treasure weren’t shot in the best light but rather, the best moment. I think that raises the question which is more important when you have to make the choice, great light or great moment? I pose this question because I think many sacrifice the great moment thinking they can only shoot in the great light. Here’s the funny thing about wildlife, sporting events, aviation, and whole bunch of life, they don’t read the same material we do and know to only perform in the great light. So what happens when great light takes a back seat? Will your photography suffer?
I’m not giving you a reason to shoot in bad light. I am giving you a reason to get out when others might say the light sucks looking for that great moment. This Wood Stork is such an example. It’s becoming that time of year in the south, the birds and the bees thing and it’s when critters do there thing whenever they want. To get it on film, you gotta be out there with them. Joe McNally quotes a photographer, a quote now used by many in it’s short form that might help. In a nutshell, you want an interesting photograph, stand in front of something interesting. In that quote, light is not mentioned. In this example the Wood Stork in not so good light but for showing off the glow in its black feathers, it’s great light. If you know that than being at the rookery when the light is great for that one great moment rather than the overall photograph might be worth while. But then while there for that shine in the black you get it in a moment of passion, well then the great moment grows. The something interesting being rather just some primary feathers is a leading lines up to a bigger moment. Ya, we should seek the great light with the great moments there is no doubt, the reason we get up early and stay out late. But in those hours in between, I want to encourage you to not hang up your cameras but rather, look for just the great moments. Photography is this funny thing, it happens whenever you’re behind the camera. It’s just the images when end up sharing are from the great moments.
Shot with the D4 with 600VR2 with TC-20e3
Feb 4, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
God bless Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets because they get more photographers into wildlife photographers than anything else! Being found in just about every nook and cranny of North America, who hasn’t photographed these graceful but dirt common subjects? I don’t think I have 1mil photos of the Great Egret, but I might be wrong. So when you’re confronted with taking picture 1mil and one, what do you do? Well, I tend to get really picky and push things a little. What’s pushing it? In the top photo, not a thing! I have a Great Egret in a nice little shaft of light, it goes with the other thousands like that which I have in my files.But this lone egret won’t be alone for long.
Now, I’m not a “raise the ISO” when the light levels drop kinda shooter. So to answer the 1mil challenge, I use the old fashion approach, watch for peak of action and shoot. Shooting with the D4 with 600VR2 with TC-20e3, I focused on the single egret waiting for the mate to comeback. The small shaft of light is slowly fading when the mate returns. He (I assume it’s him) shows up with a twig, makes the presentation and the displaying begins. I simply watch with my finger half way depressing the shutter release so I can shot in a heartbeat. When the wings spread, I watch the head and when it stops its travel, I go click. Na, not some amazing photo but rather, a way to meet the challenge of 1mil and push you photography forward. I’m constantly looking for a way to meet the challenge and of course, win. It’s what pushes my photography.
Feb 4, 2013 | Wildlife Photography
Light is the element we all have in common and what we seek in our photos to distinguish them from the next. Is there a place you can go and know that light will be good, like a guarantee? I think there are many one are the sands of Fort DeSoto prior to sunrise. When the sun has yet to kiss the heavens, the little light that is present bounces off the sand which does such a great job at filling in the slight shadow. That is, if you’re down on the sand at their level.
Lying on the sand with the D4 with 600VR2 in a panning plate, we can take advantage of the light with our subjects. Now we get down low to not minimize but BLOW AWAY the background! With the very soft light and soft pastel colors, I big part of the photographic challenge is accomplished, but it’s not everything!
The top photo is your basic shot and while the light and being down low make it a nice shot, we can do much better. Plying the clock, we give the birds in this case the Willets, time to get use to our presence and with that comes more poses. These poses can have attitude in them that along with the light bring a little uncommon to the common. I like that. Then when you wait for after they take their nap and the wake up, you have the opportunity to get an even more uncommon pose. In this case, after waking and preening, the Willet scratched its head. You can see how shallow the DOF is at f/5.6 but that’s perfect because just what I want sharp is sharp. There is something special about greeting dawn’s first light and often, you’ll see it in your photographs if you go looking for it.
