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Little Ones

I’ve learned not to ignore the little shorebirds while lying down.  They can be a challenge to photograph as they move around quickly but they can be very photogenic.

When they are standing still, I’ll use a single focus point but change to all focus points when they start moving, if they are close enough.  Getting direct eye contact is always a favorite pose.  Preening can also reveal some interesting photos.  These were taken on a cloudy day so the ISO had to be cranked up to get a decent shutter speed.

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III telconverter

Aperture priority, 1/500 sec @ F5.6, ISO 2500, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

Snowy Plover

Snowy Plover

Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation

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Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation

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Posted by  |  January 10, 2016 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sea Otters

Here are a few shots of the Sea Otters that we found near Morrow Bay, CA.  They were floating around near a boating area right next to the road.  Very fun to watch as they try to keep their paws dry while spinning around in the water.

Taken with Canon 7D II with Canon 100-400 II, hand-held

Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5.6 ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation

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Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5.6 ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation

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Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5.6 ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation

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Posted by  |  January 4, 2016 | Categories: Sea Otter | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

End of 2015 = Peregrine Falcon + Avocets

2015 ended on a high note with my last trip this year to Bolivar Flats in Texas.  The sun hasn’t been out much lately in this part of Texas so it was time to shoot in cloudy conditions.  It was great weather to be lying on the wet sandbars at 44 deg F (with waders on of course).  The Avocets were out in mass with several hundred of them hanging out off shore near sandbars.  Found a decent location and ended up crawling closer to a flock of Avocets.  Several more came in to land, which provided some action shots.

Just before getting up to leave, all of the birds took off, which usually means that a raptor is in the area.  Turned to my right and saw that a Peregrine Falcon had landed on a sandbar.  I’ve never seen one land that far from the shoreline before.  Didn’t think that he was going to stick around long so I stayed in place focusing on him while anticipating some lift-off and flight shots.  He obliged soon after and it was a great way to end this outing.

Also it was nice to meet Hal on this trip, a follower of this blog.

Have a great new year everyone!!

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter, mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head.

Aperture priority, 1/1600 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600 + 1 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F5.6, ISO 2500, + 1 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Aperture priority, 1/2000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600 + 1 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Posted by  |  December 31, 2015 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  As usual, it’s Christmas morning and everyone is asleep except me and one of my dogs.  Therefore, it was time to break out the camera.  Here is my golden doodle sitting in a chair next to the Christmas tree, wondering what I’m doing, as usual.

Didn’t come out too bad considering it’s handheld @ 1/60 sec with ISO 10,000 and no noise reduction.

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 100-400 II, handheld

1/60 sec @ F8, ISO 10,000, evaluative metering, -2/3 exposure compensation

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Posted by  |  December 25, 2015 | Categories: Dog | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Offshore Killer Whales

Spent last weekend in the San Francisco, CA bay area after having business meetings there during the week.  My daughter flew into San Francisco on Friday afternoon and we spent the weekend seeing the sights, which included a whale watching trip from Monterey Bay.  I had made the same whale watching trip in 2013 and have been looking forward to going back ever since.

With the bad weather that they were predicting for the weekend, we changed the day that we went on this trip from Sunday to Saturday.  We missed the rain but they issued a high wave warning for Saturday.  We were thrilled that they didn’t cancel the trip but they warned everyone that it was going to be a rough ride on the boat with the high swells.

We went off-shore for about 10 miles and spotted a gray whale.  He wasn’t very close to the boat and didn’t do much so we were hoping that it wasn’t going to be the only sighting of the day.

We then came upon a large group of long-beaked common dolphins that came very close to the boat.  They estimated that there were at least 250 dolphins.  It was cool to see so many dolphins but we wanted whales.

Not too long after seeing the dolphins, they spotted some Killer Whales in the distance.  Everyone got very excited with the anticipation of seeing these majestic mammals.  We ended up seeing 3 groups of these Orca’s, 15 to 20 total whales.  The crew on the boat identified the whales as “offshore Orcas”, which are a rare find.  The biologist told us that this was only the second time that she had seen this type of Orca in the past 5 years.  There are three types of Orcas and this variety is rarely spotted this close to shore.  The dominant male had the largest dorsal fin and there was a baby Orca, which was doing his best to keep up.

It was a real challenge to get any decent photos of these whales with the high swells.  The boat would rock up and down violently and it was all that we could do to stay upright at times.  We initially stayed at the back of the boat, which was the most stable part of the boat but had to move to the front to see the Orcas when they were first spotted. I about fell over several times when trying to move around.  There were lots of people who got sea sick but we made it unscathed.

We had a great time but wished that we could have stayed out longer.  We then headed to Big Sur to see the landscapes and further south to see some coastal redwood trees.  Drove back to San Francisco on Saturday night and went to Alcatraz/Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday.  It was a very fun trip and I’d love to do it again when we had more time.

All photos were taken with my new Canon 7D Mark II and Canon 100-400 II lens, handheld.

 

Aperture priority, 1/1000 sec @ F8, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 286 mm

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Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F8, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 400mm

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Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F8, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 214 mm

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Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F8, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 349 mm

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Aperture priority, 1/1000 sec @ F8, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 400mm

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Posted by  |  December 19, 2015 | Categories: Whales | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Avocets with New 7D II

Made a trip back to Bolivar Flats last weekend working as a guide, which gave me a chance to try out my new Canon 7D mark II camera.

From a guide perspective, it turned out to be a good trip with Newton.  It was very low tide and we found a large flock of Avocets not too far off shore before sunrise.  Got some decent shots and moved on to several other locations shooting Willets, Long Billed Curlews, Marbled Godwits, a Yellowlegs and several smaller shorebirds.  Ended up working our way around the bend and found a Reddish Egret and then a flock of Avocets worked their way towards us, as I predicted.  What appeared to be a lucky guess was actually an accurate prediction based on several similar encounters at that location.  Ended up being a very good morning.

From a testing out the new camera perspective, it was also a good outing.  I’m a little too spoiled with my 1DX but the new 7D II worked well.  It’s obviously not as good with high ISO as the 1DX but it’s much improved over my old 7D.   Looks like it will be a good back-up camera.  It’s also very light compared to the 1DX.

Ended up getting the new camera as I recently experience problems with my 1DX.  Made a trip during the week of Thankgiving and found that my 1DX wouldn’t focus on my 500mm lens.   Experienced issues with the contacts as the mounts were bent up from a previous crash/burn from my kitchen table.  Got my lens repaired from a local repair shop in Houston but have to send my camera to Canon as they wouldn’t sell him (or me) a replacement ring mount.  Took my old 7D to the Santa Clara ranch a few weeks ago as a back-up but would have had major issues with the low light levels.  That convinced me that that I needed a newer back-up camera and getting $500 off during black Friday week also helped my cause.

These photos were taken with Canon 7D II with Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head.

Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 500mm

This photo was a little dull due to being taken before sunrise so I increased the exposure in Photoshop to make it more of a “high key” image which worked better.

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Aperture priority, 1/3200 sec @ F5, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 500mm

Taken after the sun came up

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Posted by  |  December 7, 2015 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , | 8 Comments

Bobwhite Quail

Bobwhite Quail are beautiful birds with very distinct feather patterns.  Males have a bold black and white head pattern with the females having buff colored heads.  They are very fast and can be hard to track with a camera as they run around.

Had mostly cloudy skies on this trip and had crank up the ISO and break out my flash for some of these shots.

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head.

Aperture priority, 1/320 sec @ F5.6, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer (-3 stops)

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Aperture priority, 1/250 sec @ F5.6, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer (-3 stops)

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Aperture priority, 1/320 sec @ F5.6, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer (-3 stops)

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Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F8, ISO 1600, evaluative metering

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Posted by  |  November 29, 2015 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Roadrunner from Santa Clara Ranch

Made another trip to the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, this time to the Santa Clara Ranch.  Had a great time, thanks again Scott for the invitation.  This property has a ranch house that you can stay at and get meal service, which was a highlight of the trip with some of the best Mexican food that I’ve eaten.  I wanted to bring the cook home with me.  Hector, the ranch manager, was our guide and did a great job.

http://santaclararanch.com/

This Roadrunner surprised us as we were in the blind taking photos of other birds when he came up to the water.  He walked away then came back to give us a good opportunity for some close-up shots.  Ended up with over 8000 photos and still haven’t gone through them all yet.

Taken with Canon 1DX with Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head

Aperture priority, 1/3200 sec @ F8, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, 500mm

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Aperture priority, 1/5000 sec @ F8, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, 500mm

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Aperture priority, 1/5000 sec @ F8, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, 500mm

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Posted by  |  November 23, 2015 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Reddish Egret in Partial Silhouette

Time to get back to posting some winged subjects with feathers.  These Reddish Egrets were doing their usual dancing around while fishing.  Two partial silhouette shots taken at different locations along the Gulf of Mexico from the beach at Bolivar Flats in Texas.

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4x III teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head

1/1250 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

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1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation

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Posted by  |  November 8, 2015 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

F/A-18F Close-up’s

Taking photos from the north end of the runway at the 2015 Wings Over Houston airshow provided for some good close-up photo opportunities.   The F/A-18F (2-seater) came in fast and low over us with his high-speed pass and then as he came in with his wheels down.

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4x III teleconverter, handheld

 

Take-off with full after burners on with some nice heat wave action.

Aperture priority, 1/1600 sec @ F9, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Full frame shot of his high-speed pass at over 500 mph.  It was a very cool display of the raw power of this aircraft and quite loud being underneath him at this range.

Aperture priority, 1/1600 sec @ F9, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Full frame shot with wheels down.

Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F9, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Full frame shot as he came overhead towards the runway.

Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F9, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Quick pivot around got this shot as he went past us.

Aperture priority, 1/1600 sec @ F9, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm

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Posted by  |  November 1, 2015 | Categories: Birds | 2 Comments