outdoor photography

Bald Eagle This past Saturday I walked to the St. John's River from the end of Brumley Rd. It's an eight mile walk to get there and back. On the way, a juvenile Bald Eagle flew right by me, and I thought it would be fun to try out the autofocus system on my new Canon 7D mark II. I registered my C3 setting to Shutter priority mode at 1/1250 sec with the autofocus system set on all focusing points (I may change this later). The camera functioned beautifully and just about all my photos came out sharp. I'm incredibly impressed with how this camera performs. Bald Eagle Bald Eagle Bald Eagle Bald Eagle

Red-cockaded Woodpecker This year I decided to try my hand at a little competition, called a 12 day big year.  You pick one day per month for 2014 and count as many species that you can find within those 12 days within the State of Florida.  I decided to join January 30th, giving me one day to get my January totals in, and it rained that day.  Then in February, I picked a day when I needed to be home by a little after lunch.  So I began the year woefully behind the leaders.  Not that it would matter much, since even on my best days I can't do a lot of traveling, and there are some very experienced birders in the competition. I'm not really in it to win it; it's just a fun little competition to participate in. I enjoy the atmosphere of friendly competition embodied by the competition. But yesterday was a pretty great day.  I totaled 103 species on the day and added 27 to my total for the year, giving me 131 so far.  I started out at Three Lakes Wild...

Bald Eagles I don't know if it's really possible to truly appreciate these birds without seeing them outside in the wild.  Growing up I loved seeing them in zoos, and I've been very close to them at bird rehabilitation centers where I've been able to get a sense of just how large these birds are.  But these experiences do not do justice to seeing them paired, soaring in the sky almost in unison, or swooping down to grab a fish out of the water, or for that matter, chasing another eagle with a catch to steal it from him. Bald Eagles Bald Eagle I was at first disappointed that I couldn't get my camera to focus on the eagle before it passed me, but then it looked back, I guess to check on its fish, and that made my day Bald Eagle Bald Eagle Bald Eagles Bald Eagles are directly responsible (in part) for starting my fascination with wildlife and bird photography.  A friend of mine used to take me to Conowingo Dam in Maryland, which is a...