Daily Archives: January 25, 2024
Florida! Most wanted for today
Snowy Egret: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — I am giving my first Easy Birds and Wildlife with the OM-1 workshop early tomorrow morning, so I will post this tonight…for tomorrow’s Pic for today. 🙂 I have only seen the Snowy Egrets tiptoeing across surface of the water a few times in my life…it is a feeding technique that they only do when the brine shrimp hatch in shallow pools in the marsh, and then dozens of Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Spoonbills, and gulls gather to feast and the Snowys dance on the water. It is amazing to see. I have a few photos from past years, but nothing I was really happy with, and mostly accidental. Today with the OM-1 it was easy…almost too easy. I have dozens of shots better than anything I have managed before. I have a short video I will post one of these days so you can get a sense of what it looks like “live.” OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at a 300mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds in flight modifications. -1.0 EV. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Most wanted
Reddish Egret: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — Another of my most wanted shots for my first trip back to Florida since Covid. Hunting Reddish Egrets are fun to watch as they are among the most energetic and erratic hunters among wading birds…often finishing off their act with an “umbrella” pose over the water to block surface reflections so that they can see and catch the fish. I stood and watched this one hunting for 15 minutes or more waiting for the umbrella pose. It happens in a second and then is gone so you have to be quick. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 614mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds in flight modifications (used here to catch the action). Processed in Photomator.