Fall in Virginia - Foliage shooting 2016

Unlike all previous years I went to Shenandoah National Park 3 times in October.  I think all other years I've only gone once, usually on or about October 20th.

This year I went in very early October and there was no fall color, just green.  And on this visit I hiked up Hawksbill Mountain, and that was also a first.  I've always taken the easy approach to SNP and shot from the road, from the overlooks and walked very very little, almost not at all exploring.  But this year was different, and the hike and views were good.  It was a bit of a scouting trip to see what the views would be like, as well as a good day of exercise, hiking with ~3 cameras, ~4-5 lenses, and a tripod.

Then I went back on Saturday October 22nd.  The fall colors were late arriving, and according to the SNP fall foliage reporting page, it was here finally, in gloriously fine colors here, there, and all over...  It was much better on the 22nd, but it was also very windy.  Like, 50 mph windy, so a good bit of the turned leaves were blown off.  The SNP site did it's report on the 21st, and probably described views of foliage that had subsequently fallen from the trees by the time I got there.  But as with any day out in nature, exploring, and hunting for cool images it was worth it.

My new found routine was to get to SNP ~45 minutes before sunrise (6:30am-ish) and then drive along Skyline Drive and see what the sunrise might do and pick a spot.  The sunrise wasn't as spectacular as past ones, mostly cloudy but still great to be out.  And I just checked to see what the images looked like from sunrise in my edited folder, and there was nothing.  So I checked my lightroom app to see what happened and it was ok, and I did bulk edit hundreds of RAW files in to TIFs and then in to HDR TIFs.  I do that in bulk to save time and see what comes out, and then if I like an image either post process that HDR file, or start over the process it fresh with unique settings for that group of source files.  Part of what I was disappointed with from the files is that due to the wind and slow shutter speed I used a lot of the images have motion/blur and that didn't seem appealing at least so far...

Anyway, I shot as normal for much of the morning, and was among a number of photographers all shooting sunrise from the same overlook.  Then after a little bit everyone had left and I was the only photographer still there.  At this point I realized there were probably many more images to be had if I just slowed down and looked for different things, and kept an open mind.

I shot leaves gathered in the corner of one part of the stone wall.  I hopped over the wall and shot some of the trees, leaves, rocks, etc.  I shot the road with the wall, and used the wall and it's graphic line to lead the eye in to the image...  And then I started to also focus on the wall and the smaller details.  There were a handful of vines and growing plants on the wall itself. 

When I go shooting to a place like SNP I bring a lot of gear, multiple bodies, multiple wide angle lenses, a zoom or two, and occasionally a macro lens.  The below images was taken with a D4 and 24-120mm f/4 lens.  I've had the D4 for a while, and 24-120mm is new to me, and I got it used less than a year ago - it has a nice smallish aperture, and good close focusing distance.  As I was playing around, I realized I could get the background blur to have the color of the leaves and that would complement the stone wall and vine in the foreground.  I like the resulting image, and managed to get some other varieties of the same theme later in the day with different plants and background that I may still share.

If there's a point or take away from this blog post it is to keep looking and exploring, and be open to seeing images that you didn't plan on taking or didn't immediately reveal themselves.  And also don't just go with the crowd - I could have easily left the overlook and moved on when I noticed everyone else had done that.

Searching for something different I started to explore around the overlook for something other than the big views:

 
After sunrise and this area, I drove south on Skyline Drive and then hiked Hawksbill Mountain.  I took this image after being up there for a while (HDR) and posted it already to flickr...


 -Jon


Updated with more images I processed and shared after writing the above post:

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

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Summer 2016

Over the last 8 years I've been to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens a bunch of times, mostly looking for the Yellow Crowned Night Herons. But also other birds and the great Lotus flowers and water lilies.

This year there weren't any YCNH's that I spotted, so I photographed the Lotus a *lot*.

Sometimes the petals would fall off quickly, in a sort of chain reaction once the first one broke free. I'd never seen that before, it was cool.



The YCNH's were great in 2008. I went multiple times and got some close ups and some feeding photos...







The second to last time I went this year I shot the water lilies in the back, and the light was pretty good. I used a 600mm lens, which I would normally use for birds, and I shot the flowers...



Just prior to this visit I had gone to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens I think 5 times, and the first few times I took a normal approach and shot the flowers with a long lens, and had hoped to see birds, but still shot the flowers. The images I got were "normal" and looked ok. I was happy with them at the time. But they were like many other images I've taken and seen others take. This one with the Red-Winged Black Bird was a highlight. The birds were in the flowers and I could shoot them for just a few minutes before they flew off.

#rwbb #redwingedblackbird #lotus #flower #feeding #feasting #eating #kenilworthaquaticgardens #kag #bird #birds #birdsofinstagram #birdstagram #nikographer #red #green

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 11, 2016 at 5:37am PDT

So this year on visits 4 and 5, I brought some macro gear and shot much closer images of the flowers and got much different and I think better results.

#lotus #flowers #flower #KAG #kenilworthaquaticgardens #naturephotography #naturelovers #natureshots #flowerstagram #macro #closeup #nikographer #nikon #highkey #crunchy #waterdrops #garden

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 8, 2016 at 10:22am PDT

#lotus #flower #KAG #nikographer #nature #flowers #flower #closeup #flowerstagram #naturephotography #summer #macro #bee #petal

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 9, 2016 at 5:55pm PDT

#lotus #dof #flower #kag #kenilworthaquaticgardens #nikographer #nature #naturephotography #naturelovers #naturelover #flowers

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 8, 2016 at 10:19am PDT

As I reflect on the half a dozen-ish visit I've made to KAG before this year, and then the 6 or 7 visits I made this year I noticed how it took a few visits to shoot through the shots and approach I had in my head already. It took that long to then be able to try to think differently, to see the gardens and flowers differently and to get different images.

#KAG #kenilworthaquaticgardens #lotus #flower #macro #nikographer

A photo posted by Jon (@the_real_nikographer) on Aug 17, 2016 at 7:10am PDT

On the last few visits I still brought a long lens (600mm) but I also brought a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 24-120mm f/4 lens, along with the Canon 500D closeup filter for a 77mm lens ring. By using that filter I was able to turn both lenses in to very close focusing lenses that gave drastically different shooting distances and super narrow depth of field.

I'm happy with the results I got this year. It took a bunch of visits to get lucky with the RWBB and then to start to see and shoot the flowers in a new way. In the future I guess I hope to be able to push past what I had planned and the way I was seeing things initially, and start to see in a fresher/different way like I did on visits 4 and 5 with the macro shots.

I've been meditating and practicing mindfulness this year and last year, and as I read what I just wrote above, I think that is a result of this new approach to life. It's all too easy to have a plan, work towards a plan, and then either execute on the plan and be happy, or not execute on the plan and be disappointed. But with a fresh approach and fewer expectations, and a more flexible nature new and unexpected things can happen.

-Jon

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

Wildlife Photography Doing it Right and Doing it Wrong @ Nickerson Beach in NY

I should start by saying I grew up literally just down the beach from Nickerson beach, and back then it was called Nassau Beach, and they would spell out that in flowers along Lido Boulevard at the park entrance. I visit regularly, and I have numerous friends that still live there. Many people I know were directly impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Nickerson Beach is a great place to see nesting birds along the shore, including common terns, black skimmers, plovers, and oystercatchers. There are a couple of areas that are restricted and this allows the birds some space to nest in.

The string that ropes off the area can be pretty close to where the birds have chosen to nest. So if you want to, you can get very close to them. I have sat along the string a handful of times and gotten shots of the birds, sometimes on eggs from dozens of feet away. I found this interesting at first, but now I prefer to spend more time shooting around the edges, along the surf, or when the birds are flying around.

I think you can shoot from close up respectfully and without bothering the birds. That said, as you approach to get that close, the birds will fly right at you and can attack you. I've heard of people getting cut up, or pooped on.

When I shoot wildlife I also very much like to get as close as possible. But over the last few (or more) years something changed in myself and partially from seeing others pursue their shots. Now I like to enjoy my outing, get photos, but not at the cost of the animal or doing something others might frown on. Basically, I am not shooting for a magazine, or for an award or even really in search of praise anymore. I just shoot to enjoy the time out, and to have images for myself. Sure I share my images as well, but I am not primarily motivated by the sharing / social aspect of photography any more. I've been burned by it personally, and realize that being a go-getter isn't all it's cracked up to be.

And then there's seeing how other people behave, and that's just too much for me to be associated with or to contribute to. A few years ago we had the eruption of Snowy Owls and people were jerks all over. Some of the jerks were birders. Other jerks were photographers. And still more jerks were those with a cell phone camera who would walk in the dunes (restricted/not allowed) to try to get close to the owls - and of course the owl would fly away and they'd still have a cell phone. So - for what? Not everyone knew or knows better, but people should know better.

I shot this owl in New Jersey for 4 hours and felt very lucky. It was my first owl, and a friend shared the location with me. I made the bird fly a couple times in that period, but it didn't fly off until 2 birders approached me and the snoozing owl, causing the owl to fly away. They tried to blame me, but no - the bird was actually sleeping a little and they flushed it.

So back to Nickerson Beach New York.

In July I got there a little after sunrise, and saw a bunch of other photographers there, all east of the nesting area shooting with the sun at their back. So I went to the south side of the nesting area and sat for a while and there was an oystercatcher family there, with an adult hunting for stuff and feeding a small chick. I shot them like this for 20 minutes maybe. Then three of the photographers that were on the east side came back, and they setup a little ways behind me closer to the ocean. After a few minutes one of the oystercatchers ran out from the protected area, towards the other people, grabbed something from the sand and ran back to the chick and started feeding on something. Then it happened again and I realized that these people were throwing food, open clams as it turned out, to the birds!

So, how many ways to describe how this is wrong are there?!

• The birds were already eating/feeding
• Baiting birds is cheating, unless it is your backyard and it is with seed or such
• I was shooting the birds and these folks not only disturbed the birds but they disturbed me.
• The bait was huge, and could have potentially either been spoiled or been bad for the chick.  Let mother nature do its thing, no need to stop them from feeding on their native food...
• It's against the law there
• There's no benefit I could see for doing this, the birds were already just feet away and it just made them do un-natural things.

These people were on the east side, and in the dunes which you should not be doing.  The dunes are off limits.





 
This is the guy with the clams and 2 women he was with.  What bugged me more was the hat he was wearing is from a "professional" photographer he probably went on a paid photo trip with and for all I know learned that this behavior is ok and that's how you get bird photos...



So when I realize what he was doing i got up, and cursed him out.  I told him he was disrespectful and that basically he was a jerk.  As I walked away I saw a park ranger in a motorized cart and let him know the guy was feeding the birds and had a bag of clams in his backpack.  He stopped and talked to them, but so briefly it had to be a quick warning and nothing more.

A month later I was back and got these images along the edge of the ocean.  No birds were harmed when I took my images ;)







 -Jon

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

Black Skimmers at Cape May New Jersey 2016

Skimmers landing on the beach at Cape May New Jersey. This time of year there are a few hundred there, roughly by the Arcade. In years past they tended to be near the Second Ave Jetty, but a few years ago they changed their preferred spot.

While I was at Cape May this trip I also did a little bit of night/star photography - it's pretty dark there...



(f/8+1/1250+ISO1100++1/3EV - D500 / 600mm / RRS tripod / Wimberley Head / Manual Exposure w/ Auto-ISO)

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

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/

Nikographer.com / Jon