This white morph reddish egret was practicing his jumping skills at Galveston’s FeatherFest in April. This was shot #11 out of a series of 16 photos that he was in the air.
Colors were somewhat muted so I converted into B&W using NIK Silver Effects.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head
1/1250 sec @ F9, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation
Sunday’s visit to Bolivar Flats with my last field trip for this years Galveston’s FeatherFest. Was a little worn out after 4 days but it was well worth the effort to take a couple of groups to Bolivar Flats. It was a new experience for some of them and we had some great photo op’s on both trips. We couldn’t get very close to the avocets on this trip but I did find a morph reddish egret. Spotted him at a distance and maneuvered the group close to the water as he was fishing. He worked his way back and forth in front of us making for some great photo op’s.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II and 1.4X III teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head
Aperture priority, 1/3200 sec @ F9, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm
Here are the group photos from Saturday’s Ground Level Photography field trip at Bolivar Flats. Had a great time with lots of laughs from this group.
The morning started out ominous with very high winds, close to 30 mph, and high surf. Wasn’t sure that we would see any birds until we got further down the shoreline. Found an estimated 3,000 American Avocets huddled together within shooting distance. You can see some of the remaining Avocets behind the group in the photos below. Lots of belly crawling involved. Turned out to be a very productive morning.
Participants can copy full size photos from my website:
https://www.timtimmis.com/Wildlife/Galveston-FeatherFest-2018/
As another year at Galveston’s FeatherFest comes to a close, thanks go out to everyone who participated this year. Special thanks to JulieAnn Brown, Executive Director from Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council, and her flock of 200 volunteers that make the event possible every year.
Had a great time leading three field trips and three classroom workshops again this year. This was year #6 for me as a leader and can’t wait to do it again.
Extremely high winds on Friday and Saturday mornings provided some challenges but the birds and rain cooperated. We had a flock of black skimmers and beautiful sunrise at East Beach on Friday, a few thousand avocets in breeding plumage on Saturday morning at Bolivar Flats and a white morph reddish egret dancing away right in front of us this morning.
Here are some group photos from today’s Ground Level Bird Photography field trip to Bolivar Flats. They received the full ground pod treatment including laying in some prime-time muck. Thanks again Chris for helping out again this year.
I’ll post more photos later as time permits.
For the participants that would like a full size copy, I’ve posted them on my website that you can copy from:
https://www.timtimmis.com/Wildlife/Galveston-FeatherFest-2018/
While getting prepared for leading workshops at Galveston’s FeatherFest again this year, went back over some photos from last years event and found this one taken at Bolivar Flats. This reddish egret was dancing around and put on a great show for my group.
Wasn’t sure why the two birds were hanging out together until observing interesting behavior a few weeks later when a pelican kept stealing fish from a reddish egret. Whatever works for getting breakfast.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter mounted on a Skimmer ground pod with a Wimberley II gimbal head
1/2500 sec @ F5.6, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation
I’ve been in a major creative funk lately with it being several weeks since I’ve gone out to take wildlife photos. Life gets in the way sometimes with business travel, some dental issues, lots to do around the house and getting a new computer. I’ve been working on a blog post about my journey to find a new computer and will share that later. Also the weather in SE Texas hasn’t been cooperating on weekends for the last 8 weeks or so.
Decided to go to the Texas City Dike a couple of weeks ago to create some abstract wildlife photos with some slow shutter speeds. Made it to the dike before sunrise and waited until I could focus on brown pelicans that were diving for fish.
Used shutter priority to slow the action down while creating some interesting blurs. It’s fun but challenging to try this technique. You won’t get the same photo twice as each shot is dependent on how fast you are panning with the bird and what the bird is doing, which is part of the fun. Went back the following weekend to crank it down even further to 1/10 sec.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter, handheld out my car window
Shutter priority, 1/15 sec @ F5.6, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, +2 exposure compensation
Shutter priority, 1/20 sec @ F11, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation
Shutter priority, 1/20 sec @ F8, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation
Spent this past weekend in Rockport, TX trying to find Whooping Crane at Aransas NWR via a boat with Kevin Sims. Had a great time as always. Thanks again Scott for the invite.
Saturday with very foggy and had to start late and tried to wait out the fog. No luck with that strategy, so Kevin worked the shoreline. We found three whooping cranes that were looking for crabs in a small pond close to the shoreline. We got very luck as they worked their way towards us and ended up walking out of the pond and got very close. Ended up having to taking off my 1.4X teleconverter as I was only getting head shots. A great problem to have when shooting whooping cranes.
Got this stare down from the juvenile crane. They stuck around for about 1/2 hour and then walked away. Was a great experience.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head
1/500 sec @ F9, ISO 1600, spot metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
