The Mountain Bluebird (MOBL) is a small sized thrush that prefers open space habitats in Western North American desert and mountainous regions. They are year around residents in the western states however migrate as far north as Alaska to breed and as far south as Central America during the winters. The male MOBL is a vibrant blue colour while the female has more subdued colours with strong blue wing colouration. The Mountain Bluebird is the state bird of Idaho and Nevada.
A few weeks ago a lone female Mountain Bluebird arrived in an open field on the western reaches of Lynde Shores Conservation Area in Whitby and quickly became a local celebrity amongst birders and bird photographers. For many it was their first time seeing one of these beautiful birds.
I was twice able to visit this bird and I’m thankful for one of those opportunities being with nice light for photography. The following are some of the images I was able to obtain of her. These photographs were taken last Friday morning, December 11th.
The object of an image is generally obvious and we always think about it before releasing the shutter however care must always be taken to consider the back ground of every image you take. Often the difference between a snapshot and a great photograph is the back ground. The first two images in this series have the black walls of a barn creating the back ground which creates a high contrast with bird. The great distance between the bird and the barn allowed the use an aperture of f/8 to keep all of the bird in focus and still blur the back ground enough that the barn was completely indistinguishable.
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For the next two images I moved not more than ten feet in order to replace the barn as the back ground with a coniferous tree line in order to replace the black back ground with a green one. Although this is very subjective, I prefer the green which is a bit more natural looking and provides a better contrast with the beak of the bird. Compare images one and four and then two and three. Each pair is pretty much the same compositionally except for the back ground colour. Do you have a preference?
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The remaining images are from a different perch which was located such that overgrown grasses provided the back grounds. The first three images are against a ‘white’ grass/hay back drop creating the brightest of the BG’s and great contrast with the bird….and it also complimented the rather ugly bamboo perch!
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The final three images are against darker grasses that create a back ground shade which is perhaps my favourite of all we’ve looked at today with a nice warm tone that compliments the colours of the bird nicely.
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When a rare bird makes an appearance hundreds of birders and photographers will make a point of seeing the celebrity. Typically that means a plethora of photographs will show up on various photo sharing websites and soon they begin to look quite similar. It’s wise to observe the bird and its various behavioural displays and look for that unusual shot. Sometimes even the very common act of preening will provide that unique image.
The Mountain Bluebird was last seen early Saturday morning when just after sunrise it was observed flying west, presumably to return to its home territory. Often these lone birds that get off track while migrating don’t survive the rigours and dangers of travelling long migration distances alone without the help and safety that comes with travelling in numbers. She certainly looked healthy when I took these pictures the day before she left so I trust that by now she has been re-united with her family.
All of these images were taken using a Canon 1Dx and 500/4 lens with 1.4 x TC for an effective focal length of 700mm.
Well we find ourselves in the middle of September and realizing that another summer has slipped away seemly a little faster than the one that preceded it. For me also came the sad realization that there has not been a blog post on this website since May which certainly wasn’t by design. I will do my best to get caught up processing the images that have been taken over the past few months, starting with the Loons that Deb and I had the privilege of photographing in Algonquin Park in June of this year.
There is nothing ‘common’ about the Common Loon. One of our country’s favourite birds whose presence on our dollar coin provides its nickname; the Loonie. Deb and I have been following nesting Loons in Algonquin Provincial Park for a number of years now and this year it was a pleasure to time our trip perfectly to be able to capture some photographs while the babies were still small enough to enjoy riding on the parent’s back.
All of the images in this post were taken handheld from a canoe, providing a nice low angle of incidence which is appealing for bird photography.
Early morning is the best light for photographing Loons with the low sun highlighting their deep red eyes and typically the waters are calm making for nice reflections. The green back ground is created by the reflection of the shoreline vegetation on the water and when possible it is always a good idea to position yourself to create different combinations of lighting on the bird and back ground colour. The effects can be dramatic. These next two images are of the same Loon with a very different look due to the back ground colour.
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Common Loons are a pleasure to watch and hearing their distinctive calls is like no other bird. The following images are an attempt to capture the activities of these beautiful birds.
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As hinted in the title of this post, this Loon photography excursion was also the first practice session with a new camera body; the Canon 1Dx. This particular body is design optimized for sports and wildlife photography or any activity where you are attempting to capture objects moving quickly through the field of view. It accomplishes this by having a very high frame rate. The 1Dx is capable of taking exposures at 12 frames per second in RAW format and 14 frames per second in JPEG format. This makes the camera ideal for photographing birds in flight and I was glad that a Loon obliged us with a fly by close to our canoe. Here are two in flight captures of the Loon taken with the 1Dx and Canon EF 500mm f4 IS lens, handheld from the canoe which is quite a challenge, however like anything, practicing enhances the results.
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Now that I have upgraded to the new camera, my Canon 1D Mk III is up for sale and if any of you are looking for a great camera body and looking to move up to a professional grade body, this could be the perfect opportunity for you. It comes with all the original packaging and is looks just like it did when it was brand new. Send me an email if you are interested and I will send the details and pics of it. The 1D Mk III is a 10 frame per second, 10 megapixel camera.
Sometimes when you take a lot of pics you get some pleasant surprises when processing the images. This next image, and the last one in today’s post, is one of those shots and its become my favourite photograph from our morning with the Loons. The reason being, I didn’t notice the day old chick poking its head out from under the protective cover of mom or dad’s wing until seeing the image displayed on the monitor. I trust you enjoy it as well.
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There are a number of other Loon images from our day in Algonquin Park posted in the Loons & Grebes Gallery as well as Loon photographs taken at other times.
Thanks for taking time to work through this post and as always your comments are welcomed.
More than a couple of months ago, when the mercury was hanging around in the mid -20°C range I met up with my good friend and fellow bird photographer Arni long before sunrise and headed towards Niagara Fall’s for a day of winter photography. If you have never ventured out with your camera in the dead of winter, I would highly recommend that you give it a try. There are a few minor technical challenges the cold presents, with reduced battery life and condensation when bringing the gear back into a warm temperature being the primary ones, however these are easily dealt with. Take spare batteries with you and keep them in pockets close to your body to keep them warm and before taking the cold gear back indoors, make sure you pack lenses and cameras back into their cases and don’t take them out until you’ve allowed enough time for the gear to reach room temperature. I always take the CF cards out of the camera while outside so I can start processing the day’s work without waiting for the gear to get re-acclimatized to the house temperature! By far the biggest challenge in winter photography is keeping yourself warm, so always have lots of layers of good clothing, warm boots, gloves and head coverings. A supply of hand warmers always comes in handy.
We arrived at a cemetery in Burlington before sunrise looking for Eastern Screech Owls, where both red morph and the more common grey morphs have been known to nest. We were unable to find the owls so headed on to Niagara Falls and arrived at Dufferin Island which is about a kilometre from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and home to many birds.
The primary bird we were looking for was the Tufted Titmouse, a non-migratory bird whose historic range was in the central and eastern United States, however as winter food supplies have become more available, the Tufted Titmouse has been slowly moving its range northwards into Canada, primarily in the eastern Great Lakes region. The Titmouse prefers a wet climate and in fact you only find them in areas with more than 24″ annual rainfall, and even more common in areas with 32″ or more of annual rainfall. The Tufted Titmouse rarely ventures more than two kilometres from the nest in which it was born (which accounts for why the expansion of their range takes place very slowly).
Soon after picking a location on the island where the light and back ground were both ideal, we were able to attract a number of these beautiful birds with a little bird seed (there are numerous feeders in the area that are maintained through the winter months to ensure adequate food for the local birds). We were able to get a few decent images of the Tufted Titmouse. The following images were taken with a Canon 5D MkIII and 500mm f/4 lens (some with an attached 1.4x TC for an effective 700mm focal length). As much as possible I tried to use an aperture of f/8 or greater in order to provide enough depth of field to keep the whole bird in focus….at least in profile!
The Tufted Titmouse is the largest of the Titmouse family and they are easily recognizable by their crest and black patch above the upper mandible.
Their colouring is relatively subdued although mature adult birds have a golden yellow flash along the sides of their chest. Juvenile birds lack this colouration.
The appearance of the males & females is very similar, so differentiation between the two is difficult.
The normal diet of spiders & insects is not available in the winter months so the Titmouse release on seeds and frozen berries in the winter. The presence of winter feeders is important for them in the winter as they are non-migratory birds.
The above image was taken at f/10 in order to get as much depth of field (DOF) as possible to keep the whole bird in sharp focus. With long telephoto lenses the DOF is very thin even at small apertures; in this case about 4cm (700mm focal length with a full frame camera at about 25′ away from the bird). I really needed an even smaller aperture as the tip of the tail appears soft. The next image was also taken at f/10 which is OK as all of the body of the bird is within the DOF so everything is sharp. Managing DOF with telephoto lenses is one of the most important factors in getting great photographic results yet is often overlooked by many. Fortunately with today’s cameras that are so good at high ISO’s it is much easier to balance the tricky relationship between shutter speed, aperture & ISO in order to get the best possible results.
It was a cold but beautiful winter day in Niagara and we were treated by a number of other birds who provided some great poses for Arni & me. Here are a few of them.
A Dark-eyed Junco with an over the shoulder look.
….and another Junco enjoying the snow.
Cardinals often top the list of people’s favourite birds, and in fact the Cardinal has the unique distinction of being the official state bird of seven American States, far more than any other bird. At one point in time there were four pairs of Cardinals at our location. The male Cardinal is best known for its vibrant red colour but the female with its more subdued colours is equally, if not more photogenic.
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The ice crystals on the beaks of these next few birds shows just how cold it was!
The White-breasted Nuthatch is a common bird however its propensity to be upside down most of the time always presents an interesting photo-op.
On almost every perch they are facing in the downward direction.
We also enjoyed a visit from a male Red-bellied Woodpecker.
This particular male had a very vibrant red head and belly patch compared to others I’ve seen. The next image shows both patches with a complimentary red back ground provided by one of the male Cardinals! Check out the Woodpecker Gallery for more images.
After a couple of hours in the freezing temperatures we warmed up at a local Tim Horton’s with lunch and large coffees and then just couldn’t resist a walk along the Niagara gorge from the Horseshoe Falls to the Rainbow Bridge. This was mostly to photograph Niagara Falls and the Niagara River, which was completely frozen over this year due to the uncharacteristic cold temperatures. Frozen falls images will be the subject of an upcoming blog post. From a birders perspective it was an unexpected surprise to see the fastest animal on the planet perched in a tree along the rim of the gorge…the Peregrine Falcon. As we were only expecting to use wide angle lenses along the gorge we were not prepared to photograph birds, so this Peregrine Falcon was captured with a Fuji X-E2 and 55-200mm zoom lens.
After a cold but productive day at the falls Arni and I headed back home, taking a brief detour back to Woodland Cemetery in hopes of seeing the Screech Owl. Fortunately we were able to find the grey morph sleeping in his tree. Not the most photogenic poses, but it’s always great to see another owl.
Sleeping in a gnarly tree cavity.
….and a rare day time peak from the very nocturnal Screech Owl.
More of this owl as well as pictures of a red morph Eastern Screech Owl can be seen in the Owl Gallery.
I trust you all have an enjoyable summer and didn’t mind this blog post looking back on the very cold winter we experienced this year.
Well, as it is for everyone, time slips by at what seems like an ever increasing pace and we find ourselves already into February while Christmas feels like it was only yesterday. It’s also been over a month since our last blog post and although I have a number planned for the upcoming months, there just hasn’t been enough time to prepare them, so I thought I would post a few quick bird images taken over the last month or two.
Before Christmas I spent a morning at Lynde Shores Conservation Area with Joe & Harv, two wonderful photographers who I’ve known for many years and have learned much from when it comes to capturing great bird photographs. We had a terrific time kibitzing, telling stories, arguing over camera gear and even taking a few pictures in the process. The images that follow are a few of them.
Deb’s favourite bird is probably the Black Capped Chickadee (BCCH) and I never tire of trying to get a good picture of one. They are extremely cute and friendly little birds that dart from branch to branch and follow you along through the forest paths and readily landing on your hand if it contains some black oiled Sunflower seeds.
From a technical perspective, the close proximity of blacks and whites on the Chickadee presents an exposure challenge. How do you preserve the details in the whites without underexposing the blacks and how do you expose to see detail in the blacks without blowing out the highlights in the whites? The short answer is that you can’t, especially in strong light. An overcast sky is your best friend in cases like this! Personally, overexposed whites that present as white areas with no visible detail ruin pictures more than anything else, so my rule of thumb is to always expose for the whites and if needed improve the dark areas in post processing (this is another reason to always shoot in RAW format as doing so provides about 3-4 stops of exposure adjustment on the computer).
Compositionally, practice taking shots in both landscape and portrait orientations. This is easy with birds like Chickadees that will allow you to get close to them and provide you the privilege of ‘cropping in the camera’. When getting this close make sure you move your focus point to allow for proper positioning of the bird in the frame. There is nothing worse that being treated to taking full frame images of a bird in portrait orientation only to find you’ve placed the bird in the middle of the frame and have no margins left for cropping on the computer. With today’s high megapixel camera sensors, you may be happy to shoot everything in landscape orientation and simply crop for portraits later but doing so always costs by way of reduced detail.
The following four images show two portrait and two landscape images with the bird facing in opposite directions for each similar orientation. If you make a practice of getting these different views in the field, you can be relatively certain of getting some good ‘keepers’ every time out.
In the same family of birds as the Chickadee we find the White-breasted Nuthatch (WBNU), which happens to be my Mom’s favourite bird.
They are known for spending most of their time upside down on three trunks. In fact you may not recognize the bird when perched as it is above, but it certainly looks more familiar in the next two images as that’s the way we see them most often.
They look very different when foraging for bugs the way the other birds do as seen below.
Another friendly bird in our area is the Blue Jay (BLJA) which will gladly take peanuts from your hand. Their brilliant blues and superb primary wing feather patterns also make them very photogenic. The first two Blue Jay images are very similar portraits however the first is a much better photograph due to the more natural appearing body shape of the bird (the disproportionately wide neck in the second created by the forward posture of the head is distracting). Also the dark back ground along the lateral edges of the first frame provides a natural vignette effect which is pleasing. It’s enjoyable to be able to choose from a number of similar images to pick the best one and this can only happen by taking lots of images!
The beautiful blue, white and black feather patterns of the Blue Jay.
The Blue Jay gets its vibrant blue hues as light is refracted when passing through the unique structure of its feathers and not from blue pigments in the feathers as most presume. The next time you find a Blue Jay feather on a trail, crush it up with your hand and watch the blues turn grey as you alter the structure of the feather and hence the refractive properties of the feather. You will be surprised!
This Red-bellied Woodpecker has been a popular resident at Lynde Shores for a while now, however this was the first time I’ve been able to photograph this beautiful bird. This first image shows the characteristic red belly from which it gets its name.
The male and female of this species are similar other than the cap, the male has a red cap while the female’s is grey. These images are of the male.
Interestingly, the males forage on tree trunks while the females prefer the tree limbs. Males also have longer beaks and wider tongues than females.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is near the northern limits of its normal range so we don’t often get a chance to see them around the Durham region .
The darker brown eye of this bird indicates that it is an adult.
Now that winter is upon us, bird photographers often turn their attention to owls, especially the Northern Owls (i.e., Great Grey, Snowy and Northern Hawk Owls) that will often get displaced southwards from their Arctic breeding grounds when food supplies are scarce. The environmental situations that arise to force more owls south tend to become acute about every eight to ten years. These years during which a disproportionate number of a given owl species arrives this far south s known as an irruption. This winter is an irruption year for Snowy Owls with many being found in Southern Ontario. So the goal this winter is to get some great images of the Snowy Owl. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened yet although we’ve been out looking a couple of times! The following two images were taken just after Christmas and are both cropped images taken at a distance of about 70 yards…..much too far away for a good image.
The most enjoyable part of this day, during which we traveled about 400km and saw ten or twelve different Snowy Owls was that were joined by our friends Arni & Dianne. So the times we spent standing out in the very sub-zero temperatures were off set by lunch in Angus and hot chocolate and coffee at Arni & Dianne’s place.
This past Friday Deb & I spent another day travelling around looking for Snowy Owls and although we saw one owl, there were no photo opportunities. That’s the nature of wildlife photography but it’s always fun to get a day out enjoying creation. Our day was cut short by the weather as an intense snow storm hit while we were travelling from Minesing to Orillia, forcing us to head south on HWY 400 to get out of the storm and head home. Here is a short clip of the snow we found while out looking for Snowy’s 🙂
Sometimes, when you take the time to scout out the perfect location, place a unique looking perch where the lighting is perfect and there is great separation from the background and you’ve created the ideal outdoor studio for bird photography, other ‘models’ come along with well groomed manes to show off their best poses for the camera…..always make sure you oblige them!
All the images in today’s post were taken with the Canon 5D Mk III body and Canon EF 500mm f4 L IS lens (the Snowy Owl images also used the 1.4X TC to provide 700mm). The video clip was taken with an iPhone 6.
In October Deb & I were able to free up five days and get away to visit one of our favourite places – California – and more specifically Deb’s favourite spot in California, Huntington Beach, which is located on the Pacific Coast about 40 miles south of Los Angeles along the Pacific Coast Highway.
From a photographer’s perspective The Golden State offers a plethora of opportunities amongst some of the most varied subject material anywhere in the world. We will see but a few of them in this post. The interesting thing about this trip was that for the first time since I was a teen, I didn’t have an SLR or DSLR with me, instead using a mirrorless Fujifilm X-E2 body with an array of six lenses ranging from 8mm to 200mm in focal length. This new Fuji system is arguably one of the best travel camera gear set ups available today as the image quality rivals that of any professional DSLR system and is significantly smaller and lighter, two valuable premiums while travelling. In fact, the X-E2, six lenses and all the associated trinkets (SD cards, Intervalometer, spare batteries and charger) easily fits into my Crumpler Six Million Dollar Home shoulder bag and weighs in at about one third of what the comparable Canon gear weighs. Needless to say, all of the images in today’s post were taken with the X-E2 and I will try to select some images taken with each lens. Although this post is not designed to critically evaluate the Fuji X-mount system, I trust it does give you a flavour of what the camera is capable of, which is impressive, and although it will never replace the Canon gear, it does provide a very capable adjunct to it.
Heading north from LAX along the Pacific Coast Highway you first encounter Marina Del Ray, Los Angeles’ largest marina. On the north side of the marina is the start of Venice Beach which seamlessly runs into the Santa Monica beach and its very famous pier.
The well known Venice Beach Logo staking its claim to the beach.
Venice Beach is one of the most eclectic beaches in the world and attracts people of every conceivable stripe which creates a most unusual beach side community. It is also famous for Muscle Beach which is an outdoor, on the beach, weight training facility started in the 1930’s (just south of the Santa Monica Pier) and relocated to Venice Beach in 1950.
An artistic impression of the stylized concrete bar-bells at Muscle Beach.
Hundreds of small shopping stalls line the walkways of Venice Beach and there are no shortages of places to purchase anything that has to do with life on the beach. Sunglasses anyone?
The California Coastal Beaches are exceedingly wide with perfect soft sand, so beach volleyball courts abound. At Venice Beach there are also expansive skate parks and paddle ball courts, but long before these were popular, Venice Beach had hand ball courts pictured below.
Just a quick photographic aside re these two pics of the hand ball courts. Always think about the foreground (and back ground) elements of every image you take. Doing so will improve your skills immeasurably. Although these two images will never be more than snapshots in our travel album, I waited for a number of minutes in both cases for cyclists to pass through the frame and exposed the image when they were positioned where I wanted them compositionally. The cyclists are not the object of the image but add a touch to the final result that makes the whole image a little more interesting.
The ever present California surfer.
I think I’d rather be swimming.
The Venice Beach area is rather devoid of graffiti, except in the designated graffiti area in which every inch of available real estate is tagged.
The Santa Monica Pier immediately north of Venice Beach.
The famous Route 66 or Will Rogers Highway covers almost 4,000 km beginning in Chicago and ending on the Santa Monica Pier.
Looking out along the pier standing on the original site of Muscle Beach.
Heading north from Santa Monica you pass through Malibu with its amazing beach front properties which are home to the rich and famous. As you progress north along the Pacific Coast Highway from Malibu the urban areas transition into more natural terrain and you find one of California’s most recognized vistas, seen regularly on movies, TV shows and automobile commercials.
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As this view is often associated with car scenes in movies and commercials, it was necessary to get an image from the road’s perspective. With Deb watching for cars I was able to catch a shot from the road.
After spending most of the day on the beaches we headed up Sunset Boulevard from Malibu and walked around Rodeo Drive, the shopping area for the uber-rich which also makes it a great place for car watching 🙂
Here is a $2,000,000 Bugatti Veyron, the world’s fastest production car with over 1,000 horsepower and a top speed of 257 mph from its 8L V-16 engine with four turbo chargers.
Here is what it looks like from behind and also an image that is included solely for my great friend Arni, who I know will get a chuckle from this picture.
After looking but not buying anything on Rodeo Drive we headed for Palm Springs, a beautiful spot in the Sonoran Desert about 175 km east of Los Angeles in the Coachella Valley bounded on all sides by rugged mountain ranges. We arrived in Palm Springs well after dark, so the photography options were few, however here is a view of the entrance to our hotel, which was the perfect spot to stay. We had a cabana suite which was fabulous.
I was intrigued by the Palm Springs mural in the above shot so we set out to find it and fortunately it was very close to the entrance road to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway which was on the agenda for our fist day’s activity.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is on the north side of Palm Springs and provides a wonderful eleven minute ride to a mountain peak which offers a 360° view of the region. The Tramway took over 26 months to construct beginning in 1961 and opening in June 1963. Since then over 20 million people have taken the trip to the peak. The gondolas used today are among the largest in the world with room for 80 passengers and the floor of the gondola rotates through two complete revolutions as you traverse the mountain.
The gondola docked at the summit, notice the water pouring out of the base of the tram. Hundreds of gallons of fresh water are taken to the top with every trip and stored in a large reservoir. The only source of water at the peak.
Looking down to the valley from the tram.
One of our favourite places to hike is in Joshua Tree National Park which is about an hours drive east of Palm Springs. This year we were able to watch a beautiful sunset inside the park in an area where the Mojave & Colorado Deserts converge. The first image is just after sundown with the silhouette of a Joshua Tree, which is not really a tree nor a cactus, but its own unique plant.
The use of a fisheye lens with its unique distortion pattern and 180° FOV (field of view) makes for some interesting cloud formations.
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Leaving Joshua Tree National Park we headed west for the 150 km drive to Huntington Beach on the Pacific coast where we spent a couple of days enjoying walking the beaches and keeping our FitBits happy.
Sunrise is a very special part of each day, yet sadly an event that I miss other than while on vacation. You just know its going to be a good day when you take the time to watch the sunrise….its kind of like watching God turn the lights on for another day He has planned for you. Here is the view from our hotel room at the Hilton on Huntington Beach.
The landmark that dominates Huntington Beach is its large pier that extends well it into the Pacific Ocean and provides the perfect location for Ruby’s restaurant at the very western most reach of the pier.
Fishermen and women line the end of the pier and although they are perched some thirty feet above the water they quite adeptly retrieve their catch although the ever-present gulls will try to take the fish from the lines while they are being reeled in. If you are an expert you can handle five lines simultaneously!
Walking along the beach beneath the pier also provided for some interesting photographic opportunities. The next two images were taken from pretty much the exact same spot, the only variable being the focal length of the lens. The first was taken with an 8mm fisheye lens and the second with a 55mm lens. They serve as a good example to always carry a number of lenses with you and when you find an interesting subject take some time to experiment with different focal lengths. The results can be surprising and tell very different stories. (A cautionary note; always be careful and minimize the likelihood of letting salt spray and sand get at your sensor when changing lenses. Face your back to the water and the wind and use a towel to create a tent around the camera. Face the camera body downwards and minimize the time the camera and lenses will be exposed to the air. Over the years Deb and I have developed a very efficient ‘four handed’ system for quickly changing lenses).
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Just after sunset.
….and a few more of the pier.
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Long after the sun has set. Use very small apertures (f18-22) to create the starburst effect on the floodlights. This requires long time exposures which also has the added benefit of blurring the water which helps soften the fore ground and creates reflections on the water. The number of rays emanating from the light sources is determined by the number of blades in the diaphragm of the lens (which are used to set the aperture of the lens). With lenses having an even number of blades, there is one ray produced per blade, while an odd number of blades produces two rays per blade. If you take time to count the rays in the following images you will see there are 14 rays around each light source created by the seven diaphragmatic blades in the Fuji XF55-200mm lens I was using. Have a look in the Naturescapes Gallery for a similar image taken a few years ago of the same pier with the Canon 24-105mm lens which has eight diaphragm blades producing eight rays from each light source. You will notice the effect is quite different, so based on your preference you may want to inquire as to the number of blades in the diaphragm of the next lens you buy….or better yet buy two similar focal length lenses, one with an even number of blades and one with an odd number!!
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As mentioned earlier this trip was the first time I’d ever travelled without any Canon gear, which also means no specialized equipment for bird photography. For this Californian excursion all bird photography would be with the Fuji X-E2 and the 55-200mm zoom lens. We headed north to the Bolsa Chica Conservancy looking for some birds to practice with and although it was a quiet birding day there were a number of Brown Pelicans fishing in the wetlands.
Although the keeper rate was low compared to the Canon, the slow flying Pelicans did afford a few decent in flight photo ops.
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We had a wonderful few days in California and look forward to our next trip west. Travelling with the new Fuji mirrorless camera system exceeded my expectations and I trust this blog post has given you an idea of capabilities of this type of gear. Images in this post ranged from 8-200mm focal lengths and covered a wide range of photographic challenges. I’m not of the opinion that this new breed of camera will replace the DSLR, however it does provide a superb travel gear system that is fully able to meet virtually every photographic challenge and do so with gear that is less conspicuous, much lighter and yet retains superb image quality.
I’m still a Canon guy but do like the Fuji….a lot!
Although this last shot was taken through some dirty glass windows at LAX, Deb & I enjoyed our last sunrise in California while waiting to board our plane for the rather long flight home.
This summer my parents and Deb & I travelled around the Gaspé Coast of Quebec and as part of the vacation stayed in the little hamlet Percé, famous for the rock from which it takes its name, Percé Rock. Not far from Percé Rock lies Bonaventure Island which is well known in the birding world as it is home to the world’s second largest, and most accessible, nesting site of the Northern Gannet. You can see Bonaventure Island in the back ground of this image of Percé Rock.
We were in Percé for two and a half days, so we could be reasonably assured to be able to take the short ferry ride over to the island to photograph the Gannets in community and maintaining their nests. Unfortunately heavy rains on the first day and high winds on the second precluded us from getting to there…..it was a classic case of “so close but yet so far”, which is often the nature of wildlife and landscape photography. The upside is that we can plan a return trip to once again see the beauty of the Gaspé Coast.
In terms of the Gannets, all was not lost as I was able to spend a couple of hours on the end of the ferry pier enjoying the high winds and photographing the odd Gannet that flew overhead while looking for fish! They are a truly a beautiful bird.
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The Northern Gannet is a rather large bird measuring up to 43″ long, weighing almost eight pounds and enjoying a six foot wingspan. Although large, it is famous for its torpedo like diving style which allows it to strike the water surface at speeds up to sixty miles per hour. As noted above Gannets are primarily white with black wing tips in their adult plumage. When younger they are a uniformly brown colour and gradually take on the adult colouration when they are fully mature at about five years of age. In adults the colour of the head, cheeks and upper neck is variable depending on the time of year and during breeding season they become a beautiful golden yellow colour, which perfectly compliments their aqua blue eyes.
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When photographing sea birds, the typical background is water & sky, however it was a pleasure to capture one bird against the greenery of the forest as if flew behind me on the pier.
The Gannet has many unique and interesting design features that allow it function on the sea with maximum efficiency. Its wings are proportionally long and slender, and it fact weaker than most birds. As a general rule a bird’s wing muscles comprise at least 20% of their muscle mass, while the Northern Gannet is only 13%. Even still they are capable of cruising at speeds of up to 50 mph and can dive much faster than that. The next image highlights the long slender wings.
There are many other amazing design features of the Gannet that allow it to dive efficiently and also protect it from the water impact pressure when it strikes the surface at high speeds. They have no external nostrils and the secondary internal nostrils can be closed when under the water. Also their external auditory canals are small, covered by feathers and can be closed by a mechanism similar to the one used to close the nostrils. Perhaps the most remarkable diving protection enjoyed by the Gannet is its longer than usual sternum which guards the internal organs from direct impact pressure. Equally impressive are a series of inflatable air sacs, connected to the lungs which line the sides and back of the Gannet as well as between the sternum and pectoral muscles, further cushioning the impact pressure as the bird enters the water.
Gannets fly in fairly large groups about fifty to sixty feet above the water looking for schools of fish to feed on. You can see in this next image a few of the Gannets have spotted some fish below and are initiating their dive.
Gannets Fishing
When a Gannet spots a target fish it quickly applies its air brakes and locks on to its acquired target, which is seen in this next shot.
The next series of images shows the Northern Gannet in various stages of its dive (taken from the same dive sequence).
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And a dive shot from another sequence showing the classic Gannet torpedo posture immediately pre-impact.
The diet of the Gannet is virtually 100% fish although they have known to eat squid opportunistically. They are no respecter of fish and will eat any variety available between the lengths of 1-12″. Interestingly they always swallow the fish while still underwater and will never carry a fish in their bill while inflight. When feeding the young before they fledge, the adults provide regurgitated fish.
When Gannets hit the water at up to sixty miles per hour momentum allows them to penetrate to depths of up to 15′ however they are also able to swim even deeper and have been recorded at depths of up to 45′.
Although we didn’t get to photograph the nesting sites on Bonaventure Island, there are lots of nest there. In fact it is estimated that there are more than 40,000 nests on the island accommodating over 100,000 birds.
All of the images in today’s post were taken with the Canon 5D Mk III with the EF500mm f/4 L IS lens.
I trust you have enjoyed this brief photo exposé of the Northern Gannet of the Gaspé Coast. The Gaspé region is an absolutely fabulous place to visit and if you’ve never been, its one of those destinations that should be on everyone’s bucket list.
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