The video above covers 50% of what I cover in my new KelbyOne Class – Aviation Photography, Editing Techniques. As you can see below, we need to think about finishing when we make the photograph and we need to think about making the photograph when we finish it. Shoot for the subject, finish for the light! How do you do all of that and much more is in this class. Join me won’t you?

In four days, we saw fifty-one bird species and I photographed thirty-four in what is undoubtedly heaven for birds. The city of Gilbert, AZ created a few decades ago The Riparian Preserve at the Water Ranch. What serves as a recharge location for the water treatment plant (you only smell mesquite trees), the magical 110-acre area sucks in birds, birders, and bird photographers to its waters and riparian zone. Below you’ll find a small gallery of images I brought back and you head here, you will find a bigger gallery. The atmosphere and photography just can’t be any better, anywhere!

I walked the preserve with the Z 9 / Z600f4 TC and my first visit, with just the Z400f4.5. You are right amongst the birds even illusive Ring-necked Ducks that literally float right up to you well within your MFD. Warblers choke the cottonwoods easily in reach of the lens. And the birders and bird photographers you meet along the way (there are tens of organized groups just for the preserve) are all very friendly and helpful. This is simply a delightful locale that if you are ever in Gilbert or want a great winter destination for an amazing variety of birds to photograph, this is a desert oasis for birds!

The second snow of the season is already on its way out of the Sapphires leaving barely two inches on the ground which is already peaking through. The first snows of the season are warmer then the rest of winter so the snow quickly disappears. Each winter I seem to have a new piece of equipment that I want to take out in the snow and get shots. Last year it was the Z400f4.5 and this year it’s the Z600f4 TC. With the snow still falling the birds were porking out at the seed feeders. I grabbed the gear and went out to capture what I could. The light was a tad on the darker side but the American Goldfinches with their winter yellows were perfect. Shooting handheld, I stood just inches beyond the Z600f4 TC’s MFD and looked for the best perches with snow clinging to them. I then just waited. It was a great hour session with about a half dozen species coming into the viewfinder. Went back out this morning and sadly the snow had already disappeared from the boughs. It will be that way for the next few weeks when it snows, the race is on.

As their name implies, flycatchers catch bug to survive. Most of the time, they are catching them on the wing so they are always on the move. It just goes then, if you want to photograph them, you’re always on the move. This Vermillion Flycatcher is the cutest little bird and is one I don’t have in my backyard so it has my attention. Getting the shot requires follwoing it around waiting for it to perch to get the shot. Some perches work for a photo and others, not so much. And after an hour of being lead around to get the shot, I just want to shout out loud, hold on partner!