Kauai Bird Portfolio
I posted a portfolio of some of my personal favorite images from our Kauai Adventure a few weeks back. Enjoy!
The Nēnē
I was kinda getting into desperate mode! It was shaping up to be another trip looking for certain species and because they are simply disappearing, vanished, gone from the planet, I was too late, again! The last couple of years I’ve been trying to photograph species that when I first started out in the 70’s I couldn’t because I didn’t have the means let alone the skill to go get the photograph. The last couple of years, I feel I’m getting more and more desperate as I make the journey only to find all too often, I’m too late! So it was on Kauai a few weeks back when I was laser beam focused on photographing the few remaining endangered bird species left on the island. By day three, we’d struck out and I was feeling pretty low. Our destruction of our wild heritage has been pretty thorough in the last forty years! After a frustrating morning at the top of Waimea Canyon looking a couple of endemic, endangered forest bird species with really no luck, I decided on a hail marry and head to a pond that looks like a bomb had gone off in the worst of light. There, we finally found a couple of endangered Hawiaan Stilts. Also, there was a State Wildlife office, a really nice guy. He told us to come back at sunset as many birds fly in to roost. We went on to successfully and safely photograph the Stilt (great group putting up with my hypersensitive nature with endangered critters) in that hard light and then went off to dinner. At dinner, I decided to return to the ponds to see the “fly-in.”
We arrived back at the pond with just a Stilt or two in sight, nothing else. With my luck that week and in the past year, I didn’t really hold out much hope. So as we waited out the setting sun for better light, we stood by the van waiting. Then as the light started to get nice we ventured out along the dike to see if we could as a group get close to the foraging Stilt. You gotta remember that my motto has been as always will be, No Photograph is Worth Sacrificing the Welfare of the Subject. And with all the grievous things I’d seen in the past month by photographers in the name of getting a photo, there was no way we were going to be part of that problem (which is freakin huge!). So we slowly ever so slowly walked out towards the Stilt. I choose that one subject because of a couple of factors. The first and most overriding which will make no sense is my “gut” feeling. Something told me to head that way. At the same time, if there was to be a fly-in, the birds would be landing INTO the wind. With the direction of the wind and the sun being on our backs heading to that one Stilt, all that added up to head in that direction. It took at least fifteen minutes to walk those fifty some yards but when we arrived where I wanted to be, the Stilt was still there feeding. Then its mate called from another pond and up it flew and the two of them went off together to a pond quite a ways from us to take care of their young. There we stood with glass on nothing! In my mind, all I could say was, “Not again!” We were left with no subject.
We heard them call at first so we scanned the sky and there was a small flock of a half dozen endangered Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) flying by. Flying by! Then we watched as the small flock made a big turn and started to dump air from their wings. They were coming in for a landing! At first, they looked like they were going to land in an adjacent pond, not at the one we were standing at. I told everyone to freeze, lenses, hands, feet, freeze! We were after all five shooters with big glass standing out in the middle of nowhere in a pond with no cover. It’s not like we were hiding by any means. The Nēnē made a slight flight adjustment and within seconds made a splashdown so close to us that at first, I couldn’t focus on them! The last light of the day was fading so the ISO was cranked up to ISO400 (only way to freeze the motion) and exp comp set to -1. I was shooting with the D5 / 800mm and they were so large in the viewfinder I thought I had my 1.4x attached so went to take it off only to find, it wasn’t attached. Then for twenty minutes, we stood there photographing what to all of us turned out to be a very emotionally and photographically rewarding time with, geese. They were on the most perfect spot with those tiny white flowers, the light just kissing their killer colors of their plumage with a perfect background. And the Nēnē went on as if we weren’t even there! Perfect! Then it got too dark to shoot so we walked out as slowly and carefully as we entered so not disturbing the Nēnē. We were guests in THEIR home! To this day, every one of us in that group talks very fondly of that time with the Nēnē, Javier coming away with the best photo telling the story of our special time with this critter. But that’s really not what is important to me. What is that they all came away with a deeper appreciation of their own skills, photographs and most importantly of their wild heritage, especially the Nēnē.
What Inspired Me
I’m often asked which photographers have inspired me. Those who know me know I can’t remember a person’s name seconds after being told it. I can name all the critters of North America, but someone I just meet, their name is lost to me. And while I don’t recall names worth a hoot, I can remember all the photographs I’ve seen over the decades. One of the photos I saw when I first got into photography decades ago was of a Red-tailed Tropicbird. The way the light came through the wings, the crazy long, red tail and the “floating in air” look of its flight simply caught my imagination. It’s a photograph I’ve always wanted, a species I’ve wanted to experience. And forty years later, I meet my inspiration!
The photograph I saw all those years ago is pretty much the top photo you see here. It was simply a tropicbird floating by. Getting that shot way back when would have been quite a feat with manual advance camera bodies and manual focus (and just 36 exposures!). Today, it’s actually a slam dunk! I simply put the D5 / 300PF up to my eye, panned and shot. Seriously, with the D5 set to Auto Area AF, Exp Comp 0 and on CH with the speed of the 300PF autofocus and extreme light-weight and sharpness, the only thing to worry about was the sunburn (I got toasted!)! So then getting “the” shot that made me go experience the Red-tailed Tropicbird was a easy peezy. But coming back with more was truly my goal.
Once you’re on Kauai, finding either the White-tailed or Red-tailed Tropicbird is pretty simple. Getting close, really close to these species there is only one place to go, the Kīlauea Point NWR. This is flying bird Shang-gra-la! The tropicbirds nest here (they lay only 1 egg) which instantly means you’ll easily find them. With that challenge met, it’s then the challenge of capturing their story. Being a pelagic species which means they spend their life at sea on the wing making them great fliers. They eat fish specializing in eating flying fish. Then in telling their story, you can see that flight is a big part of that story.
Watching them is what I did at first. Seeing patterns, watching routines and guessing at their meaning was a little time-consuming but important for being in the right place and the right time. For example, a group of 5 or 7 would launch into the sky, fly up and then fly backwards in what appeared to be an aerial courtship display of some sort. They would do this over and over and over again. Then they seemed to pair up and do flights together. All of this would happen in spurts of great activity and then none, craziness and then, snore. They would start their activity below the cliff out of sight and then would skyrocket with the wind up into site and above our heads to perform. It was great fun and a challenge to bring this story home.
Then there was simply capturing their elegance of flight. I can’t emphasize enough the ease the D5 / 300PF brought to this especially when shooting directly overhead or when they screamed past us down the bluff. It was truly rewarding, romantic, fun, bird photography that we did for hours on end. The biggie for me though was to finally, after decades, bring back an image the inspired me so long ago to be a wildlife photographer. That leaves me now with just a few hundred images of others to chase because it is others images that inspire me!
Bird Photography in Paradise
We jetted from Florida and Photoshop World directly to Kauai for a Pacific paradise birding adventure. We really love Kauai having come here many times but this is the first with the express purpose of photographing birds. We started off with birds I’d seen before but not spent time photographing, they are grouped under the big heading of pelagic birds. That’s a term used for a group of birds that spend their life at sea except for nesting season. Amazing flyers, watching them catch and soar in the trade winds is a thing of beauty. That’s what I wanted to bring to my photographs.
The birds dart about in the winds as they perform courtship to aerial chases with incredible speed and ease. There was only one option as far as I was concerned for gear, the D5 / 300PF with the D5 set to Auto Area AF. I started with the TC-14eIII because of the old adage, “Go out with your longest lens or come back short,” but it was too long as the birds were WAY too close for that much lens.
The biggie to making the photos was the background. For example, didn’t want gray skies in the background. With the intermediate rain showers, the can be a challange. Next was the horizon line, you need to be sensitive to where it is in the frame and how prominent. Then if shooting down on the waves, the amount of placement of white when the subject is a white bird. Then there is the gesture of the birds themselves in flight and the ease and elegance that they fly. We were there shooting until the wind burn on our faces drove away. But we’ll be back because there is simply nothing like photographing birds in paradise!
Baby Day!
One of the great passages of spring is spring babies! Mother Nature knows how to celebrate when it brings us the kiddies to celebrate in our photographs! Yellowstone this past week was full of kids, especially with calf Wolf, Elk & Bison. But we had special moments with like Griz Cubs and others as well. When you are invited into the home of these critters and you can be a good guest and bring back the photographic memories, well then you simply count your blessing and share the stories!
Up by Tower were a Black Bear and her cub. We were told that there were three cubs, but we only saw and photographed the one. Now it was your basic Yellowstone Bear Jam scenario which can drive some mad, and ugly. We avoided that by simply standing further back and longer glass. Shooting with the D5 / 800mm and picking the spot I wanted to photograph the bears on my terms. Living literally with black bears, I had a good guess where they might go and what they might do. After waiting twenty minutes, the show began. The cub so full of life bounced of rock, tree, plant, mom and then rock and tree again. It simply brings tears of joy watching the spirit of spring.
The Badger was a real happy find, a den with what we were told four pups, We only saw two and the pup’s reaction to spring was much different from the bears. Still using the same technique of standing further away and shooting with the D5 / 800mm, we watched as the pups did their usual, try to get mom to wake up and play. Mom doesn’t do that but it doesn’t stop them from trying.
It’s so good for your soul, so good for your photography and is, well, just how we should celebrate Mother Nature everyday!
Life’s Surprises
Probably one of the biggest reasons I love being a wildlife photographer is because no matter how well I plan, how well equipped I might be, critters always surprise me. In that moment of surprise there is delight, learning, bewilderment and sometimes, a photograph to record the memory. Of course the pitfalls are monsterous but equally the rewards are staggering. So it was this afternoon in Yellowstone when we came around the corner and there were two 2-3year Griz siblings enjoying the afternoon sun. There was a small bear jam and since I’ve enjoyed griz many times, I took a vantage point where I could only see them through a small hole in the pines. Not even a good shot, just a fun shot to preserve the joy and fun of watching life unfold. It is essential in our photographic pursuits as we strive to do our best, to have fun and be open to all of life’s surprises!
I want to tip my hat to the Rangers and Techs at the bear jam. There were not only very professional but friendly and courteous to a crowd who at times was downright stupid. They are too often thought of as an obstacle so I wanted to commend and thank them for helping all those today enjoy our wild heritage!