Beauty of the Wild

Assiduous August

2008-08-25T15:53:00.016-04:00

Hello everyone. I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates to this site recently. It’s been an incredibly busy couple of months. The searing heat, high humidity, and summer thunderstorms have kept me from photographing for most of August.

I’ve also been very busy with work relating to several initiatives that the Everglades Photographic Society (EPS) have undertaken. EPS will have a booth at this year’s birding festival in Titusville, Florida and I hope to have some additional great news in the very near future. If you haven’t been to the EPS site lately, please stop by. There are some terrific articles on the site and many more are on the way.

I have also been incredibly busy at work, preparing for the fall semester at FAU. August 23rd was the official day that classes started, but Monday, August 25th is when all of that hard work on the computer systems over the summer actually starts to pay off, or not.

I’ve also recently done a few more photo shoots of people; a couple of aspiring models and also an aspiring musician. Those images take much longer to process as they often involve hours of work in Photoshop. Not that the images are overly manipulated, but it’s about striking that balance between making the subject look their best, yet keeping the retouching as subtle as possible. It takes a lot of work to achieve that balance. Whereas in nature photography I’m usually trying to simply keep the images exactly as I saw it, with people you’re trying to make the image as close to how the client envisioned it. A lot of work, and so far I’ve been doing it for free, but probably not for too much longer.

Amy and I are also expecting our next child in February. Our daughter Arwen just recently turned 3 years old and she’s been a bundle of energy. From morning to midnight we get no rest from her and so coupled with the pregnancy we’re busier than ever at home too.

As you can see things are going well, so thank you to those that have written me with concerns about my well being. I’m still here, just busier than ever. In the computer industry there’s a saying that the personal web page of the best web designers are always in need of updating, because they’re too busy working on other people’s web sites. That’s not unlike many situations I always find myself in.

There is a disturbing trend that I am seeing regarding the feeding of juvenile Purple Gallinules at Wakodahatchee and Green Cay. Visitors are removing the flowering stalks of the Fire Flag and using them to try to lure the juvenile gallinules to feed from their hands. When you do this, you are destroying the Fire Flag blooms causing them to decay more rapidly and thus reducing the amount of available food for the gallinules that feed on them. Not only that, but you are endangering the health and well being of the gallinules by making them look towards humans as a food source. This type of behavior by visitors would not be tolerated at a National Park or Wildlife Refuge, and I’m pretty sure it’s not legal. So please do not feed the juvenile gallinules and if you see anyone doing so, please ask them to stop. Remember that these places are there to help protect wildlife populations in the area.

Since I’m such a glutton for creating more work for myself, please remember that you can always e-mail me your nature photography related questions, or better yet post those questions on the EPS flickr group. Thanks, and I’ll see you out there, whenever I get around to going out again…

The Chase

2008-06-21T23:48:00.014-04:00

“The Chase” 1^st Place Winner in the Florida’s Avian Wonders category of the Orange Audubon Society’s 2008 (20^th Annual) Kit and Sidney Chertok Nature Photography Contest.

Taken on March 1^st, 2008 with a Canon EOS 40D and Canon 400mm f/5.6 USM L lens @ f/5.6, 1/1250s, ISO 200, Aperture Priority mode, hand held, at the Green Cay Wetlands.

My dad was last year’s first place winner in the birds category, and I have won third place and a couple honorable mentions in the past; but this year I finally won a first place award. Mind you, this was not the image I was expecting to win. I thought that my image of a Snowy Plover with a newly hatched chick would win out over this one, but it seems that the judges thought differently. I am glad that this image won, because it exemplifies everything that I preach about nature photography.

First of all it is an image of a Common Moorhen, which is perhaps one of the most common marsh birds in the world.

Second, it is a behavioral shot that tells you that this bird is fiercely territorial.

Thirdly, it is an image that I had envisioned in my mind for a long time. I had originally wanted to take a similar shot with American Coots, but those attempts never turned out the way that I wanted. However, whenever I saw a few moorhens, gallinules, or coots gathered in one area I always positioned myself at an angle where I could take a shot like the one above. A lot of patience and persistence paid off, and after six months of actively trying, I was able to get a result very close to what I had imagined.

Finally, I took this image with my Canon 40D, and Canon 400mm f/5.6 USM L lens; a very affordable combination for many beginning nature photographers, proving that you can get great images without completely breaking the bank.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattening

2008-06-18T00:32:00.005-04:00

Snail Kites

2008-06-05T22:59:00.007-04:00

There are several pairs of Snail Kites nesting in and around the Marsh Trail at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. I’ve decided that this will be my summer project, to document the nest and eventually the fledgling kites, so you will probably see the gallery dominated by this one species. Of course if you’ve been a regular visitor here, you already know that the Snail Kite is one of my favorite species to photograph.

If you are interested in photographing the nesting kites at Loxahatchee, please keep the following in mind.

Many of the nests are too far away to see; only one nest is really visible from the Marsh Trail.

I recommend a minimum of a 400mm lens to be able to really get these birds large enough in the frame, and most of the time you will need a 500mm lens or more.

The visible nest is a morning shoot. The sun is just not in the correct position to be able to yield any good shots in the afternoon.

After about 7:30 in the morning the sun is blistering hot, and the gnats will swarm upon you. Wear insect repellant, sunscreen, and bring some water. You can easily become dehydrated out there. Also watch out for ants.

Finally, remember to be courteous to the other photographers and birders out there. Do not do anything that will disturb the kites. The Snail Kite is an endangered species in the Florida Everglades and it is illegal to disturb them.

A new beginning… The Everglades Photographic Society.

2008-06-02T13:55:00.002-04:00

Well things don’t always turn out the way you plan them. I’ve been at home sick for most of the month of May. My daughter brought home a cold that only lasted about five days for most people that caught it, but for me it turned into a throat and upper respiratory infection that kept me indoors most of the time. On the upside, I finally got to finish a couple of those X-box games that have been sitting on my shelf. The downside is that the gallery has been sparse lately.

However, another upside to all of this is that I’ve had some time to work on re-launching the Everglades Photographic Society (EPS) website. There are three fantastic articles on the site by fellow EPS members, for you to read and comment on. I will be publishing several articles on photography on the EPS website later in the year, and if things go as planned I will be producing a couple of video tutorials as well. At this time we hope to have regular updates every other month, so look for all new material on the EPS website again in August. Don’t forget to comment on the articles and let us know what you think.

We’ll be right back after these messages…

2008-04-14T15:56:00.003-04:00

I apologize for the lack of updates to the blog portion of this site recently. I’ve gotten caught up in a number of projects that have been taking up most of my time. I have and will continue to update the galleries with new images as I am able to take and process, but I won’t be updating this blog as often until late summer or early fall of 2008. I will be spending that time doing several things:

First is that we are in the middle of spring cleaning at my house. We just replaced the carpeting on the bottom floor with new wood laminate. Next we’ll have to replace the various window blinds that are no longer functional. Then we’ll be cleaning out the garage just as hurricane season approaches. So lots of home improvement stuff will be going on over the summer.

I’m also going to be pushing hard to launch and get the Everglades Photographic Society (EPS) moving in the right direction. We have a great mission and a wonderful family of photographers; now we just have to get some content up. Please join us on our public flickr group. Post some images, start a discussion, and let us know what type of nature photography tips, tricks, and tutorials you’d like to see. We’d really like to hear from you and hope to make EPS the place where you can learn how to really improve your nature photography skills and learn about the natural environment as well.

Finally I’m going to spend a good 30 percent of my photography time these coming months on portraits and beauty shots of people. Fashion and modeling photography have always fascinated me and over the past year I’ve taken some baby steps into learning how to properly capture those types of images. Thanks to strobist.com, I’ve really learned a lot about off camera lighting and it’s led me to want to pursue other types of photography. Well it’s time that I start putting what I’ve learned into practice; after all it’s the only way we get better at photography.

So don’t fret too much about the lack of updates here for a little while. There will still be plenty of places you can find me. Be sure to check out the gallery from time to time as I will continue to post images there. You can also always e-mail me your questions, which I am all too happy to answer. Find me on flickr and on the EPS flickr group, in fact, please join the EPS group on flickr. So I’m not going anywhere, just spreading the love a bit more.

I’d like to leave you with his little bit of encouraging news I received from fellow photographer Charles Slavens. This e-mail was originally sent by Elinor Williams of the Friends of Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge regarding the recent photo contest held there. This excerpt from the e-mail is the part I found encouraging:

" I think they might have fixed some of the complaints from last year that you forwarded to me from Jay Paredes and that I forwarded to them - they eliminated the Close-Up category, and all photos that were moved from one category to another still made the final judging. Without the confusion of a Close-Up category, the only photos that were moved ended up in Special Techniques, which was judged after the others. The judges acknowledged the difficulty of capturing tiny birds sitting still long enough for a photograph, although they still didn't seem to cut them any slack. There was an attempt to explain the rules a bit better on the application this time. Only one photo was disqualified, and it was a gorgeous one, too, for being on the wrong kind of board and being too long. "

So it looks like all that moaning and groaning I did last year made some difference. Let’s hope that they continue to improve the process to make it easy and fair for all involved and perhaps they’ll get better participation. I for one am curious to see this year’s winners…

You say you want a revolution…

2008-03-31T21:58:00.008-04:00

As many of you know I work at a university and recently I’ve had a preview of a brand new image processing system that threatens to get rid of blurry images forever. Developed by Professor Alfred Raguboboli, Ph.D. from the College of Engineering; newly patented software will be made available as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop Extended.

Combining the flexibility of RAW image processing software and 3D rendering technology used for Hollywood special effects, new software can compute the ideal focus for an image. The software starts by examining the EXIF data stored along with a digital photograph and determines the lens, focal length, and distance to where the camera locked focus. Using the RAW image data of the out of focus picture the computer calculates the ideal focused image and exposure and then renders it. This software is so powerful that it can even compensate for motion blur and camera shake.

Professor Raguboboli has been a pioneer in developing computer rendering systems that generate photorealistic simulations of the real world. His software has been used by the motion picture industry to create stunning visual effects for such films as Jurassic Park and King Kong. The idea to extend this technology for use by digital photographers came to him after his son’s fifth birthday party. Professor Raguboboli had taken some pictures of the event with his new Canon EOS 20D, and to his disappointment, many of the images came out blurry. The shutter speeds were just too long for the low light indoor shots. He soon realized that Adobe Photoshop simply lacked the tools necessary for him to recover the images to his satisfaction. That’s when the idea struck him. The rendering software, that he had dedicated much of his time to, used a virtual camera for composition and lens effects to render scenes realistically. The idea was if you could use a virtual camera to render an image, why not the reverse? By using the RAW image data, the computer can calculate the camera’s position and focal point. The computer then determines what new focal point would render the image with the best contrast, and renders the new image based on the original camera RAW data.

All of the information necessary to recreate the correctly focused image is right there in the RAW file. There is only one exact situation that could have created the blurry image. The software simply computes the correct scene that would have created the out of focus image and then renders the correct one.

The software is so revolutionary that pretty much everyone wants to license it. There have been requests from Adobe, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM, and a lot more. NASA and the FBI would also like to use the software. “If we had thought of this earlier, expensive repairs to the mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope might not have been necessary” exclaims Professor Raguboboli.

Despite all the offers for an exclusive license to this software, Professor Raguboboli is actually a firm believer in the open source community and will release a public beta test for the whole world to try it out for themselves on April 1st, 2008. You can download the software here.

Going digital, the death of creativity.

2008-02-26T22:26:00.018-05:00

There is something about the analog process of shooting on film and making your own prints that made those photographers a lot more creative. I think it was the smaller margin of error that working with film afforded that made these photographers more creative. Limitations inspire creativity. When there’s room to make mistakes, people will make mistakes, but sometimes those mistakes turn out to be wonderful surprises. Did you forget to process your film correctly? Maybe you pushed it one stop, but forgot to process it that way. Maybe you left the photo paper in the chemicals for too long. More often than not, these mistakes led to disasters, but occasionally they might produce something extraordinary that might lead you to try new styles and techniques. It inspired experimentation and creativity.

The lack of instant feedback also inspired creativity. You never knew if you got the shot or not, so you’d take the same picture over and over again with different exposures, different lighting, and different film; hoping that one of the shots would turn out. If you were lucky, you’d have many versions to choose from afterwards.

Unfortunately, I’m finding a lot of that type of creativity has gone missing in today’s digital world. You would think that the instant feedback, lower processing cost, and unlimited post processing possibilities would lead to unheard amounts of creativity. Instead digital seems to have narrowed the vision of many of today’s photographers. The lack of limitations creates paralysis. Everything from EXIF data to Photoshop settings are studied and duplicated from one person to the next. It has become a game of precision, rather than creativity.

Before, photographers would talk about their stories of how a particular picture was taken. How one waited for the right moment, said something silly to get the right expression, or how the light reacted in an unforeseen way. Those stories are far fewer these days. Instead it’s all about the lens, camera body, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exact time of day, or light placement. The subject becomes secondary to the technicality of taking the picture. Everyone wants a formula that says if you do x, then you will always get y. Photography doesn’t always work that way.

I suppose this type of formulaic precision was bound to make its way into photography, once digital became popular. Over 15 years of working with computers has taught me that. Working for corporations that wanted their business plans to be as simple as a formula that could be predicted by a computer. Our strategy is x and the computer predicts that the result will be y. To assume that the computer must always be right has been the downfall of many business strategists. It isn’t. For one thing the computer can only make the calculation based on what it knows, and it cannot know everything. It lacks information relating to experience, trends, and most of all it lacks imagination.

So the next time you pick up your camera, think a little differently. Try not to worry so much about what your settings are. Experiment, play, and be creative.

Photographing the Total Lunar Eclipse on February 20th was challenging. After reading several tutorials on the web about how to do it, rapidly changing conditions due to cloud cover and winds made any planning I had done go straight out of the window. So I winged it.

This image is available for download as a desktop wallpaper in several resolutions:

Widescreen 960 x 600 Full Screen 1024 x 768
Widescreen 1280 x 800 Full Screen 1280 x 1024
Widescreen 1440 x 900 Full Screen 1600 x 1200
Widescreen 1680 x 1050 Widescreen 1920 x 1200

Limpkin Park

2008-02-04T11:36:00.000-05:00

There’s a whole new rock band over at Green Cay. Four Limpkin chicks (Aramus guarauna) have been keeping visitors and photographers busy with their antics. I was told that five chicks originally hatched about a week ago, but now there are only four. Unfortunately that’s how nature works by weeding out the weaker ones, so the stronger ones survive to perpetuate the species. I was surprised at how aggressive the little chicks are toward each other. Although they huddle close for comfort and protection, when the parents are around the little ones really push, peck, and tug at each other.

The Limpkin is usually placed in its own family group, and although it looks somewhat like an Ibis it is much more closely related to rails and cranes. Easily recognized by its loud echoing call; Limpkins in Florida were almost hunted to extinction for food. Like the Snail Kite, Limpkins feed primarily on the Apple Snail (Pomacea spp.) and has benefitted from the introduction of South American Apple Snails into the South Florida ecosystem from the aquarium trade. In fact almost all the Apple Snails in Green Cay are of the nonnative South American variety.

Speaking of which, one of the earliest birds to return from South America, is North America’s largest Swallow, the Purple Martin. The nest boxes at Green Cay are starting to fill up with Purple Martins which usually arrive in late January and early February. At the moment these birds are battling the European Starlings which compete with the Martins for their nest boxes. Here is a species that has come to rely on man for its survival. The colonies found in Eastern North America now rely almost exclusively on birdhouses built for them to nest. Unlike their Western counterparts, the Eastern Purple Martin population could be seriously threatened if their nest boxes were removed.

With their fairly predictable flight pattern and their close proximity to the Green Cay and Wakodahatchee boardwalks, the Martins make great subject to practice advanced flight shot photography. You have a relatively small and fast bird, so you’ll have to lead your target well. Because of how dark the Martins are you’ll have to dial in a +1 to +1.5 stop exposure compensation for their color to come out, especially against a clear blue sky. However, when these birds fly low enough to allow for a green background, then your shutter speed is going to plummet if you are in aperture priority (Av) mode, so it’s better to use Manual exposure (M).

Canon Digital Rebel XSi (450D)

2008-02-01T11:41:00.000-05:00

At the PMA (Photo Marketing Association Annual Show), going on now at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Canon recently announced the new Digital Rebel XSi. You can get the full specifications and press release over at dpreview.com.

I know that there are many of you that have purchased previous versions of the Canon Digital Rebel series, and continue to purchase updated models in the Rebel series as features are added. The Rebel series has some excellent cameras in the lineup, often coming very close in feature sets found in Canon’s prosumer line of cameras, the xxD series (i.e. 20D, 30D, 40D).

So if you’ve been sticking to Canon’s Digital Rebel line of digital cameras, upgrading year after year, Canon has a message for you in the new XSi. Stop, and upgrade to the xxD series. Two feature changes in the XSi signal this message to me. The first is that Canon has once again, changed the battery type; and second they have changed the media type from compact flash (CF) to secure digital (SD). This will be a frustrating upgrade for current Digital Rebel users, since it would involve buying new spare batteries, a new battery grip, and new memory cards. All of that adds up quickly. Compare this to the more stable xxD line where the battery grip has changed little through three models (20D, 30D, and 40D) and the batteries and compact flash cards have remained the same since at least the 10D. So current Digital Rebel users this is probably not the camera upgrade for you.

Many people have always thought of the Digital Rebel line as the lite version of the xxD line. But the XSi’s new features put it more along the lines of a step up for those who have point and shoot digital cameras that want to upgrade to a digital SLR. Now the XSi will accept the same memory cards that your point and shoot digital camera uses. This was a smart move that will probably continue to drive more point and shoot users over to a digital SLR.

The disappointment regarding the XSi was that current Digital Rebel owners really wanted a lower priced 40D in the form of the XSi. The XSi did inherit some features from the 40D, but none that would really threaten 40D sales. Instead, it’s clear that Canon has targeted the Digital Rebel series as a step up from a digital point and shoot.

Here are my thoughts on some of the XSi’s features:

12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor - Canon is playing the megapixel catch-up race here. They have not increased the sensor size, just added more pixels. The result is going to be more noise in the image.

3.5 frames per second - Good enough if you’re upgrading form a point and shoot, but misses the mark if you’ve been using a digital SLR for a while now. Canon has all of that 20D and 30D technology sitting around that they should be able to recycle at a lower cost. This camera should have had at least 4.5 to 5 frames per second.

9-point wide-area AF system with f/2.8 cross-type centre point - This is the AF system that was on the 20D, 5D, and 30D, It is not the one from the 40D.

DIGIC III image processor - The DIGIC III, has been found in nearly every camera model Canon has made over the past year, including point-and-shoots. The Digital Rebel seems to be the last model to get this feature. The Xti should have had it years ago. You do get 14-bit which is good for recovering shadows and HDR. The other stuff like highlight-tone-priority are really JPEG only features that can be replicated with any good RAW processing software.

Fully compatible with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites - Oddly, Nikon can't claim the same thing about their system. The low end D40 isn't compatible with all Nikon lenses.

There are two features that Canon should have added to the Rebel that would have made it a real competitor to the other entry level DSLRs. The first should have been a high resolution LCD. The larger LCDs that Canon uses have the same pixel counts as the old smaller LCDs. The larger LCDs only make the images look fuzzier and doesn't help you see if you've taken a blurred shot or not. The second should have been an HDMI port so that you can view your images on a High-Definition TV.

Where to purchase:

Canon Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Camera
Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera

Space Coast Birding Festival, Day 3

2008-01-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

Our third and final day of attending the Space Coast Birding Festival started off on the wrong foot. Cloudy and overcast along with some wind gusts made the prospect of photographing any wildlife seem bleak. We had made plans to go find the Florida Scrub Jays again, but the uncooperative weather changed our minds; and we headed straight to the Viera Wetlands instead. We were hoping that Viera, being a little further south, would get clear skies faster than the Titusville area. That didn’t happen and we were once again taking photographs under gloomy skies. Surprisingly we still found some very good opportunities despite the weather.

Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway
I hope that you’ve enjoyed the picture previews I’ve posted over the past few days. These and the rest of the images from our trip will be processed and posted in the January gallery over the next week or so.

Space Coast Birding Festival, Day 2

2008-01-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

Florida Cottonmouth Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti
It was overcast in Titusville today, with very few periods where the sun was visible in the sky. Photography was challenging, but when you’re out with friends, you still have a lot of fun. I borrowed the idea for the image above from Michael Wolf, and used my wide angle lens very close to this Florida Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti). Because of the cool weather and even cooler water temperature, this venomous snake was rather lethargic and didn’t mind all of the attention. Still you only really attempt pictures like this if you are familiar with an animal’s habits. Having spent a large part of my youth catching snakes in the wild has given me a lot of experience with this particular species. This was no comfort to Chuck Hersh, who was experiencing some anxiety about how close I had gotten to the snake.

In the afternoon we attended a very well put together slide show presentation by Joanne Williams about Madagascar, Africa, The Pantanal, and the Everglades. Tomorrow we’re going to try to stop by the Viera Wetlands before heading back to South Florida.

Space Coast Birding Festival, Day 1

2008-01-25T22:14:00.000-05:00

Canon just recently announced the new Rebel XSi. I will be writing my thoughts on this new model in a future posting, but for now you can head over to dpreview.com for a good run down of the new features.

I am still at the 11th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Tutusville, Florida. We had a good afternoon shooting and I just wanted to share one of the images with you.

Florida Scrub Jay Aphelocoma coerulescens

4 Years, 3 Cameras, and 500 Gigabytes Later

2008-01-23T18:01:00.000-05:00

I just finished archiving all the photos I have taken since I’ve owned a digital SLR camera. It filled an entire 500 GB hard disk for all the files from November 2003 to December 2007. Three separate digital SLRs were used to create those files, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D), Canon EOS 20D, and the Canon EOS 40D. What a long way we’ve come in just a short amount of time.

I have all of my images stored on two Western Digital 500 GB My Book drives. Each drive contains the identical information as the other, and I will be moving one drive to an off-site location. I think that’s a pretty good backup strategy. Before archiving the files were stored in two locations as well. Older files are stored on a 250 GB Buffalo LinkStation, and newer files are stored on an internal 250 GB hard disk. The files stored on both of these drives are backed up to an external Western Digital 500 GB My Book drive. This helps keep the files safe from a single point of failure and also provides extra security from accidental deletions or overwrites when I am editing them. The downside to all of this is all the extra storage I need to keep the duplicate copies of each file. Still, I’m looking forward to filling up the next 500 GB, which I’m sure I’ll reach sooner than 4 years.

My dad just purchased the Dot Line DL-DRF14/C Macro Ringlight Flash for Canon E-TTL II. It has a guide number of 46 feet / 14 meters at 50mm, which is similar to the Sigma EM-140 DG Macro Ringlight that I use. In practice the unit is less powerful than the Sigma, has no manual controls, no high-speed sync, and no master/slave capabilities. However at 1/3rd the cost it’s not a bad alternative and for most macro shots you wouldn’t miss those features. The flash has a ring diameter of 52mm, and it comes with step down rings for lenses up to 67mm. You could probably get a step down ring for larger lenses, say 72mm and 77mm, but you’ll start to notice some viginetting. The build quality is also not as good as the Sigma, but did I mention it was less than 1/3rd the cost? He’s been using it very effectively with his Tamron 90mm Macro lens.

The next few days I’ll be at the 11th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida. If you’re attending I hope to see you there…

A Brand New Year!

2008-01-07T16:21:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I recently sent out a quick newsletter with a couple of HDR shots to celebrate the New Year. If you are signed up and did not receive one, please let me know. I’ve had to recently revamp the distribution list and remove or update a lot of e-mail addresses.

Some of you have already written to me with some good questions, and I’ve tried to answer as many as I could. I’ll be posting these e-mail Q&A’s every few months, if I get enough of them, so please keep those questions coming. A few of you have also sent me links to your websites; and I have to say that your photography has really improved. I hope that this site has been and continues to be a good resource for you in learning techniques for photographing the wild.

Nature Photography must be taking off, because there are now a myriad of web sites and forums crowding the Internet. To name just a few of the major ones: NaturePhotographers.net, NatureScapes.net, PhotoMigrations.com, WildPhotographers.com, and the new BirdPhotographers.net. So if you want your photos critiqued by experts, you now have many choices. What’s interesting to see is the same picture posted by the same photographer on each of the different sites; and to see how each site critiques the same image differently. Some sites are very gentle, while others may seem to attack you for posting the image in the first place; and every site seems to be guilty of doing a little of both. It just goes to show how subjective and competitive nature, and particularly bird, photography has become. A bit of advice if you do post or decide to post on these image critique sites is to keep an open mind. Each person has their own unique style and way of doing things, and some will try to tell you how you should have taken that picture based on what they would have done. Learn from the critique, but don’t let it cramp your particular style, or convince you into doing something you’re not comfortable with.

The digital SLR revolution has really made this hobby affordable to many people. It used to cost tens of thousands of dollars to purchase the equipment needed to take great pictures, but today you can get started for around two thousand dollars (Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi with Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens). It is still an expensive hobby, but becoming more and more affordable. It shows in the number of you that I see on the boardwalks of Wakodahatchee and Green Cay each week. Talking to many of you, the number one concern is really cost, and there are few web sites that cater to the cost conscious nature photographer. That’s my new goal for 2008, to give photography advice for nature photographers who want to keep your costs down.

Your second concern is how to make use of all that fancy equipment. Hopefully this site will be able to help you there as well.

The January 2008 gallery just opened and I’ll be adding pictures throughout the month, as always. Don’t forget to check out the Osceola / Brevard county images from our end of the year trip to Central Florida in the December gallery.

Reader Mail

2007-12-28T16:09:00.000-05:00

As a special year end recap, I’ve assembled some of the questions that you, the readers, have asked me over e-mail and my responses to them. I've broken them up into five separate postings below. I hope that other readers will benefit from the questions and answers, so keep those questions coming by sending e-mail to jayparedes@hotmail.com.

Also don't forget about the updated December gallery.

Reader Mail Part 1 - Flight Photography

2007-12-28T16:04:00.000-05:00

I was out with my new Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens and got some great flight shots. I had it set in aperture priority, ISO 400 at f/7.1. In some of the shots, the shutter speed went up to 1/4000s, which is not good. Any suggestions on how to bring the shutter speed down?

Getting your shutter speed down is easy. Simply dial in a smaller aperture (f/8 or higher) or lower your ISO. Since during flight shots the background is mostly blue sky, you'll get very fast shutter speeds on a sunny day. Watch out for when a bird flies lower and your background turns green, as your shutter speed will dramatically drop. In general I try to keep my shutter speed between 1/800 and 1/2000. At 1/2000 if the background changes and the shutter speed drops, I'm not so worried that I'll get a blurry shot.

I really need your help. I was not happy with any of my flight shots of the harrier. I know you shoot RAW and had the Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS L lens, but I was wondering, how did your pictures come out? The pictures I took of the harrier, none were sharp and the head was dark.

My images of the harrier were alright. I had three passes total yesterday and I was able to adjust the camera settings a little each time to get better results. About 50% of my images of the harrier were in focus. It was a bit more of a challenge using the Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS L lens plus Canon 2x converter because that combination makes focusing a bit slow, somewhat like the Canon 100-400mm f/3.5 – 5.6 IS L lens.

I found from the previous passes that the sky was very bright making the harrier very dark, so I added +1 exposure compensation to bring more details out in the bird. To get it as bright as I wanted I had to further adjust the exposure in the RAW image about another +1/4 stop. That makes the image a bit washed out, and then I had to adjust the blacks and contrast back in. RAW makes processing more flexible.

I was wondering what you do if you get a bird flying and it is full frame. When you go to print it, how do you print it without cropping and cutting off some of the wing or if is too close to the edge to mat?

I believe what your asking has to do with the image's aspect ratio. Canon cameras create files in the 3x2 format (more commonly known as 6x4), which is fine if you are printing images with the same ratio (i.e. 3x2, 6x4, 12x8, 18x12, etc). However, if you print to a different format, say 11x 14 you'll end up cropping part of the image. So if you have something that is full frame and tight, you'll cut off part of the image you want to keep. There are a couple ways to get around this. The first is when printing, in Adobe Photoshop, I use the scale to fit media check box. This will fit the image on to the paper size but you'll get white borders around the image. The other method I use only works if you have a clean background such as an almost solid green on blue. Use the canvas dialog in Photoshop to add more canvas around the image so that you get an aspect ratio of 14x11 (or 11x8.5, etc). Then use the clone tool to clone in the background of the original image to the blank part of the canvas.

Reader Mail Part 2 - Teleconverters

2007-12-28T15:58:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a Canon 1.4 extender for use with my 100-400mm Canon lens. The extender does not allow my lens to auto focus. Does any manufacturer make a 1.4 extender that will allow my Canon lens to still auto focus? I would appreciate any suggestions that you might have.

You're right, the Canon 1.4 teleconverter will not allow you to auto focus with the Canon 100-400mm L f/3.5 - 5.6 lens. That's because most Canon camera bodies, with the exception of the 1D series will only auto focus if your lens aperture is f/5.6 or faster. The Canon 1.4 teleconverter adds 1 stop (f/1.4) of light loss to your lens, making its effective aperture f/8.0 (f/5.6 + f/1.4). So your Canon body will not autofocus. There are several workarounds for this issue, including using masking tape on some of the converter's pins, but most don't work very well. The only workaround that I use and recommend is to use the Tamron 1.4 extender instead of the Canon one. You'll have to use a specific Tamron 1.4 extender for this to work, namely this one.

Tamron makes several 1.4 extenders. The one you want is the black, non-pro version. This little teleconverter does not pass all of the lens data back to the camera body. Most notably, it omits the part about a teleconverter being attached, so your camera body still thinks that the lens is operating at f/3.5 to f/5.6 and so attempts autofocus. Notice I said "attempts". Whether it is successful or not, depends on the amount of light available and the amount of contrast visible on your subject. Autofocus is also slow, so this trick works for getting extra distance, but does not work very well for moving targets like birds in flight. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't (lack of light or contrast) its frustrating. Here's some tricks I've found to make this combination work better.

This trick works better on older camera bodies, such as the Digital Rebel or the Canon 10D. It still works with newer bodies like the 20D, 30D, and 40D, but not as well.

Use only the center AF point.

Focus on the highest contrast portion of the subject. Sometimes you may want to focus on the edge of the subject, right at the transition between the edge of the subject and the background as this area may have more contrast.

Use this trick to make far away birds appear larger in the frame.

Do not use for action shots like birds in flight.

Set your aperture to f/8 or smaller (f/10, f/11) to maintain sharpness and get the correct exposure.

If you use this trick with a flash in E-TTL mode the image will not be correctly exposed, because the lens data sent to the flash will be wrong. Use with flash in manual mode or dial in flash exposure compensation after taking some test shots.

Set your camera to one shot mode so you can tell if the camera locked on to the subject or is endlessly hunting due to lack of light or contrast for this combination.

I ran into someone at Green Cay on Friday. He was using a Tamron 1.4 extender that gave him auto focus with his Canon 400mm f/5.6 L lens. I think Kenko will also allow the auto focus to work. If you were to buy one, would you go with Tamron or Kenko?

You can use the Tamron 1.4x extender to get auto focus with the Canon 400 f/5.6 L lens and the Canon 100-400 f/3.5 - 5.6 IS L lens under certain conditions.

These conditions are:

It has to be a sunny day, and your subject needs to be well lit with a lot of contrast. (i.e. Red Shouldered Hawks have lots of contrast, but Snail Kites don't).

Autofocus will be slower than normal.

AI Servo will "hunt" to find its target more than usual.

Even though your camera will display that your aperture is set to f/5.6, in reality your exposure is being taken at f/8.

Although the trick works with a few teleconverters by Tamron, Kenko, and others; tests by users on internet forums like DPReview.com indicated that the Tamron performed better than the other brands. For this trick to work, you'll need to buy the inexpensive, "non-pro" version of the teleconverters.

Note you can also fool the camera when using a Canon or Pro teleconverter by taping the last three pins of the connector between the converter and the lens. However, the performance is much slower than the Tamron.

Reader Mail Part 3 - Miscellaneous

2007-12-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

I took several pictures for HDR and Photomatix and I was wondering... Can you possibly tell me the basic steps you use? I have never really played with it, but now I am really excited about a few of these images.

I've wanted to write an HDR tutorial for some time, but I have so little time these days. Here's a roundup of a bunch of HDR tutorials. I've read them all and pick and choose methods that work best for a particular image.

http://tutorialblog.org/hdr-tutorials-roundup/

I currently use a 19 inch Viewsonic CRT. I am looking at the Dell 24 inch widescreen Ultrasharp LCD. What are you using and what are your thoughts on the Dell?

Dell's Ultrasharp line of monitors is very good and are usually manufactured by the same people that make the Apple Cinema displays. The Dell 24" display is a very good monitor. Apple displays look nice and they are usually the recommended monitor; but the Dell ones are just as good and for a lot less money. They also have more manual controls for calibration.

I use a Dell Ultrasharp 20" widescreen Flat Panel Display. I like it a lot. It also calibrates nicely, that is before I got Windows Vista. They haven't updated the calibration software to work with Vista just yet, so my monitor is uncalibrated. I prefer using a single widescreen monitor instead of 2 separate monitors.

I'm looking for a lens to take to Las Vegas along with my 28-135mm lens. I also want it to fill a gap in my lens collection. What do you think of the Sigma 17-70mm macro? Any other suggestions? I need a macro lens and a wide angle. A small mid range zoom is also needed.

If you want a macro lens, save your money for a true macro lens. The Sigma zooms that say macro are not true macro lenses. Now the Sigma 17-70mm is an okay lens. From what I've read, you need to stop it down to f/8 to get the best results; otherwise it may be a bit soft. Here are my choices for lenses at the moment, although I've not really used many of them yet:

Wide Angle: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-45. A good cheaper alternative would be the Tokina 12-24mm f/4-5.6.
Macro: Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro. You can't beat the price / performance.
Medium Telephoto: Canon 70-200mm f/4 (non-IS). Again you can't beat the price / performance.

My next lens will probably be the Canon 85mm f/1.8 for portraits. For Las Vegas, I'd also bring the 50mm f/1.8. It will be great for low light shot without a flash. Just bump up your ISO.

I have a Sandisk 1.0GB compact flash card in my Canon S500. Would it make a difference to the speed of the shots if I upgraded to a faster card, perhaps the Sandisk Ultra II 2.0GB? Would this difference be noticeable?

The answer is yes, but it will not solve your problem with the S500; and here's why...

Your S500 can probably write data faster than a standard Sandisk Compact Flash card can handle, but not much faster. The speed gain will be negligible with this camera. Your camera also has a buffer of somewhere around 2 or 3 frames where the pictures are stored before they are written to the card. So unless you are taking more then 2 or 3 consecutive shots in a row, you won't notice the speed at which that data is written to the card. The only time you may even notice any difference is if you are using the camera's video function. In that mode the camera continually writes to the card and the extra speed may give you smoother video in some circumstances.

However this is not the "slowness" you are encountering with the S500. The perception of slowness has to do with the S500's shutter lag. That is the time between the moment you press the shutter button and the time the actual picture is taken. Like most point and shoot digital cameras, the S500 uses a traditional CCD sensor. This is the same type of sensor that is found in your video camera, and it allows you to get a live preview on your camera's LCD window. The disadvantage of this is that when you press the shutter button to take a picture, the camera turns off the CCD sensor momentarily to reset it for the proper exposure to take the picture, and then resets it again to display the live preview. All this resetting takes time with a traditional CCD sensor and that translates into shutter lag.

The digital SLRs advantage is that first of all they don't use a traditional CCD sensor. They use CCD that specifically designed for photography and not video, or they use a CMOS type sensor. The first thing you'll notice about an SLR is that there is no live preview on the LCD screen. It's simply not designed to do that. SLR's use a traditional mechanical shutter to take the picture, so the sensor is either exposed to light or not exposed to light. This means no resets in between and very little shutter lag as compared to the point and shoot cameras. The lag between the time the button is pressed and the picture is taken is very short, so the camera seems to react "faster" and you are more likely to get the shot you intended to get. Digital SLRs also have larger buffers, so you can take a lot more pictures consecutively, especially in JPG mode before the camera slows down due to the write speed of your memory card.

The differences can be summed up this way. A point and shoot digital camera feels like a boat. You can't stop a boat immediately, it takes time. A digital SLR is feels more like a car. You can stop a car relatively fast. There's still some delay between the time the brake is applied and the actual time the car stops, but it’s a lot faster than stopping a boat.

I just wandered across your site while searching for photography destinations in the South Florida area. I'm a Miami resident who recently found himself intrigued by nature photography. I have a 10 day vacation coming up, and would appreciate any suggestions for photography destinations within 100 miles or so of the Miami / Ft. Lauderdale area. My gear list might help, in terms of letting you know what sort of equipment I'll be carrying. I'll be shooting a 20D with a 17-40mm f/4 USM L, a 50mm f/1.8, a 100mm f/2.8 macro, and a 70-300 f/4 - 5.6 USM DO IS.

Thank you for writing. As you can see, most of my images are of birds, because they are abundant around South Florida. You'll find many of the nature photographers in South Florida concentrate on birds as their main subject. If you decide to pursue nature photography seriously, a 400mm lens is about the minimum that you would need to effectively capture images of birds. Of course there are other subject matters and it seems that you are well equipped to handle macro and wide angle landscapes.

With only 300mm, you'll need to get fairly close to your subjects, and there are two places in South Florida that you can do that. The first is Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park, and the second is the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach. Both places allow you to get fairly close to your subjects. Aside from those places, you can always practice at a zoo. The Wings of Asia exhibit at Miami Metrozoo lets you get pretty close to your subjects. Flamingo Gardens has an aviary with many native birds from South Florida. Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, lets you get pretty close to many smaller birds and butterflies.

I hope that helps you find some good destinations for your vacation and bring home some fantastic photos.

Reader Mail Part 4 - Macro Photography

2007-12-28T15:41:00.000-05:00

Outstanding macro images! I think the ring light works really well. I may need to get one. Superb depth of field (DOF) on the images. What DOF do you find you use most on average for macro photography?

I usually shoot in Manual mode at f/16 and 1/250th of a second at ISO 400. I have to vary the flash output from 0 to -1 depending on how close I am to the subject. Sometimes I'll go as high as f/22 or bump down my ISO to 200 if there is a lot of light.

At that those apertures, no matter how much I've cleaned my sensor I usually spend at least 5 minutes in Photoshop cleaning up dust spots.

What do you think of a close-up lens? I have found some in 72mm and 77mm. Will it work with any of my lenses? I found a set with 1.5x, 2x, 4x, and 10x power.

I wasn't crazy about close-up lenses. I have a Canon 500D (58mm) which I bought for my 70-300mm lens. I didn't like it. Autofocus is out of the question, you need to go manual if you want to get stuff in focus. Also you lose infinity focus when you have a close-up lens attached, which is what drives the AF nuts.

I used the 500D for a couple of weeks then I put it away and saved up for the Sigma 150mm. I lent the 500D to my dad and he ended up buying extension tubes instead, and finally a real Macro lens. As you can see, he and I did very little Macro until we got our true macro lenses. Even with the 150mm, I only used it occasionally until I got a ring light, although with a diffuser, you can get away with using the 550/580ex flash.

Reader Mail Part 5 - Photoshop Techniques

2007-12-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

I have a few questions about Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) conversion. Exposure, Recovery, Fill, Blacks, Clarity, Vibrance, Curves; do you have a set a preference for these settings?

Alright here we go...

Exposure - You use this slider to set the correct exposure. For many images you can set this by holding down the ALT key and dragging the sliders left and right until you have no over exposed areas of the image (i.e. the "exposing to the right side of the histogram" method). So if you had overexposed areas you would drag the slider to the left while holding down the ALT key until you had no overexposed areas. If you had no overexposed areas to begin with, you would drag the slider to the right while holding down the ALT key until you had some overexposed areas. Then you would ease it back to the left just a little until you had no overexposed areas.

With that said, exposure like many settings is what you decide it to be. Some images look better overexposed, and some look better underexposed, so the method above may not work for every image. You can always just drag the exposure slider around until you see what you like. I find this second method especially useful when the images were taken on an overcast day, indoors, or under a lot of shade. In this case you don't worry about overexposed areas because that's what we're going to use the recovery slider for.

Recovery - Once you've set your exposure, you can use the recovery slider to recover the portions of the image that are still over exposed. You can also use the ALT key with this slider to see which parts of the image were recoverable, and which part of the image will remain overexposed. One thing about the recovery slider is that if you drag it too far to the right on some images the whites will turn a little bit gray or yellow. Sometimes it fits the image just fine, sometimes you have to back off on the recovery slider to keep them white. Use the recovery slider in conjunction with the Exposure slider to get the overall exposure that you want. Of course it’s best to get it right in camera, but if we can't always wait for perfect light or to have exposed an image correctly the first time.

On a technical note recovery uses similar techniques to creating a linear and normal conversion of the raw image and then combining them. It's just that now you can do it with one slider. I tend to treat recovery like the highlight slider in the highlights/shadows dialog in Photoshop.

Fill - Fill is like the shadows slider in the highlight/shadows dialog in Photoshop. Just like the shadows slider if you drag it to the right too much you will reveal the noise in the underexposed part of the image. One thing to remember is that fill or the shadows slider does not add noise; it only helps reveal the noise that was already there. Ok, how much. It's again subjective to your liking. It's really there to substitute as a fill flash. I find that most of the time I do not use the fill slider and still prefer to use the shadows slider in the highlight/shadows dialog, because I tend to want to make color corrections first before setting how much fill I want. When I do use fill, I use it sparingly from +20 on an ISO 100 image to as little as +3 on an ISO 400 image. I hate noise so I try to avoid revealing it if possible.

Blacks - is pretty much the same as the black slider in the levels dialog. Used with the ALT key, you can see which areas are going to become underexposed. Personally I leave blacks at zero most of the time and just use the levels dialog to set the black point after I've done any cropping, because I want to see the final cropped image first before setting the black point. When I do set the black point I'm pretty liberal. If its part of the background and it's supposed to be black, I'll keep dragging that slider to the right until it’s completely black. Setting your black point adds the most contrast to the image, and I like lots of contrast for daylight images.

Clarity - I use this slider to see if I can add enough contrast back to the image to save a soft image. I know many of you will open an image zoom to 100% and then use sharpening to see if a soft image is worth editing. Well, I do the same thing, except I use the clarity slider. It adds contrast to an image without actually performing sharpening, so that when you do apply sharpening there is a reduced chance that you will get a halo. Most of the time I leave this slider alone, unless the image is soft, then I'll play with it to see if I can make a soft image better. You can play with this slider along with the sharpening slider in the sharpening tab to see if your soft image is worth editing.

Vibrance - The most I've added is +20 I think. I use this instead to Saturation as I tend to prefer the results vibrance gives over normal saturation. Again use is subjective and depends on the image.

Curves - I leave curves alone and set it in Photoshop if I have to.
Sharpening - I also leave this at 0. I don't want to sharpen an image until I have cropped, cloned, and color corrected. I use Smart Sharpen at 50% with a radius of .8 for web, and somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8 for printing. I save the PSD file unsharpened and always resize first and then resharpen for whatever I want to do. This keeps it flexible because what works for one printer does not work for another. I have to do less sharpening for the Epson 2200 than the laser printers at work. If there is a woman in the photograph always cut your sharpening in half. They'll greatly appreciate it.

Noise Luminosity - I leave this alone and use the noise reduction filter in Photoshop. Again I prefer to remove this noise after I've done cropping and color correction. I find Luminosity noise to be less objectionable and even film like in some respects.

Noise Color - I hate color noise. This is the noise you get from underexposing and image. I try to get rid of it whenever possible. So I set this slider to 50% as that gives me results similar to what BreezeBrowser produces. The one thing I really like about BreezeBrowser is how good it was at reducing color noise. I'll sometimes run the noise reduction filter in CS3 in addition to help get rid of color noise. If I can’t get rid of enough color noise, I throw out the image.

One thing about all of these new sliders is that you don't have to use them if you don't want to. You can get similar results by using the old dialogs in Photoshop. Of all the new sliders, Recovery is the one I use the most because I can now set exposure independently from recovering the highlights. The reason all of these new sliders are in Camera RAW is because they are required for Adobe Lightroom. Since Lightroom and CS3 now share the same RAW converter, CS3 users benefit from the new sliders. I have Lightroom, but I still use CS3 and Bridge 99% of the time. Lightroom is great if I want to take a picture now and print it immediately or "in about an hour". However if you're not under those time constraints CS3 is so much better.

Making the ordinary, extraordinary.

2007-12-11T11:05:00.001-05:00

There is one sure way to improve your photography skills and that is to continuously practice by taking lots and lots of pictures. This is especially true for wildlife photography, because you can only hone those skills through practice.

When you first start out in this hobby, you’ll probably be snapping photos of anything that moves. You’ll probably be holding down that shutter button in hopes of getting one good image out of a sequence. That’s good. Get it out of your system. You may get a few good images that way, and even a couple of outstanding ones, but you won’t be able to do it consistently. It’s only when you start to take your time and pay attention to the exposure, lighting, and composition of the shot that you will begin to take good photographs on a consistent basis.

When I first read about wildlife photographers composing images I thought that they were off their rocker. After all, you don’t have a lot of time to get an image of that otter crossing the canal bank. That’s where the practice comes in. Go out and shoot and shoot and shoot. Get 10,000 images of that Tri-colored heron. Then one day you’re going to see a Tri-colored heron and just do nothing. You’ve already worked it out in your head that any image you take of this particular Tri-colored heron isn’t going to be any better than the 10,000 you already have in your library. You’ve just composed your first image by not taking that shot.

Composition is not necessarily about placing the subject exactly where you want within the frame. In fact in many cases in wildlife photography, the action is happening so fast that you won’t have time to compose an image the way a traditional landscape photographer does. Instead you’ll compose by positioning yourself in a location where you’ll get the best light, with the best background. If the action is fast and furious, by all means take what you can get, but if time permits take the time to make sure that your camera settings are correct. Check your histogram for exposure; recompose if there are distracting elements in the frame. Composition in wildlife photography is more about knowing when to take the picture and when not to.

The next time you see that Tri-colored heron, you’ll know if the shot is worth taking. It will be well lit, properly exposed, with a nicely blurred background with the bird’s eye looking at the camera while it is holding a frog in its mouth. Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch, but it’s certainly something to strive for. You’ll only get there through practice.

You can see some of my weekly “practice” shots in the December gallery.

Our first uncommon visitor of the season.

2007-12-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

The Bufflehead is the smallest diving duck in North America. It breeds primarily in Canada and winters in the United States. A female Bufflehead has been spotted over the last couple of weeks at Green Cay and this past weekend I was finally able to spot it and get some pictures good enough for positive identification. If you’re looking for this duck, it looks very much like a grebe with a white cheek. You’ll need a good pair of binoculars as she does not come close that often. I’m hoping that changes with time and that she’ll become friendly to visitors like the Eared Grebe last winter.

As birds go the Bufflehead has a couple interesting behaviors. Unlike other ducks the Bufflehead is usually monogamous, remaining with the same mate season after season. This duck also nests almost exclusively in holes made by Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers; a great example of how one species heavily relies on another for success.

Photography is an expensive hobby.

2007-11-30T00:10:00.000-05:00

It’s the holidays and you’re probably thinking about next camera related item that Santa will be bringing you this year. However, more than likely you’re thinking about what you’re going to get for yourself this year, because Santa can’t really afford photography gear; after all, those reindeer are not cheap to feed. Whether you’re just starting out, or are a full blown professional, there is always that point where you realize that you’re not getting the results you want and that more and better equipment will alleviate this problem. Not to mention that every book and blog you read mentions loads of camera gear that you will “need” to produce great photos. In nature photography this tends to be a relatively fast high megapixel digital SLR camera and a professional telephoto lens. This, I’m afraid to tell you is true. The better your equipment, the better your results are likely to be.

Alright, I’ve either just convinced you that photography is too expensive for you or that you should place that pre-order for the Canon 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM lens. If you are the former group, don’t be discouraged; if you are in the latter group then you probably have enough spare cash to buy one for me too. The key to keeping your costs low is to learn how to use the equipment you already have and take pictures of things that your camera lens and body are suitable for. In other words learn the limits of your equipment and work within them. If you only have an 18 – 55mm lens, you’re not going to take too many images of wildlife; instead you’ll need to work with captive and friendly subjects, or landscapes, or even portraits and events. When you’re ready, step up to the next item that will give you the results you want. If you want to get images of birds in flight, then consider a fixed focal length (prime) lens that is 400mm or more. Don’t get too bogged down in trying to make the most out of your money by purchasing something that you can use for more than one type of photography. Often what you will end up with is too much of a compromise where it doesn’t do either type of photography very well. Get equipment for specific tasks, and concentrate on taking images that the lens was designed for. You’ll make your money go a lot further by buying the specialized equipment one at a time.

Next get creative. I’m not much of a DIY person, but some tricks are so easy, you’ll kick yourself for not trying them. Want to take some Macro shots and don’t have a ring flash? Use an inexpensive diffuser to bounce the light from your external flash onto your subject. You can find many tricks like that one by reading other sites about photography, not just nature photography. One of the best is strobist.blogspot.com.

Finally all that fancy camera equipment will only take your photography so far. As with anything, if you want to succeed, you need to practice, practice, and practice! I hope that the holidays are good to you this year.

‘Tis the season.

2007-11-25T23:08:00.000-05:00

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got some good bargains on Black Friday. Birding season is once again in full swing, and to kick it off we have not less than five pairs of Great Blue Herons starting to build nests at Wakodahatchee. The pairs are busy gathering twigs and performing their courtship display.

The Great Blue Heron is the largest heron in North America. In Southern Florida we have two subspecies of the Great Blue Heron. The first is the normal one Ardea herodias herodias and the second is a subspecies Ardea herodias occidentalis; which has a white morph that is sometimes referred to as the Great White Heron. We encountered one of these white herons on the November 24th trip to Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East (STA-1E). There’s a picture of it in the November gallery. You can read more about the Great White Heron in David Sibley’s recent blog posting.

The STA-1E trip on the 24th was a bit on the slow side. It was overcast for the better part of the tour and it rained for about a half hour, which made photography more challenging. This time around I decided to bring along my macro lens and ring flash to see what I could find along the banks. There’s a wealth of nature there from insects to wildflowers that many visitors miss.

At the moment I am so behind in processing my images. I’ve got this site finally caught up, but I still have a lot of friends and family pictures to convert over from RAW. Not to mention an entire portrait session to edit and a few more to schedule in the future. I’ve also been doing the event photography for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at FAU, so I have some of those to process as well. So I’ll be busy for a while. Actually there is a new game for the XBOX 360 that I would love to play, but I’ve promised myself that I’d get the pictures processed first, then I can slack off a bit.

For those of you that recently purchased a Canon 40D that came with firmware 1.04 that was incompatible with some RAW converters, Canon has just released firmware 1.05 which is supposed to address the incompatibility among other things.

Enjoy the November gallery and I’ll see you on the boardwalk.