Just were was I last week? I’ve had a whole bunch of people as that question so thought I’d best fill in some of the blanks. We were shooting at the ranch of Steve Bentson. He has created a place where photographing young Golden-fronted Woodpeckers is down right simple.
He purchased 370 acres of native TX habitat and has turned it not only into a preserve, but a heaven for bird photography. Sitting at his Pondesto Blind, photographing this Great Crested Flycatcher was really easy!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp3296.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
And photographing this gorgeous little Painted Bunting is just as easy. Steve’s secret? Well, in a land where there is no water, he has created water features that not only attract the birds, but the photographers. He has built custom, permanent blinds at the water features. Some blinds are just for the morning and others are just afternoon blinds. Some are sunk in the ground to shoot at water level and some are above ground. All are just great opportunities which is why I keep going back to Steve’s year after year. This time I brought back 32 species from five days of shooting. Not too shabby!
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-20e3 on Lexar UDMA digital film