{"id":38204,"date":"2015-03-10T04:30:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T11:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moosepeterson.com\/blog\/?p=38204"},"modified":"2015-03-11T22:28:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T05:28:03","slug":"ding-darling-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moosepeterson.com\/blog\/ding-darling-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Ding Darling Magic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"_BMP3981\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been many years since I’ve been to Ding Darling NWR. Spent so much time there back in the day, film days that is because it was the mecca for wildlife photographers and bird photography. The Refuge has changed a lot in the 30+yrs I’ve been venturing to it. I remember all to well back when it was a dirt road, dust everywhere and photographers around every bush. Then with a hurricane here, water change there, the birds started to be fewer and so the photographers. The once slam dunk for Roseatte Spoonbills and thousands of waders in the viewfinder slowly faded away, and with it the hoards of photographers. Early in 2000, when I planned to shoot at Ding Darling, I would only plan on a couple of hours in the mornings and then head elsewhere to shoot the rest of the day. Well, that was not the case yesterday!<\/p>\n

\"_BMP6313\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the great weekend at the FCCC conference, we headed to Ding Darling yesterday for what I thought would be just a morning shoot. We were greeted in the first pond (there are three as we count them) by a group of Roseatte Spoonbills. The top photo is from this first encounter. This “sky pointer” is in gorgeous breeding plumes and a great example of a sexy spoonbill. Well, it was a great start and unknowns to us, just the start of what became a marvelous full day on the refuge! The bird life, variety and access was phenomenal all day at the refuge. Other then the traditional wildlife photographer break for ice cream, we shot all day at Ding Darling. It was magnificent! We ended the day with a gorgeous sunset and with the White Pelicans which entertained us all day. Shot the majority of the time with the D4s<\/a> \/ 800mm w\/TC-1.25e<\/a> and the Df<\/a> \/ 300 PF<\/a> on my shoulder for the overhead flight shots. I have lots of stories, thousands of images to share over time but just wanted to say, if you want that old time Ding Darling experience, it’s alive and well there today making Ding Darling a must again for wildlife photographer … the magic is back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been many years since I’ve been to Ding Darling NWR. Spent so much time there back in the day, film days that is because it was the mecca […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Ding Darling Magic! http:\/\/wp.me\/p6YJx-9Wc a whole day in bird photography heaven! @NikonUSA #nikonambassador @USFWSRefuges","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-38204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wildlife-photography"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/www.moosepeterson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/BMP6313.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.moosepeterson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Podcast.jpg?fit=1500%2C1500&quality=100&ssl=1","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"amazon":{"key":"amazon","url":"https:\/\/www.audible.com\/pd\/Podcast\/B08JJQC1GR?ref=a_pd_item-n_c0_bc&pf_rd_p=1da7ab30-c785-4a0e-a160-4a7e7077b353&pf_rd_r=EEDMYHQM3DZ05FPRTHMJ","label":"Amazon","class":"amazon","icon":"amazon.png"},"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2fRA9VaVfSdQMKf1ipxr0tipxr0t","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"itunes":{"key":"itunes","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/moose-podcast\/id1107405746","label":"iTunes","class":"itunes","icon":"itunes.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.moosepeterson.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/moose-podcast","embedCode":"

Ding Darling Magic!<\/a><\/blockquote>