Brooks Falls - Katmai National Park

It's been a while since I've posted, but having just returned from 10 days of hiking and camping in several National Parks in Alaska, I finally have some material I feel is worth sharing.  After meeting my friend Ken Conger in Anchorage, we flew to King Salmon and then took a float plane over to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park.   The flight itself on the float plane was a treat, as I had the privilege of sitting in the cockpit for the short hop down to Brooks.   It's a shame the weather was not good for photos that morning, but I did snap a few anyway, especially as we prepared to land on Naknek Lake.

I couldn't resist looking back and snapping a photo inside the plane before we took off, since I figure it will be while if ever before I am able to enjoy an experience like this again.  You can't help but notice the looks of excitement of the faces of everyone in this photo.

The float plane landing is remarkably smooth and this really surprised me. I thought there would be a thud when the plane began to touch down on the water, but in reality a water landing in this type of plane is smoother than a typical runway landing.

In only about 25 minutes, we were preparing to land on the lake.   We saw 5 grizzly bears on the beach as we made our  descent to the water.

After getting off the float plane we saw grizzly bears roaming the beach within about 100 yards of us.  To me this was a remarkable sight.  I have never been to Brooks Falls before, and if this was any indication of what was in store for the next 5 days, it was going to be great. 

Our first task was attending bear etiquette training, so that we would be prepared to act safely in case we came in close proximity to bears during our stay. Next, we would get our gear over to the camping area and set up our tents. We felt fortunate to have arrived at Brooks by 10am, because the visibility had been much worse in Anchorage earlier that morning. It was clearer in King Salmon where we got on the float plane.

 

After taking a few minutes to set up camp, we grabbed our camera gear and headed up to the falls, about 1.5 miles hike.    When we arrived at the falls, there were about a dozen grizzly bears there.  

[click on the image above to see a larger view]

In the next post, we'll take a lot closer look at the grizzly bears, including a sow and 4 very cute spring cubs that I photographed on Thursday morning.

The International Space Station

(Photography "outside the box")

[click on the image for a larger view]

I have been curious for a long time whether it would be possible to photograph the international space station as it passed overhead. I had been watching the NASA website and making notes of when an opportunity might come with the ISS passing in close proximity to my location. It is only visible if it passes close by, and then only when it's dark outside and the ISS is illuminated by the sun.  On Thursday evening 6/24/10 at 9:54pm that opportunity came, and it was supposed to be visible for around 4 minutes starting when it was about 800 miles away and eventually passing as close as 227 miles.

Since the weather was clear, I went outside about 5 minutes prior to the beginning of the viewing window with a 500mm f4 lens and 1.4x teleconverter mounted on a Canon 40d body. My plan was to try and hand hold the rig using autofocus and see if I could lock onto the 'dot' as it passed overhead.  I made some practice shots of the moon to try 'guestimate' the correct exposure, and I decided on 1/250, f8, iso 400. I would be using manual exposure, but with autofocus and image stabilization mode 1, since it would be more of a 'hold it steady' motion than a panning motion. The ISS was easy to see with the naked eye as it approached, and I was able to locate it in the camera viewfinder and fire off some shots while trying very hard to keep the bright dot in the center of the frame as it streaked across the sky. I was surprised that the 40d actually locked focus very easily most of the time.

Of a couple dozen shots, only a few taken when the subject was the closest showed any real detail. The image shown above was my best shot.  It is shown here as a 100% crop, but it is actually about 1.58 times actual size due to opening it in photoshop at a resolution higher than the native resolution of the camera.  (You must click on the photo to see it actual size).

I tried a second attempt Sunday morning at 4:57am, but this time with stacked teleconverters hoping to get an image twice as large with my 1400mm rig.  Since autofocus is not an option when using 2 teleconverers, I used manual focus and pre-focused on the moon in order to accurately set the focus at infinity. When the ISS came into view, I found it in the camera viewfiner and took some shots.  But as it got closer and near the sweet spot where I could get a closer photo, I lost it and was unable to find it again looking through the camera even though it was clearly visible to the naked eye.  The added focal length meant that I was looking at a much narrower slice of the sky when looking through the lens than on my first attempt.  This proved very frustrating, but at the same time it was a learning experience.  Hopefully I can do better next time.

[click on the moon image below for a larger view]

The Final Voyage of Space Shuttle Atlantis

I was fortunate once again to get tickets to view a shuttle launch from the NASA Causeway, and this one was absolutely spectacular.  The weather was almost perfect and although it was very hot, we had a very nice breeze that made the long wait very pleasant.  This was the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Friday May 14, which was taking supplies to the International Space Station.  

Although this is the 3rd launch I've witnessed from the NASA Causeway, they never get less exciting.   It was difficult to get good photos prior to the launch this time because there were visible heat waves making the view through the camera a little bit wavy as Atlantis sat on the launch pad.

As the countdown gets down to around 6 seconds, you can watch the shuttle's main engines fire and try to get a few photos before the solid rocket boosters fire and the smoke plume completely blocks the view of the space shuttle for people viewing it from the south.

The next trick is to be ready to get more photos as the shuttle emerges from behind the smoke.  

It's not until about 30 seconds after launch that you actually hear it, since we are slightly over 6 miles away. But once you hear it, you also feel it, and the rumble as it climbs skyward is something that everyone should get to experience.

The shuttle climbs just a short distance before it begins to roll to the side.

Only about 2 minutes into the flight, the solid rocket booster engine separation occurs and the shuttle continues into orbit on it's own three engines.  In the photo above, you can see the puff of smoke when the booster engines separate from the space shuttle. 

In the  photo below, you can see the solid rocket boosters completely separated from the shuttle as it continues onward.  The bright white dot below and to the right of the solid rocket boosters is the flame coming from shuttle's three main engines as it flies away from us.  This photo is a 100% crop from the actual image.

This is the last scheduled flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis.  Unless the US Congress does something to extend the program, the only way it will fly again is possibly as an emergency backup to one of the two remaining shuttle flights by the other orbiters.

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.

    

Birds In Flight

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Having just returned last week from a trip around Florida photographing birds, I was still in the mood to do a little more.   So on Tuesday I drove down to the rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and was a little surprised to see so many birds already nesting in the trees above the swamp.   I had heard there were a good number of birds, but never expected this many so early in the season.  

Needless to say, this made a good opportunity to photograph some birds in flight.  The wind direction was not ideal, but I still got some decent opportunities.   There were tons of great egrets, and also lots of wood storks and snowy egrets. 

I also saw about 20 spoonbills roosting, and occasionally they would fly around.  But usually they did not fly far and would land again close to whee they had been, offering little chance of flight photographs.   I only had one or two chances to photograph the spoonies in flight, and I didn't really get anything too good.   The image above is one of them. [click any image to enlarge]

The next five images are great egrets.  It's fun to photograph these guys as they go out to retrieve sticks and then return to add them to the nest.

Below is one of the few wood storks I photographed that day.  There were lots more great egrets in the sky than anything else. 

 

And finally, it was interesting to see this great egret below attempt to fly with this large a tree branch.  He flew a good distance with the branch, but dropped it just as he got to the nest.

The rookery is really cranking up now and there are lots of birds.  In addition to what I've already mentioned, there were also some tricolor herons and a few cattle egrets, and night herons. 

The newly built boardwalk is much nicer than the old one.  It is far more stable, and it extends a little closer to the back fence.  It does not vibrate when folks walk past pushing baby strollers, as it always did in the past.

I figure I'll be making a few more trips to the rookery as the other species of birds start nesting.

Birding In Florida - Part 2

Viera Wetlands, The Everglades NP, & Fort De Soto Park
(Continued from Part -1 )

After Merritt Island, we headed down to Viera Wetlands, which is about 40 minutes south, off I-95.

The goal there was caracaras.  We had visited the place on a couple prior occasions but never seen them.  We were joined there by another friend, Klaus Peter and his friend Donnie who had met us at Merritt Island.  And just by chance we also bumped into fellow blogger Brad Myers who was on vacation from Pennsylvania (what a small world).   It's difficult to get any keeper shots of wading birds at Viera because they do not allow people to shoot from the edge of the water, so it's difficult to get low enough to create a nice blurred background.   Although most of the time nobody will catch you if you break the rules.

There are usually good possibilities for nesting birds and some occasional flyers.  I made a fair amount of images of great blue herons, and the two shown above are my favorites.  [click any image to enlarge]

We finally saw a caracara, but it landed very high in a pine tree, too far away for any photo worth showing here.  But a few minutes later a juvenile bird flew past us and eventually perched on a fence post.   I hate having a fence post in the photos but sometimes you just take what you can get.  Having not yet gotten images of his species, we took a few shots and then worked in closer to try to get better ones.  

After finishing with the caracara, we felt we had gotten what we came for, so we headed to our next planned stop.  We had virtually no luck at Orlando Wetlands, Circle B Preserve, and Corkscrew.   The water level at Corkscrew was so high that there were no birds.  After spending an afternoon there, we elected to make a run down to the Everglades because the folks at Corkscrew told us it had lots of birds. 

The images below are from Shark Valley in the Everglades National Park.   

This anhinga was working the canal and repeatedly came up with minnows.  It was a challenge to try and get him in the photo before the fish was gone.   I snapped this one just in time.  The same anhinga is seen below with a bigger catch.   It seems pretty amazing to me that a bird this size can swallow a fish as big as this one all in one gulp.

Another stop we made was the north beach at Fort De Soto Park.  It felt really strange to arrive there to find the parking lot empty, even in the middle of spring break.  Since the weather turned too cold for swimming and partying on the beach, the college kids had apparently resorted to indoor partying and we had the whole place to ourselves.  There were literally 4 cars in the parking lot when we pulled up.  

About the only thing I saw there was a pair of oystercatchers.  They were pretty skiddish but eventually I managed toget close enough to get some photos.    This is another species that I had been wanting to photograph, so I was glad to see them.

All and all, this was a good trip. It would have been even better if we had seen more birds, but the cool weather and the combination of high water at Corkscrew made the birds pretty scarce. Ironically I still manged to photograph 3 new species and get some improved images of several more. One bird I have still not properly photographed is a swallowtail kite. I saw a few of them on this trip, but struck out every time. Either they were too far off or obstructed in flight by tree branches above me.   I will close this post with the sunset over the north beach at Fort De Soto Park.