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Space Shuttle Endeavor Taking off from Ellington Field

Got a front row seat for the final lift off of Space Shuttle Endeavor from Houston’s Ellington Field.  Parked along hwy 3 at the end of the runway along with several hundred of my friends before sunrise and stood on the railroad tracks just outside the fence line.  The first plane to launch was a commercial jet that took off to the east, in the opposite direction from where I was standing.  Was a little worried that the shuttle would take off in that direction as well until a NASA jet took off towards me.  On que, the 747 with Endeavor attached took off at 7:00 a.m.,  a little before sunrise.  It was very cool to see, to say the least, including feeling the heat off of the 747’s engines.

Since it wasn’t fully light out yet, had to crank up the ISO to 1600 to get enough shutter speed.  Was hoping that it would make a fly-by but alas it didn’t.  It turned south and circled but went well north of Ellington, heading for downtown Houston.

Good bye Endeavor…you should have stayed 😦

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 100-400 lens, handheld.

Posted by  |  September 20, 2012 | Categories: Airshow | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

American Oystercatcher Close-up’s

I thought that this trip was going to be a bust.  Headed to Bolivar flats before sunrise and found high tide, no exposed sandbars and waves in the gulf.  Also forgot to put my rubber boots back into the car.  Listened to my gut and turned the car around and headed to the Texas City Dike to look for my Oystercatcher buddies.  It took some searching but I found one of them in the usual spot walking along the edge of the dike looking for, guess what, Oysters.  Got lucky as he found one in my line of sight.  Was able to get another shot of one walking in my direction, which is always a cool perspective.  The morning turned out better than anticipated.  It’s always good to have a plan B in mind when heading out to the field.

Had the 1.4x attached and got almost full framed shots.  Considered taking the teleconverter off as I was almost too close but didn’t want to take the time and lose more shots.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4x III teleconverter out the car window, setting lens on my bean bag

1/1000 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, -1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, -1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

1/1250 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, -1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

Posted by  |  September 16, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

Peeking out of the Sand

Caught this small shorebird hanging out at Bolivar Flats.  He was checking me out as he was looking for food.  Looks like he might be a Dowitcher but not sure.  Got to Bolivar about 1/2 hr before sunrise and headed out along the shoreline.  There were a few sand bars exposed near shore but not many.  Got some silhouette shots as the sun came up and then concentrated on some Willets and these small shorebirds.  Taken from the prone position while using my ground pod.  Started getting a nasty headache after one hour of shooting from that position but it was worth it.   Need to get my body used to being in that position again.

I’m finding that the easiest way to carry my gear around is to carry the lens in one hand and the ground pod with Wimberley head/flash bracket in the other.  It balances the weight out better than trying to carry the lens attached to the ground pod.  I’ve been keeping the flash bracket attached and leaving the flash off to use it as a handle to carry the ground pod around.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head.

1/800 sec @ F5.6, ISO 250, partial metering

1/1000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 250, partial metering

Posted by  |  September 14, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Long Billed Curlew in Flight

This Long Billed Curlew was flying right at me and my 7D did a good job of keeping focus and tracking the action.  My old 40D would not have been able to get the second shot.  The positive exposure compensation helped to keep this from being a silhouette.  The Willet seemed to like the show.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II head

1/1000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, spot metering, +2/3 exposure compensation

1/640 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, spot metering, +2/3 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  September 12, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Pelican Silhouette

This brown Pelican was cruising by as I was taking some low-level Willet shots at Galveston’s east beach.  I should have switched from Willet to Pelican silhouette mode as he swam towards the sun reflecting off of the water.  I’d normally use evaluative metering for silhouette shots but had the camera set on spot metering instead.  It still worked as the spot metering helped to darken the scene even though my exposure compensation was set at +2/3.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II head.

1/1000 sec @ F 5.6, ISO 500, spot metering, +2/3 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  September 9, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Reddish Wings

The Reddish Egret saga continues from Bolivar Flats.  Here are a couple of photos of a Reddish Egret is full fishing mode.  They are very animated with spreading their wings out to scare the fish.  These full frame shots were taken while laying down in the sand with my ground pod.  Had to crank up the exposure compensation on this one with the bright background of the water causing the camera to reduce the exposure.  Always have to play with the exposure compensation while using Aperture priority to get the proper exposure.  Becomes second nature after lots of practice.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II, 1.4X III teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II head.

1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  September 7, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher

I’ve never had any luck finding Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers until recently.  I’ve spent the last couple of weekends at Brazoria NWR trying to get photos of much larger birds when I found some of these flycatchers in the same spot on each trip.  They are fun birds to shoot as they kept taking off and landing trying to catch bugs.  Got these two shots out the car window as he was taking off from his perch.  The 500mm lens worked well with the 1.4x teleconverter.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II and 1.4X III teleconverter.

1/1600 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, + 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

1/2000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, + 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

Posted by  |  September 5, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

American Oystercatcher

Found this Oystercatcher at the Texas City dike a few weeks ago.  He was strutting his stuff while walking towards me.  Took the shot while handholding my new 500mm lens out the car window on my first weekend outing with it.  Made a good first impression…the bird and the lens.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens

1/1250 sec @ F5.6, ISO 250, evaluative metering, +1/3 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  September 1, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Reddish Egret…almost but…

Here are a few more shots of a Reddish Egret fishing from Bolivar Flats, TX.  From stalking its prey to going for the gold.  This one was so close to catching the fish in mid-air.  Would have been the money shot.  I’ll have to settle for bronze.  Hopefully won’t have to wait another 4 years to try again.

It’s always challenging to shoot action shots from laying down on your stomach but using the full Wimberley head on the ground pod makes it easier.  Having practiced with my 100-400 and Wimberley Sidekick for about 5 years made for an easy transition to the big lens.

Taken with Canon 7D + Canon 500mm F4 IS II + 1.4x III teleconverter, mounted on Skimmer ground pod with full Wimberley head.

1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering

1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering

1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  August 27, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Black Skimmer Silhouette

For a change of pace from Reddish Egrets, for now anyways, here is Black Skimmer doing what skimmers do.  Also taken at Bolivar Flats.  I was walking around carrying my 500mm lens mounted on my ground pod when I heard the telltale “bark” of skimmers coming.  Set my groundpod down and pulled off the camera and shot this handheld as two Skimmers went by.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II, handheld.

1/6400 sec @ F4, ISO 500, evaluative metering

Posted by  |  August 24, 2012 | Categories: Birds | Tags: , , | 3 Comments