At the Rookery

We were able to visit the Venice Rookery again this year and just like last year we had some great shooting. The Rookery is a small mangrove island in a small pond in the middle of Venice, FL. If you didn't know it was there, you would probably drive right by it! Below are some of the images from that trip. Click on the images to enlarge.
 

Sandhill Cranes....

All in all we had a great day! I would go back anytime! There is no place that I know of where you can see such a concentration of different birds in nesting season.

Fun Day at Myakka....

We had a chance to visit with some old friends on Wednesday after our trip to the Venice Rookery. (more on that later) We met our friends Joyce and Jim for a nice relaxing afternoon at Myakka River State Park. They are from the Zephyr Hills area, so Myakka was about midway between them and us. Of course we brought our cameras, just in case.
We took the airboat tour of the lake, so all of theses pics are from the moving boat. Of course there were 30 other people on the boat so it made for an interesting photo exercise!

Click on the images to enlarge.
 

Limpkin

A Wood Stork. Not much to look at.....

A great way to end the day...... Thanks Joyce & Jim! See you next year!

An Egret Kind of Day......

I was on the beach at first light and it didn't look like it was going to be much of a day. No birds, no Dolphins, not much going on. I was considering going back home for a cup of coffee. I stopped for a minute to talk to a lady about how slow it was this morning when somebody flipped a switch somewhere and the beach started waking up!
I got these pics of a Reddish Egret because the baitfish were nice enough to wander by me and brought the birds with them!
Post-processing was very minimal. When I get back home I will spend more time with them and pretty them up!
 

Click on the images to enlarge. More to come.....

Getting There....

Another day with the 200-500. I'm beginning to learn the idiosyncrasies of this lens and learning how to hand-hold such a monster! As long as you have good light this lens focuses very quickly. Not as quick as my 70-200, but I didn't expect it to be.

Carry-out...

This image is not bad, but I need to put some practice hours in with this lens. Then I'll be able to get the best out of this lens.

Morning visitor...

If anybody knows what this bird is, please let me know. He (or she) has been a companion with me on the beach the last few days. Both of these images were shot at 500mm at ISO 800. Click on the images to enlarge.

More to come....

Slow Day.....

Very windy today, not much in the way of birdlife. I did manage to get a couple of decent pics to share.....
 

Pretty in Pink...

I like the mood of this image. It was early morning and the sun was just peeking over the horizon, giving off this very warm, pinkish light that just added the right tone to this image. Click on the image to enlarge.
 

This one is just a classic pose down here on the shore. What you can't see is there is a fisherman about 20 feet away and the GBH is waiting for a handout from him!

A Real Fisherman.....

We had a chance to tag along with some friends of ours who went fishing yesterday and I decided to bring the camera "just in case", and I am glad I did! This guy showed up right when they started catching fish and was happy to accept the smaller ones the guys were throwing back! All images taken with a Nikon D810 and Tamron 28-75. Click on images to enlarge.
 

No tartar sauce here!

What a pig!!!

Time for a nap.....

More to come.....

Work, Work, Work.....

Another shitty day in paradise!
Mel and I were on the beach this morning looking for bird life and the birds didn't disappoint.
 

Willets, Nikon D810, Nikon 200-500

These images were shot at ISO 2500, so I think they came out pretty good. Normal post-processing with some noise reduction applied. Click on images to enlarge
 

Least Terns, Nikon D810, Nikon 200-500

More to come.......

 

First Impressions.....

I got a chance to try out the new 200-500 this morning. I wanted to see exactly what I had gotten myself into. The extra reach doesn't mean a thing if it can't focus quickly and accurately.
First of all, this is a big, heavy lens! I doubt that I will be handholding this lens. It will be a tripod or at the least, a monopod for this bad boy. Your arms and back will thank you!
What I found out is that if you have decent light, this lens will make you smile. The sharpness is good and the reach is impressive. Below is one of the first that I got this morning. I used my normal post-processing workflow with nothing special added. Click on the image to enlarge.
More to come......



Bringing Out the Big Guns.....

I finally went and did it. For my bird and wildlife photography I had been using the 70-200 with a 1.7 tele-extender. But number one it still wasn't long enough and the quality wasn't what I thought it should be. So I saved my pennies and bought the Nikon 200-500 f5.6.

What a beast!!! I'm going to have to hire a sherpa to carry it for me! Let's hope the image quality is as good as most of the reviews say it is!

I'll be heading to Florida in the near future and I'm sure I'll give it a good workout there! I'll post pics when I get back.....


Giving Back.....

We've been running our yearly beginners photography class at the club and this last weekend we took the students to Chenango Valley State Park for some hands-on sessions. They all did quite well and I am impressed with their progress!
There is nothing more satisfying as an instructor than the moment when your students really begin to grasp the concepts we have been trying to get them to understand. When you see a student "get it" and the light bulb comes on over their head, it's a great feeling! I don't know about the other instructors but for me helping the students is as much fun as taking my own pictures! I am also "paying it forward" for all the help I received when I was learning. Maybe we can run another class in the Spring......

Stalking the wild Gray Squirrel!!!

Stalking the wild Gray Squirrel!!!

And just by pure luck, they were having the Polar Plunge that day at the swimming area at the park. This is a charity event to raise money for the Special Olympics. There were plenty of people willing to brave the cool weather and the cold water to help out a worthy cause. Our own Bill Bay was in the water taking pictures of the participants. You can see him on the left in this picture.

Mr. Bill is on the left.....

Mr. Bill is on the left.....

And Now for Something Completely Different!!!

Can you believe the two pictured below are my dentist and his assistant???

Wow!!! Talk about alter egos......

At Carpathian Dental, they take Halloween seriously!!!

It's always a rush photo shoot at Carpathian Dental because I only have about 10 minutes to get everything I need before they have to get back inside and go to work!!!  And it was dark and threatening rain outside!! But I wish that I had more time today because there is so much I could do with a Devil and Angel theme..... Thank you all for a fun morning at Carpathian Dental!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.....

Autumn is by far the most wonderful time of the year for a landscape and wildlife photographer. The animals are active, the scenery is beautiful and the bugs are gone!!!

Cleared for Landing...

I had the pleasure the last two weeks to do some wildfowl shooting at Chenango Valley State Park. I was also able to borrow the new Nikon 200-500 lens for a day to see if it could measure up to the Tamron and Sigma alternatives. I was able to use a Sigma a while back but I was not overly impressed with it. My friend Ron Meeker has the Tammy and he does very well with it, so I was interested to see if Nikon could compete in this arena. One day is really not enough to make an informed opinion on a lens like this, but I was impressed enough to want to take a second look! The images below were taken at Lily Lake, the small lake behind the main lake at CVSP. The lake is small enough that you can cover a good portion of water from one vantage point. And the big advantage is that the birds are used to seeing walkers and hikers all summer so they are a bit less skittish than wild birds. All in all the weather was beautiful, the birds were cooperative, and I even got a couple keepers! I can't think of a better way to spend a day of my life!!!       Click on images to enlarge.

Southbound.....


Night Moves.......

I know it's been a while since my last post but I am finally getting my butt in gear!!
Dave and I shot the Chris Thater memorial races again this year and once again we had a blast! The big difference this year was that I shot the Pro class at night. I tried it last year with my D300 but that camera just couldn't shoot at ISO's over 1600, and I needed to shoot at ISO 4000 to get a fast enough shutter speed.  I was shooting with my new D810 and I had no idea how it would perform. But I'll let you be the judge!

And finally to answer a frequent question about the races I can show you that yes, they definitely DO crash!!!!

OUCH!!!!!

More to come......
Click on the images to enlarge

Runnin' Out Of Time......

What a bummer!!! We're at the end of the vacation...... you know that feeling you get when you want it to last forever? If only it was that easy!
I have posted a new gallery with some of my favorites on my gallery page. I will be adding to it in the days to come, but I hope you will all take a look and give me some honest criticism of the work. It is the honest opinions of my friends that keeps me on my toes!

See you all soon......

 

Beautiful!!!

Yesterday was supposed to be a trip to Naples Botanical Gardens and the Naples Zoo, but we never made it to the zoo because it was too sunny and hot!!
The Botanical Gardens for a photographer is definitely a case of sensory overload! There is so much to see and photograph you don’t know where to start. But for us it was the new Orchid garden. Mel and I are both Orchid lovers and the new garden they recently completed didn’t disappoint us!

The only downside to the botanical gardens is that on most days they don’t open until 9 am. So as a photographer you have a limited amount of good light unless it is a cloudy day. Which in our case it turned out to be a bright sunny day! So what did we do you ask? Why we went back to the beach and had cocktails of course!!!

In the Asian Garden area....

And of course there are the obligatory sunset photos……………………..

Fire in the Sky...

And that seagull is NOT photoshopped in!

As always, more to come! Click on the photos to enlarge....

Road Trip

We took a field trip this morning and went to two places we had never been before. We started out by heading north to the Sarasota area to visit the Myakka River State Park. As the name implies it is set on the banks of the Myakka River. It is a beautiful park with many photo ops, not just birds. I was lucky enough to get fairly close to a doe and her fawn while I was there. The doe knew I was there but she was not particularly afraid of me. As long as I didn’t make any sudden moves I was okay. And the little fawn was so cute!!

Isn't she cute?

Oh Mom!!!

We ate a picnic lunch at the park and headed to our next destination which was the Venice Rookery. This small rookery is situated right in the heart of a commercial area in Venice itself. It appears that the Audubon Society bought the small area of land and the town just built in around it. But it doesn’t seem to bother the birds! There was a small pond there and in the middle was an equally small patch of Mangroves, which was absolutely loaded with birds!! As you can see from the pictures it was like an apartment complex for birds. They all nested very close to each other. I can’t believe there weren’t more fights! And they were in all stages of rearing their young ones, from newborn chick to almost fully fledged ones! Unfortunately we got there at about noon, so the light and the pics are not the best! I will certainly be back here!

Feed me Mom!!!

I need some elbow room!

Click on the pics to enlarge.....

Gettin' Lucky......

This particular day did not start out very well. It was raining at dawn, so I waited until the shower blew over. I knew that I was late as I hustled up the beach to one of my favorite, and closest, shooting spots. We stay on Bonita Beach and this spot is where Big Hickory Island and Little Hickory Island meet. It’s a 15 minute walk from my back door. There is a river that flows between them and empties into the Gulf. Where the river meets the Gulf is usually a very reliable spot for birdlife. But for some reason this year it has not been so good. Until this morning when I was lucky enough to get a few decent pics of birds.

The first few are of a Reddish Egret who was fishing for breakfast. He was a crazy little guy and he made himself look really scary when he was pursuing a fish! I have seen this behavior before, but never this pronounced! This little guy was nuts!!
And the other smaller birds are called Willets. They are cute little birds and they are usually not too skittish towards photographers if you approach them slowly.

Zeroing In...

This is my scary face....

Calming Down...

Then Mel and I went on a scouting mission to find a new place to shoot. We had heard about a place on Marco Island called Tigertail Beach. Now Marco Island is about as developed an island as I have ever seen. There are very few open places, with some of the most expensive real estate in the country. This is millionaire country! But in the middle of all this is a county park with a beautiful lagoon, which the birds seem to enjoy as much as the people! I was very lucky to get this picture of a flying Reddish Egret. Usually my bird in flight pictures come out as blurry as everyone else’s!

Click on the pics to enlarge.
More to come......

Florida Dreamin'.....

I will be taking a trip to Florida soon, so I thought what better way to prepare than to look at some recent Florida pictures!

I am lucky enough to have a friend down there right now who is busy filling up his memory cards with great wildlife pictures!! Ron and I became acquainted when he joined Two Rivers Photo Club, and we share a friendly photographic rivalry. I think it will be interesting to see how much our styles are alike and at the same time, different. I'll let Ron take it from here:

"I visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary last week and ran into a photographer who showed me the location of an owl’s nest in a tree cavity.  Although there was no action at the time, he explained that there were 2 young owls in the nest and that I should check back when I could.  This morning I was back there early and took some images of one of the young owls standing at the entrance to the nest waiting for mom or dad to come back with some food." 

Have you seen my Mom?

How the heck did we get up here?

How the heck did we get up here?

"I also got some shots of an adult elsewhere at Corkscrew today, but I did not get to witness adults feeding the young at the nest.  As always, there were plenty of other birds to see today and even a couple of racoons.  Nonetheless, I felt the owls stole the show today."

I want to thank Ron for teasing me with his terrific Owl pics!!! I will be sure to return the favor in a few weeks! I think the club needs to do a field trip to Florida!