When in range the 70-300mm VR really is a good lens! (click photo to view it large. It looks awful compressed to this size!) We had an overcast sky yesterday, but for a few brief moments the sun peeked through the clouds and lit him nicely just as if I ordered it.
This is my best Black-crowned Night-Heron to date. I wish all the birds I chase were within range of my lens.
I went out with some photographer friends to hunt for Harrier’s on Saturday. We spent the day on the coast. We headed further north for some lunch and more birding then headed south again. Hiking back to the field where we had good luck several hours before we found this Male Harrier not too far off the trail eating his dinner. This was definitely the highlight of the day for me. I was shooting him from his shady side so I got some nice side lighting.
I spent most the day a bit frustrated with the limits of my focal range. I have a definite case of NAS for a super telephoto lens! I should have rented one for this outing.
None-the-less It was a fun, and exciting day.
One never knows if you’ll be rewarded with beautiful color or instead see a flat sky when you get up at 4 in the morning to make the hour journey to a location you’ve wanted to shoot at sunrise for sometime.
I’ve left a Silver Lake a number of times disappointed, but thankfully that didn’t happen on this morning at Convict Lake. The colors in the dawn sky were lovely. There was very little Alpine Glow on this morning. One of these days I’ll hit the jack-pot and get both in the same photo.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35@ 17mm| f10| 1 second| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Tripod w/ release cable| Singh-Ray Grad ND filter
This morning as I was pulling up to my house I noticed in the tree across the street a Merlin Hawk perched on a branch. I was so excited I couldn’t get in the driveway, parked ,and out of the car fast enough. I raced into the house, grabbed my long lens then raced back outside all the while hoping he was still there.
He was! I think it’s a juvenile. Well, it looks young to me.
I got several shots of him perched then quick as a wink he took flight. He was so fast I could barely keep up with him panning. There is more motion blur than I would have liked, but his eye is pretty sharp. I definitely need more practice panning. Shooting in Continuous High I only got 4 frames of him in flight before he was gone; this one, and one other have motion blur the other two I only caught his tail in the frames.
It’s the first time in the 25 years I’ve lived here I’ve ever seen a falcon. Several weeks ago I saw a hawk for the first time on my street. This winter food must be in short supply in the country. I can’t imagine anything else bringing them into the suburbs. I hope he comes back and I am around to photograph him.
Update: A reader Tj of TjFivephotography emails, ” It looks more like a Sharp-shinned Hawk or a Cooper’s Hawk b/c this one doesn’t have the markings under the eyes like falcons do.”
He sent a cool link showing photos of both birds. I’m leaning toward this one being a Coopers Hawk. What do you all think?
Golden hour on this section of the Marsh was absolutely gorgeous the Sat. I spent here photographing birds. There were some low clouds, and a fine mist of fog was moving in just as the sky was getting a hint of pink. It acted as a diffuser making the golds and yellows POP! I moved to a couple of locations around this area looking for a composition I liked so when I finally saw this one I was in such a rush to compose it before missing this light I made the decision to shoot it with my telephoto lens on. I remember thinking as I looked through the viewfinder to compose it, “Oh! this is nice I can zero in on this part of the marsh rather than getting all in.” By doing so the ducks have a little more body, and the reeds and willows are nearer, so we can see more texture and detail. The whole scene is compressed so we feel a closer connection to the pond.
I haven’t used my telephoto to shoot a landscape in many months, and if the light wasn’t changing fast I probably would have switched to my favorite 17-35mm wide angle lens. In retrospect I’m happy that I didn’t take the few seconds to change lenses as it was a good reminder for me that not all landscapes need to be a sweeping vista, or shot with a wide-angle lens.
If you click the photo and then once redirected click it once more you can view it larger to see him better.
I believe this is a 3rd year Bald Eagle. He was in the shadow of the upper branch and didn’t change his gaze for the longest time. He was also at the end of my lens range.
My friend Dali and I stayed watching and photographing him for about 5 minutes then we moved on to meet some other friends. When we circled back around he was gone. We didn’t see him again. I’ve only seen 4 Eagles in the wild in my whole life! As you can imagine this was a very exciting sighting for me.
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