“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.

Labels: 400mm, 40D, Award, Canon, Green Cay, Orange Audubon, Winner

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

Labels: 20D, 300D, 40D, Cameras, HDR, Rebel, XSi

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…

Labels: 20D, 300D, 40D, Archive, Backup, Birds, Macro

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.

Labels: 40D, Great Blue Heron, STA-1E, Wakodahatchee

I took a little break from nature photography in October to pursue portrait photography with some success. It’s probably something I’ll do from time to time, while I continue to build a portfolio. However the real news is it is November, which is usually the time when bird photography starts to get exciting again. Right now, the happening spot continues to be Green Cay, as Purple Gallinules, still in their juvenile plumage, climb the stalks of the Fire Flag to reach the remaining flower stalks. You’d better hurry however; as the cooler weather will soon wither away the Fire Flag and the gallinules will become less accessible until the spring.

I also had a chance to check out the Loxahatchee Marsh Trail this past weekend, and I saw a couple of Northern Harriers working the area. Also present were two Red-shouldered Hawks and a Snail Kite. There were just a trickle of Blue-winged Teals and a few very shy Wood Ducks. Photo opportunities were low as many of these new arrivals were still very shy.

With the holidays approaching, I plan to be out in the field a lot more and hopefully get some great shots this winter. My new Canon 40D has become my primary workhorse and I really like its faster autofocus speed, faster frames rate, and deeper buffer. What I’m not so crazy about is that the larger LCD does not seem to make it any easier to determine if the shot is in focus, motion blurred, or not. I guess Canon would need to increase the actual pixel resolution for that to happen. Overall it’s a great camera and I’ve taken some excellent shots of birds in flight, macro, and portraits with it.

What I’ve learned when doing portraits is how to use flash more effectively. In particular how to use flash off camera. I have yet to try my newfound fondness for flash photography for nature photography; but I hope to find some sort of application for off camera flash in nature photography soon. One such application that I’ve seen used is to freeze the motion of hummingbirds, but that would be difficult here in South Florida, where we don’t get many hummingbirds. If I do find an application, I’ll be sure to write about it here.

Finally, I’ll put in a plug for the STA-1E birding tours being conducted by South Florida Water Management and Pine Jog Environmental Education Center. Remaining dates for the 2007/2008 season are:

November 10 and 24, 2007
December 8 and 22, 2007
January 5 and 19, 2008
February 2 and 16, 2008
March 1 and 15, 2008
April 12 and 26, 2008

Times for the tours are 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. To attend and for more information, please contact Helen Beers at (561) 686-6600.

Labels: 40D, Green Cay, Loxahatchee, STA-1E

Hello everyone. This is a quick update to let you know that I'm having a lot of fun with my new Canon EOS 40D. It's not leaps and bounds better than the 20D, but a worthwhile upgrade nonetheless. I will post my experiences with the 40D in upcomming web log posts as I become more familiar with the camera's strenghts and weaknesses. In the meantime the September gallery is now open, and I have posted two follow up articles regarding flight photography. The first is on the use of "Manual exposure for flight photography" and the second is on "Tracking birds in flight". I hope you enjoy them.

Labels: 40D, Articles, Cameras

You can find all the information about the new Canon EOS 40D, my next camera, at DPreview.com. The Canon 1Ds Mark III was also announced at the same time. Nikon also announced new cameras this week, including the D300 and the D3. It looks like a good year for camera owners. Canon's new lenses are the EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM, EF-S 18-55mm IS, and EF-S 55-250mm IS. Nikon has the AF-S 14-24mm F2.8G ED, AF-S 24-70mm F2.8G ED, AF-S 400mm F2.8G ED VR, AF-S 500 mm F4G ED VR, and the AF-S 600 mm F4G ED VR.

It's important to remember that when making a buying decision that you are purchasing a system, and not just a camera. Whether you choose Nikon or Canon, you will be using their system of lenses and accessories for a long time. Switching systems can be very costly.

Labels: 40D, Cameras, Lenses

August! So many things happen in August for me. My daughter’s birthday is in August. My wedding anniversary is in August. School starts in August. Of course Canon makes new camera announcements in August. So, will there be a new Canon 40D that will be announced in August? Only time will tell, but there is enormous speculation on the forums, especially dpreview.com. I’m hoping that a 40D will be announced because I really need a new camera. I’ve outgrown the 20D, and I can’t afford any of the professional bodies in the 1D series. My 20D is back at Canon service again, because it was recently infested with ants. That’s right, ants. I use the camera at least every weekend if not more often, so it wasn’t sitting in some dark corner of the house. Anyway, theories for the infestation range from having taken too many macro shots of insects to taking way too many “sweet shots”. In reality, very small ants like sugar ants and moisture ants are attracted to electronics. They will colonize computers and other electronic devices, especially in very hot and humid places. I’ve read some accounts on line about ants being a problem in the tropics. I’m not sure exactly how the ants got into the camera itself, but when I took out my camera from my camera bag to get shots of a Snail Kite; literally thousands of ants started crawling out of it. Most of them were hiding out in the pop-up flash, but they were all over the place. The battery grip and the LCD all had ants crawling around them. I shook and blew off as many of them as possible. The camera still worked and took some great images that day, but there were dead ants still stuck inside the camera. To prevent any damage from the decomposition of the dead ants or their eggs, it’s off to Canon for a cleaning.

Around the end of July and the beginning of August the farms around Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge begin planting for the fall. This is a great time to visit them as the wading birds and the Snail Kites are attracted to the area as the soil is prepared for planting. This past weekend we were able to observe Wood Storks, Egrets, Herons, Spoonbills, and Snail Kites at very close proximities just outside the gates of Loxahatchee. Inside the refuge itself there was little bird activity, but there was plenty of insect activity with butterflies and bees going about their business. Enjoy the August gallery.

Labels: 20D, 40D, ants, Birds, Cameras, Loxahatchee, Snail Kite