Photography is an expensive hobby.

It’s the holidays and you’re probably thinking about next camera related item that Santa will be bringing you this year. However, more than likely you’re thinking about what you’re going to get for yourself this year, because Santa can’t really afford photography gear; after all, those reindeer are not cheap to feed. Whether you’re just starting out, or are a full blown professional, there is always that point where you realize that you’re not getting the results you want and that more and better equipment will alleviate this problem. Not to mention that every book and blog you read mentions loads of camera gear that you will “need” to produce great photos. In nature photography this tends to be a relatively fast high megapixel digital SLR camera and a professional telephoto lens. This, I’m afraid to tell you is true. The better your equipment, the better your results are likely to be.

Alright, I’ve either just convinced you that photography is too expensive for you or that you should place that pre-order for the Canon 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM lens. If you are the former group, don’t be discouraged; if you are in the latter group then you probably have enough spare cash to buy one for me too. The key to keeping your costs low is to learn how to use the equipment you already have and take pictures of things that your camera lens and body are suitable for. In other words learn the limits of your equipment and work within them. If you only have an 18 – 55mm lens, you’re not going to take too many images of wildlife; instead you’ll need to work with captive and friendly subjects, or landscapes, or even portraits and events. When you’re ready, step up to the next item that will give you the results you want. If you want to get images of birds in flight, then consider a fixed focal length (prime) lens that is 400mm or more. Don’t get too bogged down in trying to make the most out of your money by purchasing something that you can use for more than one type of photography. Often what you will end up with is too much of a compromise where it doesn’t do either type of photography very well. Get equipment for specific tasks, and concentrate on taking images that the lens was designed for. You’ll make your money go a lot further by buying the specialized equipment one at a time.

Next get creative. I’m not much of a DIY person, but some tricks are so easy, you’ll kick yourself for not trying them. Want to take some Macro shots and don’t have a ring flash? Use an inexpensive diffuser to bounce the light from your external flash onto your subject. You can find many tricks like that one by reading other sites about photography, not just nature photography. One of the best is strobist.blogspot.com.

Finally all that fancy camera equipment will only take your photography so far. As with anything, if you want to succeed, you need to practice, practice, and practice! I hope that the holidays are good to you this year.

‘Tis the season.

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got some good bargains on Black Friday. Birding season is once again in full swing, and to kick it off we have not less than five pairs of Great Blue Herons starting to build nests at Wakodahatchee. The pairs are busy gathering twigs and performing their courtship display.



The Great Blue Heron is the largest heron in North America. In Southern Florida we have two subspecies of the Great Blue Heron. The first is the normal one Ardea herodias herodias and the second is a subspecies Ardea herodias occidentalis; which has a white morph that is sometimes referred to as the Great White Heron. We encountered one of these white herons on the November 24th trip to Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East (STA-1E). There’s a picture of it in the November gallery. You can read more about the Great White Heron in David Sibley’s recent blog posting.

The STA-1E trip on the 24th was a bit on the slow side. It was overcast for the better part of the tour and it rained for about a half hour, which made photography more challenging. This time around I decided to bring along my macro lens and ring flash to see what I could find along the banks. There’s a wealth of nature there from insects to wildflowers that many visitors miss.

At the moment I am so behind in processing my images. I’ve got this site finally caught up, but I still have a lot of friends and family pictures to convert over from RAW. Not to mention an entire portrait session to edit and a few more to schedule in the future. I’ve also been doing the event photography for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at FAU, so I have some of those to process as well. So I’ll be busy for a while. Actually there is a new game for the XBOX 360 that I would love to play, but I’ve promised myself that I’d get the pictures processed first, then I can slack off a bit.

For those of you that recently purchased a Canon 40D that came with firmware 1.04 that was incompatible with some RAW converters, Canon has just released firmware 1.05 which is supposed to address the incompatibility among other things.

Enjoy the November gallery and I’ll see you on the boardwalk.

Draggin' my feet.

I took a little break from nature photography in October to pursue portrait photography with some success. It’s probably something I’ll do from time to time, while I continue to build a portfolio. However the real news is it is November, which is usually the time when bird photography starts to get exciting again. Right now, the happening spot continues to be Green Cay, as Purple Gallinules, still in their juvenile plumage, climb the stalks of the Fire Flag to reach the remaining flower stalks. You’d better hurry however; as the cooler weather will soon wither away the Fire Flag and the gallinules will become less accessible until the spring.

I also had a chance to check out the Loxahatchee Marsh Trail this past weekend, and I saw a couple of Northern Harriers working the area. Also present were two Red-shouldered Hawks and a Snail Kite. There were just a trickle of Blue-winged Teals and a few very shy Wood Ducks. Photo opportunities were low as many of these new arrivals were still very shy.

With the holidays approaching, I plan to be out in the field a lot more and hopefully get some great shots this winter. My new Canon 40D has become my primary workhorse and I really like its faster autofocus speed, faster frames rate, and deeper buffer. What I’m not so crazy about is that the larger LCD does not seem to make it any easier to determine if the shot is in focus, motion blurred, or not. I guess Canon would need to increase the actual pixel resolution for that to happen. Overall it’s a great camera and I’ve taken some excellent shots of birds in flight, macro, and portraits with it.

What I’ve learned when doing portraits is how to use flash more effectively. In particular how to use flash off camera. I have yet to try my newfound fondness for flash photography for nature photography; but I hope to find some sort of application for off camera flash in nature photography soon. One such application that I’ve seen used is to freeze the motion of hummingbirds, but that would be difficult here in South Florida, where we don’t get many hummingbirds. If I do find an application, I’ll be sure to write about it here.

Finally, I’ll put in a plug for the STA-1E birding tours being conducted by South Florida Water Management and Pine Jog Environmental Education Center. Remaining dates for the 2007/2008 season are:

November 10 and 24, 2007
December 8 and 22, 2007
January 5 and 19, 2008
February 2 and 16, 2008
March 1 and 15, 2008
April 12 and 26, 2008

Times for the tours are 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. To attend and for more information, please contact Helen Beers at (561) 686-6600.

September morning

Hello everyone. This is a quick update to let you know that I'm having a lot of fun with my new Canon EOS 40D. It's not leaps and bounds better than the 20D, but a worthwhile upgrade nonetheless. I will post my experiences with the 40D in upcomming web log posts as I become more familiar with the camera's strenghts and weaknesses. In the meantime the September gallery is now open, and I have posted two follow up articles regarding flight photography. The first is on the use of "Manual exposure for flight photography" and the second is on "Tracking birds in flight". I hope you enjoy them.

Green Cay delivers again.

Green Cay is a joy to watch because it is the newest of the three wetlands in Southern Palm Beach County. Wakodahatchee is fairly well established by now, while Loxahatchee undergoes constant change as studies are conducted in the different compartments of the Marsh Trail. Green Cay is still fairly new and still developing. Surprises such as the Ruddy Duck, Greater and Lesser Scaups, and the Eared Grebe are hopefully only the beginning of what Green Cay will attract in the future.

What’s exciting right now is that Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks have, for the first time, produced offspring at Green Cay. The proud parents have been escorting their eight little ducklings around Green Cay to the delight of many visitors. Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks produce some of the cutest ducklings. Their distinct black and yellow bands earn the ducklings the nickname “bumblebees”.

Whistling-ducks are also known as tree ducks in other parts of the world. That’s because they belong to a group of ducks that readily rests on tree branches. There are many different types of whistling-ducks around the world, two of which can be found in Florida. The two we have are the Fulvous Whistling-Duck and the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. While the Fulvous Whistling-Duck has remained relatively shy of urban areas, the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck has greatly expanded its range. It is common in Southern parts of Texas, Mexico, and Central America. I first encountered Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks in the wild while fishing from a boat in Lake Yojoa, Honduras. The Florida population of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks was once thought to have originated from specimens that may have escaped from zoos or private collections; but it seems more likely that the breeding population arrived from Mexico and decided to stay. In South Florida, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks may now actually outnumber the Fulvous Whistling-Duck which arrived and established itself in Florida much earlier.

August Gallery

Canon and Nikon announce new cameras and lenses.

You can find all the information about the new Canon EOS 40D, my next camera, at DPreview.com. The Canon 1Ds Mark III was also announced at the same time. Nikon also announced new cameras this week, including the D300 and the D3. It looks like a good year for camera owners. Canon's new lenses are the EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM, EF-S 18-55mm IS, and EF-S 55-250mm IS. Nikon has the AF-S 14-24mm F2.8G ED, AF-S 24-70mm F2.8G ED, AF-S 400mm F2.8G ED VR, AF-S 500 mm F4G ED VR, and the AF-S 600 mm F4G ED VR.

It's important to remember that when making a buying decision that you are purchasing a system, and not just a camera. Whether you choose Nikon or Canon, you will be using their system of lenses and accessories for a long time. Switching systems can be very costly.

Ants in my … err … camera.

August! So many things happen in August for me. My daughter’s birthday is in August. My wedding anniversary is in August. School starts in August. Of course Canon makes new camera announcements in August. So, will there be a new Canon 40D that will be announced in August? Only time will tell, but there is enormous speculation on the forums, especially dpreview.com. I’m hoping that a 40D will be announced because I really need a new camera. I’ve outgrown the 20D, and I can’t afford any of the professional bodies in the 1D series. My 20D is back at Canon service again, because it was recently infested with ants. That’s right, ants. I use the camera at least every weekend if not more often, so it wasn’t sitting in some dark corner of the house. Anyway, theories for the infestation range from having taken too many macro shots of insects to taking way too many “sweet shots”. In reality, very small ants like sugar ants and moisture ants are attracted to electronics. They will colonize computers and other electronic devices, especially in very hot and humid places. I’ve read some accounts on line about ants being a problem in the tropics. I’m not sure exactly how the ants got into the camera itself, but when I took out my camera from my camera bag to get shots of a Snail Kite; literally thousands of ants started crawling out of it. Most of them were hiding out in the pop-up flash, but they were all over the place. The battery grip and the LCD all had ants crawling around them. I shook and blew off as many of them as possible. The camera still worked and took some great images that day, but there were dead ants still stuck inside the camera. To prevent any damage from the decomposition of the dead ants or their eggs, it’s off to Canon for a cleaning.

Around the end of July and the beginning of August the farms around Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge begin planting for the fall. This is a great time to visit them as the wading birds and the Snail Kites are attracted to the area as the soil is prepared for planting. This past weekend we were able to observe Wood Storks, Egrets, Herons, Spoonbills, and Snail Kites at very close proximities just outside the gates of Loxahatchee. Inside the refuge itself there was little bird activity, but there was plenty of insect activity with butterflies and bees going about their business. Enjoy the August gallery.