Monthly Archives: November 2011
11/30/2011: Snow Storm, Bosque del Apache
It does not matter how many times you stand below 20,000 Snow Geese as they circle in a panic above and around you…the sound of their voices and their wings filling your ears, and the swirling dance of bodies filling your eyes…rising and falling, darting in and out, swooping and soaring…it is always awe inspiring. No words can capture it, or even get close enough to hint at the experience. No photograph can do more than give you the slightest nudge toward the feeling of being there. Even video does not capture the energy.
But still, any photographer has to try.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
1) Exposure Time: 0.0008s (1/1250 Aperture: f/5.8 ISO: 125 Equivalent Focal Length: 840mm
2) Exposure Time:0.0008s (1/1250) Aperture:f/5.8 ISO:125 Equivalent Focal Length:840mm
3) Exposure Time:0.0008s (1/1250) Aperture:f/6.3 ISO:160 Equivalent Focal Length:840mm
4) Exposure Time: 0.0008s (1/1250) Aperture: f/4 ISO: 100 Equivalent Focal Length: 75mm
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/29/2011: Evil (?) Grebe, Sabal Palms TX
The Least Grebe is either very cute or very evil depending on your point of view…your mood…or maybe your disposition. These shots are at Sabal Palm Sanctuary near Brownsville Texas, and are typical of the Least Grebe look. I think, for me, the yellow eye with the dark overhanging brow and that dagger beak always over-ride the fluffy behind parts to tip the scale to the evil side. Besides I have seen a Least Grebe come its body length up out of the water to take a dragonfly out of the air. It had the killer instinct! Once you have seen that you can never look at a Least Grebe quite the same again.
Canon SX40HS at 1680mm equivalent (840mm optical zoom plus 2x digital converter). f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast and -1/3rd EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/28/2011: Cryptic Coloration, Common Pauraque
There is a Common Pauraque at Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center that roost right beside one of the main trails, and has done so for at least three years. It roost so close to the foot traffic that the park has added a long thin pile of thorny brush right there to keep people from walking on the bird. Of course the brush pile actually makes birders’ lives easier. You used the have to have someone who already knew show you the bird. Now you just look behind the brush pile until you see it. If you see it. It is generally there alright but many a birder (not to mention regular citizen) has looked right at this bird for any number of moments and come away without seeing the bird. It is the epitome of cryptic coloration. To say it blends with its habitat is an understatement. It disappears in its habitat.
I am pretty certain I have posted this bird in the past, from other visits to Texas, but it amazes me every year.
Canon SX40HS at 840mm equivalent. f5.8 @ 1/60th @ ISO 800. Programed auto with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
And here is a view from the other side.
11/27/2011: First Sun at Bosque del Apache, Happy Sunday
This is another shot from the delayed sunrise last Sunday at Bosque del Apache. Clouds closed the eastern horizon and it took the sun an hour or more to make its way up behind them before there was any direct sun on the ponds and fields. While the Geese were up and away at first light, many of the Cranes remained in the overnight ponds well past their normal departure for the feeding fields. The combination of subtle indirect light with a touch of dawn color made the morning unique.
Canon SX40HS. 1) 107mm equivalent, f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. 2) 246mm equivalent, f5 @ 1/250 @ ISO 200. 3) 717mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 125. Programed Auto with iContrast. –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity, light balance, and Sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought: Too often we think that clouds on the horizon spoil the dawn…and they certainly mute the sunrise and delay full light…but there is a beauty in that more subtle light, and you have much longer to appreciate it…to study the effect…to absorb the wonder of it. This is good, or can be if we we can see the delay for what it is and let go of our impatience. Taking it as a metaphor, of course, clouds on the horizon delaying our dawns are all too common in our lives…both our worldly lives and our spiritual lives (for those still making that distinction). When we commit to living with eyes wide open and full of wonder, we let go of our expectations of speedy dawns every day…we commit to giving the sun time to climb up behind the clouds, and we commit to enjoying every moment of the wait. In fact, we commit to not waiting at all. We commit to being in the moment and appreciating each one for what it is. That’s not waiting for anything. That is the life of the creator in us through spirit of his son, enabling us to be as we are intended to be. A long slow dawn, below the mountains, with majestic birds walking on reflected light…makes it easy to be wide eyed in wonder and belief…but that’s call for each day…no matter what shape the dawn takes.
Now if I could only remember that!
11/26/2011: House Wren, Edinburg Wetlands TX
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I have never had much luck photographing House Wrens (and if you remember the last “house wren” images I posted were actually a Winter Wren holding its tail funny). But every dog has its day, as the saying goes, and a Sunday visit to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands World Birding Center, in Edinburg TX was mine…or the wren’s…or something…call it a confluence of opportunity. There were House Wrens signing all through the butterfly gardens and along the ponds at ESWWBC that day. Photographically they were a problematic as ever, mostly, skulking in the deep bush, popping out of sight as soon a sighted, playing hard to get. This specimen however was at the head of the boardwalk to the observation platform on the back side of the pond across the road from the Visitor Center, and seem determined to hold his ground while I shot off a series of images. Still difficult, still buried in the bushy tree, still with no clear line of sight…but, amazingly, when I looked at the images on my laptop…in focus and by far the best shots I have gotten to date of the House Wren. (All the images open at a larger viewing sizes by clicking the image.)
Canon SX40HS at 1250mm equivalent (627mm optical plus 2x digital-converter). f5.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 800. Program with iContrast. –1/3EV exposure compensation. (This is very impressive performance for ISO 800 in a Point and Shoot camera!)
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
And, yes, I probably should go in and clone out that strange little “bird foot shaped” twiggy thing in front of the bird…but these shots are SO how you see a House Wren that I am tempted (so far successfully) to leave it in. 🙂
11/25/2011: Kiskadee Corner, Edinburg Wetlands WBC
Kiskadees (technically Great Kiskadees) are hard to resist. They are very present and very vocal residents of the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, and I have already posted a set from Sabel Palms Sanctuary near Brownsville. This bird, who posed for a portrait through the spotting scope, was at Edinburg Scenic Wetlands World Birding Center in Edinburg Texas. This shot was taken at an equivalent focal length of almost 4000mm with a Canon SD100HS camera behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece of a ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. The extreme magnification yields fine feather details, but also creates a attractive bokah behind the bird. Indirect lighting also helps maintain detail. The catch light in the eye is a bonus!
1/100th second at ISO 500. f11 effective (limited by the 65mm aperture of the scope). Program with –1/3EV exposure compensation.
And, just for interest, a little googling shows that there is indeed a Lesser Kiskadee, resident in South America and the Caribbean islands. Who knew?
And a few bonus shots.
11/24/2011: Happy Thanksgiving. Travels with Family
I travel extensively with my job…attending Birding Festivals and events all over the US, and at least once a year in England…but I rarely get to take family along. This last trip, my wife Carol and youngest daughter Kelia(the only one still at home) met me in Albuquerque on my way to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, near Socorro New Mexico. And this day, Thanksgiving Day, our trip together is high on my list of things to be thankful for. I took a couple of vacation days early in the week, and we drove to Gallup to visit friends and do some hiking in the Red Rocks, and then I worked the festival while Carol and Kelia found Mexican cooking classes to attend and hikes to do…and shopped the craft fairs that spring up in Socorro on Festival of the Cranes weekend. And, of course, we had some very satisfying Mexican meals (Frank and Lupe’s El Sombrero in Socorro is not to be missed!) Each day we experienced a bit of the wonder of the Land of Enchantment together, and that was indeed an experience to be thankful for.
This is Carol and Kelia by a huge old Cottonwood at the Photo Blind on the Farm loop drive at Bosque. The pond on the far side of the blind was drained down, so we didn’t see the 1000s of Snow Geese that sometimes settle there, but it was an excellent photo op anyway.
And here they are on sunny day in Church Rock Canyon, Red Rocks State Park, near Rehoboth (where all my girls were born). This was Kelia’s first experience of the Red Rock country around Gallup, since we moved east when she was a month old.
And finally, on a hike up Water Canon in the Magdalena Mountains behind Socorro, Kelia couldn’t resist climbing up the downed and well bleached Cottonwood to perch in the window formed by the twisted trunk of is living descendent.
And today, 3 of my 5 girls are at home for the family Thanksgiving Feast. I wish they could have all be on that trip…that would have given me that much more to be thankful for…but I don’t know where I would put the thankfulness. I am full up. Besides, gotta leave room for turkey and cranberry sauce still to come!
All shots with the Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. (And the Canon is another thing I am very thankful for…such a fun camera!)
11/23/2011: Elk Encounter at Bosque del Apache
So we were leaving Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge after my first actual day in the ZEISS booth at the Festival of the Cranes when we saw 7 or 8 cars in various states of disarray pulled off the side of the road just past where the rail lines cross Route 1. What’s that all about? At Bosque you never can be sure.
Elk!
Bosque’s small herd of Elk were making a rare public appearance back across the tracks against the brushy woods at the far side of the field, maybe 300 yards (at a wild guess) away from the road. What I saw first was a group of females and young well out into the field. The stopped cars already had them alert and moving back toward the brush, but I popped out of the car with my Canon SX40HS and ran it out to full zoom (840mm equivalent) to get a few shots. As you see above, the largest of the females (apparently the dominant female) is wearing a radio collar so refuge management can tell where the herd is feeding each day (not information they share with the public). I used the 1.5x and 2x digital tel-converters to get a few closer shots.
I was concentrating on the very visible females until my wife pointed out a bull, with a fairly large rack, standing well back in the brush watching the proceedings. For him I got out the spotting scope and my smaller Point and Shoot for some digiscoped images. The males are taken at about 3400mm equivalent through the eyepiece of the ZEISS spotting scope.
Finally another, even larger bull appeared from the right, bugling. What a treat! He, however, was too old and wise to show himself completely so all I have are a few obscured shots as he wound in and out of the brush. Good enough to show the massive rack…but not very satisfying otherwise.
After a few more shots, I hopped back into the car and we went off happily back to Socorro and supper at Frank and Lupe’s El Sombrero. And a very good day that was!
I know, Elk are commonplace to some of you, but for us, it was a very special encounter.
Canon SX40HS at 840mm, 1260mm and 1680mm. Canon SD100HS behind the eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for 3400mm equivalent. Processed in Lightroom for Intensity, Sharpness, and Color Temperature (spotting scope shots).
11/22/2011: Peek-a-boo, Red-shouldered Hawk
We are back from our travels for the moment, having been, in the past two weeks, in both the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and New Mexico (Harlingen and Bosque del Apache near Socorro). I have large back-log of scenics and bird shots to post over the next while, so brace yourselves 🙂
This is an immature Red-Shouldered Hawk that apparently thought the few leaves between us hid him from view…as he was sitting no more than 30 feet from the main access trail at Santa Anna National Wildlife Refuge where at least our whole bus-load of birders got to admire him. This shot was taken with a Canon SD100HS point and shoot camera through the eyepiece of a ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. You can see the out of focus foliage in front of the bird, but, though I could find no clear line of sight, the highly selective focus on the spotting scope made focusing through the foliage possible. It was also a matter of timing as the brisk breeze was moving the leaves so that the head and eye of the bird were only sometimes clear and well lighted. I was shooting bursts of 4 frames per second shots and selected the best for final processing.
Canon SD100HS behind the eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for the equivalent field of view of something like a 1200mm lens on a full frame DSLR. 1/100th @ ISO 100. f4 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
And another with the zoom on the camera run up to max at 4x.
And, just for fun, a comparison shot from the Canon SX40HS at full optical plus 2x digital tel-converter for an 1680mm equivalent field of view.
11/21/2011: False Dawn Sandhill
I did not make it out to the refuge at dawn even once this trip. With family with me, and the resulting car complications, it simply was not possible. But I did get there early. Sunday morning the eastern sky was blocked by a heavy bank of clouds so actual sunlight on the water was delayed by almost two hours. This shot, with the Sandhill Crane illuminated by the sun near the top of the obstructing clouds, has a dawn feeling, but with stronger light on the bird. Ideal really. At true dawn the bird would have been a dark silhouette, no matter what magic I did with exposure.
The Sandhill, by the way, is not checking out a passing aircraft (or Eagle for that matter). This is most likely a young male trying on his mating moves.
Canon SX40HS at 716mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity, Vibrance (for the light on the water), and Sharpness.