I made a quick trip to Longmont to visit my parents. Though I was ostensibly there to see them, I couldn’t resist a quick detour to a nearby open space while my kids were playing with Grandma. I’m glad I went! There were many subjects, including ducks, geese, and gulls. As a bonus, the ducks were much less skittish than my previous (frustrating) duck photography outing. The Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata), in particular, were great. As always, click on any image in the post for a larger version.
The Ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) were everywhere. I like the sweet light on this bird against the dark clouds.
The Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) would not get close enough for a frame filling shot, so I tried for a wider perspective. It is harder than one might guess to get all three ducks facing the same direction.
I love shooting in raking light (i.e. off of the sun angle). The catch light and “glowing” feet make this one work. Be sure to click on the image to see it full size.
I’m not certain what is going on with this bird. Molting? Juvenile?
Though it may not be apparent from the web-sized jpeg, the sharpness and detail in this image is breathtaking. Great light, perfect head angle, and the water droplet off the beak make this one of my favorite shoveler portraits.
Finally, a Common Merganser (Mergus merganser). This is one of the last images of the day. I like how the setting sun spotlights the bird’s head while its body is hidden in shadow.
I visited my favorite fox spot during a recent snow storm. The foxes were nowhere to be found, but rather than go home empty, I spent some time photographing the local waterfowl. I ordinarily would have not given the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) a second look. However, the heavy snow gave me an opportunity to create some goose images that were not merely documentary, but said something about the animals persevering through harsh conditions. As an added bonus, the snow created great, clean backgrounds.
I also shot these Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) taking flight. Not really enough light for flight photography, but the blurs work.
See something you like? Have a question? Please leave a comment.
I was looking for a perch for a songbird setup a la Alan Murphy. Never had much luck with the birds, but this is a pretty good consolation prize. This is a tiny bud from one of our bushes (maybe 1/4″ across). In order to get the whole thing sharp I stacked a number of images using Helicon Focus. I converted to monochrome and toned the image using Photoshop and a custom tone curve.
Went back for another crack at the many ducks wintering on the Platte. The ducks were very skittish (and the gunfire from adjacent hunting areas didn’t help matters). Still, I’m pleased to come away with this image for Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). Hopefully I can improve my stalking technique and put a lens on some other ducks.
I went looking for ducks on the Platte River this morning. I found a great many ducks but they were remarkably skittish. I plan to try again with a bind, but even without one I still came away with a couple of reasonably good images, including this photo of a Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) taking flight. Light levels were too low for sharp images of birds in flight, so I went for a slightly blurred look instead. As always, click on the image for a larger/sharper version.
I got up very early on Christmas Eve to shoot at my favorite spot. It was so cold that I couldn’t find many animals to photograph, but the sun playing through the mist from Clear Creek more than made up for the lack of animate subjects. The first image is a straight-from-the camera image. The second is a monochrome image that I toned using a custom tone curve.
I tent to prefer the first image, mostly because I think the composition is stronger, though (obviously) I liked the second enough to post it. Please post a comment and let me know which you prefer.
I love shooting red foxes in the snow — their fur really pops against the white background, and fresh blanket of snow can simplify an otherwise bushy/busy background. Here are a couple of particularly good images from a recent trip to my fox spot. Remarkably, the fox above spent at least ten minutes laying in the snow watching me take his photograph.
This is my favorite fox composition – fox running toward the camera, seemingly intend on taking a bite out of the photographer.
I like the colorful, sunlit background on this image.
If this image wasn’t backlit it would be perfect. I wind up with more backlit fox images than I would expect, mostly because the foxes are reluctant to look toward the bring sun.
Finally, a mean looking fox.
I finally overcame my ambivalence about the new Canon 7D and bought one. I haven’t used it enough yet to say definitively that it has no problems with autofocus or noise, but images like this certainly make me think that the sharpness/resolution concerns are overstated. It may not be entirely apparent from this web-sized jpeg, but there is amazing detail in this Chickadee’s feathers. So far, so good.
I started a long blog post about my experience shooting at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge over the last three years, years, the difference between the conditions this year and last, the reasons why I made various images, etc. Then I realized that the post was ponderous and boring. Instead, here is a simple gallery of the best images from my trip this winter, plus a so-so quail image that I included for sentimental reasons. Hopefully the images can speak for themselves. (Click on a thumbnail for a larger view and for a slideshow).
My dad and I made an overnight trip to Rocky Mountain National Park earlier this month to photograph the elk during the second or “false” rut. The park is wonderful in December. The crowds are gone, the snow is falling, and the bulls in the main bachelor herd spar almost constantly. In fact, we almost had too much snow — at times the morning snow was so heavy that it obscured the elk. (Click on the images for a larger view and a slideshow).
Though the snow made it a bit challenging to photograph the bulls fighting in Horseshoe Park, the snow made for some wonderful images of the cow and calf herd in Moraine park. There is something whimsical about a show-covered elk.
As an added bonus, we ran across this mulie. Unfortunately another rude photographer ran this guy off before I could get the perfect image, but I’m reasonably happy wit this one.
One last image of the elk fighting. Less of a sense of motion than the first image, but I like the eye contact.
I was feeling a little lazy this morning, and so didn’t make it into the field for photography. Happily, the Christmas night snow brought a Cooper’s hawk to my bird feeders, looking for a songbird meal. (This one eats a lot of house sparrows, which is fine with me). In what are surely the easiest wildlife images I’ve made, I captured these photos standing in my kitchen (in my robe), shooting out the door. I used my neighbors’ garages as the backgrounds in both images. The green garage makes a nice background for the head shot, while the white garage made for a nice, high key background for the second image below. As always, click on the images for a larger view.
I can’t quite decide whether I like the stick at the upper left — I alternate between thinking that it gives the image a touch more context and thinking that it is distracting. Have a though? Post a comment.
I made this blurs during a trip last weekend to Rocky Mountain National Park. I am quite taken by William Neil’s and Alan Briot’s blur work, so when the elk stopped doing interesting things, I took a few moments to make these images. Note that the blur effect is created entirely in camera, not with software post-processing. I really like the play of the light on the aspen boles in the first image and the great sense of texture. In a perfect world perhaps the background would be less busy.
As always, click on an image for a slideshow/larger version.
More elk photos (and some Bosque images) shortly.
I took another look at the bull elk from this post and saw a monochrome image lurking in the original color file. After converting to monochrome I added a slight cold tone and cropped a bit from the bottom. I think this image is more effective than the first. Agree?
Admittedly, I have spent too much time lately playing with Lightroom presets, as evidenced by this post and my earlier post of an abandoned building in Crystal, Colorado. I find that using presets is a great way of discovering a hidden side to some images, including this image of a plant from Alcatraz Island, California. The image above is my favorite interpretation, though I like the alternate interpretation and original images below as well.
Here is the original image:
These images are from a recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to capture the rutting elk Unfortunately I couldn’t get the bull above in good light with a nice background. The image above is a little different from the standard elk image, but I like the way that it captures the aggression and hormone-fueled drama of the rut. Click on the image for a larger version, and please post a comment.
Unlike the bull, this cow cooperated by posing in front of a nice background in good light. It’s easy to overlook the females when there are big-antlered bulls around, but photographs of the cows show a completely different “personality” or “feel” to the elk. I think this one works.
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