Red Fox with Tundra Swan

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/red-fox-with-tundra-swan.html

This Red Fox was working mightily to drag this Swan (I think) back to his den. It was pretty huge and the fox struggled, and took a break to catch its breath more than once.





I suspect that the fox either did the kill earlier and went back to fetch it when I found him, or he stumbled upon the bird and claimed it for himself.

Bombay Hook is very well know for Foxes, there's a lot of them there and due to human feedings (a crime) they are not fearful and usually don't run away from people/photographers. On more than one occassion I've felt that a fox was coming too close and had to get them to back off a little.

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

Possum, Oh Possum (video)

I made this a number of months back, and meant to redo it, but never got around to it, so I finally decided to just post it.

Previously I posted just this one image of the Opossum/Possum...

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

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.



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

Nikographer.com / Jon

GBH w/ big fish at Blackwater Refuge

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

Great Blue Heron with a big fish.



(1/60th, f/4, 400mm, ISO 400)

There's a spot at Blackwater Refuge where herons often hunt. Approaching herons at the refuge is a fairly straight forward thing - stay in your car and don't move too fast, and you won't spook them. I shot the above from my car, and managed to shoot the heron for around 20 minutes. He caught a few fish, smaller ones earlier, and then finally caught this big one. It took him more than 5 minutes to eat it.

I shot these at some pretty slow shutter speeds, and hand held (resting on hand and window's edge). I like the motion, but it is tough to get a lot of keepers. These were shot at around sunrise, and the heron was in a shaded spot. As the light gradually increased I did up the shutter speed but still only a little. Adding the movement, while still not *blurry* I think adds to it nicely.

For sunrise and lower light situations I'm going to continue to work with the slower shutter speeds. I'd have preferred to be on a tripod, but that would have scared off the heron...

BTW, Congrats to Pat Ulrich on the denfenders.org contest.

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

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.

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

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

Golden Eagle Photos and Videos

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

Seeing a Golden Eagle is a pretty rare thing for me. When I first started to see bald eagles I would mistake juvenile balds for goldens, but nowadays I am pretty familiar with the differences in their markings.

The eagle count at Blackwater Refuge this year had 7. I got this golden eagle there a little over a year ago.



Golden eagles are basically huge, and can prey on things that are also surprisingly large. Check out this short clip of a deer falling prey:



And see this image from a nest with a feast of foxes (some with radio collars):



Here's a much longer video, that is almost too crazy to believe, but I think it is real and just shows how powerful the golden eagle is.



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

Nikographer.com / Jon

Great Falls National Park

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

Great Falls National Park is one of my favorite places to visit.

There are many photographic reasons to visit, the Falls, weather changes, seasonal changes and foliage, various types of light where both sunrise and sunset can make for excellent photographic chances.

I live and work about a half hours drive from both the Maryland and the Virginia sides. I first went to the Maryland side around 60 times before making my first visit to the Virginia side.

The Maryland side has the C&O canal and tow path. The main falls is about a 15 minute walk from the parking lot. There's just one overlook platform, but the path to it has a number of bridges and photo spots.

The Virginia side has 3 overlooks and all are closer to the parking lots.

Now that I've had a chance to visit both sides for various times of the day I prefer the MD side for morning or mid day visits. For sunset I prefer the VA side. I've also done the reverse and had good luck, so it is best to try both and see what works for you.

I mix things up, and in February shot sunrise from the VA side, and sunset from the MD side:





Here's a flickr slideshow of all images (not just mine) on flickr tagged with "great falls national park" sorted by interestingness...



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

Nikographer.com / Jon