Snowy Egret

During my last Meetup at Lake Seminole Park, I spotted this Snowy Egret under a foot bridge hunting for his next meal. I was immediately attracted to the reflection of him in the water, which was so clear it showed his underparts.

This particular area under this footbridge is a favorite hunting/fishing place for all the shore birds in this park. There are plenty of Blue Crab to feed all of them. I've never failed to be able to find the birds here any time I've been to this area.

Settings used in making this image were with my camera set to Aperture Priority with partial metering on the bird, at 400 ISO because the light was pretty dim under the bridge, I exposed it at 1/30 at F5.6 with -2/3 exposure compensation to keep the white feathers of the bird from blowing out. I used my 55-250mm at 250mm to capture him.

Yaupon Holly

I thought by now you're all getting sick of my birds, so I'd post something a little more in season.

This is Yaupon Holly. Although the leaves don't have the traditional points that you'd expect to see, it is definitely in the Holly family. It's also one of the more seasonal-looking plants that one would find in nature. I found this during my meetup at Lake Seminole last Sunday. The bush was pretty full, so I got under the branch and shot up at the sky. This way, it eliminated the busy background, and it helped to make the plant stand out more. Yaupon Holly can be found in Florida growing in upland woods, streamsides, pondsides, dunes and pine flatwoods.

Settings used for this shot were, Aperture priority, with partial metering on the plant, ISO 400, 1/80th @ F5.6, -1/3 exposure compensation. I chose ISO 400 because it was very cloudy and their wasn't much light as you can tell by the settings used. The -1/3 exposure compensation was to keep the sky from blowing out.

This is another shot with a loss due to jpg compression for the site. This is much brighter not compressed.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Yup; another bird shot. I'm on a roll with these right now. When I visited Lake Seminole Park with my students, I couldn't believe all the birds we shot. This is one of the better shots I made.

This one, a Yellow-crowned Night Heron just kept right on posing for us only moving once. We first shot him/her when she was on the footbridge, then in an effort to get away (sort of) he/she flew down on the ground on the edge of the water. I think he wasn't giving up his spot for lunch, no matter what we did.

It's always a thrill to see and capture one of these elusive Night Herons. Since they're largely nocturnal, we don't get to see them too much during the day. When we do, they're pretty secretive. The only time they show themselves is when they're hungry, so it's usually a pretty easy shot. They don't give up their spots that easily just because we humans are there. They want to be sure to keep all the Crab for themselves.

Settings used for this shot were: Aperture Priority Mode with partial metering on the bird, ISO 400 for extra light sensitivity because I was shooting him under a bridge and it was a cloudy day. There wasn't much light to work with, 1/20th at F5.6 and -1/3 exposure compensation to keep the whites from blowing out. Focal length 208mm with my 55-250mm lens.

Great Egret

I don't think I've posted any birds in a little while. This one was shot at Lake Seminole Park yesterday while I was teaching a class.

He was so funny, he just came up to the picnic table where I was speaking to my group about exposure, and he was just begging to be photographed. I could see everyone getting a bit edgy, wanting to shoot him. He was posing so nice. Finally, I relented, since they weren't listening anyway. As soon as I said, "Well, what are you all waiting for? He's posing just for you". You could hear all the shutters being released. While they were shooting, I answered any quick exposure questions about shooting all white birds. Of course, all the while wanting to shoot him as well. I just couldn't help myself, I had to shoot him, too!

Settings used for this shot; ISO 400 because it was a cloudy day, and I needed more light. F5.6 at 1/250 in case he moved and because I was handholding the lens, +2/3 exposure compensation to capture detail in the whites without them going too gray, Aperture Priority Mode with partial metering on the bird. My focal length was 250mm with my 55-250mm lens.

Lake Seminole in HDR

Today I took my students to Lake Seminole Park for a lesson on exposure. This is one of the original images I made with the class. This image looked like it would make an excellent HDR study, so I tried it with this one. When I downloaded my photos to my computer, I noticed that I deleted the -2 stop exposure by mistake, so I made a pseudo HDR. I'm surprised it came out so well from one image.

The second image is the HDR image. As you can see, this one is much, much better. I don't like HDR when it's done over the top. It seems to present unnatural colors and a lot of noise, and I'm very happy with the way this one turned out. It's much brighter, the colors are more saturated and vibrant, and it's natural and believable.

Settings used for the original image are, ISO 200 because it is a cloudy day and the sensor needs more light for a proper exposure, Aperture Priority mode, which I use for about 95% of all my photography. The shutter speed was 1/100 at F7.1, which is the sharpest or sweet spot of my lens, 0 exposure compensation, with partial metering off the trees, which was the most important part of the scene (actually the greenery and reflections), 36mm with my 18-55mm lens.

Honey Bees and Nest

During a walk on one of the trails at Boca Ciega Millennium Park in Seminole, my friends and I came upon this bees' nest high up in a tree.

You can imagine this was shot with a very, long lens. I'm allergic to bee stings, so I didn't want to aggravate these little buggers. All I could think of was that movie, "My Girl", with McCauly Culkin (spelling probably wrong).

I've never seen a nest with the honey combs sticking out of it before and thought this was kind of interesting. There must be thousands of bees on this thing! It's definitely a bee keeper's dream.

Honey anyone?

Settings used for this shot were F7.1 (my sharpest aperture) at 1/30th and ISO 100. Because I was using partial metering, and the yellows and sky were blowing out (according to my histogram), I used a compensation adjustment of -1 1/3 stops. The focal length was 194mm with my 55-250mm lens.

Chuck-will's-widow

My friend, Jim, saw this female sitting on eggs on the ground about a week ago, and I talked him into taking me there to see her. She now has 2 chicks, but they can't be seen in this photo. Actually, when I was there, I couldn't see them at all. She must've have hidden them after Jim was there earlier.

This Chuck-will's-widow is in the nightjar family and is a ground nesting bird. In fact, they don't build a nest at all. They just lay on the ground, usually on some dead leaves and lay their eggs right there. The eggs hatch in about 19 days and the fledge from the nest in about 2 weeks.

Another unusual thing about this bird is that they feed in flight. Their diet consists entirely of insects. They are nocturnal and they fly around with their mouths open catching insects as they run into them. It's difficult to see in this photo, but they have hairs on the side of their beaks that assist them with catching their prey.

I can't believe their camouflage! Jim said he wouldn't have noticed her, but he was stepping and brushing leaves around that log looking for snakes to photograph, when he spotted her. She allowed him to get about 15 feet from her and she didn't seem bothered a bit.

Yesterday, when he took me to see her, I kept my distance at first, and walked in very slowly, stopping every few inches and snapping off a couple of shots. She paid no attention to me at all. I guess she knew her hatchlings were safe and she didn't have anything to worry about.

This is the first time I've ever seen one of these birds and the first time I've ever even heard of them! She's related and looks a lot like her cousin, the Whip-poor-will. Most people have heard the Whip-poor-will, but have rarely seen one. The Chuck-will's-widow is a bit bigger and has a brown chin, while the Whip-poor-will has a black chin. That's the easiest way to tell them apart. This one's identification was confirmed by the Audubon Society.

What a thrill to see this bird. It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Double-crested Cormorant

My friends and I were on our way to Boca Ciega Millennium Park today when we spotted Lake Seminole Park on the way. We decided to stop there first and check it out and found it's a great place to shoot.

This is one of many shots I took today. I always have trouble with the exposure with these black birds, but I like the way this one turned out. I rarely can catch those beautiful green eyes, but this time it came out perfect. A little something got lost in the jpg conversion, but the full shot is one of my best (if I must admit it).

These Cormorants are usually pretty skittish, but this guy let us get fairly close--to my surprise.

I plan on going back to that park often--it's a super place for wild life, birds and beautiful scenery. It just doesn't get any better than that.