Posts in Category: Florida
1/23/2012: Hooded Merganser, Viera Wetlands
As I have mentioned before, the Hooded Merganser is my favorite duck (or duck like bird at least). I like the bold color contrast and the flaring crest and the bright orange eye. I like its active nature…always on the move and full of energy. Of course the reasons I like it are exactly the reasons it is a hard bird to photograph, especially to digiscope (to photograph through the eyepiece of a spotting scope). The Hoody offers one of the most difficult of exposure problems. Pure white and jet black in a pattern. And it moves way to much and too fast to track easily in the narrow field of a spotting scope.
So I am always in my element at Viera Wetlands (Rich Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera). Viera Wetlands is a “municipal wetlands”…a waste water treatment plant that uses marsh and pools in the final stages of treatment, and which has been converted for easy access for birders. Since my last visit a year ago, they have even built a road that takes you directly to the entrance, bypassing the water treatment plant buildings. Viera is great for bird photography…certainly among the top two or three spots for Florida waders and wintering ducks, and one of the best spots nationwide. It is especially good for digiscoping as you can pull to side of the dyke roads anywhere and set up your tripod in front of or behind the car in relative safety. And the birds are very cooperative. They are secure in the habitat and will allow you to do your thing while you do yours as long as you stay on the dyke.
And that includes the 30 or 40 Hooded Mergansers that are there on every visit in January. They favor a pond near the entrance, but one that you can only reach by traveling the full circle of the one way access road. They are generally in close, feeding within 50 or 60 feet of the foot of the dyke. I spent a half hour, two different times around the loop, digiscoping them…or attempting to do so. And I got my best shots to date.
Canon SD100HS in Program behind the 40x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. 1) and 2) 2450mm equivalent field of view, 1/500th @ ISO 100. f6.7 effective. 3) 4500mm equivalent, 1/200th @ ISO 100, f12 effective. 4) 2900mm equivalent, 1/250th @ ISO 250, f7.9 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for Sharpness.
1/22/2012: Sunset over North Florida: Happy Sunday!
Coming into Orlando on a flight from Charlotte yesterday, we arrived over north Florida just at sunset, just as tired of my Kindle book and opened the window shade, and just as the plane dropped through cloud cover to show the horizon. We were still 20,000 feet up, and the lakes of north Florida stretched out below us toward a blazing sunset. There was still enough moisture in the air to produce strong radiating rays when seen from above. As it would happen I had my little Canon SD100HS in my vest pocket where I generally carry it while traveling, and I had it out in a second for a few shots out the window. Shooting through the layers of plastic that make up an airliner’s windows is always a challenge. They are never clean and they offer their own color bias and distortions. Still, I continued to shoot as the plane dropped down toward the 10,000 foot limit for electronic equipment. The light of the sunset was so powerful it robbed the ground of much color. I did try an HDR treatment but there was just nothing there in the file to bring up. The effect is still still striking.
Canon SD100HS. 1) 85mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. 2) 65mm equivalent, f4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 125. 3) 114mm equivalent, f5.9 @ 1/500th @ ISO 200. Program. –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought. Sunsets hold a special place in our perception of beauty…they seem to speak to something in nearly all human beings. The day ends in fire along the horizon, and we pause, no matter how much we have left to do…dinner and whatever the evening holds…to take it in. It is something deep in the spiritual in us, I think, this response to the sunset. Something that transcends personality, and demonstrates the ways in which we are all kin.
Here we see it from a unique height across the flat plain of North Florida, dotted with lakes. A different angle…but one that only, for me, intensifies the effect. The sun goes down in a moment of awe that demands a moment of silence, a moment of attention…that prepares us for the night, and signals the hope of dawn. For me, it is the signature of the creator on the story of the day.
5/27/2011: Putting on the Ritz: Snowy Egrets in Breeding Plumage
Snowy Egret in full breeding plumage, St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery. Intimate portrait via P&S camera behind the eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope spotting scope for an equivalent field of view of about 1000mm.
And even closer, this one with the Nikon Coolpix p500 at about 500mm with a much closer bird (and in more challenging light).
Pulled back to 240mm for the full effect of the displaying bird.
And just a final, interesting take on the breeding plumage. The fact that it was taken at 300mm equivalent is testimony to just how close to the birds you can get at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery.
1) Canon SD4000IS behind the 20-75x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 85FL. Equivalent field of veiw as above at about 1000mm. 1/250th @ ISO 125. f2.8 effective.
2) Nikon Coolpix P500 at 466mm equivalent, f5.7 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. 3) 240mm equivalent, f8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160, 4) 300mm, f5.4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
And one more, just for fun.
5/21/2011: Bearing Gifts 2
While the Wood Storks are the largest of the gift bearers at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery, everyone gets into the act. Great Egrets are the second most obvious though they generally do not manage the grace of the Woodies. Below is a Cattle Egret in full flight over the rookery. I like the light through the wings.
Eventually each gift becomes an offering, generally male to female, and continual nest-building, even with eggs or young in the nest, seems to be part of the pair bond. This shot is slightly over exposed, with the highlights blocked up past all recovery. I only kept it because of the offering it shows.
Just watching the gifting behavior is interesting. Trying to catch significant moments with a camera adds a measure of challenge, and, at least for me, enjoyment.
Nikon Coolpix P500 from 300 to 700mm equivalent fields of view, User selected Flight and Action program.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/20/2011: Bearing Gifts 1
It is impossible on any visit to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery during breeding season not to be impressed by the amount of energy that goes into nest building. And, given the Wood Storks preference for fresh clipped greenery from the tops of threes, and the Egrets’ and Herons’ preference for dry sticks, it is a wonder there are any trees still standing within miles of the Farm. 😉
I find the Wood Storks bearing gifts particularly photogenic, whether perched or in flight.
It may be only a bit a branch, but the Wood Stork always bears its gifts so proudly.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 400-810mm equivalent fields of view. User selected Flight and Action program.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/19/2011: Night at the St. Francis, St. Augustine FL
Experimenting with the Night Landscape mode on the Nikon Coolpix P500. Night Landscape uses the fast capture capability of the Back-illuminated CMOS sensor to take a number of exposures in extreme low light and then stack them in camera to produce a single shot with increased sharpness, better color detail, and somewhat lower noise. There is also a Tripod setting, which uses a single exposure and aggressive noise reduction. The handheld mode is more attractive for general shooting, but it does require some processing time in camera.
This old inn in St Augustine was on my way back to the car after the opening festivities at the Florida Birding and Photo Fest. Besides the interest of the scene itself, I wanted to see how the camera would cope with the mix of bright lights and ambiance. The shot did require some additional noise reduction in Lightroom, and some fiddling with shadows and highlights…but I am impressed by the camera’s ability to get this shot handheld at all!
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f3.2 @ a nominal 1/15th second @ ISO 280. Night Landscape mode.
Processed in Lightroom as noted above.
5/11/2011: Who? Me? Confused?
So okay…I realized after posting yesterday that I was totally day-of-the-week challenged. That’s what happens when you have been too many trips in a row, and when you leave home on a Sunday, which I rarely do, and when…oh…you know!
So, somehow, this image today is appropriate. Snowy Egrets are generally so elegant, but when they aren’t, they really really aren’t! Not quite, to my eye, laugh out loud, but close. It makes me smile. Maybe enough to forget my day-of-the-week challenge. 🙂
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 810mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. Program mode. The depth of field on the P500 at 810mm equivalent is simply amazing!
Processed for Clarity and sharpness in Lightroom. Some color balancing was needed.
5/10/2011: A confusion of wings (for Wednesday)
Though this morning I am at The Biggest Week in American Birding on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio, I am still working through my Florida Birding and Photo Fest shots from two weeks ago.
The early Florida light at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine is prized by photographers and quite a few of us gathered at the Red Door where, if you have a photo-pass or are attending a class there, you can be admitted two hours before official opening time. I like the first shot, even though it is somewhat confused, for the sphere energy and the beauty of the Roseate Spoonbill wings in this light. The following two are more conventional portraits of these amazing birds.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 1) 620mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160, and 2) and 3) 810mm, f5.7 @ ISO 160 @ 1/640th and 1/1000th. My self selected user flight program.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. The top image is cropped from the horizontal frame.
5/9/2011: Tricolored Heron at the Alligator Farm
Tricolored Heron’s have spectacular breeding plumage. That turquoise color has only one counterpart (obvious) in nature.
A bird in full sun, against a contrasting background can be almost too vivid to believe. And, of course the St. Augustine Alligator Farm provides abundant opportunity.
Nikon Coolpix P500. 1) 810mm equivalent field of view, macro, f5.7 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160, 2) 340mm, f5.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. Program mode.
Processed very lightly in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/7/2011: Vaill Point HDR
One of the tricks made possible by the speed of the Back-illuminated CMOS sensor of the Nikon Coolpix P500 is in-camera HDR. The camera takes 3 or more shots when you press the shutter release and then combines them into a single image with extended range. I don’t actually like the results straight out of camera, but then I also postprocess my Photomatix HDRs in Lightroom when I have done all I can do in Photomatix. With judicious Lightroom processing, and a suitable scene, the Nikon HDR effect is actually pretty good, and it is far easier than shooting three exposures and combining them in Photomatix after the fact.
This shot is from the observation deck at Vaill Point Park (Sanctuary) near St. Augustine Florida. As you see, the HDR mode opens the shadows while maintaining the intensity of the greens and the blue of the sky. This is not an easy shot, exposure wise. I intend to experiment more with in-camera HDR when I find appropriate scenes.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, nominally f3.4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. Backlight HDR mode.
Processed for levels, intensity, and clarity in Lightroom.