Snowy Egret

One of my favorite birds to photograph, although one of the most difficult to photograph in flight, is the snowy egret.   The snowy egret seems to fly in a much more erratic manner than other types of egrets, and I find that I have more throwaway photos of this species than any other when attempting flight shots.   Because they almost always change direction abruptly in flight, often just prior to landing, it's often difficult to get sharp photos of them in flight.  The images posted here are a few that I am happy with.

These images were captured at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge while on a cross Florida photo trip with my friend Ken Conger.

While following observing several snowy egrets landing in a pond and fishing I was fortunate to capture a few images below showing the bird with it's catch.

I am using some past material in this post because I have been under the weather the last month or so and unable to get out and obtain any new images.  After over a month of sickness and a 15 day hosptial stay, I am back on the  mend and undergoing chemotherapy treatments after being diagnosed with a type of non-hodgkins lymphoma on April 21.  I had mixed feelings about posting this publicly, but I figured most of my friends know the situation, and I wanted the folks whose blogs I used to comment on to understand part of the reason I seem to have vanished from the scene lately.  The good news is this type of cancer is treatable and the prognosis is good for a full recovery.

I am finding that the side effects of the chemotherapy are the worst the first few days after treatment, and then I bounce back to my normal self and actually feel pretty good after that.  I am learning how to deal with it one day at a time and I am planning to have as normal a life as possible along this new journey.   I actually traveled to Cape Kennedy 12 hours after being discharged from the hospital in hopes of photographing the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour , sts-134. I was taking medicine to deal with the side effects of the chemotherapy I had just had slightly over a day before.  I owe a special thanks to my friend Terry Seaney, for graciously offering to drive me from St. Augustine down to Cape Kennedy, and then back home after the launch was srubbed.  I still plan to photograph the launch as long as the revised launch schedule does not conflict with my treatment. 

My oncologist advised me against making the trip, but my regular doctor gave me his blessing based on certain precautions I was able to take.  

If you see images of the space shuttle launch in my next post, you will know I was able to pull it off.

Roseate Spoonbills

One bird that seems to usually be pretty elusive for me is the roseate spoonbill.  I don't see a lot of them very often, and usually when I do the chances of good photos are slim.  When the birds are roosting, the backgrounds are almost always too cluttered so the best chance at a keeper is usually a flight shot.   This presents a whole different set of challenges because it seems that I seldom get many opportunities at flight shots either.  Even when I do, everything has to be just about perfect to get a decent photo.   The light needs to be in the right direction, and a small amount of flash should be used to partially light up the underside of the wings to balance the ambient light hitting other parts of the bird.  If all these factors are in place, then the challenge is to capture a good flight pose and also get a sharp, well focused image.    The majority of my attempts end up in the recycle bin due to one or more of the items mentioned above not being just right, but most often due to just not capturing an attractive pose.

On my most recent outing, I hooked up with a friend who was visiting Florida from Texas and we set out to try and get some flyer shots.   I had some decent opportunities with various bird species, including two chances where a roseate spoonbill flew close by.   I am only including the spoonbills in this post and all of these flight shots came from the same series.    In the image above, the bird was flying to the left and preparing to bank back toward the right. 

As the bird came back around to the right, I was fortunate to get a shot with a full wingspread.  Although the flash did not fire, I got a little bit lucky that the wings were back lit enough to prevent the underside from being too dark.   When I checked the exif data on this series of photos, I was surprised when I noticed that flash did not fire on any of them.   Thinking back, I remember changing my flash batteries at one point after discovering they were spent.  I must have shot this sequence prior to that time.  I must remember to watch that indicator more closely from now on as I believe some fill flash would have helped these images.  

As yet, this species has not nested this far north in Florida. But folks around here are hopeful that they may start soon as some nesting behaviours have been observed in St. Augustine.

In a bit of unrelated news, I was fortunate to get NASA Causeway tickets again for  the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on May 14.   So if all goes well and there no delays, I am hoping to get some better images of a shuttle launch in a couple weeks.  This will be the last flight of space shuttle Atlantis, and after this there are only 2 more launches left in the entire shuttle program.  I'm sad to see the program end.

The Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery sts-131

The Challenge of Photographing a Pre-Dawn Launch

Early this morning we drove down to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.  We arrived at 3am to allow time to board a bus and set up our cameras on the NASA Causeway for the scheduled 6:21 am launch.   The launch was originally set for the afternoon of March 18th but due to cold weather in Florida, the preparations to the launch vehicle could not be completed in time for that date.  Because the shuttle launch has to be synchronized with the orbit of the International Space Station, the launch time gets 25 minutes earlier for each day it is delayed.   That's how we ended up with a pre-dawn launch, which is much more challenging to photograph. 

Today we were fortunate that everything went very smoothly and the weather cooperated very nicely as well.  Discovery lifted off right on schedule at 6:21am.   It was a nice cool morning approximately 60 degrees, which is what I consider perfect weather.  

Below is a chronological sequence of launch photos.  There were over 20 images in this series but I am only showing 5 of them.  The camera settings I used were vastly different for the first few photos, before the shuttle cleared the launch tower.  Once it cleared the tower and the huge flame from the solid rocket boosters became visible, I had to raise the shutter speed from 1/100 second to 1/640 second to prevent the photos from being completely washed out.  Since I knew the smoke plume would billow out toward us and momentarily block our view of the shuttle after the solid rocket booster ignition, I used this 1 to 1.5 second interval to adjust my shutter speed.   I was ready when the shuttle emerged from behind the smoke and I had the right settings thanks to a good friend from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Montgomery, Alabama who advised me early this morning.  Thanks, Joby!

[ click any photo to enlarge ]

Ignition of Discovery's 3 main engines.

Flaming up

Firing Solid Rocket Boosters (here comes the smoke plume)

Discovery emerges from behind the smoke plume.

The photo below shows the International Space Station as it flew overhead 17 minutes before the shuttle launch.   I snapped a few photos as it passed between us and the moon, getting both in the frame. 

[click photo to enlarge]

Finally, here's one that Cindy snapped right before the launch.  Since we were in total darkness, I  look like deer in someone's  headlights from the camera flash.

Additional images can be seen HERE.