Archive for the ‘Trip Reports’ Category
Red Fox Kit Panorama, Pennsylvania
Every April I look forward to finding and photographing Red Foxes. Fortunately, for the past two years a couple of photographer friends have been a huge help in showing me dens that they have found or have been told about. Somehow though, I never seem to get lucky when I visit them, and usually spend [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
New Growth, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Here’s another shot from my visit to Shenandoah National Park last weekend. This photograph is quite different from my first post, as it was taken at a higher elevation from deeper within the park, where the new spring growth has yet to really pop. What I like about this image is that it shows the transition [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
Spring Forest Foliage, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
While visiting Chris this weekend for his birthday, we made two trips to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to photograph beautiful Eastern Redbud trees in full bloom. Eastern Redbuds are flowering trees native to Eastern North America and are very prevalent in the northern Virginia area where Chris lives. While the trees in [...]
Northern Gannet in Mid-Dive
This is yet another shot from my gannet trip on Sunday. I particularly like the action captured here. These birds are capable of some quite impressive acrobatic maneuvers while flying. I call this shot “Twist and Shout” and I’m sure you can see why.
Techs: Canon 1D Mark II N, 1/2000s, f/6.3, ISO 500. To order [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
Northern Gannet in Flight
Here’s another recent shot of a Northern Gannet from my trip to the Delaware Bay on Sunday. The mood is a little different than my previous post, but I do have over 1450 photos of them from the day (I took over 2600 and I’ve edited through a small part of the day). I particularly [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
Skydiving Northern Gannet
On Easter Sunday, Chris and I met up with another photography couple, our good friends Kim and Paul, to photograph Northern Gannets feeding on herring migrating through the Delaware Bay. We spent all day photographing the birds and I took over 2600 photos, but it was well worth it, as I got a ton of [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
Sycamore Tree Bark, Manassas Battlefield, Virginia
Every once in a while, often when I can’t find anything else to photograph, I turn to tree bark as a subject. The bark of trees usually has unique patterns that can make for interesting photos, and since trees don’t move and their trunks don’t change, they can be photographed just about whenever you please. This makes [...]
In: Tips and Techniques, Trip Reports
Ice Abstract with Bubbles, Oneida Lake, New York
While in upstate New York this winter, one of my goals was to get some close-up, abstract photographs of ice. However, this proved to be a lot more challenging than I had originally assumed, as finding ice that was clean, visually pleasing, and level was not as easy as I imagined. I searched puddles and [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
Short-eared Owl Hunting
On my second visit to the Pole Farm in Lawrence, New Jersey, I was fortunate that the Short-eared Owls made an early appearance, coming out around 2:30PM, allowing for a couple hours of shooting in good light. While I didn’t have any close encounters with the owls like I did on Sunday, I was [...]
In: Recent and Random Photos, Trip Reports
Adult Female Northern Harrier
I made my first trip to the Pole Farm in Mercer County yesterday. The Pole Farm is best known among birders as an excellent Short-eared Owl habitat, and many visit the farm at dusk during the wintertime to watch them hunt. While the owls usually come out a little before sundown, around 4PM [...]
Barnegat Part 4: Purple Sandpiper
This will be my last installment of Barnegat images, at least for now. I started my student teaching this week, and its kept me both quite busy and fairly exhausted, so I haven’t done any shooting since Barnegat on Saturday. I hope to be able to do some more photography this weekend, but [...]
Barnegat Part 3: Male Harlequin Duck
The male Harlequin Duck is a very colorful and beautiful bird, with bold patterns of dark slate blue, rusty orange, black, and white. This can make exposure of these birds, especially in direct sun, very difficult. Fortunately, modern technology and software such as Adobe Camera Raw make it possible to recover some detail [...]
In: Tips and Techniques, Trip Reports
Barnegat Part 2: Female Harlequin Duck
Here’s another photograph from my trip to Barnegat Light yesterday, of a female Harlequin Duck resting on a rock covered in mussels. Towards the end of the day, the Harlequins grew more tolerant of the many people walking the jetty and light cloud cover provided some beautiful diffused light to photograph these birds. [...]
Mystery Scaup at Barnegat
Today I went to Barnegat Light to photograph the wide variety of winter birds that visit the area this time of year. I had quite a successful day and photographed Harlequin Ducks, Scaup, Brant, Dunlin, Purple Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Herring Gull, and Horned Larks. I also saw Common Loon, Long-tailed Ducks, Double-crested Cormorant, [...]
Sunrise Colors Abstract
Yesterday Chris and I had an eventful day, rising early to photograph sunrise, then searching for hawks and Snowy Owls through miles of farm country before finally spending a couple of hours photographing Pine Grosbeaks along roadside crab apple trees. Tomorrow, we hope to make a visit to Wolfe Island, Ontario to look for [...]
Photographing Sunset over Oneida Lake
Sunsets and sunrises are often very unpredictable – clouds that look promising may change right as the sun hits the horizon, obscuring the sun’s rays completely, or haze and stormy clouds may open up at the right moment, producing a glorious canvas of color and texture as daylight comes to an end. Photographing sunrises and [...]
In: Tips and Techniques, Trip Reports
Tundra Swans in Winter Whiteout on Oneida Lake
During the winter, Tundra Swans migrate south to feed, often stopping by Oneida Lake to rest and eat before moving further on when the lake freezes over. Because of the mix of cold and warm weather so far this December, ice has yet to completely cover the lake, and the swans have made some [...]
Using Perch Setups to Photograph Black-capped Chickadees
Feeder birds, such as chickadees, can often be quite easily photographed by using perch setups. In order to create a perch setup, you need to find a feeder that is visited regularly by birds, and you need perches. Perches can be collected just about anywhere. Look for branches with interesting features, such [...]
In: Tips and Techniques, Trip Reports
Sunrise over frozen Oneida Lake
This morning, Chris and I visited Toad Harbor Point to photograph sunrise over frozen Oneida Lake. The sky was mostly cloudy, but the rays of the sun shone through an opening in the clouds just long enough for some brilliant color to light up the morning sky for a few different compositions. Then, [...]
Gulls in Phoenix, New York
Today Chris and I went on a search for some unusual bird species that have been spotted lately in the central New York area. First we drove to the Southern Highlands region of New York state to search for Pine Grosbeaks in Nelson and the surrounding towns. We drove for a couple of [...]
In: Tips and Techniques, Trip Reports