Black-legged Kittiwake captured by D5 / 180-400VR / watertaxi
I have spent a lot of time on Alaska’s coastal waters. They are always new, different and gorgeous each and every trip! Went out to a favorite locale this morning, Gull Island to spend some time with all the nesting birds. The predominant species is the Black-legged Kittiwake. I’ve shot there a lot over the decades so spent most of my time with the Z7 / Z24-70f2.8 shooting. But then we rounded the point and I saw this so had to pull out the D5 / 180-400VR. Now the fact I have to point out this detail tells you that in general, it’s weak. If it were strong, you would see it without my pointing it out but such is not the case. But under the adult in the top left corner is a chick staring back out. And if you look right next to it, an egg. It’s a detail that makes me smile.
Hummers (my affectionate term for hummingbirds) have been part of my life since I could walk. I would go to my aunt’s house and watch their nests in her yard for weeks on end. That fascination with them hasn’t stopped and greatly influences how I prefer to photograph them today. This short video goes BTS to discuss why I shoot the style I do and then how am I bring that style to my photos. I hope it not only answers your questions but gets you into the amazing world of hummers!
I’m down in SE Arizona once again in Hummer Heaven, and it’s marvelous! While I love birding, just sitting and watching the comings and goings of the hummers, getting their story told visually is really my goal. If you listened to this weeks podcast, you know I came down prepper and two main goals for my photography. The first, the lightening of my images was pretty simple, the second though, that photo still eludes me after four sessions.
These flying jewels are just that, so bringing that to life is paramount. Meeting my first goal of brighter images was easy with the gear I’ve gone with for the week. The Z6 / 180-400VR / SB-5000 permits me to meld the ambient light and two flashes (used to take these photos) seamlessly so you don’t see the flash. The second part of my goal though, now that’s been much more of a challenge. So far, I have only one click and both the birds are a blur. Yeah, these photos are OK but I want so much more than a bird hanging in the air or sipping at a flower. Will I get it? Only time will tell. Stay tuned.
While we mammals tend to love the warm days of summer, those who grow long, thick, winter coats to not! Most big game falls into this category and you can tell this time of year who they are. That’s because they are molting. Really, they look like they’ve run into a hungry flight of moths! While I don’t say it out loud in their presence, they’re ugly. What do you do when you have a shot like this of an Mtn Goat nanny & kid and moth is molting?
Mountain Goat captured by D3x / 600mm
You take the picture of course! But you try to minimize the “molt” however you can. In this case, the kid’s gesture of “You want me to go where?” as he looks down the cliff was the best that could be done at this moment. Are there other options? It really depends on the situation but shadows, body positioning, size in frame, action, and gesture are all tools you can use when they fit. But until all the hair molts and the new grows in for winter (usually late fall), they are simply looking the worse for wear. And remember that as long as they have that long fur, water is even more important. Find the water and often you will find them.
There is one overwhelming temptation in wildlife photography that almost no photographer can pass up. And that’s the minute detail that you see and miraculously captured and so you want to share that photo with the world saying, “Look what I captured.” The problem is, the detail is so small, only you see it cause it’s your photo. I learned this a long time ago at the merciless hands of a photo editor who asked if I was going to supply all their readers with a magnifying glass so they could see what I saw. Yeah, that comment left a mark but it was an important lesson I’ve never forgotten. Case in point …
I was at the marvelous Magee Marsh a couple of weeks ago. Such a brilliant locale for great bird photography. I was shooting with the Z6 / 800mm cause my subjects are already really small, about the size of your thumb. This Blackpoll Warbler like many of the warblers were fueling up for the trip across the Great Lakes. They were eating nats the size of a pinhead. If you look at the photo with the arrow, you can see the nat. You can only see it because I inserted an arrow. In the photo without the arrow, the warbler just caught the nat. Truly a fun capture. Now without this lengthy caption or the photo with the arrow, you would have no clue of that minute detail. The point to this is, when you have to point out the small detail to someone else to explain your photograph, yeah, that’s too small!
We’ve been seeing their tracks a lot but not them, then today, two decided to say hello at the ‘ol homestead. Our Black Bears (brown phase) can be pistols, raising havoc with our bird feeders. So when they show up, I had two things in hand, Sadie and my camera! I have both at hand almost all the time, in this case I had the Z6 / Z24-70f2.8. With both in hand, I walked out onto the deck to say hello.
This bear knew me, it was instantly not happy to see me emerge from the door (it could be Sadie too). I instantly recognized the bear from a few years back. Then, mom was below and had sent the kid up to try to raid my bird feeders. It didn’t go well then for the cub and it did not go any better today. After I got my photos (cause a photographer does have to have priorities), I politely told the bear to get the $#*(@# off my tree. Well, I’m pretty sure that’s what Sadie said cause the bear rapidly departed, the tree and the property. It was great to see the cub had survived but after these years, wasn’t any smarter.
