Month: April 2020

When diving in Bonaire we would often spend time on a stone peer in front of our lodging between our morning and afternoon dives. I noticed these small crabs working their way through the rocks looking for food. Since a shot looking down at them didn’t seem very appealing, I laid on my stomach to get at their eye level. Then I positioned myself so I could zoom in as close as possible to the crab.

Beemer’s Pond, a borrow pit pond just west of Webster City, Iowa, has the largest concentration of Trumpeter Swans in Iowa in the winter. The rectangular pond is approximately 20 acres in size, and more than 200 swans winter there each year. Several aerators are located at the south end of the pond and keep a small patch of water open throughout the winter. It is this open water that acts as a magnet to the swans. A few years back, I made my first trip to this Iowa treasure. Not knowing Trumpeter Swan winter behavior, I arrived about 2:30pm on a January day with the temperature just above freezing. When I arrived, there were hundreds of ducks and geese in the open water and on the surrounding ice. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of swans. I set up on the east side of the pond in the fence row and waited, and waited, and waited some more. About 5pm I was froze to bone, in a fowl mood (odd pun), and ready to call it quits. The air was heavy with moisture and visibility had become about 200 feet. Just as I started to take my camera off the tripod head, I heard the unmistakable honking of swan overhead. In the winter fog I could not see them, but could somewhat follow their honking. The swans came from the east where they had been out feeding, flew over the pond, and then landed on the pond facing east. Luckily, I was able to grab a few images of them coming out of the fog, as they landed into the wind and facing me. Five minutes later the light was so bad I had to call it a day. Now, when I go back there to shoot, I set up about 4pm, and wait for them to come back to the pond. Had I known their feeding habits, I could have timed my first shoot there much differently. Now, I do as much research as I can before visiting an area to learn what the animal’s behaviors are to better time my photography. This is one of my favorite photos and is a good inspiration to me to be patient.

Although light is extremely critical for a good image, sometimes the wind can be beneficial as well. When arriving at a wildlife photo location, I often throw some grass or other foliage into the air to see which way the wind is blowing. Since birds land into the wind, I try to position myself upwind from them so I can photograph their heads, rather than their butts, as they take off or land. Unfortunately, that is not always possible. I was watching a pod of pelicans feeding on a fairly windy day when I noticed that when they turned from going into the wind into going away from it, the wind literally ruffled their feathers. The ruffled feathers provided some interesting texture to the image which was not there when the same pod turning in to the wind. If you’ve never watched pelicans feed, it is quite interesting. Pelicans often group together to feed when they are near shore. They drive schools of small fish into the shallows and then in unison they dive or “tip over” with their butts in the air, scooping up the fish in their fleshy throat pouches.

For reference, please see Tip #22 to view an image photographed less than five minutes prior to this one. As direct light from the sun slowly comes across the horizon, you have but a few minutes to get an image where the bottom of a bird’s wings are lit. This phenomenon is very short lived and I was lucky enough to have Sandhill Cranes flying near me For this image I was positioned in a ditch next to a slough in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area near Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Since I took this image a few years ago, I have tried to recreate it to no avail. In order to duplicate this shot, I need to find birds flying precisely at the right time and the right height. This might be that one-in-a-million shots.

To maximize the great light of the golden hour, normally the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset, you have to be in position ahead of the time to get everything set up. Often times I will be at the desired location at least a half hour before the golden hour. For this image, I was positioned in a ditch next to a slough in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area near Grantsburg, Wisconsin. I was at a bit of a disadvantage as the Sandhill Cranes were to the east of me, forcing me to shoot somewhat into the rising sun. Before the sun rose over the horizon, I noticed the eastern sky turn this incredible golden orange. Luckily some of the cranes were leaving the slough they spent the night on to fly over the road to an area to feed at. Being in position early and the the predawn sky allowed me to get several silhouette images. Five minutes later the sky lost this color and turned to dull gray. 

As wildlife photographers we normally want to photograph the entire animal or bird with lots of room around the edges of the image to create “breathing room”. A photo where the legs, wings, or other body parts are too close to the edge or cropped off is often less than pleasing. But sometimes you can get an incredible image by zooming in on just a part of the subject like I did with this great egret. Such a photo has the potential from just being a wildlife image to an artistic portrait. To get this shot, I watched this bird fly to and from a particular tree at the Audubon Center in Venice, Florida. After watching him land in the same spot time and time again, I positioned myself to get the back-lit wing feathers. I cluster shot (multiple frames per second) the landing to get the wings in a forward position creating the background/sweep for the bird’s head. I took over a hundred images with this objective in mind to get the photo I had envisioned. At least half the bird does not appear in the image, but it provides a totally different perspective than a full body shot.