Herons at the zoo

Some Black-Crowned Night Herons at the US National Zoo.











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Herons at the zoo

Going Old School - Osprey Drawings

When I was a kid, I used to like to draw.  I would draw cars, trees, boats, whatever.

Fast forward and now I like to take photos.  A ton of photos.  I usually take more than 100,000 photos a year.  A typical day could be 500-2000 images depending on how many places and cool things and action I encounter.

A month or so ago I bought a couple of sketch books and some pencils, erasers, etc.

Thursday I sat down with a pad and pencil and stared at it for a while.  Then I drew a box with a vertical line through it.  And I scratched my head so to speak...  What is that and why did I draw it?  I didn't know.  I still don't know, but it was a starting point.  I figured out that was NOT what I wanted to draw.  Usually my doodles are boxes, three dimensional distractions that are a waste of time but accomplish the goal.

Then from somewhere the idea of drawing a bird came to me.  I decided to try to draw an osprey, and drew about 8 that first night, each roughly a quarter of the page I had to work with. Here are 3 from the first night.

I drew some #osprey today. This is the second one I did of about eight. #drawing #pencil #instabird #nikographer #first #draw #linedrawing #art #bird #birdstagram #nature #birds #ig_birdlovers #ig_nature #nikonpencil #sketch #face #expression #shock

A post shared by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Mar 23, 2017 at 5:12pm PDT

I drew some #osprey today. This is the first one I did of about eight. #drawing #pencil #instabird #nikographer #first #draw #linedrawing #art #bird #birdstagram #nature #birds #ig_birdlovers #ig_nature #nikonpencil

A post shared by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Mar 24, 2017 at 8:02am PDT

I drew some #osprey today. This is the third one I did of about eight. #drawing #pencil #instabird #nikographer #third #draw #linedrawing #art #bird #birdstagram #nature #birds #ig_birdlovers #ig_nature #nikonpencil

A post shared by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Mar 24, 2017 at 11:15am PDT

Then on the second night I used most of a page and drew this single portrait.  It's got some light and shadow...

#tonight's #creation - #osprey #instabird #pencil #drawing #linedrawing #nikographer  #drawing #pencil #instabird #nikographer #first #draw #linedrawing #art #bird #birdstagram #nature #birds #ig_birdlovers #ig_nature #sketch #nikonpencil

A post shared by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Mar 24, 2017 at 4:44pm PDT

Tonight (3/25/2017) I drew another osprey portrait but I didn't like the way it came out.  It was too dark and there some issues with the proportions being a little bit askew.

So I drew a second image and here's what I came up with, it is from an image I took today of an osprey eating a fish.  All these drawings are based on photographs I took at some point.  I put the image up on my iPad and then drew...

#osprey with a #fish #drawing #sketch #linedrawing #day3ofdrawing #nikographer #pencil #nikonpencil #art #birdsofinstagram #ig_birdlovers #ig_drawing

A post shared by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Mar 25, 2017 at 4:55pm PDT

Tonight's second drawing (above) is the first that has the tail and the repeating patterns in the feathers, and the first with talons.  I drew it quickly and probably because I had done another image and given up on it, I was fast to call it done.  Looking at it more I could work on the eye more and the left leg might need some adjusting.  But part of this exercise is to go quick and make drawings and learn and move on.

I'm still playing with a few modes of doing the drawings.  2 days ago I started with the eyes and then added around that slowly.  Today I tried starting with the tree branch and then added the eye and then more of an outline of the bird.  In the future I want to try to do more of an outline of the entire bird/subject and then as I go fill in the details.  That should help me get the scale and proportions better.  But I also know from some past drawings that starting with small details and adding slowly to that can have a surprisingly good result because it is details added to details and the scale is considered for each small area vs. trying to get the scale correct all up front...

Hope you like the drawings, I had fun making them and plan to make more.

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Going Old School - Osprey Drawings

2017 Osprey

When the osprey leave at the end of the summer I always anticipate their return 6 months later.  Usually that means early March, some osprey are back and I look forward to seeing my first ones of the year.

First osprey (1/2 of pair) of the year, from March 2017:
 



Possibly my 2 favorite osprey photos of 2016, from out at St. Michaels on the Maryland Eastern Shore.

Male delivering a fish to a full nest:




I don't previsualize photos very often, but this is one I planned for and hoped to capture.   The only thing I went to shoot on this and one other day were 2 specific osprey nests, which each had 3 chicks.

Female shading her 3 chicks on a near 100 degree day:



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2017 Osprey

July Osprey - 2016

July is a great time for photographing Osprey in Maryland.  The chicks are getting big, and still in the nests, not yet fledged.  They are also eating a ton of fish so the adults need to be active to keep up with the demand for food.

In years past I have let other things grab my time and attention and I have missed out on shooting the osprey chicks.

But this year I took a day off of work, and I also took a weekend day and went to 2 specific nests near St. Michaels Maryland to shoot the birds.  There are so many nests in Maryland, but I liked these two because they are near but not too near to land, and they each had 3 chicks this year.

At the first nest I watched as one particular bird worked out, flapping away, gaining wing strength.



What really caught my eye was how the adult was perched slightly higher than the chicks, and was surveying the area but also keeping a close eye on the chicks too.



The other nest I shot at had the 3 chicks, and they spent more time being fed.  The male osprey was nearby and delivered 3 fish within about an hour while I was there for about 3 hours.  It was super hot, above 90/95 degrees.

While shooting from a nearby marina I drank 4 bottles of water to just keep up with the heat and sweat.

The above photos are new posts to flickr.  The below images I have shared already, here's the male at the second nest checking me out while carrying a fish, and then coming in for a landing at the nest.





I really like how crowded the nest seemed and how they were all huddled together so closely.  They were also very eager to eat, and the female (adult) went right for the fish and then repositioned herself to feed the chicks.  The male was more tentative.

It is not that often that I have seen and photographed chicks and both adults in a nest.  Usually the male will stay away or fly away quickly.  This male was similarly edgy but delivered 3 fish, and stayed in the nest longer than I expected.

 

Part of the reason could be the distance of the nest from the shore.  It was not that close - I used a 600mm and crop body (D500) to shoot them, and with a 1.4 teleconverter for some images.  In addition, when the male came by and seemed to do a couple fly-bys checking out the nest and me, but not landing, I backed up slightly, until he landed on the nest.  At one point I also used a cheap wireless camera trigger - where I set up the camera on the nest, turned off auto-focus, and then walked away to see if the birds' behavior would change.

During this time the male caught the fish and then would land on a nearby channel marker and eat some of the fish and wait.  The male, and female actually while the male was hunting, took to the air to ward off other osprey that intruded on their territory.

Each day was about a 4 hour drive round trip, and probably around 4-6 hours shooting. 

 The osprey should be coming back in two and a half to three months.  It will be fun to see them again.

-Jon
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July Osprey - 2016

Catching up in late 2016 - 3 photos from 3 locations

I was posting regularly and then well I wasn't.  I did it for a bit, but then fell back in to my old ways and got busy doing other things (but still shooting mostly).

As 2016 is winding down, I was thinking about using December to catch up and post a new photo a day, but that didn't happen.

So today I just posted 3 images, each from a different day and locations.

(In chronological order)

The first images is of some oystercatchers, an adult and chick, feeding in New York, in late August.  I grew up just down the beach, literally, from this spot where a bunch of different birds nest (common terns, black skimmers, oystercatchers, plovers, etc).

The oystercatchers can be a little hard to shoot if they get weary and react to being watched.  This day I tried to notice when they were watching me and then looked away and didn't eyeball them.  It mostly worked and I shot them from a fairly close distance as they went around hunting and feeding their chicks.  There were a handful of adults and chicks.




Next I shared an image of a Green Heron from Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC.

This year I went as many times as I had been in all previous years combined. Earlier in the year I photographed the lotus flowers a bunch, experimenting and doing some macro stuff in the last few visits.  By September when I got the heron the flowers were past, except for a few lotus, and for some water lilies in the back ponds.  Most of the busy summer traffic is over and I saw just a few other people there this morning.  Everyone comes for the lotus - so by September it is much more peaceful and low key.  And even if your thing is flowers there were enough water lilies to make it good.



Finally from later in September, I shot some stars at Cape May along the beach.

I've only experimented with star photography a little bit, I think all this year.  It can be a challenge.  Getting good focus is hard because it is night out and the stars are small and far away - I used manual focus on nearby lights and tried to chimp and adjust but I need to work on the night focus techniques...  With the cold nights, it can be hard to keep the lens from fogging up (but I plan to use hand-warmers to keep the lens warmer than the ambient air temp and some special lens coating/spray to prevent fogging next time).  I also wonder if shooting from sand (ie not solid ground) contributed to softer images.



2016 has been an amazing year, I've seen and done a lot.  I've changed a lot of things I needed to change (in 2015 and 2016).  I've been meditating for a little more than a year, and chalk up a lot of the movement in my life to that slowing down practice.

-Jon

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Catching up in late 2016 - 3 photos from 3 locations

The world we see is what we think it is, not what it actually is...

So much of our reality is self-invented, self-limited.
We see what we want to see.
We see what we have seen before.
We see what we expect.

We see what we allow our selves to see.

We are blind to what we do not expect.
We are blind to what we do not see with our eyes closed.

Reality is a fungible thing.  We don't think it is, but it is.  We bring so much to the table when it comes to enabling a reality to be experienced.  We bring so much that it doesn't seem right.  It should be an objective thing, something that just is.

I recently heard the saying "I'd rather be the person that bought the Bridge, than the person that sold the Bridge".  And I would rather have bought the bridge, than been the person that knowingly tricked and took advantage of another...

So what about photography?

As a photographer I see what I see and then make a choice to capture it.  But how can I capture what I don't see?

One way to overcome this might be to play.  Playing allows me to try things, to experiment, and to not have an expectation or result in mind.  An easy example of this is to play with slow shutter speeds and see what happens.  The pleasing results can be few and far between, but then there's that one that works.  (Kind of like most of my experiences on the golf course - the rare well struck ball that makes the day fun.)

Another way to overcome the expectations of experience and past sight is to put the camera up to my eye and see what I actually see.  This is different than looking without the camera, because the camera restricts vision, frames it in a little box and focusing the mind on just what is there.

And another way is to slow down, and sit, observe and stop looking for a pattern match.  This can be when I start to see past everything I've brought to the day.

--
I was in Florida this year (2016), my 5th year there to drive around and see nature, photograph birds and landscapes, etc.

While there I made it to Fort De Soto and looked for the GHO nest from the year before but I didn't see it and was disappointed.  So I did what I have learned to do when this happens and I found a local (park guy) and asked him some questions.  I learned that the nest I was looking for failed, as did another nest in the park - but there was a nest by the fort just up the road.

I have learned to value locals and their knowledge, and to not be afraid to get some advice.  When I go to a new National Wildlife Refuge for example, I will stop by the visitor's center and talk to them and try to learn from them. By contrast I also do not do a ton of prep/research when going somewhere new and try to have an open/fresh and unplanned approach.  It doesn't always work for the best results (images), but it removes stress and expectations and in that regard I am good with it.

Once I knew where there were owls I headed over there and quickly found the tree with the nest and 2 chicks.  It was in a grassy area just off of the parking lot and the tree itself was in a small area protect by some orange tape to instruct visitors to keep their distance.



I saw the chicks and took a few photographs.  Then I saw another photographer and we started talking a bit.  He said he had been there for a while and didn't see an adult around but he had looked this way and that way and was keeping his eyes opened.

By now I had just been here for maybe 5 minutes and he said he had been there for a couple hours.

What happened next is the reason for this post.

I could have taken his longer observation as fact, and shot the chicks and nest some more and then moved on.  But instead I used my own history with nests and birds and I had a hunch that the female/adult was nearby and within eye sight of the nest, watching over it.

A few years ago I watched another Great Horned Owl nest a few times, and learned that the female would hide in almost plain sight, but high up and blending in to the canopy.  This makes good sense to me - laying eggs and raising chicks is a huge investment in time and effort, and the adult is not likely to be off hunting or sleeping or whatever away from that investment if they have a choice.

With my own perspective, and not the other guy's perspective, I found the female perched in a tree, a tree INSIDE the taped off area, within just a few minutes.  From the perspective below, you can actually see the bird in this wide angle shot pretty clearly outlined.

She was there, clearly resting and watching the nest, from a very close vantage point.  She was hidden, but not that hidden.  One thing I remember the other guy saying after I spotted her was he didn't think she'd perch in a palm tree so he didn't really look there much.



Reality is more than just what you see.  Look harder.


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The world we see is what we think it is, not what it actually is...

Cape May NJ 2016 - Juv. Osprey Fishing

During the Fall I love to go to Cape May New Jersey. The raptor/bird migration is great. My friend Wayne turned me on to the location a while back, and I've gone every year since.

This year I have been once so far on September 24-25 (2016). It was a little early for big numbers of hawks, and the weather was not great for it either.

The best setup for hawk migration is when a cold front moves through, pushing birds east, and the prevailing winds are out of the Northwest. This pattern pushes birds towards the east coast and the way Cape May and the Delaware Bay are the birds run out of land to fly over, since there's water everywhere else and they tend to stop over on the cape.

But it's Fall and it's Cape May so not great here still has the potential to be good.

On this morning there were a few young osprey flying around over The Meadows and along the shore, over the Atlantic Ocean just at the edge of the beach.

The young osprey aren't very skilled at hunting yet and it takes them a lot of effort to catch fish. Here the osprey has caught 2 small fish, after trying numerous times to get something. I also saw dolphins in this same area and they were hunting as well. I probably saw more than a dozen of the dolphins over the course of a couple of hours.





(updated - 10/11/2016 with another image)

The ideal time to see hawks migrating is when the weather is right, and during the first couple of weeks in October based on my experience...

To see more of my Cape May photos click on this image to see my flickr set.



-Jon

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Cape May NJ 2016 - Juv. Osprey Fishing

Ready for Fall and Ready for Good Luck

For a bunch of years I have made it to Shenandoah National Park during the fall foliage season.  I tend to go and have had some of my best luck on October 20th.

In general I get there an hour before sunrise, and then drive south along Skyland Drive, and check various overlooks and then shoot sunrise from one of them.  As the day progresses I will drive further south and continue to check out the overlooks and shoot photos from them.

I've not explored the trails at SNP at all really, just a tiny bit of walking here and there but nothing that would be considered a hike.  I know I am missing out on a lot of great areas and things to see, but that's not how I have shot there and I don't know the area well enough to go looking without doing with the potential for nothing coming of it if it isn't a good spot to explore or to shoot from.  In the future I may change that, but for now not so much.


But there are great views from the overlooks.  Here is one from 2012 that I like a bunch.  The sky was great and the foliage was pretty good too.
Oct 20 2012


This is from 2007, my first visit to SNP. 
Oct 20 2007


This photo is from the second year I've been to SNP, and I like this since it has the "blue ridge mountains" in it!  
Oct 26 2008 


Finally, in 2012 I got really lucky! 

I was driving along Skyline Drive and had my 200-400mm lens on the front seat next to me.  As I drove down the road, I had the though that I'd like to find a little foliage detail and shoot it with the longer lens.  So I slowed down, and was looking for interesting and colorful patches of leaves.  After just a few minutes of this mindset, I saw directly out my driver side window, this Barred Owl!  It was sitting along the side of the road and wow.  I was so lucky to be going slowly, to have the window down, and to be planning to shoot with a long lens.  Normally I would have a couple of wide angle lenses at the ready to capture a landscape scene...  But I was ready and I was very lucky.

The owl stayed there for just a few moments, and then flew away.  My shutter speed was only 1/250th, but it worked even though the car was running, I was hand holding and there was an unexpected owl there.

Oct 20 2012


I'm planning another visit next month and I hope to get lucky and I hope to make some nice images.

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Ready for Fall and Ready for Good Luck

Cape May - Skimmers and Light

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/


Cape May is a hot spot for bird watching during fall migration. The way the state tapers off to the cape/point of New Jersey acts like a funnel where birds follow the land south and end up there, running out of coast/land and then momentarily stuck to think it over.

According to the local bird watchers who are in the know, approximately 80% of the birds that pass through the cape are immature/juvenile birds. The main reason being it is easier to migrate south 100% over land, avoiding the Delaware Bay and the water crossing. Adults know enough to take the easier inland route, while the first year birds don't. These young ones can cross but they have to stop and think about it, and then muster up the courage to make the trip over the open water.

In 2009 I made a couple trips to Cape May and this year I did 6 or 7 trips (multiple days each trip). The migrating hawks and falcons, and little birds / song birds (passerines) are most people's favorites. And they are mine too, except for the black skimmers, they are so fun to watch, and offer such great chances.



Last year I shot the skimmers a lot at sunrise and sunset and this year I did the same. Trying to get the flock and some nice light together is what makes them extra special. The skimmers might sit on the beach most of the day doing next to nothing, but around sunrise and sunset they are full of action.



As the fall season passes most of the early skimmers to leave are mature ones. By November the flock of black skimmers in Cape May is mainly juvenile birds.




Birds of Prey
This year I finally got to experience what the big big push of birds is like - seeing hawks and falcons on the frequency of seconds, not minutes or hours. Seriously. All this year it was just a couple of the days I was there, and one especially, when the action was just crazy.

The best days I had were a day or two after a storm passed through, with the backside of the weather creating winds out of the ~west which groups up the migrating birds along the coast. Perfect.



Next year I am going to visit lots again, and I will try to focus more on the migrating birds of pray. It is (too) easy to split time between them and the skimmers. Most of my visits this year were in October, and next year I am going to go a bit more earlier.

--50--

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Cape May - Skimmers and Light

Hide and Seek - Cape May NJ

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

My plan to hide a bit and have hawks or falcons land near my at the beach in Cape May worked.

I managed to get a handful of shots of this kestrel eating a dragonfly.






And this Video:

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Hide and Seek - Cape May NJ

Bodies, Glass, and Making Images

I have very few hobbies, and in the past 5 years photography has gone from something I do with a point and shoot every awkward once and a while, to something I eat, sleep and breath probably more than most folks.

Averaged over 5+ years I shoot about 200 images a day - I haven't updated that stat in the past 6 or 8 months, but it has to be consistent and around 200 still. In 5 years I've past a few hundred thousands shots and hundreds of outings. It is that persistence and repetition that makes more and more things second nature.

Gear
In 5 years I've now bought 5 bodies (d70s, d200, Fuji S5, D300 and D300s) and even more lenses but nothing huge until 2 years ago I got the 200-400mm f/4 VR lens.

The 200-400mm lens is pretty sweet and I've meant to do a review / write up, but Thom (ByThom) has one that is way more detailed than I could make and he's right on. Very good lens, struggle with converters and is weak at long range optically.

But with that and all of my other gear, I've always managed to take images with whatever I have that I like, that keep me going, motivated to learn and keep trying.

This is with a D70s and 70-300 G lens, with one off camera flash, through glass at the zoo.


With lots of time and work, and gear, I broke down and got a 500mm f/4 lens. It should be a big leap gear wise / optically over the 200-400mm. I plan to hand hold it often - and have been actually working out in an effort to hand hold the 200-400mm longer and with less strain, and the 500 is just a pound or so heavier. (If I end up carrying both around at the same time I might just need a formal Gym Membership).

Skimmers at Sunrise - Fuji S5 w/ 200-400mm f/4 vr:


Always want more, and don't blame the gear - every setup is capable of producing amazing images be it a Holga or a Hasselblad.

Probably one of the biggest things I've focused on in the past 12 or 13 months is learning to see and understand light, sunrise and sunset, and how that is key to images that aren't "Normal" or "Average". The good light is not at mid-day when it might be easiest to head out for some shooting.... Sunrise or bust.

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Bodies, Glass, and Making Images

Don't just take the perfect shots

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/



One thing that I've learned is that you have to take tons and tons of photos.

It takes time to experiment, review, learn. Repetition is a big thing.

I like to have photos that cover the in between times, not just the moments that appear to be "the perfect shots". They help glue together the day for me when reviewing the images I got. They also help me to keep an open mind - and potentially shoot anything.




I shot some photos showing the parking lot here, the signage, and the water tower - a few days ago.

Tonight when I was reviewing the image I realized that there was a peregrine falcon hiding on the tower! While I didn't get anything great of him, I did get him. And I will know for future reference.

Shoot anything and everything.

Peregrine's like high perches and there was lots of other birds in the area. Birds were traveling to the bay side to catch fish, and then flying back to the ocean side. I bet the peregrine could pick off a skimmer or tern in about 20 seconds or less and be done hunting...

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Don't just take the perfect shots

Be Thoughtful - GVP #39

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/be-thoughtful.html

I like to think I am a weekend warrior that would make a weekday warrior proud.

--

When I go out shooting I try my hardest to have real, natural, genuine encounters. I try my best to do this without disturbing others' encounters, and without bothering nature itself.

This weekend I was out and shooting along the coast of New Jersey. Lots of birders were out, you know the type, out for the experience, to see stuff, share spottings, and maybe take a photo. That's a relative of the way I shoot, but not a match really. Usually I like to shoot alone, find and record things on my own, and then share the results of those times.
-click for more-

While on the beach I saw someone checking something out via a scope, I looked - but didn't see the prize. So, I chatted briefly with that group as I was wandering around, and they pointed out the piping plover. I chatted some more, and to myself acknowledged how much they seemed to buy in to the upside of birding - seeing, sharing, and being out in it all - having a good time.

I moved on a bit, wandered some more down the beach trying to follow but not follow the oyster-catcher and the photographer following them. I wanted to get some shots myself, but didn't want to creep up on either of them and make it end. I'd rather miss my own shots than influence the bird and make it fly away / be uncomfortable and leave. So, I put my head down a bit, and walked by- and then sat down on the beach and hoped that the two of them, the bird, the photographer, would wind up coming to me. It has worked before, but not this day.



On my way back up the beach, someone was watching the plover, and looked up and wanted to share the info / bird with me. Again, that sort of contrasts a bit with how I have learned to operate lately. If I see something, some endangered, something that's skittish, I will very often tend to hide the fact that I see it when other folks approach.

Maybe it is a touch of selfishness. Maybe it is a desire to not ruin the experience / moment / encounter. Maybe it is the result of a few encounters / sharing moments gone wrong. I don't know. But these birders just seemed to be open minded and defaulted to sharing info and encounters.

It makes me question some of why I think the way I do.

I know I can be wrong, and have been over the years. I don't think that just because someone's a birder that they are thoughtful in a superior way or walk the path without possibly doing harm - but, it seems quite the contrast to where I'm at right now.

Here's the PLOVER:

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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Be Thoughtful - GVP #39

GVP Catch-Up - #24 to #32

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/gvp-catch-up-24-to-32.html

I took a little break from posting my GVP shots on the blog, and this is my chance to catch up.

Here are the first few:



Shooting birds where they are low in the frame, and water or sky fill the background, I think that works quite well for a vertical.

-click for more-

GVP #26 was one of those that stands out. I've been to Great Falls a ton and a half of times and seeing something special, the light, the subject, trying for something (slow shutter) and having it all come together - I love that.



--



I dug the next one up from a few months ago. I did indeed shoot it vertically to start, around sunrise - the heron was on the ice and the light was just *so*....



Finally there's GVP #32 and the Air Show today at Andrews Air Force Base. With some weeks of vertical on the brain I shot more than ever vertical, and this setup was an obvious one (helicopter and troops being extracted via the rope). It was slightly strained to try to shoot the planes vertically - but it did work a number of times. The Heritage flight would have probably work best on the pass I didn't go vertical, and it did work ok on the pass that I did go vertical.... Lol. The Blue Angels went by all stacked up for a couple passes and that worked fairly well vertically.

One of the things that shooting vertically adds is that it removes the lost pixels from just cropping vertically from a horizontal shot. Some things just are vertical. It makes basic sense to match up the pixels and orientation to the subject.

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

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GVP Catch-Up - #24 to #32