Posts in Category: OM-1 & 100-400mm
Maine! Arrowhead Spiketail
Arrowhead Spiketail: Forever Wild Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2023 — This gorgeous creature is the Arrowhead Spiketail. It may be 5 years between emergences, and, indeed, I have only ever seen one other here in Southern Maine…yet its population is “stable.” It was very cooperative, returning to the same perch time after time until I had “enough” photos of it. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom. One at 800mm equivalent. Two at 1600mm (with 2x digital extender). Three at 614mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications (works well for dragonflies as well). Processed in Pixelmator Pro. The first shot is at ISO 2500 @ f22 (for greatest depth of field to get both the head and tail in focus) @ 1/640th. Second is ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/540th and third is ISO 200 @ f9 @ 1/6400th (again for depth of field).
Biggest Week in American Birding! Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron: Maumee Bay Nature Center, Oregon, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — This Great Blue was guarding the upper pond at the Nature Center at Maumee Bay when I was there to do a presentation at the lodge and the Biggest Week headquarters. I got there early enough for a walk around the short loop of boardwalk at the Nature Center. OM-Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800 and 420mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 200 @ f6.3 and 7.1 @ 1/640th. -.7EV.
Maine! Snapper
Snapping Turtle: Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I posted a Day Poem about this encounter yesterday. Always happy to see a Snapper…from a distance. This is maybe only my 4th sighting as an adult, if I can claim to be one yet at 75. A big one! The underwater shot gives a better impression of just how big. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800 equivalent for the close-ups, 472 for the whole turtle and 200mm for the underwater shot. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications (bird worked better on the turtle than animal…I tried them both.) Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 for the land shots, ISO 400 underwater @ f6.3 (f5 underwater) @ 1/640th.
Maine! Tern in flight…
Least Tern: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — Another composited image of a Least Tern in flight at the mouth of one of our local rivers…entering hunting mode. Three shots at 25 frames per second, clipped out and arranged and processed in Pixelmator Pro. Program mode with my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th. +.3EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Landing!
Trumpeter Swan: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Beno, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Landing gear fully down. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 800 @ f6.3 @ 1/4000th.
Maine! Piping Plover chick
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — One more from my brief encounter with the Piping Plovers. It is hard to say how old this chick is. They are up and running the beach within hours of hatching. I know it is at least a day old because my wife saw them the day before. There were 3 chicks from this nest, and each chick, if it survives to flight stage, is a success story. Maybe next year this chick will nest one beach further north, or at the north end of this beach, and that will be a bit more Piping Plover territory reclaimed! OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1600th. -.3EV
Maine! So, just what exactly are your intentions?
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA — Okay, I guess it needs to be said again. You should never get as close as it looks like I might be from this photo to an endangered Piping Plover. I was not actually anywhere near that close. It is a long lens and a cropped photo that makes it look that way…and I did not approach the birds…they worked their way closer to me as I stood still. They are reclaiming territories on popular tourist beaches this year, and we want them to succeed. If you visit you will see them working between their posted nesting areas up against the dunes and the tide-line. It is what they do. Enjoy them, but give them their space. This bird is clearly aware than I am there…and I backed away and left soon after this was taken. He evidently wanted to explore the section of beach I was standing on, and I let him. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Maine! Piping Plovers
Piping Plovers: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — This adult plover was telling me I was too close to the chick…though I was not moving. The chick was coming to me. So maybe it was telling the chick it was too close to me. At any rate, I backed off after this shot. Or these shots. If you know about long lens photography (these were taken at 800mm equivalent and cropped in so I was actually about 20 feet away) you will know that it is impossible that the both the adult and the chick could be in focus at the same time. The chick was several feet behind the adult…just barely in the same frame. I took a shot of the adult with the chick out of focus in the background, and then refocused on the chick and took a second shot. When processed and combined in Pixelmator Pro, and touched up, you get this…and even here I bet your attention is switching back and forth between the birds…it is almost impossible to focus on both at the same time, even in this flat composite. Just the way our eyes and brains work. 🙂 Olympus Systems OM-1 with 100 to 400mm zoom. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f8 @ 1/2000th. -.3EV for the beach light.
Diving Least Tern
Least Tern: York County, Maine, USA — The Least Tern is also listed as “endangered” in Maine, and its nesting sites are protected. And again, this year they are nesting on our popular tourist and fishing beach. Please give them space. This diving Tern was over the river, right above the heads of the fishermen…but after considerably smaller prey. This is composite of a series of shots of the same Least Tern diving on prey…taken at 25 frames per second, with the OM Systems OM-1 and the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent and assembled during processing in Pixelmator Pro. I could edit out the slight halos around the birds but I think in this case it adds to the effect, as though the tern was disrupting the air and carrying light with it. Taken in Program with my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. ISO 250 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Maine! Piping Plover. The Chick and the bug :)
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — Piping Plovers are protected in Maine, and elsewhere in the US, as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Recent surveys put the total population in the US at about 1800 pairs, and the population in Maine is set to break the 150 pairs mark this year. Last year they raised over 250 chicks to flight stage. They are colonizing, or recolonizing, beaches beyond last year’s breeding territory. This year they moved onto one of the most popular tourist beaches in the area. Even this early in the year and mid-week, I had to negotiate beach blankets and umbrellas to get to the section where the nest protection ropes and mesh nest cage are, and where at least 3 chicks and their parents were running around on the open beach. These shots were all taken at 800mm equivalent and cropped in. I stayed at a respectful, and, I hope, safe distance. This is a story of a bug and a chick. Looking back through my photos of this chick, the bug had been on it for at least 10 minutes before the chick shook it off and picked it up. I am pretty certain the chick did not yet know what to do with it once it had it…but it will learn. Can I ask you, if you are visiting Maine this early summer, please give the Piping Plovers their space. Watch were you walk. Please do not put your beach encampment on the sections of beach where the nesting areas are marked off with ropes and signs, even if there is open beach in front of them. And please, please, do not bring your dog to the beach, even on a leash. The chicks are very vulnerable. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f8 @ 1/2000th. -.3EV