Archive for January, 2012

This morning I left the house early. No, I wasn’t eagerly rushing to the office cube farm. I wanted to catch the sunrise. I will be helping out with some sunrise photography workshops this weekend so I have shifted my sleep schedule to get up a earlier than I normally do. Gator Creek, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, is just a short detour on the way to work. There is a spot where you can catch the sunrise and not include any elements of man. I have included two photos….. one with ducks and one with no birds. I really tried to capture the structure and texture of the clouds.

Camera specs: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV; Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 IS @ 47mm; ISO400; 1/50th sec shutter speed; f/11 aperture; manual mode. Minor cropping in the second image. Both images processed using NIK Color Efex Pro.

Regards….. Jim

Gator Creek Sunrise

Gator Creek Sunrise 2

These are the birds that teased me into getting hooked on photography. About 6 years ago, a group of these birds first visited our storm water retention pond. I wanted to photograph these (and other)  ducks in flight. Now, these types of ducks can be found on the pond most anytime of the year. Right now, there are quite a few around the pond (100+). Our littlle pond is 5 1/2 acres in size.

In the past week, a family of 5 has been visiting our dock. They were there this morning so I decided to document the visit. This is one of the mature ducks in the family. The ducks are fairly comfortable with people being close as long as you move slowly and quietly.

Camera specs: Canon EOS-1D mark IV, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II w/2X@285mm, ISO 800, f/11, 1/1000th sec. shutter speed, manual mode.

The duck is standing on the dock railing. The lake with its reflections is the background.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Regards,

Jim

Black Bellied Whistling Duck on the Dock

In the last post I mentioned White Pelicans. I found over 100 of them in a small area. They were all feeding in the shallow water grasses. What they do is grab some grass and separate their food from the grass. In the attached image, the pelican in the left center has a shrimp in mid air in its open beak just before the big gulp! To freeze this type of action I had a fast shutter speed (1/4000th sec.). As you can see from the grass on the left, the birds were close to the road. As long as people stay in their vehicles, the pelicans go on about their business. Its when someone gets out of their vehicles that the birds usually get nervous.

Camera specs: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV; Canon 70-200mm w/2X extender @ 380mm; ISO 800; f/8 aperture; shutter speed as mentioned above; manual mode. I used the Puffin Pad on the window to stabilize the hand held camera. I used Adobe Camera Raw, NIK Color Efex Pro 4, and NIK Viveza 2.

Contact me if you would like more information.

Regards,

Jim

White Pelicans - Buffet Style

On the way to work recently, I drove through Black Point Drive, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. To my joy and amazement, there were about 50-60 American Avaocets in the water. I had my Canon EOS-1D Mark IV connected to my 70-200 f/2.8 EF IS II, with a 2X tele-extender. As other photographers gathered, it was predictable that the birds spooked and went airborne. This makes for a great situation especially if you are able to get the images of the birds in the water first!

Camera setting details: f/8; ISO 800; 1/1250th sec. shutter speed; manual mode. I applied a software app (Fractalius) to the image to get the artistic effect. In Photoshop I adjusted the opacity of the layer to get the feel I was looking for.

After the birds flew, so did I. The other photographers were just to noisy, pushy, and inconsiderate of others. I made sure I had separation and didn’t stop again until I saw the White Pelicans! I’ll save that for another post.

Regards,

Jim

Avocets In Flight!

So the white bird is a Little Blue Heron? How can that be? The juvenile Little Blue Heron is white. As it matures, it develops its blue feathers. if you look closely, you can see some of that on the head. I did look in my Sibley’s Guide to Birds book and there are other possibilities. I looked at the white morph of the Great Blue Heron as a possibility. It is actually called a Great White Heron. I ruled it out based on the illustrations of the bill in the book. I also considered a white morph of a Reddish Egret. The guide book illustration indicated a pinkish bill and the one I photographed has the blue color which is consistent with the Little Blue Heron. The one thing that bothers me is that I captured this image in December. The Little Blue Herons should already be fully matured with its dark feathers.

Camera specs: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II @ 170mm, ISO 1250, F/8, 1/400 sec. shutter speed, manual mode.

The image was captured along Black Point Drive, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.

Regards,

Jim

Little Blue Heron?

I recently drove through Black point Drive, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. Most of the offerings that day were a little disappointing. Even though not much was presenting itself, I try to look for things I may be overlooking. On the way out, I came across several cars that had stopped. That usually indicates something interesting is going on! I eased up into position and parked my car. There was a small pond close to the road with close to a hundred birds feeding at the pond. They proved to be ridiculously tame and could have cared less if people were close by. The Snowy Egrets were criss crossing the pond feeding. Once I figured out their behavior, I was able to focus on one bird at a time. There were so many birds, it was difficult to get a clean shot.

Technical specs: Canon EOS 7D; Canon 70-200mm IS II lens @ 200mm; Aperture Priority Mode; ISO 400; Shutter speed 1/2000th sec.; -1/3 exposure compensation; aperture f/7.

Post production was in Photoshop using NIK Color Efex Pro 4 tonal Contract, Detail Enhancement, and Lighten/Darken Center presets.

Feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

Regards,

Jim Boland

Snowy Egret Landing

The following event will be held at The Downtown Gallery in Titusville, Fl later this month. Come on out and join us at the…………………….

4th Annual

Art for Wildlife

Friday, January 27th  

5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

at

The Downtown Art Gallery

Featuring Wildlife Photographer

Jim Boland

“The Gathering” by Jim Boland

Art for Wildlife is a fundraising event benefiting the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

This free event is open to the public.

There will be Live art demonstrations throughout the evening

by watercolorist Diane DeShong Cannon.

The new paintings will then be Raffled off at various times along with many other

generously donated items by our other fine artists.

Featured artist Jim Boland will be giving away a Photography Workshop Experience!

Donations for raffle tickets starting at $5.

Live music with complimentary hors d’ oeuvres, wine & refreshments.

The Downtown Gallery is located at 335 S. Washington Avenue (US 1)

in Historic Downtown Titusville.

See our NEW Back Room Gallery!

Come have a Great time with Us!

All while raising money & awareness for our beautiful one-of-a-kind wildlife refuge!

10% of all sales will be donated to the Merritt Island Wildlife Association!

Find out more info on our Facebook fan page.

Or call 321.268.0122

This image is of an adult non-breeding Double Crested Cormorant. During breeding season ( March – May) the birds develop plumes of feathers just slightly above and behinds the eyes. This breeding plumage gives them their name.

I took the image just before Christmas along Gator Creek, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. I took it from my car using the Puffin Pad for camera/lens stabilization. I used a Canon Mark 1D IV, 70-200mm lens @ 185mm, manual mode,  f/8,ISO 1250, 1/500th sec. shutter speed. For processing I used a “high key” effect.

If you would like to learn more about capturing and producing images, contact me to schedule a training session.

Regards,

Jim

Adult, non-breeding Double Crested Cormorant

This is a follow up to a previous post of a few weeks ago. I can officially announce my work is featured this month at The Downtown Gallery in Titusville. The Downtown Gallery is located at 335 S. Washington Avenue, Titusville, Fl. Even though the address is South Washington Avenue, it is actually located on North US 1 just north of Kloiber’s Restaurant and across the street from Aker Eye Center. Parking is on the backside of the store or in a public  parking lot just south of the store. Store hours are M-F 10-5 and Sat 11-3. My work is in the front room at the front entrance to the store. I invite you to stop at The Downtown Gallery and purchase your favorite from the collection. Hope to see you there. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Jim

The Gathering

Gator

I have finally taken a decent photo of a Belted Kingfisher. This is one of the hardest birds to photograph. They fly erratically. They stop mid-air to hover. They dive and dart through the air. If you try to approach them by land or water they fly to another perch. I took this shot from my car using a Puffin pad on the car window to provide camera stability. This image was taken on Gator Creek Drive on the Merritt island Wildlife Refuge.

Belted Kingfisher perched