Posts in Category: flight
Three Cranes
The final day at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for the Festival of the Cranes we had snow in the morning…not just on the ground but still falling. It was challenging light for flight shots…just not enough of it…but it was also a very gentle, very uniform, light, with a lot reflected back from the snow covered ground. It made for interesting flight shots. Cranes fly in formation, and this is just three of them from a larger flight, isolated with the 1200mm reach of the Canon SX50HS’ zoom. While adjusting the composition, I cropped out the head of the bird coming along behind. I really like the flow of lines here, and elegance of the wings as they cup the air.
Because of the difficult light, the images I got are far from technically perfect, and require some massaging in software to bring out the potential. Here I tried several different processing apps, each with their own unique tool set. This is processed in Photo Mate R2, an app for Android which uses many of the same processing metaphors as the original Lightroom. Like Lightroom, it is primarily a raw processor, but it works with my jpgs just fine. It has by far the most comprehensive set of editing tools of any program currently available for Android, and being modeled on Lightroom, also the most traditional set (if anyone can call Lightroom’s tools traditional). For quick, intuitive editing, nothing on Android beats Snapseed, but occasionally, you just need more control…Photo Mate R2 provides it. (And, of course, if you shoot raw…I am not aware of any other program for Android that will do what Photo Mate R2 will.)
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. ISO 320 @ 1/1250th @ f6.5. Processing as above.
Partners in Flight
Okay, the title is somewhat esoteric, but most birders my age will recognize it as one of the great cross-agency, private/public, conservation organizations and efforts of the 90s. A check on the Web shows that it is, in fact, very much still active, and still fighting the good fight, though it has dropped off at least this birder’s radar…and I suspect most others. And, of course, as a title, it is apt for this image 🙂 even without the reference.
Sandhill Cranes coming in in close formation at Bosque del Apache NWR. The light during this whole trip was a challenge, and I was happy to get what I could, especially in flight shots, but technical issues aside (noise limits the detail in the image), I am very pleased with the form and elegance of this shot.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. ISO 1000 @ 1/320th @ f6.5. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Photo Mate R2 (which is essentially Lightroom for Android) on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Bosque del Apache Snow
Only once before in my memory, close to 25 years ago it must be, has snow fallen during the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR. This year, Sunday morning we woke to several inches on the ground and snow still falling. The roads between our hotel in Socorro and the refuge were snow packed and icy and the refuge loop, while manageable, was snow covered and even drifted in spots. Of course I had to get out there to find Cranes and Snow Geese in the snow. I, along with maybe 50 other intrepid photographers, found them at the far north end of the loop, in what they call the farm fields, and along the west side of the loop as it turns back, facing the mountains, now hidden in snow clouds. The snow on the ground, reflecting back, made the most of the light even with snow still in the air. In the hour I spent there, the snow clouds began to clear off the mountains, providing a dramatic backdrop.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. I find it amazing that the HDR software in the camera is sophisticated enough to capture a scene like this with movement. It must have correctly selected the moving Cranes from a single image. I used the HDR Scene filter in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 to bring up the mountains even more, and hold some drama in the still heavy clouds. Finally I used a Photo Editor Smart Blur brush and the Note stylus to smooth out some of the HDR noise in the clouds. All in all this is one of my favorite shots from the Bosque, not only from this trip, but from all the years I have photographed there. And that is saying something. 🙂
Snow Geese in Flight
It was cold and cloudy all day yesterday…not typical weather for the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR. In fact I can only remember one Festival in the past 30 years with a similar cold and threat of snow. The Geese were hunkered down close the the ground for the most part, and the Cranes feed quietly, stoic, in the cold.
Terrible light for photography, especially flight photos.
Except when you catch a shot like this, where the subdued light allows a full range exposure of the white plumage of the goose, set of nicely against the gray patterned sky.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. f5.6 @1/800th @ ISO 800. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Bosque del Apache Thrill
We are at the festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR this week. We got here Wednesday and did a quick loop around the refuge. My daughter Erin, if she was ever here, was here as a two year old, so this is really her first experience of the Bosque. And, as is only fitting, we drove up along the corn fields the refuge folk have prepared for the Geese and Cranes just as a flock of 4 or 5 thousand (maybe more) Snow Geese panicked and took to the air. This is classic Bosque. The swirling Geese panicking are the one sight, the one experience, of the Bosque, that, once seen, compels people to return season after season. And it does not matter how often you have seen it, each time it happens, you get that same quickening of the senses and the spirit! The thrill of the Bosque!
The light was somewhat subdued, but I swung the control dial on the Canon SX50HS to Sports Mode and shot several sequences of the swirling Geese. This is the densest shot from the series, as the Geese were still rising off the ground.
Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
White-tailed Kite
This bird was the Black-shouldered Kite when I started birding…but only in the US. Elsewhere it was the White-tailed Kite, and the AOU changed the name to reflect the more common usage. However you call it, it is one of the most elegant raptors, both in coloration and in action. Seeing one hovering, as this bird is, or hanging higher on the wind with its wings motionless (kiting) is a thing of wonder. I caught it at the National Butterfly Center on the US boarder south of Mission TX, hovering over the bare ground north of the gardens, looking for prey.
This shot demonstrates one of the things I really like about the Canon SX50HS. I was at the Butterfly Gardens, obviously, to photograph butterflies, and I had the camera set to full zoom to do so from a comfortable distance. 1200mm equivalent brings you right in on butterflies from under 6 feet! When I saw the kite hovering, it was the work of seconds to spin the control dial to Sports, get on the bird, and shoot off a sequence of rapid images. Twice. I got three keepers from the two sequences…and more that were close duplicates. I know of few other cameras that flexable. 🙂
Camera as stated. Sports mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Cropped slightly for scale.
And a second shot.
Swan in Flight: Happy Sunday!
To me there is a “wild beauty” in the lone Tundra Swan flying against the massed clouds of a gloomy Ohio day along the Erie shore, that simply lifts my spirit. (To get an idea of just how big a swan is, this is a 24mm equivalent wide angle shot, and the swan was actually on my side of the trees.)
The image was taken while at The Biggest Week in American Birding, on the “other” trail at Magee Marsh, off the boardwalk. The Crane Creek Estuary Trail, during the festival, was open all the way from Lake Erie, along Crane Creek, across the marshes, deep into Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. During the slow days between the two waves of warblers that hit while I was there, Crane Creek Estuary Trail became very popular, as there still were a few birds happening there each day .Â
If nothing else, there were swans, gulls, herons, egrets, shorebirds, and various other open water birds in the Estuary itself, and in the larger enpondments on the other side of the dyke. Tundra Swan winters in Ohio, and, of course, there are increasing numbers of the unambitious, invasive, and troublesome Mute Swans. I was happy to see, when I looked closely, that this swan is a native Tundra.
Canon SX50HS. Sports Mode. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A little extra attention to the sky with the healing brush set to clone to moderate a few spots where the white burned through.Â
And for the Sunday Thought. I took this image several weeks ago now, and consciously set it aside for a Sunday post (and then, of course, forgot to use it until now). It is, to my eye, one of those evocative images that sets the spirit yearning for release. Not release from “this earthly coil…this too encumbering flesh”…no hint of death-wish here. Release from gravity. Release from everything and anything that keeps our spirits from cutting across the cloudy skies in beauty, from wringing every drop of significance and substance from each day. Freedom from the habits and passive acceptance of compromise that fog our days with mediocrity. A wild desire to soar, to unfurl our hidden wings, and leap into the sky to meet the future that is growing from our days. From days like this, with swans aflight against the drama of a stormy Ohio day.
Swan in Flight
I was observing Tundra Swans, and when this bird took off and flew overhead I was sure that was what I was photographing. Rats. Just a Mute Swan. This aggressive non-native species is competing with the native swans over most of their range, and has become a nuisance in many areas. Still it is a beautiful bird, especially in flight. The soft light of an overcast morning only adds to the beauty.
Crane Creek Estuary behind Magee Marsh, OH.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Great Blue Heron on the Wing: Happy Sunday!
I mentioned yesterday that the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus OH, where I am working the first ever Birding Optics and Gear Expo, turned out to be a much better birding spot than I would have expected. They have a large observation deck built out over a backwater of the Scoito River where, if appearances are anything to go by, there is an active heron rookery in late spring. It is early yet but there were at least 10 Great Blue Herons feeding within sight of the deck and at least one pair were actively working on a nest in a tall tree above the river. Because the deck is at least 30 feet above the surface of the water, it is an excellent place to attempt flight shots of the herons. The only challenge is that the window on the backwater is relatively narrow, and and closed in by tall trees and brush on either side, so you have to be quick to catch the herons in the gap.
As you can see in this image, for this bird, I was actually shooting through the branches of the trees on the left side of the window (note the straight dark bands which are out of focus limbs, and if you look closely you will see some smaller circular patches and arcs left by smaller brush.) But of course, in this case, the imperfections almost don’t matter. They are overwhelmed by the sharply focused spread of those majestic wings and the bright eye of the bird. In fact, to my eye, the out of focus foreground clutter adds an element of inescapable reality that improves the image. I could not have planned and executed this image if I had tried, but I am very happy to have caught it. 
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Cropped slightly for composition. ,
And for the Sunday Thought. Spiritual vision, I am thinking, should be a lot like this image. It should be so sharply focused on what is wonderful and amazing, majestic and awesome, that the foreground clutter all but disappears. And yet, while we are in this world, it is out of focus inescapable clutter that helps us to properly value the objects of our spiritual sight. This gives even the clutter value. The only tragedy would be to focus on the clutter, so that we miss the awesome vision that feeds our souls.
And I needed that reminder. I have been, this past week, way too focused on the clutter. It is not good for me. I need to get my spiritual eyes back on the awesome, if for no other reason, so that I can properly value the inescapable clutter.
Which is why I am particularly happy to have caught, just in time, so to speak, this Great Blue Heron on the wing!
Kestrel on the Hover: Happy Sunday!
While hiking at the Tijuana River Estuarine Reserve south of San Diego, I had a close encounter with an American Kestrel. She sat on the barbwire top strands of the Imperial Air Base fence hunting grasshoppers in the tall brush of the Reserve. She was so intent on her hunt that she paid little attention to me. There was no way to avoid walking past her, as that is were the path went. Twice she got up and moved down a few sections of fence, before finally circling back around to land on the fence behind me, very close to where I had first seen her. And she was still there, an hour later, when I came back by on my way to the car.
Of course I took a lot of pictures, both going and coming back.
In my world, the Kestrel shares favorite bird status with the Green Kingfisher, so this was a very special treat! On the way back, as I pushed by her, she got up and hovered over the brush. I had just the presence of mind to shove the control dial on the camera over to Sports Mode, and get off a burst of images while she hung in the air above me at 35 or 40 feet. The lead shot here is the best of the hover shots.
It was not until I got to processing the image that I realized what I had captured. Anyone who has ever watched Kestrels for any length of time knows they hover, but I, for one, had never thought about how they manage to do it. There are only a few birds that actually hover…that is, remain in one spot in the air, while beating their wings to maintain both altitude and position. Hover, as opposed to “kite”, which is, as the name implies, to hang in the air, weight balanced by force of the wind, with extended wings more or less stationary. It is a quiz I like to give when teaching birding. Name the birds that can hover. And then, name the birds that kite.
The hummingbird is the most obvious of the hoverers, and one almost everyone knows. I know, from my little study of hummingbirds, that they manage to hover so effectively because they, unlike most birds whose wings are relatively fixed at the horizontal, can rotate their wings on the axis of the wing to almost any position. Until I saw this image of the Kestrel, I had not thought through the implications. Rotating the wing toward the vertical is a requirement for any bird to truly hover. The bird has to spill air on the upstroke. And, from the image, the Kestrel actually does rotate at least the outer half of its wing to remain stationary. Amazing.
Now there might be many people who already know this about the Kestrel, but I was not one of them, and I have not found another in showing this image to quite a few birders. The Kestrel, like the hummingbird, can rotate at least part of its wing to the vertical. You learn something new every day!
And that brings us to the Sunday Thought. “You learn something new every day.” That is what attracts me to birding, and photography, and watching dragonflies and butterflies, and to reading, and to watching good movies, and to social media, and to the life of faith. You learn something new every day! I love to learn, even more than I love to know. The love of learning new things is a different motivation than the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge is the by-product. The satisfaction comes in the learning itself. And I truly believe that the love of learning is inherent to the human, to all of us in our native state. Like the children in Jesus’ parable, those who love learning, will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Those who love to learn…those who great every day, every moment, as an opportunity to learn…those who live to learn…are already well on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.