Posts in Category: Merritt Island NWR

2/8/2011: Green Heron in a Bush, Merritt Island NWR

On February 8, 2011 by lightshedder With 7 Comments - animals, birds, digiscoped, Florida, Merritt Island NWR, Pic of the Day, wildlife

This Green Heron is pretty regular (in my limited experience) in the pool by the restrooms at Merritt Island NWR. I have photographed a Green Heron in this spot several times, several different years…so either it, or another of its kind, frequents the pool and the water channel behind the pool on a predictable bases. I look for it now.

This bird was tucked back under a bush about 40 feet down the water channel from the road. I caught it as I turned the corner, only because I was looking for it, and parked and walked back. I really like the play of light under the mangrove foliage, especially behind the bird, and the way the sun catches in the yellow eye.

Canon SD4000IS at about 1800mm equivalent field of view, 1/400th @ ISO 160. Effective aperture, f5.

Processed lightly in Lightroom for clarity and sharpness.

And here is the shot zoomed in a bit, to about 4500mm equivalent field of view.

2/7/2011: Great Egret, intimate

On February 7, 2011 by lightshedder With 2 Comments - animals, birds, close up, digiscoped, Florida, Merritt Island NWR, Pic of the Day, wildlife

Sometimes, at Merritt Island and other prime Florida locations, the birds are so close and so cooperative that, with a digiscoping rig, it is possible to achieve really intimate portraits. For this shot I used the zoom on both camera and scope to frame the bird’s head against the dark background, using –2/3EV exposure compensation to hold detail in the plumage and send the background really dark. The effect is striking. Of course the curves are all the Egret’s doing 🙂

Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for something in the 3000mm range, 1/320th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto with EV.

Processed for clarity and sharpness in Lighroom.

2/4/2011: Anhinga, round two, Merritt Is NWR

On February 4, 2011 by lightshedder With 2 Comments - animals, birds, close up, digiscoped, Florida, Merritt Island NWR, Pic of the Day, wildlife

The little pond by the restrooms at the head of the Cruikshank trail off Black Point Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is always worth a good long look. I almost always find something to photograph there…over the years: lizards, alligators, Green Heron, Snowy Egret, or, in this case, an elegant Anhinga in the final stages of his sun bath. There are very few birds that have the feather texture of the Anhinga, and these shots show it off to good advantage.

This bird was so close that to get anything like a full body shot, I had to zoom all the way out so the bird just filled a round circle in the middle of a black lcd screen…and then crop. And then I could not fit the full tail in.

And these are full frame views, showing off the stuff the neck gets up to and the feathering on the head…

 

All with the Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. Working at the 600 to 1200mm field of view range. Processed very lightly in Lightroom for clarity and sharpness.

2/3/2011: Wood Storks, Merritt Island NWR

On February 3, 2011 by lightshedder With 4 Comments - animals, birds, digiscoped, Florida, Merritt Island NWR, Pic of the Day, wildlife

Wood Storks are both beautiful and ugly. The plumage is elegant, and in flight they are majestic, but that head!

Of course even in the head there is a kind of grotesque beauty…kind of beautiful ugliness. Yes I know, contradictions…but that is Wood Stork for you.

By the way, with these storks we move from Viera Wetlands to Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Merritt Island is another favorite birding and digiscoping place in my yearly round of festivals. I always try to do the Blackpoint loop at least twice, at two different times of day, on every visit to Titusville, and I am rarely disappointed. Even if the birds are less abundant than usual (as was the case with ducks this year), there is generally at least one really cooperative bird that sits for a series of really satisfying images…and generally several.

Canons SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for equivalent fields of view between 1000mm and 2500mm. 1) 1/500th @ ISO 125, 2) 1/640th @ ISO 125, and 3) 1/800th @ ISO 125. Programmed auto.

Lightly processed in Lightroom for Recovery (highlight control), and image clarity and sharpness.

2/5/2010

On February 5, 2010 by lightshedder With 0 Comments - birds, digiscoped, Florida, Merritt Island NWR, PhotoScoped, Pic of the Day

Tricolored Heron

My last day at the Space Coast Birding Festival in Titusville, FL turned dark, dreary, damp, cold, and windy. Oh well, you get those days, even in Florida, in winter. I pushed the ISO setting on the PhotoScope to 200 and hoped for the best.

Cooperative birds make PhotoScoping, or any long-lens bird photography, easy…or easier anyway, and the herons are without doubt the most cooperative photographic subjects (who are not working for pay). As noted in a previous post on Great Blues, they pose.

Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL at about 40x, or 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/40th @ ISO 200. Metered at about f5.6.

Added Clarity and Vibrance in Lightroom. Blackpoint just slightly right. Sharpen landscape preset.

From Space Coast Birding.

And a bonus shot.