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
Read more On "July Osprey - 2016"!

July Osprey - 2016

Sunrise at Hemingways near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge March 2016

The first time I ever went to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, many years ago, I had the pleasure of witnessing the sunrise while crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I say pleasure because I had not planned it right and didn't know how far I had to drive (no smart phone at the time, no google maps, and no proper prior planning) and while I was less than half way there I got to see the sunrise and realized I had blew it, and would be more than an hour "late" for sunrise...

Pretty much every visit since, over 50 easily in the last 9 or 10 years I've made it to Blackwater before sunrise, sometimes 45 minutes before... It is around a 100 miles to drive for me, and can take nearly 2 hours in the early morning. And it is totally worth it. Here are a couple sunrises from Blackwater that were awesome/epic/wow'd me, etc... Any many more here.




And finally this sunrise, from my second visit when I did actually make it in time for sunrise... ( Taken on December 16, 2006)


In March 2016 I think the weather wasn't supposed to be great and I slept in and then decided anyway to go east, and instead of getting up at 4am I got up at 5:30am or something. As I was driving I saw the amazing sunrise and these strange clouds and it was something to see. So for the first time, I stopped on the East side of the Bay Bridge at sunrise and went to the marina there.
Previously I'd shot the Snowy Owl that was there in the evening, while coming back from the Eastern Shore:


All that lead up to show off these two images I've shared so far from this spot... I shot a bunch, walked on the docks a bit, shot looking east, looking west, and took a few hundred photos. Then I continued east and hit a couple other spots without going to Blackwater.
Empty Docks


Sunrise @ Chesapeake Bay Bridge


Finally, here's a 'contact sheet' from the images I processed and rated from this day in March 2016. I've only posted the 2 above so far. There might be another couple to post from the sunrise timeframe... Later in the day the images were not unique, though it was fun to see the osprey early in the season the ducks as well.



If you're wondering about how I rate images, here it is:
1= come back and find this image and process it later.
2=used for an automated image/hdr creation, not editing by itself for single export
3=any edited image that is not rated higher
4=hdr images (TIF's then processed and exported), or regular images that are a "4". So just because an HDR is a 4 doesn't mean it is an image I really like.
5=highest rating, any image that I REALLY like...

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/
Nikographer.com / Jon Read more On "Sunrise at Hemingways near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge March 2016"!

Sunrise at Hemingways near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge March 2016

Play, Let Go, Have Fun

I made it to the County Fair last night. The festive nature got me in the mood to let go a little. Sure I brought a tripod and a camera and a few lenses, and filters, and a cable release and...

But after a while, a few hundred shots, and a lap around the area having seen and shot everything at least once - I started to play.



A few of the things this involved were - hand holding long exposures, taking shots were the horizon was not level on purpose, and then really tossing it all aside and zooming the lens during the exposure, spinning the camera during the exposure, and even doing both of those plus trying to pan on moving rides/subjects.

Landscape and Wildlife Photography - shooting, the gear, the techniques involved, it can all be so technical. Do this to improve that, try this to avoid that, make sure this or that is sharp, this is out of focus, etc, etc.



It was nice to for a brief while play around and see what the results were later. In around 4 hours I took just under a thousand shots. It was around shot 500 that I began to play more and more.

--

I got to the fair about 45 minutes before sunset and it worked out perfectly. I was able to check everything out with some day light, shoot the sunset and rides w/ lights and then shooting everything in the night sky/dark.

It was fun.



I started the night bracketing shots 3 or 5 clicks per, then changed to shooting 2 shot brackets of 0ev and +1ev, in aperture mode. This helped by adjusting the exposure to the changing light as I went along, and by changing the amount of time the shutter was open without having to think about it too much. I adjusted the base EV to tweak the exposures a little, but still let the camera meter things. Most shots were taken with the Nikon 18-200mm VR and with the Vari-ND filter.

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

Nikographer.com / Jon Read more On "Play, Let Go, Have Fun"!

Play, Let Go, Have Fun

Observe and be Judgmental

From - http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

I think to be a successful nature/wildlife photographer you have to be judgmental! What do I mean by that? Well here goes...

To make animal photos that are more than snapshots, more than an "oh look, click!" type of photo it takes skill in observation. It takes time to see and think like the subject. To make predictions and try to either put yourself in the right spot at the right time or to let something play out the way you would like.

In my recent shooting of the osprey nest here in Maryland I've noticed a few things, and tried a few things, and had pretty good luck.

read more...


The first time I visited this nest, was a couple or more months ago when the female was on eggs, so no chicks yet. What I noticed was the nest was super close to land. Having seen a nest or two that was too close for the bird's comfort I was excited and a bit cautious. I decided to wait to come back. And by the time I came back again 2 of the 3 chicks were fledged.


When I got there a walked up near the nest, and got the usual yips from the chicks and more from the mom. After a minute she calmed down, and I also backed off a bit. After that and a little time it almost became hard to get a reaction from them. I didn't want to them to fly off the nest or anything, it was just odd that they didn't care so much, even if I was pretty close.

It was then that I knew they were used to people being in the area and while aware of it all, they could deal with it well. Later visits I'd get close, back off, other people would come by or a boat or a plane and the additional activity might make them fly.

Judging the circumstances and their behavior - on more than one occasion I backed away from the nest and sat down, or generally looked away did my thing to let them watch and come back to the nest, and not be bothered by my presence. This tactic worked.


If you've watch an osprey nest you are probably aware that the adults are big and can take care of themselves well, be it a crow or an eagle, or another osprey that is a threat. But they can also be skittish and fly away from the nest if bothered or not come back if a person is too close.


I've watched that series "In to the lions den" and I think a lot can be learned from it. The guys approach is to be super observant and to build awareness of animal behavior. Then to take that knowledge and try to build trust with the animals so you can come to a common ground where you just are there, and they don't get bothered by his presence. In the show he used this technique to go from roaring lions at 150 yards, to laying down on the ground unprotected at around 15 feet from the pride!

While I'm not him, and these aren't lions, observing osprey and trying to make all kinds of judgments as to their thoughts and your actions has led to some great chances at photographs.

This particular location is odd and great in that the birds are close and NOT bothered by people that much. They've become habituated to people being in the area. And the calmness of the adults has carried over to the chicks. This weekend the 3rd chick fledged (or had just done so the day before). Using past experience I'd say that birds which aren't comfortable - that can fly away - will fly away if bothered. This weekend the birds didn't fly away due to me being there at all I think. I even got as close as the shore would allow, and got the occasional stare but not much else.

Then came the male. I hadn't seen him all that much. In the week or so of observation I'd been wanting to see all 5 birds (2 adults and 3 chicks). When the male visited late in the day, he flew by and buzzed the nest and fly off. Having seen this same skittishness in the male from a different nest I watched last year, I backed off and waited and within a few minutes he came back and delivered a fish.



Last year when I saw this skittishness I tried to avoid taking shots after that first fly by on the nest. Holding off worked sometimes but he was still skittish. And this testing it out on my part was difficult at times because I wasn't the only photographer there. The other guys did try it too and it seemed to help but the birds were uneasy and with multiple people it is a hard thing to control and gain insight from. Imagine if that Lion guy was trying to get to be friends with a lion pride and was doing it while part of a group of 3 people!?@

This weekend when the male flew by I took the initial shots of him flying, backed off/away and he came back. Then he went and caught more fish and I repeated the same thing but moved off quicker and he came back quicker too.



The point of this is to be observant, be in the moment, watch for signs of discomfort in subjects and possible causes which you might control - like movement, distance from subject, noise you're making, etc. Animals will give signs of their comfort or lack there of, and often will do it before they are ready to fly away.

Watching nests can be pretty easy as a photographer, and pretty stressful on the birds if you get too close or don't watch for the signs and respond to them. It is a common things for birds to abandon eggs or even young chicks if they're bothered. When approached properly though getting to see the variety of behavior and interactions between adults and offspring can be very rewarding.

--

As a photographer I like to be thoughtful and question my own actions. I also like to watch others and then wonder to myself if I'd do it the same way or differently given the chance. To get close and get close photos takes more than a long lens. It takes time to observe and learn, and time to experiment and to try again and again.

This spring I spent more than a couple days hunting around for the new perfect spot to try to shoot osprey. I had two in mind and my fall back spot turned in to the better one. In a couple evenings and a couple afternoons I shot around 60GBs of stuff (osprey and a couple green herons). I'm going to try to go back and get more of the adults and especially the chicks fishing. I've seen 1 or 2 of the chicks hunting and been surprised how clumsy they are, but how well they do too.



Make plans! Summer will be wrapping up before you know it and Fall migration will be upon us. What will you do to see better things, take better photos and make this Fall your best? I'm going to visit some new spots, as well as some spots that were new to me last year.

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

Nikographer.com / Jon Read more On "Observe and be Judgmental"!

Observe and be Judgmental

Osprey Perch GVP #13

posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/osprey-perch-gvp-13.html

It's pretty cool how adaptable osprey are. They can nest on power poles, man made nest platforms, channel markers, in actual trees some times. Although in the Maryland area osprey don't seem to nest in trees all that much.

One of my favorite odd locations for an osprey nest is this one on Route 50:




Preched Osprey - vertical shot for my GVP project.



One of my other favorite osprey platforms is near Reagan National Airport. Over there osprey use the channel markers as nest platforms, and then add all kinds of materials to build the nest. Here the monument in the background (and plane) provides the clue(s) for where it is located.



I've been searching all over the place for new spots and found quite a few. There are so many places that they nest - be it on private property, in refuges, above ball fields or even just in a parking lot on a light pole. Not all are accessible, still others are awkwardly located and not very photogenic. I managed to find a pretty good one recently and don't want to jinx myself so I am holding off on even going until there are chicks, which should be in about a month. A second spot is equally as good and I posted something the other day from that spot (but not the nest yet).



-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon Read more On "Osprey Perch GVP #13"!

Osprey Perch GVP #13

MD Osprey - GVP #6

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/md-osprey-gvp-6.html



I'm not doing much Osprey shooting this year yet, but I found this one (bird) and shot it vertically so, it works for my project.

I've got a new osprey spot waiting in the wings so to speak that I should start to post from in about a month, it's gonna rock!

-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon Read more On "MD Osprey - GVP #6"!

MD Osprey - GVP #6

Going Vertical #4

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/



From the Maryland side of the park along the bridge path to the main-overlook...

Go Vertical!

It shouldn't be such a chore to think and shoot vertical, but most of the time it is for me. It seems natural to shoot horizontally.



-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon Read more On "Going Vertical #4"!

Going Vertical #4

Going Vertical #3

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/going-vertical-3.html

I'm just up to my 3rd GVP post...



This is a boardwalk at a nearby spot. The other end of the boardwalk has an elevated blind for watching wildlife from.

I hope this Going Vertical Project frees me to shoot vertical more as well as actually posting vertical images. My flickr account has probably 1% (or less) vertical shots, while I might have shot 5% (or less) vertical...

-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon
Read more On "Going Vertical #3"!

Going Vertical #3

Going Vertical #2

at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/going-vertical-2.html



I've decided my project is going to be to shoot and post vertical shots for a good while.

Flickr really like horizontal images, or square images. Vertical images are not as popular, although I did recently come across someone's flickr stream that was almost completely vertically composed images.

Flickr's Explorer is almost always non-vertical shots, the non-vertical shots just work better for computer screens and the site's layout.

At a recent photoclub meeting the presenter had many panoramic shots taken with a panoramic camera. Most times you'd think of a pano you'd think horizontal, right? Well this person also had some vertical panos, like 1 foot wide by 6 feet tall. It's such an odd thing that it struck me. He's a pro and said that they sell well the tall narrow shots because they can fit in to place where wall space is very limited. And wow, yeah, that makes such great sense.

I'm going to try a few vertical panos if the subject looks right for it.

Here's another vertical shot, that I posted a while back, a rare thing...



-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon
Read more On "Going Vertical #2"!

Going Vertical #2

Blackwater - Bald Eagles Spring 2010 pt2

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/blackwater-bald-eagles-spring-2010-pt2.html

I posted this earlier today and now decided to post a bunch more shots from this time a couple weeks ago...

Bald Eagles at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

2 Adults.





2 Juveniles.





http://blackwater-national-wildlife-refuge.blogspot.com/

-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon
Read more On "Blackwater - Bald Eagles Spring 2010 pt2"!

Blackwater - Bald Eagles Spring 2010 pt2

Blackwater Refuge - Bald Eagles Spring 2010

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/blackwater-refuge-bald-eagles-spring.html

A couple weeks ago while I was at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge I found a patch of marsh with around 5 eagles in it, and some ducks and RWBBs too.



They seemed to be feasting on some fish as well as what might have been a goose. The goose looked snow goose sized and white - if it was a snow goose it had to be a weak one that didn't leave with the other ones during the northward migration because I think those geese left weeks if not a month or more ago.





The group of eagles seem to be pretty friendly to each other, but did swoop in a few times to compete over some of the food. The birds in flight here - the young eagle had a fish and was trying to maintain control of it, but dropped it mid-flight, and the adult caught it mid-flight and kept it ;) I love seeing those mid-air transfers.

Blackwater should be fun this year - but I am not looking forward to the summer bug. Hopefully my blind will help keep them away from me. (The above were shot from my car, btw.)

-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon
Read more On "Blackwater Refuge - Bald Eagles Spring 2010"!

Blackwater Refuge - Bald Eagles Spring 2010

Flowers and Colors - Get out, Cross-train

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

I've written about some local spots before, and here's another one.



Nature and wildlife photography takes many trips, lots of attempts and visits to locations. While there are good habits, and techniques, much of it is chance and luck. So, I've found some of the best ways to get good images is to find spots that are not too far of a drive (maybe 30 minutes away or less) and then go often.

With days that are longer than 12 hours, I like to take time to go some where either before or after work. If I get off of work at 5 or 6, and sunset is at 7:30 or 8:30, that's a good amount of time to shoot if it is close by.

I live north of DC and that means Great Falls is close, and there are just a ton of parks, gardens that are good candidates for working.

Even though I like to shoot mostly wildlife and landscapes, I have been getting in the habit of going to a local garden (brookside). They have many varieties of flowers. Just a couple weeks ago almost nothing was in bloom when I went, but I got some decent pansy shots and posted this one.

For me it becomes an exercise in color, composition, and trying to really see more or better, and control things. With wildlife that's harder to try and practice. With landscapes it is somewhat doable, but you cannot control color or light much (sun, time of day, weather conditions - not too controllable) except for getting out a ton and picking the right DAYS...

But with flowers it is straightforward. In a way I would consider flower photography cross-training for me. It is a related but different skillset that I hope to learn from and apply to other areas of photography.

Tonight I stopped by the gardens for less than an hour, and took/made some images. While there I also saw a bunch of american robins, and a pair of red-winged blackbirds. On previous trips I've seen a kingfisher, and baltimore oriole, geese and ducks. One of these days I'm going to get some good wildlife photos here. It might turn in to my next find like the heron from last year. Who knows. And because the gardens are managed and well maintained there should be a good variety and turn over in the flowers/subjects, which means colors.

On a technical note, I've been shooting the flowers mostly with my 80-400mm, and a close up lens, and with extension tube(s) off of a tripod. No flash, and no reflector (yet), and I've not brought a spray bottle of water either...

And color should not be underrated a photographic element of its own.



-50-

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

Nikographer.com / Jon
Read more On "Flowers and Colors - Get out, Cross-train"!

Flowers and Colors - Get out, Cross-train

MD Osprey

From: http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

An Osprey shot from today.



I've been watching some osprey this year, but it's different. I don't care to watch the nest from last year the same way. Watching and appreciating birds, while positioning one's self near their nest - sort of seems weak. No matter the effort, my presence will at least ruffle their feathers.



And with other photographers coming too, it just makes things too much to manage as an individual photographer. So I have and will go some, but for the most part I'm going to just visit and shoot at that nest occasionally, and try to find more spots too.

Today, I immediately broke from my past habits and took a walk through the woods and saw a Great Horned Owl fly across my path and head in to the woods fly at about 2 feet off the ground. I didn't get any photos of 'em, but, it was like a reward of my trying more new/different and moving away from the "watch the nest" style of shooting.



The drama at the nest is that there appears to be a couple or more different females courting either THE male or just plain competing with the locals over the platform... IDK. If I had a bird's brain maybe I'd know. Lol.

-50-


Here are a few from last year at The Nest...:

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

Nikographer.com / Jon
Read more On "MD Osprey"!

MD Osprey

The Adventure of it all

I put in a 14 and 1/2 hour day today, roughly, for my door to door travels.

The days are longer than the shortest, but it is still a long way from Summer and the longest days. By 4:15 am or so I was on the road, and I made it about 140 miles to Assateague Island within just a few minutes of sunrise.

The past 6 months has been a bit interesting for me related to travel and photography. Some of my favorite photos have been the result of hard work but with a very random component. All the Black Skimmer stuff was the result of some risk taking and random chance.

Today I found (what I think was a group of 300+ Dunlin) on Maryland's Eastern Shore.



I don't normally even try for compositions like that! A little reading and exposure to different thinking can go a long way I suppose. Traveling around, I didn't even spot them, I got to where they were and it all just sort of happened.

What's weird in a way is that I went to like 5 places today, all different, each with some resulting images, but I just liked this - it seemed to touch a chord in me. It's different.



--50--

-Jon Read more On "The Adventure of it all"!

The Adventure of it all