Avocet Wearing Water
Bathing birds can provide for some good photo op’s. With a high shutter speed, froze the action when he came up out of the water. Captured the water going over his head and body. Always a good time seeing these birds up close.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod
manual exposure, 1/1600 sec @ F10, ISO 400, spot metering, 700mm
My 2014 Favorites
As 2014 comes to a close, I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from this year. It was challenging for me to get out and shoot on a routine basis but ended up with some photos that made it worth while.
Highlights in 2014 included seeing the Sand Hill Crane migration in Nebraska, leading successful workshops and field trips at Galveston’s FeatherFest, getting published again and finally upgrading to a pro series camera. Now that I have all of the tools, just need some more trigger time to further develop my skills.
Thanks to everyone around the world that checked out my blog and especially to those who left some comments along the way. Appreciate your support. Looking forward to more wildlife photography in 2015.
Great Egret from High Island’s rookery
Sandhill Crane from Nebraska
White Morph Reddish Egret from Bolivar Flats
American Oystercatcher from Texas City Dike
Reddish Egret from Bolivar Flats
American Avocet from Bolivar Flats
Graphic of where people were from that visited my blog in 2014
Foggy Sunrise
One more Nebraska Sandhill Crane photo for the road. Taken after sunrise over the Platte River in cool 16 deg F weather. The Sandhill’s launched before sunrise with some coming back to the river for some final photo op’s.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head
1/800 sec @ F9, ISO 400, evaluative metering
Dancing Sandhill Cranes
To round out my Nebraska Sandhill Crane posts, the most fun was watching these birds do their mating dances. They would bow down and then jump into the air for all to see. Some would pick up corn stalks and throw them up into the air. The fields were full of Sandhill’s jumping all around. Good times. Just wish that I would have had my new camera on this trip. Can’t wait to go back next year.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II out the car window
1/500 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
1/400 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
1/640 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering
1/400 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Sandhill’s in Love
These two Nebraska Sandhill Cranes were staying close together, which made for a good photo op. They mate for life and put on quite a show with their mating dance, which I’ll share more photos of that ritual in my next post.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter out the car window
Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F5.6, evaluative metering, 700mm
Reddish Chase
Here are a few more shots of Reddish Egrets from my last trip to Bolivar Flats in Texas during my FeatherFest field trip. One Reddish Egret was fishing when another came in and started chasing him around.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II head
Aperture priority, 1/1000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 500mm
Aperture priority, 1/640 sec @ F9, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 500mm
Aperture priority, 1/640 sec @ F9, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 500mm
Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F9, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 500mm
Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F9, ISO 500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation, 500mm
Galveston’s FeatherFest “Photographing Shorebirds” Field Trip
My second field trip that I led during Galveston’s FeatherFest this year was “Photographing Shorebirds at East Beach” on Galveston Island. East Beach has been closed due to the recent oil spill near the Texas City dike. Had received special permission to scout of the area the day before the trip to see how close that we could park the bus from the jetty. Luckily, they fully opened the road and the beach on the day of field trip. The beach looked great with no evidence of the oil spill. Congrat’s to everyone that helped with the beach clean-up. Job well done.
With another full class, we hit the beach near the jetty just before sunrise. There were a few hundred Black Skimmers resting near the shoreline that made for some good photo op’s. The sun finally popped over the clouds and give us some good silhouette opportunities. Some local fisherman provided for some flight shots of the Skimmers at they spooked the birds several times. I encouraged everyone to try some slow shutter speed shots as the birds were flying around.
The Gulf of Mexico was rough on the west side of the jetty with some heavy waves that would crash along the jetty, which made for some interesting photo op’s as a Willet was feeding along the top of the jetty.
Once the action started to lessen, decided to move on to plan B, which was the east end of the island, north of the jetty. There were some shorebirds hanging out in some of the tidal pool areas. Came across some Terns, Willets, Marbled Godwits and Avocets. Tried to get close to the Avocets but they walked away to another group further towards the ship channel. Wasn’t sure if we could get close to the main group but we gave it the old college try and it paid off. We ended up walking down the trail and headed cross country and were able to get very close to the main group of Avocets. One batch was feeding and the other was snoozing. Some were in full breeding plumage with the darker feathers around their head.
After spending some time with the Avocets, made our way to plan C, which was where the shrimp boats come to dock behind the strand. Last year, a shrimp boat came in right as we got there but no such luck this year. We did get to see some Brown Pelicans and dolphins.
It turned out to be a successful outing and had a great time meeting another group of very nice photographers. Thanks to everyone who attended. Here are a few of my photos.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head
Shutter priority, 1/6 sec @ F25, ISO 400, +1 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/8000 sec @ F4, ISO 400, evaluative metering
Shutter priority, 1/15 sec @ F32, ISO 200, +1 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/640 sec @ F11, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +1/3 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F4, ISO 400, evaluative metering
Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F10, ISO 400, evaluative metering
