outdoor photography

Bald Eagle Yesterday at Lake Jesup, a Bald Eagle flew very close to me.  I was looking for ducks, loons and grebes sitting in the water at at the time, so I had my camera set for birds sitting still on the water.  When shooting still birds, I normally select only the center focusing point and put the focusing mode on "One Shot."  When shooting birds in flight, I want all the focusing points active with the focusing mode on "AI Servo" to better track birds in flight. It's a little bit of a pain to switch between these two shooting modes.  If you try to shoot the bird in flight with "One Shot" and one focusing point, you're likely to get a lot of blurry photos. But if you try to change the focusing points and focusing mode, you're likely to miss the shot all together. There's a solution to this problem, though. You can use the Custom Modes.  Using custom modes, you just switch the dial on the camera to make all the changes.  I use C1 for ...

Bald Eagle Adult, Orlando Wetlands Park There comes a time in the life of every bird photography blogger when it becomes necessary to write on the aging of Bald Eagles.  Yesterday morning I photographed two immature Bald Eagles of different ages, and this morning I added one more.  This made me realize that it's time for this rite of passage. I thought it would be fun to concentrate on aging eagles while they're in flight. On average, Bald Eagles take about five and a half years to reach their definitive plumage--you know, the way they look on U.S. postage stamps (though at least one has taken up to 3 years longer). And this is complicated by the fact that eagles take about six months to complete a molt, meaning that you often see them in the process of molting.  But there are some patterns that allow the observant birder to make educated guesses of a bird's age. Bald Eagles Adult (left) and Juvenile (right), Conowingo Dam When Bald Eagles fledge and leave ...

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail This morning I was at Central Winds Park, my favorite birding local birding location in the fall, and a Tiger Swallowtail landed right in front of me.  In fact, I had to back up in order to get these shots.  In the background were cypress trees and bare sky, and these three shots were taken with me standing in slightly different places.  I think you can see the difference it makes where you stand.  The first image below was the shot I took right when the butterfly landed.  I wanted to get the shot before I re-positioned myself, but I don't really care for this shot at all.  The sky in the background is making me alter my exposure, and I still have bright spots that compete with the subject for attention.  So I started moving around to see if I could find an angle on the butterfly that would be only distant trees.  The second image below was the result I was able to achieve if I moved to the left--a little better, but ...

Trees at Lake Jesup Park Canon Powershot S100, Joby Gorillapod It's well known that Central Florida is so flat that it's hard to find picturesque landscapes to photograph.  There are some genuine hills along the central spine of the state, but that's about it.  It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that, within an hour's drive of my house, the tallest things that stick out of the ground are trees and landfills.  Last year, I decided to try to take more landscape and nature photos that do not include wildlife (basically that means photographing trees).  I rarely did that, though, largely because I didn't want to change lenses all the time or carry two cameras.  My solution this year is to use the Canon PowerShot S100.  So far, the solution has worked pretty well, as I'm taking many more landscapes than I did last year. Canon Powershot S100, Joby Gorillapod This is how I set up to take the first image above But there is a challenge I'm st...

Snowy Egret Yesterday when I was at Jetty Park I came across a Little Blue Heron and Snowy Egret walking along the dark rocks that lined the inlet.  And the photos made me decide to do a post about exposure compensation.  How you set your exposure compensation depends in part on the metering method you use. Here are two of the more common metering methods for shooting wildlife: Spot Metering: This metering method acquires exposure values from the center "spot" of the frame.  In this method, you can put your subject in the center and adjust your exposure to make sure your subject is exposed properly.This is a good way to work, but I don't normally use it, since it's often hard to keep my subject in the center of the frame. Matrix/Evaluative Metering:  This metering method acquires exposure values from throughout the frame.  To use exposure compensation, you have to make judgments about the whole scene and adjust accordingly.  It is therefore somewha...