Archive for January, 2011

I had stopped along one of the local causeways to photograph a flock of Black Skimmers. The skimmers were resting on a sand bar close to the causeway. I was practicing with my Canon 1D Mark IV and 100-400mm f/4-5.6 lens combination. The skimmers stayed bunched up on the ground so I wasn’t able to get that pleasing photo I was looking for. The birds did lift off all at once when a sail boarder came in too close. However, the birds turned away from me on takeoff to get into the wind. I practiced on white pelicans that flew past. I practiced on cormorants that flew past. Finally, I had this cooperative gull arrive on scene. It was quartering into the wind approaching so the light angle did not leave any shadows on the bird.

Sunset Flight

The lens was at 280mm, f/8 aperture, 1/500 shutter speed, exposure comp +0.7, with the camera set to AV mode.

In the computer, I added the red color cast to the photo using NIK Color Efex Pro. I adjusted the opacity to give it that sunset light effect. I then erased it off of the bird.

Well, this past Saturday we had a group of very pleasant people out wanting to know more about nature photography. More specifically, bird photography. Don’t we all. Every trip I am always learning something. We were blessed with an abundance of birds throughout the afternoon. We met at Cracker Jack’s restaurant at the Titusville Pier. If you haven’t been yet, I encourage you to go. You’ll enjoy the experience. There we covered topics on what to look for, composition, camera settings, and a little on post production processing of images. Our first stop was Sand Point Park. There were some cooperative wood storks there. Wood Storks are endangered due to dwindling habitat. We were able to get out our equipment, set it up, and apply some of the things we had discussed. I cpatured the following image at the park:

Wood Stork Bathing

After marveling at Wood Storks, Ibis, and a man feeding a squirrel – I mean the squirrel hopped right up on the man’s knee and ate out of his hand – we went to the causeway to practice photos of birds in flight with the ever cooperative gulls. It is amazing what a little bread will do. Speaking of “do”, you have to be careful where you stand when feeding the gulls in the air. WEAR A HAT!

From the causeway we went to West Gator Creek and traveled the loop. We found some incredibly cooperative Green Herons:

Green Heron on a drainage culvert

We also marveled at an Osprey fishing. It was way too far away for any of us plus we had just an awful sun angle. But troopers that we are, that didn’t keep us from trying. It seems like that for every osprey with a fish, there is a gull chasing it! Here is my take:

Taking Home the Bacon! (mullet style)

After a few more photography moments, we headed over to Black Point Drive and found some birds feeding in flowing water near a drainage culvert. We had our patriotic red, white, and blue scene with a red roseate spoonbill, a white snowy egret, and a blue tri-color heron. The rock stars of the scene were the spoon bills. There was already a crowd of people there when we arrived but we were able to get proper sun angle alignment and get some interesting shots. Just being there was an incredible moment.

Roseate Spoonbill Feeding

Snowy Egret in the Golden light

The light was quickly fading so we wrapped things up and then we went our own way at our own time. I haven’t set a date for the next GIFT yet, but when I do, it’ll be posted here first.

Regards,

Jim Boland

What is different and what is the same about the two photos included below?

They were both taken with the same camera and lens combo (Canon EOS 7D with a Canon 500mm f/4 IS lens). The camera settings were the same (AV mode, f/16, ISO Auto@320, 1/800 shutter speed, Evaluative Metering – no adjustment.

I look forward to your comments.

Jim

In addition to the Hooded Merganser shown in the previous post, I was able to capture other ducks, birds, and animals. Here is a sampling:

Lesser Scaup Drake Resting

Canon EOS 7 D, Canon 5oomm f/4 lens, 1.4X Extender, Evaluative metering, +0.7 exposure comp., AV Mode, f/5.6, Shutter: 1/1000.

Ringed Neck Drake and Hen

Canon EOS 7 D, Canon 5oomm f/4 lens, 1.4X Extender, Evaluative metering, +0.7 exposure comp., AV Mode, f/5.6, Shutter: 1/1000.

Ringed Neck Duck Drake

Canon EOS 7 D, Canon 5oomm f/4 lens, 1.4X Extender, Evaluative metering, +0.7 exposure comp., AV Mode, f/5.6, Shutter: 1/1000.

Raccoons on Afternoon Patrol

Canon EOS 50 D, Canon 100-4oomm f/4.5-5.6 lens,hand held, Evaluative metering, +0.3 exposure comp., AV Mode, f/13, Shutter: 1/125.

All of these images were processed in Photoshop CS through Adobe Camera Raw. I used NIK Color Efex Pro tonal contrast and center darken/lighten. Noise reduction is accomplished by using Noiseware Pro.  Please contact me for more information on my workflow. I will be covering this and more in my upcoming field training next Saturday, January 15th. There is still time to sign up.

Jim

Between Christmas and New Years, I traveled and stayed on the west coast of Florida. One of the places visited was Bradenton Beach, Anna Maria Island, Fl.  Bradenton is just south of Tampa. I passed this place while exploring the island and had to go back to get a photo. It is always a challenge to keep cars and people out of photos like this. The emphasis is on the colorful painting and its display of character. The image was taken using exposure bracketing and processed as a high dynamic range image using Photomatix. I did use a tripod to make sure there was no camera movement from one image to the other. I did remove a power line that ran from the left side to the building. The workers there let me walk around and take more photos from the beach side. All I had to do was to express and interest and ask permission. I’ll post those additional images and discuss them in future postings. Canon EOS 7D, Canon 16-35mm/f2.8 lens at 25mm.

Exposure values were -3.3/-1.3/+0.7

Photomatix Grunge preset