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…

Labels: Articles, EPS, FAU, flickr, Green Cay, Wakodahatchee

“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

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).

Labels: Apple Snail, Birds, Flight Photography, Green Cay, Limpkin, Purple Martin, Snail Kite, Wakodahatchee

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.

Labels: Green Cay, Newsletter, Reader Mail, Wakodahatchee

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.

Labels: Birds, Bufflehead, Green Cay

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

Green Cay is a joy to watch because it is the newest of the three wetlands in Southern Palm Beach County. Wakodahatchee is fairly well established by now, while Loxahatchee undergoes constant change as studies are conducted in the different compartments of the Marsh Trail. Green Cay is still fairly new and still developing. Surprises such as the Ruddy Duck, Greater and Lesser Scaups, and the Eared Grebe are hopefully only the beginning of what Green Cay will attract in the future.

What’s exciting right now is that Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks have, for the first time, produced offspring at Green Cay. The proud parents have been escorting their eight little ducklings around Green Cay to the delight of many visitors. Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks produce some of the cutest ducklings. Their distinct black and yellow bands earn the ducklings the nickname “bumblebees”.

Whistling-ducks are also known as tree ducks in other parts of the world. That’s because they belong to a group of ducks that readily rests on tree branches. There are many different types of whistling-ducks around the world, two of which can be found in Florida. The two we have are the Fulvous Whistling-Duck and the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. While the Fulvous Whistling-Duck has remained relatively shy of urban areas, the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck has greatly expanded its range. It is common in Southern parts of Texas, Mexico, and Central America. I first encountered Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks in the wild while fishing from a boat in Lake Yojoa, Honduras. The Florida population of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks was once thought to have originated from specimens that may have escaped from zoos or private collections; but it seems more likely that the breeding population arrived from Mexico and decided to stay. In South Florida, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks may now actually outnumber the Fulvous Whistling-Duck which arrived and established itself in Florida much earlier.

August Gallery

Labels: Birds, Green Cay, Whistling-Duck