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Sandhill Cranes Lift-off

Here are a few Sandhill Cranes from my trip to Indiana in May.  Didn’t see many this year but was able to get close to these two.  They were feeding in a field around sunrise and I followed them in the car down a dirt road.  I had to keep backing the vehicle up as they walked to keep up with them.  They finally stopped and took off and flew right in front of me.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, handheld out the car window.

1/800 sec @ F 5.6, spot metering, +1/3 exposure compensation, ISO 400

1/800 sec @ F 5.6, spot metering, +1/3 exposure compensation, ISO 400

1/400 sec @ F 5.6, spot metering, +1/3 exposure compensation, ISO 400

1/2000 sec @ F 5.0, spot metering, +1/3 exposure compensation, ISO 400

Posted by  |  June 13, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | Leave a comment

Skimmer Splashdown

This turned out to be one of my all time favorite Black Skimmer shots to date.  I have a habit of shooting slow shutter speed photos in the mornings when the lighting is not great.  My theory is that if I can’t get sharp pictures, why not shoot blurred shots on purpose?  In this case, I decided to stay in aperture priority mode and set the ISO on 400 to keep the noise down and live with the shutter speed that fell out from there.  In this case it was 1/50 sec.

I’m still not sure what this Skimmer was doing but he would fly back and forth in front of me and then splash into the water like belly flopping.  The water would splash everywhere and then he would keep going and shake off the water and then do it again.  Got this shot as he was just splashing down and the water made a great reflection.  I didn’t realize that I captured this shot unit looking at it on the computer.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, hand-held

1/50 sec at F5.0, ISO 400, + 1/3 exposure compensation, partial metering at 200mm, flash at -3 stops w/better beamer

Posted by  |  June 9, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 4 Comments

Black Skimmer Silhouette’s

If you have seen some of photo’s over the past few years, you may know that I love silhouettes.  Comes with the territory of shooting at sunrise.  I’ll take the time to find and shoot silhouettes whenever/where ever that they pop up.  Found a bunch of black skimmers at sunrise doing what they do best – skimming.  It was partly cloudy and I had to wait for the sun to pop out between the clouds to get these silhouette shots.  I sat along the bank and waited for them to fly by in both directions.  Didn’t use the ground pod very much since the they were flying back and forth along a “ditch” filled with water and I didn’t want to limit my shooting in one direction.  I normally don’t like butt shots of birds (although I’m really good at it) but Skimmers can make even the going away shots interesting.  Ended up with quite a few photo’s over two mornings so more to come.

All taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, hand-held.

1/2500 sec @ F5.0 at 200mm, + 1/3 exposure compensation, partial metering, ISO 400, no flash

1/5000 sec @ F4.5 at 100mm, + 1/3 exposure compensation, partial metering, ISO 250, flashed with better beamer

1/4000 sec @ F5.6 at 330mm, + 1/3 exposure compensation, partial metering, ISO 250, flashed with better beamer

1/4000 sec @ F5.6 at 330mm, + 1/3 exposure compensation, partial metering, ISO 250, no flash

Posted by  |  June 7, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 4 Comments

Young Whitetail Deer

This young Whitetail deer was very curious about the guy taking his picture.  Found him in a field during my recent trip to NE Indiana.  I spotted him while driving down a dirt road and he took off running towards me, which was a first for me.  As he got closer, he veered off and gave me some good side shot photo op’s.  He eventually ran in front of me and stopped in the middle of the road and then jumped into the next field.  I originally didn’t like the irrigation system in the background but now like the contrast and sense of place that it give the photos.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, handheld out the car window.

All at:  1/800 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, spot metering, + 2/3 exposure compensation

Posted by  |  June 5, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | Leave a comment

Osprey Lift Off and Landing

Made the annual trip home to NE Indiana over the last couple of weeks to visit family and pork out on the local food that I grew up with.  Good times were had by all, especially my stomach.  Was able to clear the brain cells from work which made the trip very productive.  Spent the mornings out shooting when it wasn’t raining, go figure.  Loved the cooler weather with it being in the 40’s/50’s in the morning. 

Got to see my favorite Osprey in the nest again this year.  Got these shots during take-off’s and landings with close to full frame shots.  Should have gone to manual exposure mode earlier in the shoot but finally woke up when the whites were blowing out when the spot metering was off of the bird.

Also, my 7D continues to work without any problems.  Went through about 80 gig with no error 20’s popping up.  So far, so good.

All taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, hand-held, no flash

1/800 sec @ F5.6, + 2/3 exp comp., spot metering, ISO 200

1/400 sec @ F5.6, + 2/3 exp comp., spot metering, ISO 200

1/800 sec @ F5.6, + 2/3 exp comp., spot metering, ISO 200

1/1000 sec @ F5.6, manual exposure, ISO 250

1/1000 sec @ F5.6, manual exposure, ISO 250

Posted by  |  June 2, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 2 Comments

Spoonbills

I’m used to finding Spoonbills flying around or nesting at the High Island rookery, so it was a nice change of pace to find a couple of them in the water at Bryan Beach a few weeks ago.  Only minor cropping on these as they were fairly close at 400 mm.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens on ground pod.

1/1250 sec @ F7.1, spot metering, ISO 250, no flash

1/1250 sec @ F7.1, spot metering, ISO 250, no flash

1/1000 sec @ F7.1, spot metering, ISO 250, no flash

Posted by  |  May 30, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | Leave a comment

Tricolored Herons

Another batch of shots from Bryan Beach, TX.  This time featuring some Tricolored Herons.  These are one of my favorite birds to shoot.   My first decent bird shot was of these.  These guys were fishing right in front of me while I was laying prone with my ground pod.  Makes the stiff neck and back worth it sometimes.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens.

Posted by  |  May 25, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 2 Comments

Reddish Egret Fishing

Here are a few Reddish Egret shots from Bryan Beach, TX taken about 3 weeks ago.  It was a very windy day and slightly overcast.  Got there late as I took the long way around via Bolivar and San Luis Pass.  Nothing going on around there so I kept going west.  Glad that I did.  Lots of activity that day with a couple of Reddish Egrets dancing around.  Haven’t seen them since but got lucky that day.  It’s always cool to see how they fish with them raising their wings up in the air to scare the fish.  They are excellent fisherman and can fill up while other birds just stand around and watch.  Their eyes must be better than mine. 

Windy days can be a challenge but also rewarding.  You can see the wind blowing the water in the second shot and the egret leaning into the wind on the last two.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens

Posted by  |  May 20, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 2 Comments

Black Skimmers

I’ve been hanging out at Bryan Beach for the past few weeks trying to catch some Skimmer action like I got in 2009.  They finally showed up this past weekend and let me get a few shots before flying off.  They didn’t stick around long but I had enough time to get off a few passes of shots. 

It’s a challenge to shoot birds flying that fast with a ground pod while laying on your stomach.  I tried hand holding the camera with my elbows planted in the muck but that didn’t work any better.  Just had to shift the ground pod around as they changed direction.  I messed up by trying to use four focus points and lost the focus on several shots.  Finally woke up and switched to only single point focus which worked much better.  It was cool when they would fly directly at me.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens on ground pod, no flash.

Posted by  |  May 17, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 3 Comments

Snowy Egret in Morning Light

Enough with the camera drama, time to share some pictures.  Here is a Snowy Egret shot from today’s outing at Bryan Beach.  He was strutting along right in front of me with decent morning light.  Used spot metering to keep the whites from blowing out.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens

1/1600 sec @ F5.6, + 2/3 exposure compensation, ISO 250, spot metering

Posted by  |  May 15, 2011 | Categories: Birds | Tags: | 3 Comments