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2022 Wings Over Houston Airshow

Late October is always one of my favorite times with the Wings Over Houston airshow. I’ve been going since 2005 and just love it. Was lined up to go to the drive-in show with some friends but it got rained out. Had already bought tickets for the weekend so went on Saturday. It ended up being a cloudy day with limited ceiling so the planes couldn’t fly their normal routines. Didn’t feel like going again on Sunday, which was a mistake as it had some sunshine. There is always next year.

I’ll post some of the Blue Angels photos later. All of these shots were taken with my Canon R3 and 100-500 lens, handheld.

F-16 demo team put on a great show. The female pilot rocked it.

F-15 from Louisiana lit up the sky with a short routine

Aero L-39 Albatros

Posted by  |  November 6, 2022 | Categories: Airshow | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Close-up Bear

You never know what you may encounter in Alaska, like this coastal brown bear walking through the grass.  Immediately got down on one knee to get eye level with the bear for these two uncropped photos.  This is a 3rd year cub taken on the second day of another amazing adventure in Alaska

1/1600 @ F11, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, -2/3 exposure compensation, 451mm (R3 + 100-500), full frame

Posted by  |  September 17, 2022 | Categories: Animals, Coastal Brown Bears, Mammal | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Breaking the Rules

It pays to break the rules sometimes, and in this case, a butt shot paid off.  This bear was walking away but I kept shooting as my autofocus stayed on her head.  You never know what you may get, and in this case, it’s a very unique perspective showing off the bottom of her foot and claws.

Lying in the wet mud while photographing bears at ground level in Lake Clark Alaska is an incredible experience that continues to fill my soul with pure joy.

1/640 @ F8, ISO 2000, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation, 500mm (R3 + 500F4) mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley gimbal, cropped

Posted by  |  September 3, 2022 | Categories: Bears, Mammal | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Audubon Top 100 X 2

Honored again this year to make the Top 100 in Audubon’s photo contest with these two photos.  Must have been slacking off since I had 4 in the top 100 last year. Congratulations to everyone that won and made the top 100.

First photo is a black skimmer coming in for a landing at Bolivar Flats. I love the unique wing position on this photo as it was one that I’ve never seen before.

This photo is an American avocet riding the surf at Bolivar Flats. Love the water swirling around her neck, which looks like she is getting ready to turn into a Disney princess.

Posted by  |  July 13, 2022 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Steaming Bear

The large boar is showing how hot and bothered that he is while chasing his potential mate.  That isn’t dust around him. It is steam coming off his hot body in the cool Alaska morning air.  Used negative exposure compensation to darken the scene to emphasize the highlights.

It was towards the end of mating season for the coastal brown bears from Lake Clark National Park. Love was in the air with lots of mating action going on.

1/2000 @ F7.1, ISO 6400, evaluative metering, -2/3 exposure compensation, 500mm, R3 + 100-500, uncropped

Posted by  |  July 2, 2022 | Categories: Bears | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brown Bear in Lupines

We caught this coastal brown bear walking through the lupines along a bear trail at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in Alaska. Our guide and trip leader lead us to the end of that trail when they saw her enter that area. Was great timing as she slowly walked towards us, and we got out of her way.

The RF 100-500 worked very well on this trip with using it everywhere except the mudflats, where my 500F4 was the workhorse.  It was much easier to lug around.

1/2000 @ F8, ISO 5000, evaluative metering, 451mm, R3 + 100-500

Posted by  |  June 22, 2022 | Categories: Animals, Bears | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Back to Alaska

Made it back to Lake Clark in Alaska for some more bear photography this year with Marc and bear guide extraordinaire, David Rasmus. Had a great time to say the least.

Last year was spent following Crimp and her cub around. This year, we saw Crimp on our first day and she was mating as she had kicked her cub out a few weeks ago. We did see her 3rd year cub and he pretty much looks the same, just larger. He was hanging out with Old Sow’s 3 year old cub on one of the days.

On this trip, we spent more quality time with the bears digging up clams on the mudflats, which I loved. Being able to get full framed shots like this still blows my mind. This bear is displaying an interesting behavior using the top of her paw for a table to eat the clam, which I don’t recall seeing last year. They have amazing dexterity with their claws and use them like fingers to pry apart the clams.

1/1600 @ F11, ISO 6400, evaluative metering, R3+500F4 on Skimmer ground pod, uncropped

Posted by  |  June 21, 2022 | Categories: Bears, Coastal Brown Bears | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Riding the Wave @ Galveston’s FeatherFest

Took this photo during my first Galveston FeatherFest field trip to Bolivar Flats Audubon Shorebird Sanctuary on the Texas gulf coast. I led four trips to Bolivar Flats again this year in April with this one being challenging with the weather that morning. The wind was blowing at 25 – 30 mph with heavy surf for this area. If it wasn’t for FeatherFest, I typically would have stayed home in those conditions, which makes me wonder how many great photo ops that I’ve missed over the years by not going in adverse conditions. This outing was unique as only one participant, Peggy, showed up for this trip.

In this photo, a group of dunlins and one ruddy turnstone were hanging out on a batch of seaweed that was bobbing up and down with the waves. A small wave came in that made the first dunlin launch up into the air. This group would then feed off of the material that washed up on the mound of seaweed.

I finally made the dive into mirrorless cameras with a Canon R3, which I’ll provide some more information on in a future post.

Taken with Canon R3 with 500mm F4 IS II lens, 1.4X teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head

1/1000 @ F11, ISO 4000, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  May 22, 2022 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Black Wolf in Yellowstone

One of my goals after seeing a black wolf in 2018 was to get a better shot showing their yellow eyes.  Mission accomplished from my recent Yellowstone trip.

After he came out of the woods with his mate, he stopped and looked in my direction. Great pose for a full frame uncropped photo.

1/1000 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, manual mode, 700mm, handheld while sitting in a snowbank

He walked to our left and then made his way closer. In this photo, he had just turned his body slightly towards us and looked at me again with his right leg in motion for just the photo op that I was hoping for. He only looked at me for 2 seconds but was able to get a few shots off. The eyes have it!

Posted by  |  January 26, 2022 | Categories: wolves | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Yellowstone Wolves

It’s always a thrill to see a wolf in Yellowstone.  Got lucky on 2 of my 4 trips to see them up close.

We saw a male black wolf and a female walking down the road on one of our trips in the snow coach.  They left the road and went into the woods.  We drove past the crowd of people trying to see them and stopped at a field next to the woods.  They came out of the woods and walked parallel to the road at a distance and then came closer.  Looked like they were going to give us a show by mating, but it didn’t happen.

1/1000 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, manual mode, 700mm, handheld

Here is the beautiful female.

Posted by  |  January 21, 2022 | Categories: Animals | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments