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.

Camping in Denali National Park

Photographing Mt McKinley



Sunrise on Mt. McKinley - From Reflection Pond, Denali National Park

 

The highlight of my last few days in Alaska this year was camping at Wonder Lake, which is only 23 miles from Mt. McKinley.  We had driven almost all night to return to Denali from Seward, and this bought me a extra day since we had planned for Monday to be a travel day.  Arriving back in Denali in the early morning, we found that there was space available on the 2pm camper bus, so we unpacked our camping gear and dried out our tents, then repacked for Wonder Lake.  Since it rained the last day at Brooks Falls we had been forced to pack our tents wet before getting on a float plane to fly out.  We went for a good lunch before hopping on the bus. 



Panorama from Eielson Visitor Center - [Click to enlarge]



Wonder Lake is located at mile post 88 on the Denali Park Road - about 6 hours from the park entrance.  On a clear day there is breathtaking scenery along the way, especially at polychrome pass and at Eielsen Visitor Center. 



Our tents set up near Wonder Lake - Denali National Park

 

Upon arrival at Wonder Lake, we set up our tents and then cooked dinner before getting ready to hike up to Reflection pond to photograph the mountain.  We did not know it yet, but we were in for a special treat.   We heard there had not been a clear day there in the previous 3 weeks.  But we had arrived to a blue sky with a few puffy clouds that moved out during the evening leaving a clear view of Mt McKinley.  Our hope was to get photos with the reflections in the water.

The hike to the pond is about 2.5 miles, and it's mostly uphill.  We set out for the pond, carrying only minimal camera gear.  The bugs were pretty bad so we wore mosquito nets to keep them off our faces.   We arrived at the pond a little before 10pm, a good hour prior to sunset.  While we were at the pond, several others arrived, all with their cameras.  Most folks marvelled at the view, and I was no exception.   It is a rare sight to see the top of McKinley because it is usually shrouded by clouds.  Today it was clear and the lake that stood in front of us was icing on the cake.   We shot lots of photos and made plans to return around 4:30am to do it again when the light from the sunrise would first start hitting the top of the mountain.



Denali before sunset (10:24pm)



We arrived back at our tents around midnight planned to get back up at 3am.  We would need to take up camp and pack all our gear in the morning, before we could hike back up to the pond.  The hike had taken just short of an hour so we needed to budget at least that much time for the morning, since we would be carrying 40+ lbs of gear in each of our backpacks. 

In the morning the sky was clear, so we packed up our camping gear and left it at the bus pickup point and started out for the pond.  All went as planned, and we arrived at the pond at 4:30am.  We shot various photos of the mountain and had plenty of time to plan prior to the 5:08am sunrise.

We were fortunate that there was not much wind and this resulted on few ripples in the water to spoil the reflection.  I shot lots of photos, but my favorite one is the first one at the top of this post.  It was shot at 5:13am, just 5 minutes after the sunlight began to hit the top of the mountain.   It is repeated again below to show the progression from dark to light.



Pre-dawn McKinley (4:30am)





Just before Sunrise (5:01am)





Five minutes after sunrise (5:13am)



We started making our way back to the bus stop at 5:30am in order to catch the 6:30 bus.  Along the way, I couldn't resist photographing this scene, with the lush green meadow in the foreground and the mountain as a backdrop.



Denali through the meadow



We were back waiting for the bus with time to spare, and were able to relax on the long bus ride back.  I was really tired but it was well worth it.

This last photo was taken by a passerby on Monday evening. I'm the guy on the right, and the other guy is my friend, Ken Conger.   Ken is a park ranger at Denali National Park and he has captured amazing wildlife images all around Alaska and elsewhere.  You can see his website HERE.  

Birding in Florida - Part 1

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Last week my friend Ken Conger was planning to visit so we could photograph the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.  Ken has been wanting to see a launch for some time, so I am bummed (and surely so is he) that the launch has been delayed until at least April 5th.   We decided to spend the time visiting some wildlife sanctuaries instead, so we set out a plan based on some target species we both wished to photograph.   We started out at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where we had hoped to photograph skimmers and reddish egrets.   There was an abundance of roseatte spoonbills there also, which is one of Ken's favorite species.   

I had for a long time wanted to capture a photograph such as the one above, and found it challening to do, since a bit of luck is involved in finding a place to shoot where the birds are likely to fly past in close proximity.   You can see a closer look at the beak action in the water in the image crop immediately above.  [click on any image to enlarge]

While in the wildlife refuge, I was pleased to  have the opportunity to meet up with up with fellow birder Rod Ostoski , whom I had gotten to know through email the last few years, but had never actually met.  Rod showed Ken and me some good places to watch for skimmers, and I'm pretty sure I would not have gotten the skimmer shots posted here without his direction.   Rod is probably best known for has amazing images of the space shuttle.  You can see them, as well as many bird images on his website linked above.  It was Rod who helped me out with some initial camera settings for photographing the space shuttle launches on several attempts I have made in the past.

One of my favorite images from this trip was a great blue heron that we sort of happened upon when we rounded a bend on Biolab Road.  I shot the image at left from the car, fearing that the bird would fly if I tried to get out.   This guy was in perfect light on smooth water, and I was able to fill the frame with the 100-400 lens I had on my 40d backup rig in the front seat.

I made a very similar image of a tricolor heron, although the bird was not as close as the great blue and had to be cropped.  The light and reflection looked amazing, and I patiently waited for the bird to turn into the soft early morning sunlight before taking this shot.   I already have lots of images of tricolor herons, but none that I remember in water like this one.

One species I had hoped to see is a white morph reddish egret.  Unfortunately I did not see one all week, but did have the opportunity to photograph the reddish egret shown below as it fished along the shoreline.

The day would not be complete without some flyers, so I have included a few below.  There were an abundance of white ibises and roseatte spoonbills.

CLICK HERE  to continue to Part - 2.

You can also check out my Birds in Flight  gallery here.

Headed to Alaska

Mt. McKinley, Denali National Park Alaska (film scan)
An unexpected opportunity arose in the last couple weeks to travel to Denali National Park in Alaska and hook up for some wildlife photography with my friend Ken Conger. Many of the folks who have stopped in here to visit my blog are also readers of Ken's blog. But for any readers who have not yet visited Ken's blog, you owe it to yourself to click on the link above or check out the spectacular wildlife photography on his photo website here.

The only other time I had the opportunity to visit Alaska was in September 2001, and we were actually on our way into Denali National Park the morning the terrorist attacks shocked the world on September 11th. What an eerie and bizarre day that was.

On that trip, I was without a camera of my own, and used a friend's Minolta Maxxum film camera that he insisted that I borrow and take with me. This was the first auto-focusing camera I had ever used. I had been shooting with a Canon AE-1 Program for many years, and autofocus cameras had not yet hit the market when I purchased it.

The photo of Mt. McKinley above was captured at Stony Hill, which the maps show at mile post 62. This a popular stop for viewing the mountain on the tours that go that far into the park. It was explained to us that less than 10% of the people who visit Denali get to see the top of Mt McKinley, because it is usually covered by clouds. We were fortunate to have a clear day, and I have wanted to return ever since, especially after I purchased some more modern camera gear. The photo above was scanned from film.

Grizzly Bear - Denali National Park, Alaska (film scan)
Anyway, this time instead of being limited to a one-day bus tour, I should have a lot more time to try and capture some interesting wildlife photos. This grizzly bear photo above was captured by shooting out of an open window of our tour bus. My wife was shooting video while I was shooting stills when the bears appeared from the woods and walked alongside the road.

I am planning to keep up the blog while I'm away, so we'll see how that goes, assuming I am able to get some decent photos. In the meantine, if you care to see any of the other photos my 2001 Alaska trip, there are 8 additonal shots posted on my photo website. I have only scanned and digitized a few of the photos from that trip.

Swallowtail Kite

66409 Swallowtail Kite
I have wished for an opportunity to photograph a swallowtail kite for quite some time, and until today I had never gotten that chance. It's funny that in my occasional travels with my friend Ken Conger, there was a day when we both thought we would nail that shot. I cannot honestly remember if it was 2007 or 2008, but talk was buzzing around the nature photography forums that a swallowtail kite was building a nest in the Everglades National Park, in a tree right next to the parking lot at Shark Valley. Folks were coming from all around and photographing that bird as it would swoop down to the nest, carrying moss. I had even thought about how I could like to compose a shot if I had gotten the opportunity. We were travelling across Florida and we had already planned a stop there, but when we arrived, we did not see the bird we were seeking. In fact we only saw one swallowtail kite there, and it was far in the distance from our location, and nowhere near the tree where we had been told to look.

66406 Swallowtail Kite
This morning I walked outside to pick up the newspaper and I noticed a swallowtail kite soaring about a hundred feet or so above the street. My first thought was if I go get the camera, it will be gone when I return. But what the heck, I went back inside and grabbed my camera and attached a 100-400 lens to it, then headed for the door. When I got back outside, the bird was about twice has high and getting a decent photo was out of the question. I snapped a few shots anyway just to have a record of bird's visit, and I was about to head back inside when the surprise came. A second swallowtail kite swooped down about 20 feet above me and began to circle my driveway. It was so close that I clipped the wings on a couple shots. I tried to relax and follow the bird and I managed to get a few photos before it flew away toward the lake that is behind our house. According to time in the exif data of the photos, it the whole ordeal lasted only 16 seconds.

66410 Swallowtail Kite
I wasn't sure I got anything worth posting as I realized that I had not even checked the exposure mode of the camera, or any of the settings. When I examined the camera I found that it was in manual mode, iso 200, 1/640 at f8. I had been photographing a construction project the last time out and those were the settings I used last. I pointed the lens toward the sky and looked through the viewfinder to check the exposure, and found that those settings amounted to +2/3 EV against the blue sky, and +1 EV against the white clouds according to the camera's meter. Now how lucky is that? When I shoot birds in flight I always set the camera to either +2/3 or +1 EV because it allows me to properly expose the bird without the meter being fooled by the bright sky. So just by chance, my camera was already set to the perfect settings to photograph that bird.

66412 Swallowtail Kite
One other thing I wish I had done is grab a flash. That would have helped, but perhaps the bird would have been gone before I returned if I had taken any more time. In the soft early morning light the photos came out pretty decent even without it.

66413 Swallowtail Kite





What a nice surprise this was first thing in the morning. You can bet I'll be looking up at the sky from now on when go outside to get the paper.

Wildlife Photography with Ken Conger



2882 Female Grackle - Wakodahatchee Wetlands 2008

This post will be a little bit different from those that have appeared here so far. But anyone who read my very first post back in January may remember that I mentioned I might occasionally write about some people I had met with my camera - those who were responsible in part for helping me develop my skills as a photographer. I've probably had more fun hanging out and shooting with my friend Ken Conger than with anyone else, and I have certainly learned more from shooting with Ken than from anyone else. From the very start when I knew very little of the practical side of photography, I soaked up a lot of knowledge just watching what Ken was doing and then reluctantly at first, asking a question now and then when I couldn't figure something out.



11604 -  Ken at Alligator Farm Rookery -2006

We first met in March 2005 in St. Augustine, Florida. I was photographing birds at the rookery behind the St. Augustine alligator farm with my brother Steve, when we bumped into Ken. It was interesting seeing a massive camo-covered 400mm f2.8 lens on Ken's Gitzo tripod, and I guess I probably asked about it. Ken was still shooting film back then and I remember him telling me that he had purchased his first digital SLR (a Canon 20d) and was using them both and trying to decide if he wanted switch to digital. I was pretty much in la la land when Ken invited me to hook my 10d camera on to his rig and try out the 400 f2.8 lens for a while. I'll never forget that. We pretty much became instant friends, and Ken told me about some of the places he had visited and the different wildlife he had been photographing. I think I fired off close to a hundred shots with that lens in about 15 minutes I was able to try it out. It was great to be able to get such fast shutter speeds with a lens that was 2 stops faster than the 100-400 I had been using. Steve and I hung out with Ken that day, and during our conversation he mentioned that he would be back in Florida the following month and told us we would be welcome to join him again to go shooting. My brother is still working but I had been retired just over a year. I was still feeling the freedom so I thought, why not? We communicated by email over the next month and a half and made a tentative plan for which places we would be visiting. And I had to get a few things done around the house in order to convince my wife I should be able to go joy riding to wildlife sanctuaries for a few days.



12815 Least Tern - Ft Matanzas Inlet 2006

When Ken arrived in Florida we started out at the rookery in St. Augustine where we had met about 6 weeks earlier. Over the next 6 days we would also visit Merritt Island NWR, Viera Wetlands, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Everglades National Park, and a few other smaller places that we scoped out along the way. The routine was to start early and be in one of our planned stops before first light. We would shoot for a few hours and then later when the light became too harsh for good photography we would scope out other nearby places that me might return to later, and then find somewhere to stop for lunch. By the end of the week we made our way down to the Everglades and also stopped to visit Ken's parents.

  We spent 6 days on that trip and I had gotten a few keepers at several of our stops. The biggest revelation I think I had from shooting with Ken that week was the realization that no matter how good a bird photo is, it's still basically garbage if the background is cluttered. I remember thinking during our ride back from south Florida that by applying this criteria, I could probably delete half of the photos that were stored on my computer back home.

43629 - Great Blue Herons - Wakodahatchee Wetlands 2008



 

42673 Great Blue Heron - Wakodahatchee Wetlands 2008


We've remained good friends and have met for a Florida photography trip each of the last four years, with the most recent being a 9-day jaunt in March-April 2008. On that trip, we also hooked up with Klaus one day down at Gatorland in Orlando. Klaus often comments on Ken's blog, and is a regular in the blogging world. I'm new to this blogging thing so I don't know many people yet. Prior to that day I had never actually met Klaus in person, but we had communicated by email after being introduced by a mutual friend by email. We both live in Florida and both enjoy wildlife photography and we had been thinking about meeting at Gatorland anyway, since I had never been there. This was the perfect opportunity. That morning Klaus met us in the parking lot at Gatorland and we all got acquainted as Klaus showed us around Gatorland, which was his familiar stomping ground. We shot there in the morning but after lunch decided to head to Joe Overstreet Park and try for some snail kites. Gatorland is nice, but the photo opps were limited due to the long distance from the boardwalk to the trees across a pond where most birds were nesting. We went to Joe Overstreet Park after lunch but were not successful in seeing any snail kites close enough to photograph. So we worked the dirt road we had driven in on, since we saw lots of meadowlarks and a couple caracaras, as well as a bald eagle there. We went back to Gatorland for the evening light because we knew a lot of birds would be flying in to roost at night, and we saw it as a good opportunity to photograph flyers.

The next day we went back to Joe Overstreet Park in the early morning, but luck was no better so we headed across the state toward St. Petersburg and Fort De Soto Park. This proved to be a great venue, although some of the beach had been roped off to protect the nesting shorebirds from people who don't know any better than disturb them. This was bad news because there were skimmers there and I really wanted to get a good shot of one, but we could not get close enough. We did work the beach further north and got various shots of a few different species of birds. We probably spent 45 minutes photographing a pair of mergansers that were fishing in the surf just a few feet off the beach. We also walked up on a model shoot that was taking place on the beach, but that's another story.


2593 Merganser - Fort De Soto Park 2008

In addition to the surf, there are also some inland bodies of water just to the west of the beach, and there were a good number of shorebirds feeding there. We were careful to sneak up on them so as not to spook them off. In the photo below, I stayed back a little rather than risk messing up Ken's opportunity to get some shots after he had taken quite a bit of time to arrive where he is in this photo.

40952 - Sneaking up on Shorebirds - Fort De Soto Pk 2008

We continued the week making stops in at Ding Darling NWR, Shark Valley and Anhinga Trail in the Everglades, Loxahatchee NWR, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Green Cay Wetlands and Brian Piccolo Park, as well as a visit with Ken's parents. We had skipped one of my favorite places, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, because it was very dry due to the lack of rain, and there were virtually no birds there. Wakodahatchee Wetlands and Green Cay are also favorites of mine. I always seem to have good luck whenever I am able to stop at either one.

2872 - Grackle - Wakodahatchee Wetlands 2008

Ken calls me the techie-guy because I tend to keep up with the latest specs on cameras and lenses and also the latest gadgetry. I got Ken turned on 'ultra low discharge' Sanyo Eneloop batteries last year after I finished researching them and deciding they were exactly what I was looking for. These batteries hold their charge for a long time, and only lose about 15% of their charge, even if you don't use them for a year. I was in the habit of using batteries then not recharging them until I was ready to use them again. This new product eliminated the need for all that last minute charging. I also got Ken turned on to a couple new monitors built with S-IPS panels, which render colors for photography better than the other types. These have come down quite a bit in the last couple years and I had just gotten one at an eBay store at a great price.
  

42264 Red Shoulder Hawk - Green Cay Wetlands 2008

We were nearing the end of the week, but I had gotten some of my best nature shots ever on this trip, from all corners of Florida. We visited about a dozen wildlife sites in all, and we were fortunate to get keepers just about everywhere we went, with the exception of Kissimmee Lake and Shark Valley. I had communicated with several other photographers just prior to our trip, trying to find out where the best action was likely to be, but things change so fast that often the word is not reliable a week later.



43112 Burrowing Owl - Brian Piccolo Park 2008

 

One place that was being avoided by most at that time was Merritt Island. Several people including Arthur Morris told me that it had pretty much been hit and miss this season. A great source for this kind of information is Birdphotographers.net . The site was started by Art Morris and you can find many talented photographers from all over the world posting photos there. It's also a great place for networking and sharing information. We would be driving right past Merritt Island on our way back north, and we both like the place, so we decided to give it a shot. We would shoot there in the evening light, and if it was not good, we would not return there on our last morning. As luck had it, we got there and stumbled upon the motherlode. We happened upon a large group of roseatte spoonbills, and within minutes Ken declared that he had gotten an elusive spoonie shot he had been trying to get for the past several years. Then he laughed almost uncontrollably at the success. We also were able to photograph a good number of other birds, and also saw a wild boar that evening, although I did not get a shot of it worth showing. It was a nice finish to a good trip.

47219 Roseatte spoonbill 2008

We returned there in the morning for our last shoot of the week and we enjoyed photographing some shore birds in the inland ponds, and also an osprey that cooperated by hanging around for a while. At our last stop inside the refuge, I got some photos of a manatee that conveniently surfaced within a few feet of us.



44168 Manatee - Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge 2008

Last summer, Ken and I met up in Shenandoah National Park to photograph deer fawns. I persuaded my wife to come along on this trip and she enjoyed taking video out in the meadow while we were shooting stills. 


49519 Fawn w/Mother - Shenandoah National Park 2008

This was really an enjoyable time, and even though I didn't get too many good photos, I learned a lot about the habits of the deer so I will be able to do better next time. We shot for 4 days at Shenandoah National Park, although Ken left to go home the last morning while my wife and I photographed the sunrise and then photographed more deer fawns in the morning light. It had been a fun time and we would not have been as successful if it were not for Ken coaching us on what to do and what not to do, and how and when to approach the fawns. This was an annual thing for him and he had become quite an expert at it. He had also already been there the previous weekend to scout things out.


4386 Early Light - Shenandoah National Park 2008


I missed a chance back in December last year to shoot with Ken when he traveled to Florida again just after his retirement because I was tied up with several jobs and could not get away. Ken did hook up with Klaus again on that trip but all I could do was check his blog with envy, seeing everything I had been missing each day. They got some amazing shots on that trip and it killed me that I couldn't be there too. You may have seen on Ken's blog that he DID get some great shots of snail kites on that trip.

I give Ken a lot of credit for much of what I have learned over the last few years in the way of wildlife photography. He's a good guy and a generous teacher. Since he landed a seasonal gig as a park ranger in Denali National Park for this summer, I'll be watching his blog with envy again, wishing I could get in on some of those photo opportunities as well. To see more photos from our 2008 Florida trip, Click Here.