Telling A Story - The Prehistoric Birds

Art is more enjoyable if it tells a story and photography is no different.  If we can tell a story with our photos then people will be more interested and may find the photo(s) more compelling.

Sometimes the story is best told using a sequence of photos to show action or behavior of the subject.  I recently caught a family of Double-crested Cormorants in South Florida and was able to capture them doing what all families do - eat together.

A Cormorant is a common bird in Florida with some birds staying year long. The gangly Double-crested Cormorant is a prehistoric-looking black bird with green eyes and yellow-orange on its beak and face. They have been described as a strange combination of a goose and a loon.  The Cormorants are related to the exotic frigatebirds and boobies found in the Galapagos Islands. You have probably spotted one with its wings spread out to dry in the sun. They dive underwater and are excellent swimmers, using their feet and wings to propel themselves after fish.

This pair of adults had gotten an early start on the rest of the birds and already had two juveniles in the nest.  The parents seemed to be holding their heads high signaling they were proud of their little ones.

The Happy Family At Home

Like any home, repairs are required to be performed constantly.  They were adding nesting material to their nest.

There is always work to be done to maintain a home

Just like human youth, these juveniles were constantly hungry.

Mom! Dad! We're Hungry! 

No fast food for these kids.  The parents had to catch and prepare the meals.  This involved eating, partially digesting and regurgitating fish for the young'uns.

Yum Yum Yum

Wait, I know there is more fish down there.

Finished!

This adult may be leaving the nest in search of more food or may have had enough of junior climbing down his throat.

I hope you found this little photographic sequence educational, entertaining, or at least funny.  My intent was to tell more of the story than what can be conveyed in just one photo.

All the photos were taken at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida.  They were shot with a Fuji X-T2 mirrorless camera and a 100-400mm zoom at 400mm.  The photos were cropped by about 1/3.

Exploring Our Backyard - Phipps Bend

If you've read my blog before you might remember that I am participating in a photography challenge to take at least one photo each week that meets a weekly challenge.  This week's challenge is to make a photo in your own back yard.  I did that, taking a photo of some potted plants.  On Thursday I took the challenge a little further and expanded my "back yard" to Hawkins County Tennessee and the Phipps Bend Wildlife Preserve.

Those who have lived in this area since the late seventies and early eighties will remember Phipps Bend as the site of a TVA nuclear power plant that was never completed.  The project was 40% complete when it was abandoned in 1981, leaving the skeleton of cooling tower base and a few buildings.

Abandoned Cooling Tower Base

Since then, the Phipps Bend Industrial Park has grown up next to the TVA site and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has also created a wildlife preserve between the old site and the Holston River.  A 3-mile out and back hiking trail/gravel road snakes along parallel to the Phipps Bend in the Holston River.  This easy level hike passes by beautiful ponds, wetlands, wide grassy fields, and the river.  We were there to see and hopefully photograph some wild birds.

What we found was a beautiful area full of wildlife, flowers, and yes, some colorful birds.

Yellow Flag "Batman"  Iris

Oxeye Daisy

 With the exception of one hiker and two equestrians on horseback, we didn't see any other people.  We did see more than a dozen white-tailed deer in the tall grass and one large snapping turtle on the trail.

Can you see me?

Indigo Bunting

Orchard Oriole 

These are just a few of the photos I made on this trip.  My bird photography skills need some work and we have plans to go back next week to try again.  I am more happy with some of the other photos from this trip.  I am trying something new to share these photos.  I have made a 2:40 slide show that shows my 27 favorites from that day that tell a story.  I hope this works and you enjoy the show.

Test Driving a Lens

June and I joined several other photographers this last weekend for a trek across Tennessee to Realfoot Lake State Park to take pictures of eagles, hawks, snow geese and other birds that winter around the lake each year.   This is perhaps the best opportunity to photograph eagles that doesn't involve traveling to Alaska or Northern Canada.  At one time there were about 200 nesting pairs around the lake.  Those of us on the trip agreed that the numbers appear to be less than that.

It takes about 8 hours to drive from Kingsport to Reelfoot Lake, which is a long road trip.   We might not get this opportunity again so I decided I needed some "better glass" (i.e. - more expensive lens) than what I had.  I have an older Sigma 80-400mm zoom that does pretty well in good "bright" light and on a tripod.   I decided I wanted a prime lens that would produce sharper images, was faster than the Sigma, and have enough "reach" to take shots of birds that might be a little ways away.   My lens of choice was a Canon 300mm f/4L.   To get a little more "reach" I wanted to use a 1.4x teleconverter, making the 300mm 420mm.   I have a cheap(er - it's all relative) teleconverter but putting a cheap teleconverter on an expensive lens gives you a longer lens that takes pictures like a cheap lens.  I needed the Canon version.   These two items sell for $1,376 and $499.  Ouch!

I had talked to people who had rented higher end lenses in the past with good results.  This was my opportunity to try out this lens and teleconverter without having to shell out a lot of cash.  After all, I wasn't sure the Canon would be that much better than the Sigma I already had.   I decided to rent from LensRentals.com.

The rental process was about as smooth as it can be.  The hardest step was deciding what to rent.  Once I made my decision I placed my order online specifying the day I wanted the lens delivered to my house and the day I would ship it back.   Simple.   FedEx delivered the lens right on time.

The lens and teleconverter were packed very well with material that made repacking for return shipping easy.   The gear looked like new and worked perfectly.  This morning I packed it back up in the original box, stuck the preprinted label on the box and dropped it at the FedEx authorized shipper in town.  The entire process was smooth and flawless. 

The one risk I was worried about did come to pass.  I now see how much better the Canon L prime lens is than my old Sigma zoom and I want to have my own copy.   This may end up costing me much more in the end. 

All these photos were made with the 300mm and 1.4TC combination on a Canon 7D.   Except for the owl, they were taken under overcast conditions.   The eagle on the nest was on a tripod.  All the others were handheld.

Knowing what I know now about shooting birds of prey at Reelfoot lake I think I would go with a longer lens.  The birds tended to be too far away for the 300/1.4x combination.  Maybe the Canon 400mm f/2.8L or the Canon 500mm f/4L.  They are big heavy lenses but it would have given me more reach, more light, and faster focusing.  

One Fruit of The Spirit & Shooting Birds

Click on any photo in the blog for a larger view.

No, I haven't taken up bird hunting.  In this case I was shooting perching birds in the backyard with my 400mm zoom.   These little guys are a challenge to shoot because they fly so fast and are so small it hard to catch them in the frame and in focus.   Those big egrets are a breeze compared to these little speed demons. 

Today's bird blind was the kitchen. We have a bird feeder on a post in the backyard.  I opened the kitchen window and shot from the inside out towards the feeder.   My old Sigma 80-400 does not focus near fast enough for these birds and there is no way I could follow them in the view finder.  I set up on a tripod and pointed the camera at a point just to the left or right of the feeder where I could catch them in their flight path.   I guessed at the focus using the feeder as my reference. 

I learned that the Depth of Field (DOF) of a 400mm lens on a Canon 7D at f/11 focused at 25' is just over 6".   Most of the time it wasn't bright enough to get that large an f-stop and I had to make do with 5.6 - 7.1, which gave me a DOF of 3" - 4".   That means the bird had to fly through a space less than 4" deep and about 2' wide.

Most of the time it was cloudy and when the sun did come out it was behind the birds, making them a dark silhouette against the bright green field behind them.   I got out a large reflector and propped it up to bounce that sunlight back towards where I hoped the birds would fly.  I later discovered the birds used the reflector for target practice.

I found the birds were most active at the feeder when the sun was behind the clouds and it was too dark for a good shot.  When the sun came out the birds were no where to be seen!

I was able to get one decent shot of a Purple Finch (above) and a few of the Pine Siskins. There were also Gold Finches, Towhee, Chickadees, Cardinals, and Tufted Titmice but I didn't get them today.

Watching these graceful little creatures has a calming effect.   It's a good thing because this was an exercise in patience.  There was a lot of time standing and waiting for the birds to fly to the right spot.  When I loaded the results on the computer 90% of them were out of focus, only part of the bird was in the frame, or there was no bird at all.   
  
The title of this blog hints at one of the key factors in wildlife photography - patience.   "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:22-23.  You can't rush wildlife photography.  Patience may be the biggest contributing factor to getting decent wildlife photos.

When shooting wildlife it's good to remember this saying by Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. "

On A Date

This pair of Blue Winged Teal look like they are heading out for a night on the town.  



315mm, 1/500 sec, f/6.3



This was taken at Green KayWetlands in Florida.   The only access to the wetlands is via an elevated boardwalk, which means you are constantly looking down on the birds in the water.   Taking photos from this angle produces an unnatural perspective, like this photo of a Pied-Billed Grebe

351mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6

When shooting wildlife you want to get down to their level if possible.  To get the Blue Winged Teal shot I got down low shooting between the slats in the boardwalk rail.   This gave the photo a more natural and interesting perspective.  If I could I would have gotten even lower, but my angle was limited.  

More photos from the wetlands are available in the Florida gallery.

Great Egrets Are....

I'm making my way through the 1,200 photos from the Florida wetlands earlier this week.  I'm now down to 300, which means the other 900 weren't worth the bits on the disk.   I'm not through yet, but I've made good progress.

I thought I would follow up the last post with some more photos of Great Egrets.   As you can see, in addition to being beautiful creatures, Great Egrets are

Shy

Graceful

Hard Working

Stealthy



Coordinated






We were blessed with beautiful mornings with magnificent birds.  What a great opportunity to enjoy creation.   I hope you enjoy these photos.  Be sure to click on the images for a larger view.




More photos from the wetlands are available in the Florida gallery.

Just Back From West Palm Beach and The Wakodahatchee Wetlands

We spent a few days visiting family in West Palm Beach this week.  I got out shooting three mornings while there - once to Green Cay Wetlands in Boyton Beach and twice to Wakadahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach.  These are both great places to photograph birds in a natural habitat.   Green Cay is a nicer facility with a 1.5 mile elevated boardwalk and a Nature Center but Wakadahatchee is by far the best place for photographing the birds.   I've been three years in a row now and highly recommend both. 

I took over 1,200 images the three mornings and now have to process through those to narrow down to the few keepers.   It will take several days to get through but I'll eventually post them in my online gallery.  For now, here's one of a Great Egret at Wakadahatchee. This bird was in breeding plumage wtih delicate ornamental feathers on it's back and the green skin around it's eyes.

Great Egret at Wakadahatchee Wetlands

1/400 sec, f/5.6, 250mm

Click the photo for a larger version.

More photos from the wetlands are availale in the Florida Gallery.

Kingsport Greenbelt

June and I had to run out to Hobby Lobby to buy more supplies for matting photos and took some time to walk the Greenbelt.  We were hoping to find Wood Ducks and Night Herons, but they were no were to be found.  Instead we were treated to baby Mallards, wildflowers, bees, and lots of birds!  

The Greenbelt is a great place for a stroll, run or bike ride.   It's also a fantastic spot for nature photography.   You can park right next to the path and travel a paved flat path for miles and miles.  It's one of the best features of Kingsport.

More photos available in the Greenbelt photo album.


Stay tuned for more shots from the Greenbelt.