Tag Archives: bird

Workshop Fun

13 Sunday Apr 2014

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As someone seriously pursuing professional photography, photography workshops are a bit different. If I had the money and was an amateur photographer, I imagine I’d be going on a ton of them. As a pro, I believe in continuing education heavily, but the selection process gets much more stringent.

The first selection criteria, is the workshop teaching something I really need or want to learn and I think I’d do much better with some hands-on learning than an online course or something. Also, the ability to arrange the hands-on training without paying someone else comes into play.

The second criteria; does the workshop have arrangements, such as special access to subjects or travel plans that it’s certainly worth it to pay someone else to arrange rather than set it up yourself. An idea that is similar to hiring a producer for a commercial shoot.

From these criteria, I certainly haven’t participated in many workshops, but when I have, they have been fantastic experiences.

The most fun thus far, has been my trip to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. This trip was light on the instruction, assumption was that participants pretty much knew what we were doing. There was an instructor available for any help needed, but it was a freestyle setting. At the time, when I was a part time photographer and full time food quality lab technician, my focus was wildlife photography. I’ve always loved history though and thus, the combination of the great seabird photography with the history on the island was very exciting.

The days were full of excitement, yet very relaxing. We’d get up before dawn and walk over to the Clipper House, a nice French bistro themed around the Pan Am Clippers that made Midway the second stop on their flights across the Pacific. The food was fantastic and the service friendly and humbling as I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone work as hard as the two ladies that worked the dining area. Then it was off to shooting. The wildlife was so easy to find and approach that we were able to fulfill any plans we made within an hour or so, thus we came up with a lot of different ideas to try in a week’s time. Then lunch would roll around, so it was off to what used to be the old Navy mess hall. Here the food was a choice of typical American, such as Hamburgers, or authentic Sri Lankan cuisine. I tried a lot of different fabulous curries.

After lunch, most of us took a nap through the harsh light of midday. Then we finished the day off with some more shooting and dinner at the Clipper House immediately after sunset.

All of this shooting and eating fun was topped off with great times with a bunch of people with similar interests, but diverse backgrounds. We had a WWII Navy fighter pilot, a woman who watched the attack on Pearl Harbor from her yard, and a Swedish woman who was not at all interested in photography but was there as she wanted to bird Midway but thought photographers would be better company since she wasn’t a lister. We even ran into the Secretary of the Navy who was on a tour of ex-Navy bases in the Pacific. It was fascinating to listen to one of his bodyguards, a fighter pilot during Desert Storm, swap war stories with the WWII fighter pilot in our party.

Now, my big plan for this summer is a different sort of workshop; Madras A2A X. This is a workshop to teach us some of the skills of air to air photography and provide a general experience built for photographers at a local airshow. It is heavier on the education than my earlier Midway trip; fortunately since I need to learn some things about planning shoots like this and related safety issues.  Since I’ve become a full-time photographer my focus has shifted more to vehicles and people and photographing them together, so this is well targeted. My favorite vehicles are definitely vintage aircraft.

The second slide show here is from the Airshow of the Cascades from 2013, the workshop will be built around the 2014 show.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing I suggest you strongly consider this workshop. If you’d like to see some images from our instructors and organizers, the Facebook fan page for the workshop is a great place for that, https://www.facebook.com/madrasa2ax.

Oregon Coast Aquarium Aviary – Zoo Photography Tips

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

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After photographing at Yaquina Head, I decided that it would be really cool if I could supplement those images with some extreme close-ups of some of the seabirds that live along the Oregon Coast. Of course, headshots of Tufted Puffins would be chief among these.

Where could I make images like this? The Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon, of course. There is an aviary there that allows amazing close views of Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Black Oystercatchers and Tufted Puffins.

I am not particularly a fan of photographing in a zoo like setting, however, can’t resist an opportunity like this, especially when I know of no other way to get anything remotely similar of these species.

My intent was for most of the images to not look like aviary images. How does one do this? It essentially comes down to moving in tight enough to eliminate the tell-tale elements. Thus, most of these shots are headshots, or nearly so. This was accomplished through using an extension tube on my 400mm f/2.8. Also I varied between no extender, my 2x extender and the 1.4x extender, depending on where my subject bird was. I usually shot around f/10. When doing a shot like these you are playing a balancing act between getting adequate depth of field given the magnification and the fact that a soft out of focus background will generally work much better.

In the end, I suggest don’t shoot in a zoo setting often, but at times it can be great.

Take a closer look at these seabird photos.

Return to Baskett!

02 Monday Jul 2012

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Anyone who knows me well would probably guess that I can only go so long before I take some bird photos.

Well recently the urge to photograph some feathers struck and I returned to a favorite haunt of mine, Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

Let’s just say that overall, early summer is not the best season for bird photography at Baskett. Baskett is primarily a wintering spot for migratory waterfowl and the amount of impressive birds there in the summer is definitely less than the rest of the year. However, I was treated to some unique opportunities with Great Blue Herons. Even more fun was the appearance of a mother Gadwall with her chicks. I’ll admit that at first I thought they were Mallards, but when mom flexed her wings and the speculum became apparent there was no question.

Just another day in my long relationship with marsh ducks.

Lower Rio Grande Valley

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

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I once read an article in a magazine about this location that discussed how important it can be for a wildlife photographer to have a wide diversity of subjects and how South Texas could feed that need. I couldn’t agree more.

I used to live in Texas and while I lived there, I made sure I visited the southern part of the state at least annually. So when the NANPA summit was held in McAllen in 2011, I jumped on the chance to photograph in the region again. Most of the images in the accompanying slide show, are from that trip.

There are two methods to photograph in the area. Visit the local National Wildlife Refuges or book some time with some private landowners with the Valley Land Fund. I suggest you plan your trip such that you have time for both. The wildlife refuges seem more wild and the ranches will usually make for better images. Use them both.

Snowy Owls at Boundary Bay

16 Thursday Feb 2012

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I bet you all were wondering when I was going to get around to writing about the primary purpose of my trip, well other than visiting my friends. Well, I’m finally getting around to it. The phenomenon here is one that I’m very familiar with; you plan a trip to photograph one thing, and there’s something else that ends up exciting you more. Anyhow, let’s get on to the real topic here.

Much has been made of the Snowy Owl irruption this year and I’m sure you have heard much of it. One walk along the Boundary Bay dike will make it obvious to you that Boundary Bay has become a hotspot for interest in the owls. It is a well deserved reputation. Have you ever seen thirty plus owls of one species in one specific location before?

There are of course issues. Whenever, you gather this many people in one location, there will be problems. The biggest issue you hear about is photographers getting too close to the owls and thus harassing them.

This is a very serious situation, but like many issues isn’t as black and white as often portrayed.

Wildlife photographers need to get close to make good images. When pursuing this goal, everyone will a few times in there life get too close and disturb the animal. This is not to say however, that some people go too far with it. What makes this problem particularly problematic is the numbers of people involved.

In summary,  I feel that saying that there are photographers who care about the welfare of wildlife and those who approach too close is a false dichotomy. There is a continuum of folks from those who are so concerned that they needlessly deny themselves opportunities to those that are so selfish about getting the images that they are irresponsibly damaging the resource necessary for their vocation or avocation. Where along that continuum is the line between ethical and unethical behavior is a difficult question.

By the way, you can click on the images in the slideshow and go their page. Another note, all images in this slide show were made from the dike.

George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

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Link to Gallery Here

Can you believe it? Here I am writing about another urban location. I did mention that Vancouver, BC is a pretty special city, correct?

George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary  is a local bird sanctuary on Westham Island in the Fraser River delta. Technically, it’s not actually in Vancouver, it’s so close though that you should definitely include it in any visit to Vancouver, at least if you’re into or think you might like to try bird photography.

This is another location where folks feed waterfowl. I’ve previously mentioned that I have mixed emotions about this, but I definitely feel ok with using a situation like this to make images. Also, I believe that only grain has been used to feed the ducks, I saw no evidence they were ever fed bread or other potentially unhealthful foods. So the debate comes down to behavior alteration. The debate isn’t really my topic here, but I do firmly believe this isn’t as black and white as many portray.

Anyhow, this is a location ripe with photo opportunities. There are ducks, eagles, owls, herons, etc. all around and usually close. The one downside is the hours are kind of short for photographers’ purposes. I know that I for one did not photograph all the subjects I would’ve liked, due to time constraints.

I suggest you check it out.

OWLS!!!

18 Wednesday Jan 2012

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If you photograph birds, or have thought about photographing birds, let me suggest you target owls. Overall, birds aren’t licensed that often, etc. However, owls do much better than most other birds.

There are some difficulties in photographing owls however. They camouflage themselves very well, thus just finding them can be quite the challenge. Secondly, many are also wary of people and will not allow close approach. Some owls will allow freakishly close approach.

My suggested solution to these issues is to seek help when possible. When I photographed Spotted Owls for instance, I tagged along with some researchers while they were in the field. The Great Grey owls I got tips on where to look from some forest service people. Then a few of the owls here in the slideshow were rehab birds with educational institutions. Then there were a few that I photographed completely on my own. I once actually wrote an article for Nature Photographer where I discussed how to photograph a specific species you might need for some use. This article concentrated on getting help from researchers, etc., to get the shots and explained how I photographed Spotted Owls, Snowy Plovers, and Greater Sage Grouse.

I haven’t photographed owls for awhile, based on these difficulties and that I haven’t been photographing many birds. Right now I’m pretty excited that soon I will be visiting a friend to photograph the gathering of Sno

Monochrome Critters

04 Friday Nov 2011

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Today I thought I’d discuss a bit about the post processing techniques behind my new portfolio.

The first step is choosing the right photos. For the high-key shots it is necessary to have a mostly light photo with some detail on your subject being dark and just the inverse of that for the low-key shots. I find that this leaves a fairly wide selection for the high-key shots, but I could only get side-lit shots to work well for the low-key.

After choosing the photo comes the fun part. In Lightroom, right click on the photo and choose edit>edit in Silver Exex Pro2. For the high-key shots I start with the fine art high key preset. I immediately delete the border, I’m not a big fan of borders being hard-baked into my image files. Then I apply one of the white border vignettes. Then tweak the settings to accentuate the overall light feel to the image, while making the detail in my animal adequate. This might mean amplifying the blacks or often a little localized editing using control points. For example, place a very small control point on the eyes and increase contrast and structure to taste.

For the low-key shots, I use one of the lens-falloff vignettes. Tweak the image to get a mostly dark image with some part of your subject light. If detail falls too dark on the subject, use a control point placed on the dark side of the subject and increase the structure. This brings out the detail on that side without lightening it too much. You then might decide to increase the brightness as well, but I typically don’t. This increasing structure on the dark side works similarly to detail extractor in the new Color Efex Pro4 plugin – my favorite filter in that plugin.

Another very important thing to remember is your choice of the color filter to use in Silver Efex Pro 2 has a big influence on this effect and can get you a long way to where you want to be in just one click, remember to experiment with them.