Black Skimmers in NY and NJ - 2016

Black Skimmers in NY and NJ 2016.


I enjoy watching and shooting the Black Skimmers.  They are usually a mix of adults and immature birds - when I see them both in New York and New Jersey.

They will let me get pretty close, but often will also seemingly fly off for no reason.  But usually it is a jogger, a person with a dog, or a predator flying by (like a peregrine, which I have seen buzz them at Cape May).

Some times when they take off they will fly around and fly off and land a half mile or more down the beach.  Other times they will land right near where they took off from.  For this reason I usually give it a few minutes and stay where I was shooting from without moving or getting up.  This has occasionally worked, and they have landed right back in front of me.

I find that cool.  And even cooler is when the birds approach me.  Sometimes this has been due to other people approaching them from another side/area, and it has also been when they have the water/surf on one side of them and me on the other.  When they run away from the surf and towards me, to a safer location, I find that to be a sign that I am there and not bothering them and they are comfortable with me shooting them.

It is also interesting to see them as they move this way and that way, and how often there will be an immature bird that must be tired and it is either sleeping and not moving or it is just slower to respond and follow the movements of the flock.

The really do behave like one bird, all in sync, when it comes to responding to perceived danger.  If they think there's something bad about to happen they will all fly off together in a moment.  Only once or twice have I seen them leave a bird behind, and that bird has always been injured or weak.  To survive they've got to be able to go with the flock when danger approaches...

 D500 w/ 600mm f/11 1/1600th
Nickerson Beach, NY


D810 600mm f/5.6 1/500th
Cape May, NJ



 D500 w/ 600mm f/5.6 1/800th
 Cape May, NJ


Happy New Year.

-Jon

Making different images at the zoo

I enjoy going to the zoo.  I've been going now for over a decade, to the US National Zoo in Washington D.C.

By now I know where most things are, and try to time some photos for the seasons, the colors, and take care to make images that show the animals in a way other than the boring "animal at the zoo" kind of way I think a lot of people expect.  I think it is true that a lot of the time the zoo and the animals can be boring - they might not be outside, they might be hiding, they might be sleeping, they might be pooping.  There's a lot that can go wrong if you want to take interesting photos.

I try to focus on the framing, the colors and getting images that don't scream "captive animal", but I also don't want to mislead anyone and I label the zoo images as taken in a zoo.  In addition to the captive zoo animals I photograph there, I also shoot a lot of the native/migratory wildlife.

Here are 2 captive animals I recently shot.

Flamingo



Lioness




And here are a couple of wild / non-captive birds from the zoo's grounds also.


Mallard



Red-Shouldered Hawk



If you like to photograph wildlife one thing that can make a difference in the animals is what they are used to.  A RSH that lives off in the woods and rarely sees a human will be very likely to fly away when it sees a photographer.  However a RSH/animal, that often sees people/photographers, because that's what is in their home turf will likely not be so eager to fly away.  This is true anywhere.  I was surprised when I learned about the Red-Tailed Hawks on the Mall in DC, and other animals like ducklings, that people have photographed there.

-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

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/

Nikographer.com / Jon

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/

Nikographer.com / Jon