Snow Birds

[Sylvanite]

While much of the country was suffering from unseasonable cold and snow, I was down in Florida helping run a sailboat race (the Flying Scot Midwinters), and visiting family. I took my new camera with me and tried it out on some of the local wildlife.

Here's a Tri-Color Heron landing in a muddy patch:

And another Tri-Color Heron with a small fish:

A pair of fledgling Blue Herons:

A Great Egret in flight:

A Wood Stork in flight:

A Grackle Landing:

This male Anhinga was determined to bring a bit of greenery back to the nest. He tried and tried to break off this branch, but never managed to get it:

A Roseate Spoonbill attack:

There was a pair of Sandhill Cranes with two chicks in the area. Here is a young one showing off a worm he just caught to his mother:

The obligatory Alligator:

"Don't mind me, I'm just a harmless island with some flowers growing on it" -- until you see the eyes.

A swamp Iris:

And here are a couple of bees pollinating a Pickle-weed:

I hope you enjoyed the pics,
Eric

 

[Charlie_W]

Amazing photos Eric! I think your new camera works just fine!


I wonder why there are no pics of the sailboats?.....:biggrin:


Edit:....I showed Wifey your iris pic......it was her screen background in seconds! I hope you don't mind. We really like iris and the color is perfect!

 

[Curly]

The one legged Heron has a novel way of holding his cane.

Kidding over. Great pictures. I too would like to see a few of the sailboats.

 

[mark james]

Thanks for sharing! Wonderful set of photographs. I especially liked the Iris.

 

[1080Wayne]

Beautiful photos Eric

 

[Dalecamino]

Your new camera works great. Good photographer too.

 

[Imaginethat]

Love the pictures, just beautiful.

I bet the 4 legged snowbird makes quite a mess on peoples cars.

 

[studioseven]

As an avid photographer, I am impressed with your camera. I guess I am more impressed with the lens. What did you use?

Seven

 

[TellicoTurning]

You and my son Ed, the truck driver, (Ferdinand for short) would get along famously... he carries 3 Nikons in his truck, a D50, D80 and a D3000 (I think) and never misses a chance to photograph a bug, a flower or a bird... and on occasions the moon. Love all the pictures. I'm going to try to save them to show Ed when he gets home next month.

Edit:....I showed Wifey your iris pic......it was her screen background in seconds! I hope you don't mind. We really like iris and the color is perfect!

Haven't shown my wife the iris yet, but will after breakfast... we have about 500 iris plants around the yard... all across the front, in a 20' diameter bed in the middle of the yard and a row across the garden... most are the lavender like you show, but in the round bed there are lots of other colors...

 

[tomtedesco]

Great photo's.

 

[lorbay]

Wow those shots are amazing.
Lin

 

[JohnU]

Beautiful Pictures! You're very talented. I love nature and its beauty, and would love to have a camera set up to take pictures of something that quick and turn out so clear. Those are post card quality. You definitely have an eye for it! Thanks for Sharing!

 

[Sataro]

Beautiful pictures. Amazing photography skills.

 

[Edgar]

Awesome photos, Eric.
Thanks for sharing them.

 

[Sylvanite]

I wonder why there are no pics of the sailboats?

Would you believe that I never even opened the camera case at the regatta? The event had an official photographer, and I was there to judge, not spectate.

I am impressed with your camera. I guess I am more impressed with the lens. What did you use?

I used a Canon 7D Mk II body, and borrowed a Canon 100-400mm Mk I "L" lens. My father used the Mk II version, which is a really nice lens.

Regards,
Eric

 

[Sylvanite]

I love nature and its beauty, and would love to have a camera set up to take pictures of something that quick and turn out so clear.

Well, there is no single set-up that always yields quick and clear photos. I was frequently changing settings for different subjects, and still the vast majority of my shots didn't come out. The ones I got could still be better. They say that a photographer will take the best pictures with whatever camera he is most familiar with, and I became a lot more familiar with this camera last week.

I bought the 7D Mk II mainly because I wanted the focusing system (the same as on the Canon 5D Mk III). It has 63 focus sensors vs. the 9 on my previous camera. That is really useful for photographing birds against an empty sky (especially when the bird is far away, or hard to keep in the center of the frame) such as this Glossy Ibis in flight:

It isn't that handy, however, when there are a lot of other details in the viewfinder. Then the camera doesn't know which object to focus on and often chooses the wrong one. For example, in order to shoot the Red-Winged Blackbird in her nest (below), I had to set the camera to use only a single point sensor. Otherwise, it focused on the foliage in front of the bird.

The real trick to taking bird photos is to go where there is lots of activity (such as the Wokodahatchee wetlands in Delray, or Peaceful Waters bird sanctuary in Wellington where I took these pictures), wander around to spots with good lighting, and learn to anticipate when something is about to happen so you can have the camera ready when it does. I took most of these shots in Aperture Priority mode (set anywhere from f/5.6 to f/16, depending on the subject), sometimes with exposure compensation (sometimes without), at ISO 1000, in AI Servo focus mode (although occasionally I switched to One-Shot focus), and mostly at 10 frames/sec continuous shooting (but occasionally switching to Single-Shot). Like I said above, I often had to change the focus sensor pattern.

It was fun, and a good break-in for the camera. I hope you found it interesting too.

Regards,
Eric

 

[magier412]

Such beautiful photos...thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Kenny Durrant]

Thanks. I did enjoy the pictures. They were well done as well as the timing to get the expression.

 

[bobleibo]

There's must be something wrong with my camera, the photos never come out even close to being that nice.

 

[Toni]

Great shots!!! Looks like you had an amazing time!!

 

[tbroye]

Those are some great picture. Look like you have the new camera figured out.

 

[JohnU]

Your knowledge of your camera definitely shows. I can barely take a clear picture of my stationary pen on a white background. I need to take a class to learn how to use my Nikon and someday upgrade to a nicer set up. Thanks for sharing. I really like that last nest shot!

 

[Herb G]

Those are some beautiful pics. They look like something you'd see in National Geographic magazine.
Excellent work!!!

 

[thewishman]

Love the Roseate Spoonbills - what a perfectly timed shot!