… a flock of Cedar Waxwings! I wasn’t sure I was going to have the opportunity to photograph them this year. I had not been able to photograph them in the past. It seems like I always missed the migration. My wife and I were watching TV late yesterday afternoon. She was the one that noticed them flocking to our neighbor’s tree. She asked me what they were. I didn’t see them at first. Once I saw them I suspected they were Cedar Waxwings. A quick look through the binoculars confirmed the sighting.I was then able to get my camera gear and head outside to capture a few images.

One of my bird books notes that while they nest in North America, Cedar Waxwings move south in the winter (some reaching as far south as Panama). So that means these birds are headed back north.

Regards,

Jim

Cedar Waxwing

You are the first to know! I am leading a photography workshop in conjunction with the Sea Turtle Festival being held in Titusville in early June. To view the details, go to my web site and click on the new tab at the top for Workshops. All of the details and instructions are there. If you are interested, I encourage you to register early. I have limited the participants to 6 so I can spend time with each participant. Contact me with questions. Hope to see you there.

Regards,

Jim

Sea Turtle at Port Canaveral, Fl

My grandson Bryan (age 4) loves to listen to his his music CDs as we are driving. One of his favorites is a tune that I believe the title is “Down by the Bay”. The lyrics include: have you ever seen a whale with a polka dot tale, down by the bay. Well, it wasn’t a bay and it wasn’t a whale. My lyrics would go something like: Have you ever seen a shark while out on a lark? Why yes I have! In late January, I was assisting Milton Heiberg with a photography field trip as part of the Spacecoast Birding and Photo Festival. We were out taking photos of sunrises. I have included one of the images from that morning as the first image. I didn’t notice until this weekend the dark image in the water to the lower right of the sun. As I zoomed in on the image I could not believe what I saw. It is a shark fin! And a big one at that. In the second image you can clearly see the fin and the big wake behind it. The location is The Mosquito Lagoon. This area is undeveloped and mostly known for its fishing. Mosquito Lagoon is bordered by Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge and Cape Canaveral National Seashore in east central Florida. At the time I took the image, I had no clue what was off shore from us. No one else saw it either.

have you ever taken a photograph and not notice all that was in the picture? let me know your experiences.

Regards,

Jim

Mosquito Lagoon Sunrise

We interrupt our photos for a news break. I am pleased to announce that my work is now on exhibit and for sale at two locations, both in Titusville, Fl.

I was scheduled to be phased out of The Downtown Gallery as the featured artist. When I went to pick up my photos they asked if I would like a full time spot in the gallery. I was more than happy to accept the offer. They are a good group of people and the artists that display there are very talented and great people to be around.

Since I had been scheduled to phase out of The Downtown gallery, I was looking for a place to display my work. I said something about it to the folks at Studio Plus in Searstown Mall. they said they had just made some space available for local artists and asked if I would be interested. I accepted their generous offer and have a section for my work.

I have unique work at each location. Nothing is duplicated and the prices are the same for similar work at each location. I invite you all to stop at one or both locations to see what I have available. I have had quite a few sales at each location.

I also invite you all to The Downtown Gallery, March 23rd from 6 – 9 pm for a Spring into “Sweet” Art event. The sweets are being provided by MacSweets (www.macsweets.com). Something about key lime pie, strawberry bruschetta, and the like. It should be worth the visit. Plus, while you are there, you can stop and chat with me and see the new display i have in the gallery.

Okay, I have to include at least one image in the post. I had only observed this behavior on the west coast of Florida while visiting The Alafia Banks. The gulls actually land on the head of the pelicans to try to steal a meal. Well, on my drive into work today, I saw this happening with two different pelicans. it was the first time I had seen it locally.

Hope to see you soon….

Jim

Gull Feeding with Pelican

The individual images have now been posted on my online gallery. It can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=37&user_id=53630&action=viewalbum&event=788697

I have had a heck of a time trying to find the hyper-text link feature in Word Press. Looks like you’ll have to copy and paste the link to get to the individual images. In the meantime, I have included one of the images to motivate you to go look at the rest of them.

Regards,

Jim

Low Pass!

Actually, that is a misnomer. It was the 2012 Valiant Air Command War Bird Airshow. It was held this past weekend at Space Coast regional Airport in Titusville, Fl. It is held the second week in March every year. In addition to the airshow, there is a substantial museum and static display of military history at the airport. Instead of posting individual images of the show, I decided to put together a slide video. I’ll have all of the images posted to my online gallery. I’ll include that link when I get the images posted. Let me know what you think of the video. If there is an individual image you like let me know that too.

By the way, if the play video icon doesn’t show beneath my name, then view the posting on the www.jbophoto.com blog site. That should be an option at the bottom of the email.

Regards,

Jim

……. when the only flying B-29 in the world flies into your town for a visit? In Titusville at Spaceport Executive Airport, there is  an organization called The Valiant Air Command. They (we, since I am a member) have a war bird museum. Once a year (coming up this weekend) an airshow is held. The air show includes everything from bi-planes to current aircraft. The B-29, named FiFi, arrived in town around noon today. I don’t recall ever seeing one in flight. So, I made it my mission today to capture an image of the only flying B-29 flying in the world today. The first photo is the B-29 on final approach. The second image is of roll out shortly after touchdown.

Hope to see some familiar faces at the air show this weekend.

Jim

On final...

Touchdown

This Florida Brown pelican had just come up out of the water. Of the images of the takeoff sequence, I liked this one the best. I like it because: there is good visibility of the eye and bill; the details of the wing feathers are very good; and, the reflection in the water. This image was captured two weeks ago when I was on my Roseate Spoonbill photo trip. We had left the Spoonbills to head in for the mid-day break. As the pontoon boat was easing away from the spoil island, pelicans began diving close to us. For this image the sun angle wasn’t the best.  The day was still foggy and but visibility was improving. My main thought was to capture the action and then see what could be done during post production on the computer. I adjusted the black and white levels in Photoshop and then used Color Efex Pro 4 to provide the finishing touches.

Camera specs: Canon EOS 7D, Canon 70-200mm with a 2X tele-extender @278mm, ISO 400 shutter: 1/800, f/8 aperture in manual mode.

If you would like to know more about getting more out of your images, contact me for a personal session.

Regards,

Jim

Low Flyer - Florida Brown Pelican

I send out my thanks to all of you who stopped at my event tent this past weekend at the New Smyrna Beach 50th Annual Art Fiesta. Wow, wasn’t that weather something! A big thank you goes to The First Baptist Church there in New Smyrna Beach for all of their hospitality and graciousness.

As I am finishing up my stay at The Downtown Gallery in Titusville, I am now opening at Studio Plus in Searstown Mall in Titusville. I spent most of this afternoon hanging photos and getting my space set up. Tomorrow I will be finishing the display by adding matted photos in a flip box. Studio Plus is at the entrance where the movie theaters are located. When you go int the store just ask for the Jim Boland collection in the local artist section.

If you are interested in some individual or small group training, contact me so we can schedule some time together. I orient my approach as “photography for the rest of us”. I keep thing as simple as possible. I keep things local so you don’t have to travel. And, I keep prices reasonable so you don’t end up paying an arm and a leg for the training.

The image below was taken mid-January at Black Point Drive, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, Florida. the Pintail ducks are primary visitors to the refuge for the winter. they come and feed on the grasses in the salt water marshes. I was hand holding my camera, shooting through the passenger window of my car.

Regards,

Jim

Pintail Ducks

This past Saturday I spent the day out on Tampa Bay (Florida). I went out with James Shadle for a photo shoot primarily for Roseate Spoonbills. James Shadle is a top tier, successful nature photographer. He has a pontoon boat that he takes folks like myself out in half day increments. Departure is from a public boat ramp in Riverview, Florida. The destination is some spoil islands known as The Alafia Banks. One of the spoil islands is a rookery managed by The Audubon Society. James maneuvers his pontoon boat to place people in the best position to take advantage of the morning and afternoon light. The highlight of the day is putting on chest waders and hopping in the water with your big lens on a tripod. In the water, you can approach the birds in a less threatening way. We maintain a separation from the birds so they don’t get nervous. If we sense any nervousness by the birds, we back away. But usually we were 25 to 30 yards away with no problem at all.

In the image below, I was waist deep in water, taking photos across a sand bar. We had positioned ourselves there in case the birds would fly in to the sand bar and land. This day they kept on going. This one flew across the sand bar so at least i was in position to capture the flyover. Camera specs: Canon EOS 7D; manual mode; ISO 400; f/8; 1/4000th sec. shutter speed; Canon 500mm f/4 lens; on a tripod.

Regards,

Jim