The Belted Kingfisher is one of approximately one hundred species of Kingfishers world-wide however it the only Kingfisher found commonly throughout the entire North American continent.  It is an easily recognizable bird owing to its relatively large head and bill along with a shaggy looking crest. One of few birds that nests underground where it lives in a burrow dug out of the side of a river bank. Interestingly, it always burrows in an uphill direction such that in the event of flooding an air pocket is trapped at the top of the burrow allowing it to survive until the flood waters recede. Kingfisher tunnels have been recorded up to eight feet in length.  Its diet consists of many things including crayfish, amphibians, small mammals, birds and even berries however it is primarily a fish specialist.  The Belted Kingfisher perches above streams or hovers in flight above the water looking for fish to dive for.

For bird photographers, the Belted Kingfisher often appears on the top of what is euphemistically known as the nemesis list, or list of birds that has generated the most difficulty, frustration and angst to photograph. Although Belted Kingfishers are very common along rivers and streams in North America, they tend to be very skittish and don’t allow people close access, thus making them difficult to photograph.  My good friend and fellow bird photographer Arni Stinnissen and I have enjoyed a friendly rivalry over the past few years to capture some quality images of Kingfishers, and most certainly Arni’s results have been far superior to mine as you can see in his Kingfisher Gallery. Last month, while vacationing in Florida, Deb & I had the opportunity to watch a Belted Kingfisher fish for about thirty seconds approximately one hundred feet from where we were standing on the shore of Lake Kissimmee. Fortunately I was able to get a few shots of the Belted Kingfisher diving.  Although the distance from the bird precluded the quality of images one would like, they do capture the diving behaviour of the Kingfisher which is something rather unusual and I trust you will enjoy seeing.

The Kingfisher was hunting along the shoreline of the lake and as there were no perches in the area, she would hover about thirty feet above the water looking for fish.

The female Belted Kingfisher is slightly larger than the male and is also one of the few species of bird where the female is more colourful than the male. The female is easily differentiated from the male by the rufus stripe across the chest below the slate blue belt that is found in both sexes.

Once a fish is spotted the Kingfisher dives very quickly striking the water at a high rate of speed propelling it well below the surface.

Note the clean lines of the entry zone, which will help make the next few slides make more sense as they record the Kingfisher launching itself out of the water at the end of its dive.  Although I’ve seen Kingfishers dive many times before I had no idea how they launched themselves out of the water so the following images proved very educational.  The next slide shows the appearance of the tail and wingtips as the Kingfisher prepares to use a strong wing beat to propel her body straight up out of the water.  You can tell this is an exit shot by the waves around the impact zone and the seaweed in the air above the bird caused by the prior impact.

The energy expended to launch the bird vertically from the water must quickly exhaust the bird, so I doubt they can make many dives without a rest.

The vertical distance required must be high enough for the bird to take flight.

And off she goes, in this instance without any food.

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It was a blessing to be standing in the right place at the right time to record this Belted Kingfisher diving and as a result learn a little about how they ‘eject’ themselves from the water after a dive. It was also a pleasure to ‘kind of’ cross a longstanding bird off the nemesis list, not completely though, as I still need to get some print worthy images of this intriguing bird.

The above sequence was taken using a Canon 5D MkIII with a 500 mm f/4 lens, not a set-up typically used for birds in flight, however the 5D autofocus seemed to track the bird well.

The Florida Scrub Jay is Florida’s only endemic bird and one of only fifteen bird species endemic to the United States.  It is believed that there are approximately 8,000 Florida Scrub Jays alive and their numbers are decreasing at a rate of approximately 10% every ten years.  As a result of their rarity and decreasing numbers they have been listed as Vulnerable, which means that unless conservation action to restore their dwindling habitat is taken they will become threatened.

As the Florida Scrub Jay is only found in Central Florida, the bird tends to be a celebrity among birders who travel long distances to see one.  In fact, Deb & I met a couple from Sweden who had travelled to Florida last month just to see a Florida Scrub Jay.  It was our pleasure to take them to an area where Scrub Jay’s were nesting and they were able to check another species off their life list. An interesting characteristic of the Scrub Jay is their inquisitive, social nature that renders them very tame. They readily land on your hand, shoulder or camera lens waiting to be fed a peanut.  This comes as a complete surprise when you first encounter Scrub Jays as although they may be rare and difficult to find, when you do, they are instantly your best friends.

They do look similar to our Blue Jays and are about the same size as well.

Due to their friendliness and unique stature Florida Scrub Jays are among the most studied of all the birds. Consequently most seem to banded, much like we see with our Gray Jays in Algonquin Park.  Scrub Jays normally have three or four bands, a silver metal band with an ID # from the US Fish & Wildlife Service, plus two or three coloured plastic bands which indicate when and where the bird was banded.  The banding of birds allows researchers to monitor the movements of birds within their range as well as record other data.  The next image shows a banded bird.

The next profile shot illustrates their lack of wing colour and detail as typical with our Blue Jays.

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It was hard to get a good shot of the back of Scrub Jay, so please excuse the busy back ground in this next image.

Other Scrub Jays can been viewed in the Jays Ravens & Crows Gallery

From a photographic perspective, getting bird images that are more than just snapshots requires controlling as much of what the final image will look like as possible.  For me that involves thinking about the back ground as much as the object, which is not an easy thing to train yourself to do.  When was the last time you looked through your viewfinder and thought as much about what was in the back ground as you did the object? If you are like me, you may not have thought about the back ground at all! A few suggestions to help improve your results next time out are; look for the least cluttered back ground as possible, look for uniform light density throughout (avoid bright spots, especially ones that encroach on the object), try to get as much distance between the object and back ground as possible which helps blur the back ground and isolate the object.  Don’t forget to move around with your feet or zoom with your lens to help accomplish the above suggestions.  In terms of thinking about the object, next to ensuring proper focus, exposure and light direction, for me the most important thing is to avoid shadows on the bird.  This is not always possible due to the nature of bird photography however it is always the ideal.  Have a another look at the second image in this post and see how distracting the shadow on the tail is…almost ranking up there with the bands!  The last image is greatly hampered by the cluttered background (which is exacerbated by the lack of separation between the object and back ground) and that half of the tail is under a shadow, however as is often the case, it was the only frame that clearly showed the back of the bird, no matter how hard I tried to get that ‘keeper’ shot of the back.

So next time, try to think about the things that will help move your results from snapshots to photographs, but never think so much about the results that you don’t enjoy your time out with your camera!

All the above images were taken with a Canon 5D MkIII and 500mm lens using a Jobu monopod and Jobu Jr. 3 gimbal head.

Although we are expecting a snow storm tomorrow, the early migrants are returning to the area after wintering down south. It’s great to hear their songs every morning as I leave for the office. Probably my favourite birds to photograph in the spring are the many warblers that pass through the Oshawa area in May & June.  Oshawa is a unique warbler location as there is a small woods next to the lake that contains the only remaining “Old World” White Pine stand on the North West shore of Lake Ontario and many of the warblers desire this unique habitat.  One of the more common warbler species is the Yellow-rumped Warbler and we were fortunate to photograph one while in Florida last month.

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Normally we don’t post images on man-made perches, however a nice pose against a clean back ground makes the barbed wire seem not quite as bad!

This Yellow-rump was photographed at Lake Kissimmee in Florida at the end of Joe Overstreet Road. Other warbler images can be seen by following this link to the Warbler Gallery.

While in Florida visiting the Merritt Island Nature & Wildlife Preserve we were fortunate to photograph a number of Lesser Scaups.  Lesser Scaup’s prefer fresh water (Greater Scaups like salt water) and are one of the most abundant diving ducks in north America although in recent years their numbers have been in sharp decline.  Even though Scaups are common, this was the first time Deb and I had ever seen or photographed them.

Male in breeding plumage.

This next image is not as visually appealing as the previous image because the reflection of the head is cut of by the bottom of the frame, however it does clearly show the unique marking on the distal aspect of the bill, which is why it is included in this post.  Any elements of visual importance in an image tend to detract from the image when they touch the edge of the frame so try to leave ample room around your subject when out taking pictures. You can always crop the image in post processing, however when you crop the image “in the camera” like I did in this next shot, you are stuck with less than ideal results.

Non breeding male plumage or a young male.

Female Lesser Scaup.

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All images in this post were taken with a Canon 5D Mk III and EF 500mm L IS lens supported on a Jobu monopod and Jobu Jr. 3 gimbal head.

Birders and bird photographers traveling to Florida need to make it a priority to travel the five miles along Joe Overstreet Road;  a gravel road that ends at the shores of Lake Kissimmee.  The variety and quantity of birds that are experienced never disappoint.  Deb and I have been making the trip for a number of years now, and although we often see Eagles from afar, this year a couple of mature Eagles, flying with a group of Black Headed Vultures, made a pass fairly close overhead.  It was quite a surprise as I was at the water’s edge photographing a Wilson’s Snipe which had been actively foraging for quite a while when suddenly it dove for cover and hunched down on its belly, a sure sign that it was troubled by something.  When a bird acts like this it is a sure sign to look up, which I did, expecting to see a hawk overhead, however this time it was a Bald Eagle about thirty feet above my head.

A rather inauspicious entrance to a fabulous birding experience.

The Wilson’s Snipe that alerted me to the Eagles (note the meal he has just extracted from the mud).

The Bald Eagle is one of the most well known birds in the world, certainly among the Americans who have claimed the Eagle as their National Bird since 1782 and it appears as the central figure in the American Seal.  Bald Eagles have a lifespan in the wild of up to forty years and in captivity have lived even longer, although in the late 20th century they were on the brink of extinction due to hunting and the effects of DDT use.  In 1963 there were only 417 known pairs and due to concentrated conservation efforts that number increased to 10,000 by 2006. The Bald Eagle is now a common bird in the United States and its name was removed from the list of American Endangered and Threatened Wildlife Species in 2007.

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The Eagle images in this post were captured using a Canon 5D MkIII with a 1.4 x TC and 500mm f/4 lens which is not typical gear for inflight bird photography. The camera has a slow frame rate and the use of the teleconverter slows down the auto-focus speed.  Both of these issues conspire to reduce the keeper rate so I was pleased to get a few good frames.

While in Florida this month Deb & I spent a couple of days visiting Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on the Space Coast of Florida.  Actually Merritt Island is the Space Coast as the Wildlife Refuge shares the island with NASA.  We were fortunate to see and photography a number of different birds on the refuge including Scrub Jays, Northern Shovellers,  Greater Scaup, White Pelicans and the subject of today’s post, Painted Buntings, which neither Deb nor I had ever seen before.

Painted Buntings are native to North America and generally noted as our most colourful bird.  This makes identification of the male Painted Bunting very easy, even though not many get to see them.  The female, although more uniform in her yellow green colour, is also easy to identify as they are the only all green bird found in North America.

These beautiful buntings are from the same family as the Cardinal and the three pairs of Painted Buntings we observed were foraging for seeds with a Northern Cardinal pair. The buntings are a little smaller than the cardinals.  Painted Buntings are mostly found in dense thickets and shrubs and are relatively hard to find birds that don’t often provide for nicely perched photographs.  You need to be fast, prepared and fortunate to get a good shot.

Painted Buntings are found the southern American States and into Central America.  Their numbers are on the decline with an estimated 60% reduction in population over the last fifty years. This has been attributed to factors including egg destruction by Brown Headed Cowbirds, urbanization of the riparian habitat they enjoy (transition vegetation between rivers and forests) and climactic change. Although illegal, male Painted Buntings are sometimes trapped, caged and sold as pets which has also reduced their numbers. The Painted Bunting is listed as ‘Near Threatened’.

As mentioned earlier the female Painted Bunting is green in colour (a unique distinction for North American Birds) which makes it perfectly camouflaged for its chosen environment.  They are easy to hear but difficult to spot as the next couple of images illustrates.

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Painted Buntings often forage for seeds along the ground as seen in this last image, which although not a great shot, does show the bird’s many colours and that it truly deserves its reputation as the most colourful bird in North America.   Often times bird photographers just get lucky (or have been prepared and given the opportunity enough times) even while ‘breaking’ all the rules of good photographic technique.  This shot is one of those times as it was a single frame taken hand held, looking down at the bird using an aperture of f/4 and shutter speed of 1/250 sec with a 500mm lens.  I wont take the time now to explain why, but if you are a photographer you will know that this shot could be attempted a hundred times and would be blurry and out of focus ninety nine of those times.  There must be some truth to the old adage of it being better to be lucky than good!

All of the images in this post were taken using a Canon 5D MkIII body and Canon EF 500mm IS L lens.

After reviewing the Great Gray Owl shots Deb & I were able to capture in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago, I found a few more that were perhaps nice enough to post.

Although the Great Gray Owl is  exceeded in weight by a number of other owls, its large head and long tail help it to be the largest and tallest Owl known in the world.  Female adults are almost three feet in length with a wing span of five feet.  The average female weighs three pounds although Great Grays have been found as heavy as four pounds.

With their wings outstretched you get a glimpse of just how large these owls are.

In order to become a better photographer, one has to become their own best, or worst, critic as well as being open to critique from others.  It’s the only way we can learn to improve our skills, not only in terms of camera settings and technique but how to think about what a shot is going to look like even before you take it. Although taking pictures of wild birds and animals is difficult and quite spontaneous, you can always make sure you position yourself so the lighting is optimized and many of the elements in the frame (i.e., perch and back ground) are such that they enhance, as oppose to detract from, the resulting image.  So lets critique the above image (feel free to leave a comment if you wish); for me technically the face is too soft (a nice way of saying out of focus) and compositionally the perch obstructs and casts a shadow on the owl and the back ground is too close to the bird causing the birds to be ‘lost’ in the back ground. Otherwise, I like the wing position and it’s always a treat to be so close to a Great Gray Owl.

Regarding technique, the soft face was simply because I missed focusing on the eye.  The depth of field for this image was about 2m, unfortunately that 2m started just behind the owls face! In order to minimize the compositional challenges in this shot, I reduced the saturation of the back ground about thirty percent using Viveza 2, a NIK Software plug-in for Photoshop as well as using Color Efex Pro 4 to adjust the contrast and colour of the owl.  Finally a vignette was added to darken the back ground (using a solid color layer in Photoshop).  These were done to try to get some separation between the bird and its background.  Another option would have been to blur the back ground, however I chose not to do so as it would have produced an un-natural ‘Photoshopped’ look.  Sounds ironic, but virtually all digital images are processed (often heavily) yet the goal is to have a Photoshopped image that doesn’t look Photoshopped!

This next image is included simply for our discussion on critique and as an example of a common occurrence in wildlife photography……what could have been a ‘keeper’ but is ruined by an uncontrolled factor, in this case the owl flew into a deep shadow.

A lot of time was spent in post processing trying to get some detail out of the shadows and add enough contrast, colour and saturation to make the image ‘acceptable’ however it still doesn’t quite work as a great image.  In this image the canvas was increased significantly, the back ground cleaned up a dark gradient added to the top half of the frame.  We need to learn that its important to take great measures to get the shot right in the camera because no amount of time and skill in post processing can turn an average image into a good one. Photoshop doesn’t rescue anything from the recycle bin, yet we often spend way too much valuable time trying!

This last shot is simply out of the camera with no processing other than cropping and an automated Photoshop action preparing it for posting on the web.

It’s a really busy back ground and won’t end up in a frame anywhere but it does capture the majestic wingspan of a Great Gray Owl and for some reason, purely subjective, I just like it….and that’s the beauty of photography….always strive to get better in every detail, whether it be technical or compositional, but in the end all that really matters is that you simply enjoy the picture!

The three images above were all taken with a Canon 1D Mk III and EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS lens in -17°C temperatures!

Last Friday Deb & I headed to Ottawa for the first half of Family Day Weekend.  It was our first time in the nation’s capital in many years and the timing was perfect as it was also the last weekend of Winterlude, Ottawa’s famous winter carnival.  We were able to see the Parliament Buildings, take in the ice sculptures in Confederation Park and walk along the Rideau Canal, where I also enjoyed Ottawa’s most famous food, the Beaver Tail.

The primary reason we made the four-hour drive to Ottawa was to photograph Great Gray Owls, of which there are more than usual in Ottawa this winter.  Great Gray Owls typically nest and live much farther north (as far north as the Arctic Circle) however during the winter months in years that the food supply in the north is restricted, (or the Great Gray Owl population exceeds what the food supply can deliver), younger Owls that can not effectively compete with adult birds for food are displaced southwards until they arrive at areas where food is plentiful.  Once they find a location with an adequate food supply they typically stay until returning to the north in time for nesting season.

Although the owls were located in a well-known location about 15km from the downtown core, getting to the birds involved a twenty-minute hike from the closest place available to park the car. It seemed even longer as we made the trek before sunrise in -17°C temperatures carrying about 30 lbs of camera gear!  Watching the sun rise for another day is always a special time and we were reminded of Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”….which is exactly what we did!

The best light for taking pictures is during what are known as the ‘Golden Hours’ just after sunrise and just before sunset.  When the sun is low to the horizon, it is softer and warmer appearing which makes photographs far more appealing than when taken during the mid day hours when the light is harsh. It may seem too early when you are leaving in the dark with your camera gear, but it is always worth the effort!

We were fortunate to see two Great Gray Owls and spend about three hours photographing them.  Great Gray Owls are the largest North American Owl and some say largest in the world, measuring over three feet high with wing spans of up to seven feet.  I the north their diet consists mostly of Ptarmigan while in the south that changes to voles and mice, of which they can eat up to twenty per day.

I trust you enjoy the photographs of these magnificent raptors and as always, you comments are much appreciated.

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These images were taken with either a 5D Mk III and 500mm f/4 lens or a 1D Mk III and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.

After flying all night from Toronto and arriving in Rome early in the morning, we checked into La Piccola Maison (a perfect place to stay in the heart of the city within walking distance of everything) and then headed for the Colosseum where we spent the rest of the day.  Our path to the Colosseum took us right by the Trevi Fountain where we stopped and had our first gelato!

It was quite the feeling to be walking along the Via Dei Fori Imperiali and see the Colosseum coming into view for the first time, certainly the oldest structure we’d ever seen, having begun construction in 72 AD and completed under Titus in 80 AD.  Here are our first views of the Colosseum.

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The Colosseum is a huge oval amphitheatre capable of seating 50,000 spectators.  It is 615′ long, 510′ wide and stands 157′ tall, having a base that occupies more than six acres. The outer walls were made of travertine stone and no mortar was used in the construction.  The stonework was held together with bronze clamps, most of which have been pried and torn out for other uses.  This has resulted in the pock marks that remain today as seen below.

The interior floor of the Colosseum measures 287 x 180′.  The floor was a wooden floor covered by up to a foot of sand.  Our tour guide relayed the morbid information that the sand was required to absorb the blood shed in Colosseum events, both of wild animals and humans.  It is recorded that 9,000 wild beasts were killed in the inaugural event in 80AD.  Below the wooden Colosseum floor is the two-story area known as the hypogeum, which is shown next.  The East end of the floor has been re-created, leaving most of the hypogeum visible.

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Until last year access to the hypogeum was not possible, however by purchasing special tickets you are now able to join a guided tour of the hypogeum as well as go up to the third level of the Colosseum, neither of which are possible with the general admission ticket.  Although it more than doubled the cost of visiting the Colosseum it was an amazing experience to go down below the floor level into the hypogeum.  Unfortunately the images you will see can not come even remotely close to portraying the feeling you get while standing there walking along the same pathways that countless Christians walked as they headed to the elevators used to push them up onto the arena floor where they were killed for sporting spectacle before 50,000 people.

(Aside: A couple of things to note regarding the above photograph, the first being the lack of mortar and the use of keystones in the arches of the walkway to provide the necessary structural integrity.  Secondly this shot was taken as an ‘in-camera’ three shot HDR, meaning that with one press of the shutter, the camera takes three images, one at the metered exposure, one (in this case) three stops underexposed and another three stops overexposed.  The camera then combines the three images into one new image and deletes the three originals.  This HDR (High Dynamic Range) technique has been in use for years however the processing was always done on the computer using Photoshop and taking a lot of time. With today’s new cameras it can be done in a few seconds right in the camera.)

The next image shows the outer wall of the hypogeum and along the pathway you can see travertine slabs which are bases for a complex elevator system that was used to move wild animals, people, and large stage props, from the hypogeum up onto the arena floor.  It is thought that the elevators were moved by rope and pulley systems that were manned and operated by slaves who either lived in the hypogeum or were brought in through tunnels to work the elevators.

A close up of an elevator shaft support, this one is #8 of eighty found in the Colosseum.

It’s hard to believe this walkway is almost two thousand years old.

The Colosseum was known for its ability to quickly get spectators into and out of the building, in fact there are eighty arches leading into the amphitheatre, seventy-six for regular people and four large arches for the elite.  Below is the East arch, through which the Senators entered and headed to their private seating area, which is shown in the second image below.  Each white marble slab is the base for a senator’s chair and many of these slabs have the various senator’s names engraved on them.  You can also see the senator’s seating area and the East arch in the fourth and fifth images in this blog post.

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Here is one of the much smaller 76 entrance arches used by the commoners.

The climb to the third level of the Colosseum provided a wonderful birds eye view of the amphitheatre.

Another view from the stairwell between the second and third levels.

The last gladiatorial fights were circa 435 and the last recorded animal hunts around 523. By the end of the sixth century a church was incorporated into the Colosseum and a cross erected for the first time.  Since then the Colosseum has been used in many different ways and certainly makes for interesting reading if you are so inclined.

Our first day in Rome was terrific and spending a few hours in the Colosseum was an experience like none other.  We even took time to pose like the tourists we were!

One final shot of the Colosseum.

All of the images taken in this post were with the Canon 5D Mk III and either 16-35 or 24-105mm lenses. Larger size versions of the images in this post can be seen in the Rome gallery.

Thanks for taking time to look through these images of the Roman Colosseum and as always your comments are much appreciated.

Last fall Deb and I celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary touring though as much of Europe as we could possibly cover in seventeen days.  It was a fabulous trip that saw us accumulate over 4,500 km on our rental car and see so many fabulous sights that had it not been for photographing as much of it as possible we surely couldn’t remember everything!  Over the upcoming weeks we will try to post some of the highlights of our trip on the blog and will also post the images in the travel section of the website gallery.

We began our trip in Rome and spent our first afternoon in Italy touring the Colosseum, which was a truly amazing experience.  The emotions you feel as you are guided through the hypogeum (underground levels of the Colosseum) are indescribable as you recall in a way that is not possible by reading a book, or studying in school, the events that occurred in the very place you are standing some two thousand years ago.

The next blog post will include more of an informative photographic description of the Colosseum and its history however for now I would like to post a few images of the Colosseum taken at night. They are posted in chronological order so you can see the sky darkening in each image.

Night photography is a lot of fun and as long as you have the correct equipment and know a little of the technical fundamentals it’s not very hard to get some interesting pictures.  The most important piece of gear for night photography is a good tripod.  It is impossible to hand hold a camera in the low light of the evening and get a good sharp image as the exposures required are just too long.  From a technical perspective you may find the following helpful; try to take night shots while there is still blue in the sky as once the sky is black all detail is lost and the edges of the subject are lost in the darkness; use a low ISO (200 or less) to help reduce the noise in the image which is always more noticeable in the dark colours that dominate night photography; use a small aperture (f/22) for great depth of field so everything remains in sharp focus throughout the image. A small aperture also creates the starburst effect on light sources that many people enjoy seeing.

It is impossible to shoot the Colosseum without people milling about however you try your best to wait until there are no people in the foreground. In this case having a bride and groom in the picture adds to the appeal of the image.

Most night images are taken in landscape orientation however experiment with a vertical perspective as well, especially if you can incorporate something of interest in the foreground.  In this case the large cobblestones which have probably been there for almost two thousand years….you cant help but wonder who has walked on those very stones.

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The next image is not in keeping with the others however is a reminder that it’s always good to experiment with different perspectives of the same subject when taking shots at night, even if it means changing lenses to zero in on a specific area that interests you. The next image has also been processed differently in an attempt to portray the age of the building.

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The next image was also designed to include the couple on the left and although they are very blurry because of the twenty-second exposure, they do add to the image.

By now the sky is almost devoid of blue so its time to pack up or in this case move to another location and shoot images that don’t rely on the background to be effective.  When the sky becomes black make sure you always have a foreground object that provides plenty of interest compositionally; the flower bed in the next image and the streaming lights from the traffic in the last.

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All of the images in this post were taken using a Canon 5D Mk III on a Gitzo 1542T tripod using a 16-35mm or 24-105mm lens.  If you have any questions regarding the taking of these images please leave  a comment and I’ll be glad to respond. In the mean time, dust off that old tripod and start practicing night photography and I know you will be pleased withy the results.

Once again it is hard to believe that another year has quickly slipped by and we are heading into 2013 in just a few hours.  Its been an exciting and busy year for our family yet we are looking forward to what awaits us next year.  It has been an unusually long time since our last blog entry but hopefully as I get caught up with all the image processing that seems to clog up the Photoshop ’in-basket’ the posts will become more frequent in the New Year.

For the last couple of weeks our city has been home for a bird that is very rare in this part of North America, the Western Tanager.  Yesterday I was able to catch some shots of her in good light on relatively clean perches; both of which are great joys for a bird photographer!

The Western Tanager is a fairly small bird generally about six inches long and weighing an ounce!  They live on the North American west coast and migrating to South America for the winter. They are rarely seen east of the mid western States so when one shows up in Ontario it creates a lot of interest in the birding community with many people travelling hours to catch a glimpse.  Fortunately this bird is less than five minutes from our house.  Western Tanagers have bright yellow bodies with darker backs and their wings have two wing bars, an upper yellow bar and lower white bar which you can see on the image above.  The male has a bright red head while the female’s is an olive-green colour.  The following image also shows the distinctive wing bars.

The Western Tanager typically feeds on berries and small insects, which it forages for on tree bark (as above) or, like swallows can catch in mid-flight. Given the cold weather & snow it is surprising this bird is staying around, however there are lots of berries in the area she is staying and given the fact she is thoroughly lost and on her own, she may not know which way to head so will choose to winter here as long as food is plentiful.

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From a photography point of view, back grounds are almost as important as the subject in terms of getting the best photographic results.  A nice perch and uncluttered back ground is generally the goal however almost impossible with the smaller songbirds which are usually foraging in bushes low to the ground.  This Western Tanager was very cooperative and gave some good poses against a clear sky. Its imperative that you get the right exposure on the bird when shooting them against the sky and that typically means over exposing what your camera meter indicates by one or two f-stops.

The last two images have busy back grounds however show the bird in a more natural environment doing what she does as much as she can, relaxing in the sun in a location sheltered from the wind and then enjoying another berry.

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All of the images above were taken with a Canon 1D MKIII and 500 mm lens + 1.4x TC mounted on a Jobu monopod with a Jobu Jr. gimbal head.

Thank you to all my many friends who have taken time this past year to drop by and check out the website.  Thanks also for your comments and questions which are always appreciated. To everyone, Deb & I wish a very Happy New Year and I look forward to hearing from all of you in 2013.

UPDATE January 3, 2013 – I’m sad to report that this bird was found dead yesterday in the park it had called home for the past couple of weeks. Not certain of the cause however it may have succumbed to the cold weather.

It has been far too long since my last blog post and I apologize for the tardiness, however there will be lots of material coming over the next few months.

Presently Deb and I are enjoying a vacation celebrating our thirtieth wedding anniversary. Its been a fabulous thirty years and the time has flown by but that’s what happens when you are married to your best friend! We arrived in Rome just over two days ago and are now enjoying our first of two nights in Venice. In the morning we are meeting up with Marco Secchi for a photographic tour of Venice. We can’t wait as Marco shows us the sights of Venice from a professional photographers standpoint, and as a photographer who grew up and lives in Venice he is uniquely qualified to do so.

Although we won’t be able to post any DSLR shots while on vacation, Deb and I have been also snapping away with our iPhone’s and they really do remarkably well. I have already posted some of the images taken so far onto the Scott Martin Photography Facebook page and if you haven’t already done so, please ‘like’ this page and check out some of the images from Europe. There are some images of the Colosseum and St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Over the past few years Deb and I have spent many early weekend mornings in June travelling about sixty kilometres from the cottage to Algonquin Provincial Park and then paddling a couple of kilometres in order to observe and photograph the Common Loon.  June is typically the month that Loons are nesting and for the first few days after the chicks are born they spend a lot of time on their parent’s back providing a very desirable photo opportunity.

Loons are an amazing bird God designed to live on the water.  They have solid bones and legs that are positioned far back on their bodies allowing them to dive and swim underwater with incredible speed and agility at recorded depths of more than 120 feet.  Their design is so tailored to water that they are quite dysfunctional on land where they can only move around by a hopping and pushing themselves on their chest.  They are unable to achieve flight from the ground and are only on land while nesting for the 26-31 day incubation period before their eggs hatch. Both parents share in the incubation responsibilities. Loons build their nests on the water’s edge so that they can gain access to it direct fly from the water and the young chicks can easily transition to the water; which they do the day they are born, never to return to the nest.  Below is a typical nest located on a small ‘island’ not much bigger than the nest, located about twenty feet from shore and creating an important barrier to protect against predators.

As the Loon chicks move onto the water within hours of their birth, their small size and lack of development requires that they spend much time on a parent’s back for the first week of life.  This allows them to rest and keep warm. They also float around on the water, always within a few feet of one of the parents.  The parents keep within sight of each other and attend to the young by bringing small fry to them on a seemingly systematic schedule.

They are a pleasure to watch, and the effort required to see Loons up close is always worth it.

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Watching the young chicks get fed is the prefect time to see the special bond between parent and offspring.

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To see the chicks resting on a parent’s back and being sheltered, warmed and protected under a wing was something we’d been hoping to see for the past number of years so the following images are among our all time favourites.

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One of the chicks launching off mom’s back.

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“Hey some day you will be able to do this too”!

Family shot.

Although it’s a bit precarious taking lots of expensive camera gear in a canoe and quite a challenge to photograph from one, there are not many other ways to get close to Loons. All the images in this post were taken hand-held from a canoe with either a Canon 1D MK III & EF 500mm f4 L IS lens or a Canon 5D MK III and EF 400mm f5.6 L lens.  I must thank Deb for single-handedly paddling and positioning the canoe so that the light was always right as we followed these Loons for about three hours.  We are a great team but she does all of the work while I snap pictures!

If interested, more images can be seen in the Loons & Grebes Gallery

Please take the time to leave a comment as they are always appreciated and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Deb & I spent a wonderful three days at the Mohonk Mountain House near New Paltz, New York which is about 85 miles due north of New York City.   We were there over the Victoria Day Weekend along with about twelve other Chiropractors and their spouses to attend a coaching seminar with TLC 4 Superteams.  TLC is one of the premier training organizations for chiropractors and it is a privilege to be one of their coaches; helping other chiropractors provide superb care for their patients.

The Mohonk Mountain House is the #2 Ranked resort spa in the United States and it is well worth the trip if you are looking for a quiet place to get a way for a few days.  The 266 room Victorian style lodge was built in 1869 and I believe has remained in the same family since that time. It has entertained presidents, celebrities and normal people like us over the years and offers a multitude of outdoor adventure activities as well as a world class spa to pamper you afterwards.

We didn’t have a lot of time for photography but thought you may enjoy a few snap shots taken around the grounds.

The main lodge taken from across Lake Mohonk

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There were many gazebos and porches around the property which were perfect for reading and just relaxing and enjoying the view.

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Looking out from the other side of the lodge provided a great view of the Catskills Mountains

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The view from the room.

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All of these shots were taken with the 5D Mk III and either 16-35 or 24-105 lenses.

Although I haven’t had much time to get out with a camera, its great to see the Spring migrants starting to show up in large numbers, especially the Warblers. More than twenty species have been seen in our area and fortunately the leaf cover is still sparse enough that you can catch a good look at most of them.  That will all change in the next few days as the leaves and ground cover reach full bloom.

We spent last weekend at the cottage, getting it ready for another summer and it was a pleasant surprise to have a number of Yellow Rumped Warblers in the trees by our deck. Although one of the most common warblers, they certainly are pretty, especially when they pose for you!

This next shot of a Red Winged Blackbird that didn’t want his picture taken is from Cranberry Marsh which is just off Lake Ontario in the south end of the Lynde Shores Conservation area in Ajax, Ontario.

Two photographers whose blog I follow are Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou and one of their recent blog postings talked a lot about using different crops to enhance images, including the square crop.  This White Throated Sparrow shot provided a good opportunity to practice with a square crop.

This image was taken in Thickson’s Woods in Oshawa and the Sparrow landed on a very interesting perch, nicely separated from the back ground.  The problem is the perch overwhelms the small bird, which is normally a ‘no-no’ for good bird images.  Typically you can minimize the large perch by cropping the photo to minimize the visual impact of the perch, resulting in this typical landscape oriented crop.

After reading Darwin’s blog on square crops, and quite liking this large perch, I decided to re-do the little sparrow on the big perch in a square format.

It is always a good practice to think outside the box and break down some of the traditions we photographers cling to, especially when it comes to composition and all the other ‘un-written’ rules of photography.

Canon is clearly the global leader in DSLR sales, with $10.5B in sales in 2010 compared to second place Nikon with $2.5B in sales.  Sony places a distant third in the pecking order.  A number of months ago Canon announced the release of two new camera bodies, the 1Dx and the 5D Mk III, Both of these bodies have full frame sensors, meaning that the size of the electronic sensor is the same as the frame size of the old 35mm SLR film cameras (36x24mm).  The vast majority of DSLR’s sold today have smaller sensors, which results in the sensor ‘seeing’ a smaller field of view than would be seen with a 35mm film camera having a lens of equal focal length.  The quantification of this phenomenon, called the Crop Factor, is made by determining the ratio between the diagonal length of the reference sensor size and the diagonal length of the smaller sensor.  With crop body DSLR’s the crop factor is typically 1.3 or 1.6 for Canon cameras and 1.5 for Nikon cameras.  The crop factor allows the photographer to calculate the effective focal length of a lens on a crop body camera compared to that same lens on a full frame camera.  For example if a 50mm lens is attached to a DSLR with a 1.5 Crop Factor, the 50mm lens will perform as a 50 x 1.5 or 75mm lens would on a film body.

You may be saying to yourself “Who cares”, however it does make a difference based on the type of photography you do.  For example landscape photographers often want to capture as large a field of view as possible and therefore use wide-angle lenses (shorter focal length lenses) to accomplish this.  Right away it becomes evident that crop body cameras are a detriment if the widest possible field of view is desired. A 16mm lens effectively becomes a 25.6mm lens on a 1.6 crop body.  This is why nature photographers prefer full frame DSLR’s for landscape work.  The bird photographer on the other hand finds that the crop body is a great help to getting better shots because of the advantage gained by the crop factor.  My 700mm lens effectively becomes an 1120mm lens on a 1.6 crop body.

The problem with photography becomes what to do when buying a camera if you are both a landscape and a bird photographer.  There is an easy answer to this question…..buy two cameras, a crop body and a full frame body!  Besides, if you are a serious photographer, you really should have some redundancy in you gear.  If your only body broke while shooting a wedding it would be a disaster, so a second body is always a good idea.

Anyway, in order to heed my own advice, a Canon 5D Mk III was added to the gear bag a couple of weeks ago and so far its been a pleasure to use and fun to be playing with the first full frame camera since selling my old EOS 630 back in the early nineties.  The new 5D Mk III has a 22.4 megapixel sensor and Canon’s new 61 point auto focussing system which is surprisingly fast.  It’s ISO range of 50-102,400 is amazing and means this camera almost sees in the dark!  Another new perk for me is that the 5D also shoots full HD video which is going to be fun.

The following images are among the first taken with the camera and have not been processed other than converting and resizing the RAW files for display on the web.

Blue Jay

Downy Woodpecker

Junco

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Red Winged Blackbird

Red Squirrel

And finally a link to a quick video test of a Red Squirrel

As time permits I plan to post a few more detailed tests of the camera, especially ISO comparisons to help determine how high the ISO can be pushed and still get a useable image.