Happy New Year!

"A New Dawn" taken at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge on December 24, 2006. This shot is a composite of three different exposures using HDR (High dynamic range) imaging to capture the shadows and direct sunlight.

For some the new year is just another day; and for others it is a new beginning. Whichever it is for you, may the new year bring peace, happiness, love, and prosperity.

This image is available for download as a desktop wallpaper in several new year resolutions:

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Happy Holidays

December Gallery

Key Largo and Islamorada

The December gallery is now open and will be updated throughout the month. Kicking off this month with a trip to Key Largo and Islamorada. I got my first shot of a Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens), although he was rather high overhead.

I had a lot of fun photographing Pelicans and Laughing Gulls with my 28-105mm lens. You could get that close to them.

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A November to remember...

The November gallery is now on-line with a lot of new species that I've photographed for the first time. Included are rare visitors to Florida, including the Masked Duck from Viera Wetlands and the visiting Eared Grebe at Green Cay. I was also able to take pictures of the Bald Eagle and Crested Caracara from the Viera Wetlands.

Blue-winged and Green-winged Teals have arrived in Wakodahatchee, and Osprey are now numerous throughout the state. There is also a Northern Harrier that hunts in and around Green Cay. There is a Great Blue Heron at Wakodahatchee that has began its mating display, and soon we should have some nests to photograph. In other noteworthy events, many Limpkin now roost at Wakodahatchee and you can watch them fly in during dusk. November has been a great month for birding, and I hope that it is an indication for how the rest of the season will go.

Earlier in the month we stopped by Butterfly World, which has its own separate album in the gallery.

Be sure to check the galleries weekly to see what's happening at Wakodahatchee, Green Cay, or Loxahatchee. I try to get around to these places as much as I can during the weekends. Happy birding!

Miami Metrozoo

Took the family to the Miami Metrozoo on Saturday, and also met up with many of the photography gang. It was an interesting visit, because I haven't been to Metrozoo since my early college days, more then a dozen years ago!

I spent most of my time at the Wings of Asia aviary. Aviaries are tough to shoot in. Finding a natural looking background and dealing with low light conditions under the tree canopy poses many challenges. I used the Canon 100-400mm IS lens and the 550EX flash with a better beamer. The image stabilizer on the lens and the flash helped dramatically with the low shutter speeds. The pictures are now in the October gallery.

The 20D had a great fall

I’ve updated the September gallery and opened up the new October gallery. If you’ve visited this site before, you’ll notice the much improved navigation of the galleries. The old navigation was a bit cryptic, if you didn’t understand the meaning of the icons at the bottom of the view and how to unhide the navigation page, it was easy to get lost. I decided to just get rid of the old navigation theme and go with a much simpler version.

This website is sort of a running diary of the creatures you can see in and around South Florida. That’s the main reason I organize the galleries by month and year. Some of the pictures I take during the month just don’t fit well with the theme of the galleries and so never make it to this website. For those pictures, I created a newsletter that I send out from time to time. If you’d like to be added to the e-mail distribution list for the newsletter, please send me a request through e-mail.

A surprise last month was that Arthur Morris from Birds as Art stopped by this web site and complimented me on my images. He found the site through one of my images in the Images of the Week Gallery on NatureScapes.net. Thanks Artie, it was great to hear from you and I hope to be able to meet you in the field someday.

I’m presently in the process of going through my image library and picking out my favorite photos for an upcoming calendar and photo book. Once I’ve completed the project I will post some information here on how you can order a copy.

My camera is currently on its way back to the Canon Factory Service Center in New Jersey. Last weekend, while disassembling my set up for the trip home, I accidentally dropped my 2 year old Canon 20D on to the Green Cay parking lot. At first the camera seemed ok; but upon closer inspection there was damage to the pop-up flash and a crack down the right side of the front casing. Accidents happen I guess, and I’m now using my old Canon Digital Rebel (300D), until Canon can repair my 20D.

I had been thinking of joining NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association) for sometime now. The incident with my 20D only accelerated my membership so I could get insurance coverage for my equipment. Dropping the 20D is going to be expensive, and I shudder to think about dropping my Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens. Of course, there are many other good reasons for joining NANPA.

Some of the local photographers that I have been shooting with recently also have their own websites. You should check out the work of Chuck Hersh (www.hershphoto.com) and Florida Fred (www.floridafred.com).

It’s hard to believe how quickly time seems to be going by. October is here along with the start of the fall migration season. Warblers and hummingbirds have been stopping by at Loxahatchee for brief periods on their way to Central and South America. Arriving soon will be the teals, both the Blue-winged and Green-winged varieties. I can’t wait! Hope to see out there this winter.

Ernesto

As I write this, it is the end of August and Tropical Storm Ernesto is just making landfall in South Florida. The wind gusts outside the house have not exceeded 20 miles per hour, but already the power has been threatening to go out. Such is life here in South Florida.

The August gallery is now complete and features many pictures of the Snail Kites and butterflies in Loxahatchee. This year has been a great year to observe the Snail Kites. I’ve counted at least eight individuals in and around the National Wildlife Refuge. If you wish to find these endangered and interesting birds, you’ll need to arrive early in the morning.

Some early migrants started appearing in middle to late August. Black-and-white Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Blue-winged Teal, Belted Kingfisher, and Osprey have returned in small numbers.

There is also a Butterfly World gallery for August. Butterfly World is a great place for testing new equipment, practicing macro photography, and techniques for tracking and photographing small songbirds. The downside is that they do not allow you to use a tripod or monopod, so it’s also good for practicing your camera hand holding technique. It is also a nice place to spend some time with the family.

Rainy Days

At last my bronchitis is under control enough for me to get back out there and start taking some pictures again. That's just what I did last Sunday when I checked on the Whistling Ducks at Wakodahatchee and found a Snail Kite near Loxahatchee. Images are now in the July gallery. I will be updating the gallery throughout the month as long as the weather holds up. It's been raining almost everyday this summer.

Amy was kind enough to write a biography for me and I have published the first, in what will hopefully become a series of articles on photography. This first article is about how to take flight shots using the Canon 100-400mm IS lens. I hope you find it informative, and please leave me some feedback on it or other articles that might interest you.

Summer Colds

A bad cold followed by bronchitis has kept me indoors for the past few weeks, and it may take a couple more weeks for me to fully recover. I’ve mostly spent the time just resting, but I’m starting to get a bit anxious to start taking some photographs in the field again.

On June 15th my photograph of a juvenile Purple Gallinule won honorable mention at the Orange Audubon Society’s 18th Annual Kit and Sidney Chertok Open Nature Photography Contest. Amy and I made the trip to Orlando to accept the award and to meet the other photographers. There were some beautiful photographs that were displayed and quite a large gathering of Audubon members and photographers. The event was a pot luck dinner where guests were also asked to bring their own plates and utensils. We were informed, however, that as award winners, we would not need to bring anything but ourselves. This made the evening very exciting as we kept wondering if there actually were plates and utensils for us to use. It turns out we got in line just in time, and picked up the last of the paper plates.

Juvenile Purple Gallinule Porphyrula martinica won Honorable Mention at the Orange Audubon Society’s 18th Annual Kit and Sidney Chertok Open Nature Photography Contest.

The June gallery has been up for quite some time. It covers the usual suspects over at Wakodahatchee.

Grand Re-Opening

First I'd like to welcome everyone back to the newly redesigned web site. The redesign has been on my "to do" list for a while now and the implosion of the old website at the hands of our old web host made this time as good as any to implement the changes.

Unfortunately when my last web host lost all my files, I lost the entire published gallery of images. The new Gallery starts in January 2006. Although I still have all the older images stored off-line, it would take too much time to republish them. Oh well, moving forward...

Many of the pictures in the current Gallery, you may have seen before, if you subscribe to the semi-weekly e-mails I send out. The images for late April and May are completely new, however.

Please enjoy the new web site, and I hope to deliver some exciting new content over the next few months.