Canon 5D Mark III, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ 180mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, IS0 1600
Strolling along a hard sand beach is sure a lot easier that trudging through calf-deep snow. I enjoyed sharing my walk with these little sandpipers. At first when I tried to get close, they rapidly ran along ahead of me. I learned quick to move back, walk around in front of them and let them come to me. I guess this is a corollary to “Let the image come to you”.
Canon 7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 1.4x Extender @ 280mm, f/11, 1/800 sec, ISO 400
The Great White Egret seemed to be the most common bird that we consistently saw at the Florida Bird Festival. They were everywhere. They seem so graceful as they take off and fly. I got more satisfaction just watching them than trying to get that “perfect shot”.
Canon 7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 1.4x Extender @ 280mm, f/9.0, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400
Sometimes you are just lucky. We were driving around a wetlands reserve and saw this group of photographers and birders watching a nesting heron on top of a palm. Soon the male came up bringing up branches to build a nest. The male made several trips back and forth to bring up more branches for the nest. Soon several other females flew to nests on other palms. At one time there were five herons nesting. We spent at least two hours just watching this beautiful and amazing sight.
Canon 7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 1.4X Extender @ 260mm, f/7.1, 1/800 sec, ISO 400
The Roseate Spoonbill was one of the most colorful and interesting birds that we saw at the Florida Bird Festival. Most of the time the Spoonbills were quite far away. This one flew right over the top of me. I got so excited that the most of my frames just caught a part of the bird. I was lucky, out of dozen shots I took, one was centered within the frame.
Canon 7D, EF70-200 f/2.8L IS with 1.4x extender @ 250mm, f/9, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800
Over the past several years some of my long time friends have said they wanted to go down to the Florida Bird Festival in Titusville. We have been talking about this for over 5 years. This year was the year! Three of us and our very understanding wives took the trip. My other two photographer friends have done much more wildlife photography than me. This was my first trip and I was ready to learn new techniques. I quickly found out that my methodical engineering approach to working a subject was not working. I had to be quick, anticipate, and have a lot of patience. I took two half-day workshops and over 9000 images during three days of shooting. Out of these 9000 images, I felt that only about 10-12 were good. I also learned that taking so many pictures take an enormous amount of computer time just to sort out the keepers.
Wildlife photography may not be my niche. However learning new things always excites me and gets me out of a rut that I may be in. It also encourages me out to apply new ideas to the work that I most enjoy. I thank Milton Heiberg and Robert Amoruso for their insightful instruction.
This is my first attempt at capturing Orchas in Puget Sound. We joined a couple of friends up in the San Juan Islands a few weeks ago to relax, enjoy each other’s company and watch some Orchas. Capturing whales is definitely a skill that has to be developed. They are either too far away or too close. They continuously pop up where you don’t expect them. However, the biggest skill is to keep a steady hand when you are so excited seeing such amazing creatures.