Monthly Archives: January 2012
1/31/2012: Hard Day for Tricolors, Merritt Island NWR
There is nothing like a good soak in the bath when you are having a tough day. 🙂
This is a behavior I have never seen before. The Tricolored Heron at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge had waded in deep for a bath. Generally when they preen and bathe, they stand ankle deep at best, and use their beaks to catch up water which is applied to the body and worked through the feathers. This bird seems to have submerged its whole head and most of its body. I saw it later, out drying on the shore, and it appeared to be fine. Strange.
Canon SD100HS behind the the 30x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for the equivalent field of view of a 2200mm lens on a full frame DSLR. 1/250th @ ISO 100. f6 effective. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
1/30/2012: Pintails! Merritt Island NWR
The Northern Pintail has to be one of the world’s most elegant ducks, or so it appears to me. Ideally proportioned with with that silver bill and rich brown head (with its alert black eye) set off by the tall white collar and necktie, the silver picked up again in the body behind brown and black and sliver patterned wings, and then the jet black upturned butt with jaunty white trim…I mean this is a duck that has been designed!
And the closer you get the more elegant it looks. Turns out the silver of the body Is not silver but an intricate pattern of greys that resembles finger prints.
Coming or going: elegant.
Canon SD100HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 1600mm equivalent field of view, 1/640th @ ISO 125, f4.3 effective. 2) 2500mm equivalent, 1/320th @ ISO 100, f6.9 effective. 3) 1600mm equivalent, 1/320th @ ISO 100, f4.3 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
1/29/2012: Space Coast Sunrise. Happy Sunday!
Florida sunrises can be spectacular, and none more-so than those along what they call the Space Coast. I am staying in Titusville, about 5 miles inland from Merritt Island and the Canaveral shore: Cape Canaveral, now the Kennedy Space Center, is between me and the coast. What you see here though, looking like a shadowy landscape of hills against the rising sun, is actually layers of fog over trees. This was taken from the balcony in front of my room, from a higher angle…I had to lean out over railing and zoom in to avoid the building itself. Interstate 95 is right behind the silhouetted palms.
I like the mystery of the shot, the half light and the fog, the bold silhouettes of the palms and the blazing sky.
Canon SX40HS at about 135mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/80th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Cropped slightly at the top for composition and interest.
And for the Sunday thought: dawn and fog. Obscurity with a promise of clarity and light to come. Now if that does not describe our spiritual journey many days I don’t know what does. As Paul says, “now we see as in a mirror darkly” but we have the promise of full sight and true vision to come. And for me part of the miracle is that even in our obscurity, we are able to see the beauty that calls us. We treasure the dawns, we rejoice in the days, we celebrate the sunsets, we bask in the night and our dreams, to rise again to the promise of the coming day. If this, this life, this glorious life and this beautiful world is “in a mirror darkly” then I can barely imagine what the full light of day will reveal. And no…I am not ignorant of the pain and frustration, the ugliness and decay, that is also obscured by the morning fog of our current days (I95 and its traffic of commerce and greed is right behind the palms)…but I see, in the light of the promise, no reason to dwell on it…to dwell in it. It is beauty that calls me…beauty, truth, light, and I move toward it as surely as the sun rises, as the fog dispels, as day comes. I can, almost always, celebrate the fog of dawn in the rising sun. And that, thank God, is also a good description of my spiritual journey.
1/28/2012: Magic Kingfisher, Merritt Island NWR
The magical light of late afternoon, almost sunset, at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge illuminates (in every sense of the word) this female Belted Kingfisher. This is the bird. This is the nature of the bird. This is the truth of the bird. This is whole bird and nothing but the bird. And, it is, I think, a beautiful image, just as an image.
Kingfishers at Merritt are not easy. They do not sit. And indeed this lady posed only long enough for one burst of 6 or 7 shots before she was away down the channel and gone from sight. The only way I got this was because she was sitting right across the channel from the tour road. I glided up in the car, paused in line with her, cranked the Canon SX40HS zoom out to full optical, switched on the 2x digital tel-extender, and shot a burst at 1680mm equivalent, hand held, out the open passenger window of the car. I did not even dare to shut the car off, so most of the shots are spoiled by vibration. I got two or three sharp shots though. This is my favorite.
I have to say (though I have probably said it before) that a shot like this with a Point and Shoot Camera should be impossible. A hand held shot at 1680mm equivalent should be impossible with any camera. I am simply amazed the the Canon SX40HS pulls it off. This image will not stand up to pixel-peeping (a full resolution, one image pixel to one screen pixel, will show processing artifacts aplenty), but at normal viewing or printing resolutions and sizes it looks, to my eye, very good. I am happy to show it off.
Canon SX40HS as above at 1680mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 250. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Lightly processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
1/27/2012: Black Skimmers, Merritt Island
The Black Skimmer’s range map in North America is a thin colored line just along the coast in summer from southern Maine south, around Florida and the Gulf, and then back up the other side of Mexico about as far north as Santa Barbara in California. In winter it retreats on the east coast to the waters of Carolinas and south. Apparently in South America the Black Skimmer frequents the rivers of the greater Amazon basin far inland year round, but it is pretty much a salt water bird here in the US. I have seen them in Cape May, New Jersey, in Georgia and Florida, in Texas on the Gulf Coast, and in Southern California. And every sighting is a treat. They are such unlikely birds. Black and white with bright orange feet and bright orange band at the base of the miss-matched bill…miss-matched since the lower mandible is an inch or more longer than the upper.
The bird in the second shot is actually yawning, but it shows how the bill is held while hunting, with the lower mandible cutting the water to locate food.
These shots are from the base of the bridge on the Merritt Island side, where the fisherman gather. There are mussel or oyster beds just off shore and the birds gather to rest and hunt in large numbers.
I could watch them for hours!
1) and 2) Canon SD100HS behind the 30x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for an equivalent field of view of 3400mm, 1/640th and 1/500th @ ISO 160. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 3) and 4) Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 3) 840mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200, 4) 1680mm equivalent (2x digital tel-converter), f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
1/26/2012: Wing like an Angel, Great Egret
Open wing preening is a common behavior among egrets and herons, but it is still a treat to see every time and makes for an arresting photograph. This Great Egret, standing in the warm sun of a Florida winter morning at Viera Wetlands in Melebourne, against the blue water and the green reeds, is ideally placed to show off the lovely wing structure on one side and the delicate breeding plumes on the other.
The Canon SX40HS at 840mm optical equivalent zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-converter for 1240mm. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation (my standard setting for general photography) handled the tricky exposure here about as well as it could be handled…holding detail in all but the brightest hotpoints, while still rendering the shadow under the wing very naturally. I can take no credit. The camera did it all. f6.3 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
1/25/2012: American Bittern, Merritt Island NWR
At least once on each visit to the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival I try to get out to Merritt Island and Black Point Wildlife Drive in late afternoon, just before sunset. The light comes in at an angle that works magic, and the birds are beginning to settle for the evening, often closer in to Drive than anytime since dawn. Yesterday I was able to make 2 loops of the drive in the afternoon, the second after 4PM. Beautiful light! As I approached one of the major ponds, where most of the resident waterfowl are currently hanging out, there was car pulled over and a couple of birders apparently looking into the hedge row that separates the ponds. What’s up with that? Of course I kept my eye out as I inched past the stopped vehicle. I saw what they were looking at and did a quick jog to the side of the road myself (far enough forward of their car so that others could get by.)
I could not get out of the car fast enough. There was an American Bittern (okay so the title and the picture gave it away already) standing, posing, in the afternoon sun, out in the open, along the back edge of the channel between the road and the pond dyke, less than a 100 feet from us. This is something pretty rare to see. I shot off a couple of bursts with my Canon SX40HS just to get the bird before it moved in out of sight…but when it showed no signs of moving, I got out my tripod, scope, and digiscoping camera and set up in front of the other birder’s car. The Bittern struck its sky-high pose and held it while I framed it variously with the zoom on the Canon SD100HS behind the scope.
What an absolute blessing! Beautiful light, amazing bird (only the 4th I have seen). Of course between the two cars now, we attracted some attention, and all too soon there were 6 or 7 cars making an obstacle course of the Drive just there, not to mention birders and tripods. I worked the bird for 15 minutes or so before I took pity on tourists out for a late afternoon Black Point drive, packed my tripod and scope away and moved on. If I had not had a dinner engagement, and the traffic pressure had been less, I could have watched that Bittern for an hour.
Canon SD100HS in Program mode with –1/3EV exposure compensation behind the 30x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. 1) 1368mm equivalent field of view, 1/320th @ ISO 160, f3.7 effective. 2) 1200mm equivalent, 1/320th @ ISO 160, f3.2 effective. 3) 3400mm equivalent, 1/100th @ ISO 160, f9 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and sharpness. Some color adjustment on 1) to match the tone of the other shots.
I got a few more shots (Kingfisher in great light among them), but the American Bittern made the drive and the day!
1/23/2012: Green Heron on the Hunt
After two days of shooting in Florida, first at Viera Wetlands and then at Merritt Island, I have a lot of bird pics to share. This Green Heron was intent on the hunt. It would freeze in these ungainly positions for up to three minutes, strike (and usually miss), and then adopt a new pose. I watched it for about 15 minutes and in that time it got three small minnows. Not an easy way to make a living.
It was not easy to photograph either, being deep in reeds, and, from the best angle for showing the bird, against the light. Still I persisted, using both my digiscoping rig (Canon SD100HS behind the eyepiece of a ZEISS DisScope 65FL spotting scope) and the Canon SX40HS with various settings of the digital tel-converter.
For the next shot I walked down the dyke to get to the sun side of the bird, but the reeds were even more obstructive.
The sun really brings out the green in the Green Herons wings and highlights the yellow framing.
The next shot is with the Canon SX40HS using full optical plus 2x digital tel-converter. With the smaller camera, and without the tripod of my digiscoping rig, I was able to work closer to the bird.
And finally a shot of the business end showing the bird’s concentration, again with the digiscoping rig.
1) Digiscoped with the Canon SD100HS behind the eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for an equivalent field of view of 840mm. 1/1000th @ ISO 200, f2.8 effective. 2) Digiscoped at 840mm equivalent, 1/640th @ ISO 160. f2.8 effective. 3) Canon SX40HS at 1680mm equivalent (840 optical plus 2x digital tel-converter), f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 200. 4) Digiscoped at 2100mm equivalent, 1/200th @ ISO 200, f5.8 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and sharpness.
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.