Posts in Category: flight
Maine! Up, up and away!
Buffleheads (female): York County, Maine, USA, November 2023 — A couple of female Buffleheads take to the air over the reflections in a tidal creek. Up, up, and away. They make it look just about as hard as it must be to break free of the water and take to the air. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic. -1.0 EV.
Maine! Geese grab
Canada Geese: Kennebunk, York County, Maine, USA, November 2023 — Sometimes a photo just happens, almost despite me. I was photographing an eagle in the early morning sun high in a pine tree across the river, when this flock of Canada Geese came blasting up river right past me at eye-level. The Geese were still in the shadow of my bank while the other bank was in sun and I had no time to adjust anything. I just fired off a burst in their direction and hoped for the best…and while this might not be “the best” is certainly more than I could have hoped to get. As I have said many times before, wildlife photography is mostly about being in the right place at the right time and ready. Sometimes it just happens. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife settings (-2EV for the Eagles in the sun). Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Hoodies in action
Hooded Merganser: York County, Maine, USA, November 2023 — This little pod of Hooded Mergansers, two of which, the males, you saw yesterday, were navigating the tidal creek behind the dunes. I happened to have the camera up when they started their run up into the air and into the reflections of the autumn oaks. Wonderful little ducks! OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Maine! You say hello, I say goodbye
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers: York County, Maine, USA, October 2023 — Coming and going. A (maybe) pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers on a dead tree. You never know what you are going to catch when you point the camera up. I was, of course just trying for the perched bird, when the second bird flew in and startled it off the perch. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent (and cropped). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro.
Maine! Great Egret in flight
Great Egret: York County, Maine, USA — I don’t remember the Great Egrets being so present in past years. They seem to be here in numbers. I first noticed them (who could not) went they were gathered daily for the feast of some spawn at the mouth of a local river, but they have held on, feeding in the marsh pools beside the river for months now, a bird there and a bird there, but I see them almost every time I an down toward the marshes. Always handsome and never more so than in flight. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1000th. -0.3EV.
Maine! Thursday Supplement, Eagle
Immature Bald Eagle: York County, Maine, USA, September 2023 — I went out looking for Eagles where we sometimes see them once the ice is in along the Mousam River…it is early yet but I can, and always do, hope. There were no Eagles perched but I caught this one soaring high overhead. It is an immature still, and lacks both the white head and tail. The flight however is still distinctive. OM Systems OM1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Pixomator Pro. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/2000th.
Maine! Egret takes flight
Great Egret: York County, Maine, USA, September 2023 — This is 4 shots of a Great Egret taking flight, composited into the same frame. Not perfect…but certainly eye-catching. Original shots: OM Systems OM1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Composited and processed in Pixomator Pro. Working with the number of images and layers needed pushed the limits of my Mac Air, but I am pretty happy with the result. Not your everyday egret shot. 🙂
Maine! Barn Swallow in flight
Barn Swallow: York County, Maine, USA, September 2023 — a small flock of Barn Swallows was feeding avidly on a swarm of insects just above the tops of the trees along the trail. An ideal opportunity to practice the most difficult of birds in flight. The Barn Swallow, apparently, has the widest distribution of any passerine bird in the world. This bird, as did most of the birds flying with it, looks to be a female or sub-adult male…as it lacks the long outer tail feathers. Clearly I still have room to improve my BIF skills. OM Systems OM-1 with the ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/1000th.
Maine! Hey! Clear the runway!
Great Egret and Herring Gull: York County, Maine, USA, September 2023 — I am not sure why the Great Egret thought it had to land on top of the Herring Gull…there was lots of empty sand on the sandbar…but then I don’t have access to the flight data either. There must have been a reason. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds in flight modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 640th @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Maine! Snail in flight
Herring Gull: York County, Maine, USA, August 2023 — It might not be about the gull…it is more about the snail that the gull is taking high up in the air, undoubtedly on its first flight, and then dropping it to the rocky verge below in hopes of cracking it open. Thus ends the snail. The first two images are overexposed slightly because I had the exposure compensation turned up in anticipation of shooting birds against the sky, and was caught on the wrong foot, so to speak, when this bird took off from the sand bar with the snail. I am still practicing my birds in flight skills with the OM Systems OM-1. Program mode with my custom birds in flight modifications. ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 1600 and 640 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.