outdoor photography

Osprey Last month at Overlook Park I saw an Osprey fly by.  This happens so frequently that I usually don't bother to take a photo. However, this time looked a little different.  I put my binoculars on the bird and noticed that it was carrying a Needlefish.  I can't imagine that this is good eating, but I suppose when you're an Osprey, you eat what you catch.  The fishermen at the park weren't catching anything, so the Osprey was certainly having a better day.

Forster's Tern This morning I dropped by Overlook Park.  It's aptly named, since that's pretty much all you can do there. It's basically a fishing pier, a parking area, and a few trees, but on either side of the park there are a couple inlets.  During the winter months, you can often see Bonaparte's Gulls and Forster's Terns flying into these inlets looking for food.  This morning there were about 3 Forster's Terns taking turns doing this.  It's a great photographic opportunity because you have the chance to photograph them with green trees blurred behind them rather than the more typical blue sky.  For me, any picture of a bird in flight is better with green behind it, but that's just my taste. Forster's Tern

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 ...

Great Blue Heron Yesterday morning I drove up to Overlook Park.  It's about 15 minutes from my house, and I check it out regularly to see what ducks may be out on Lake Jesup.  It's a very small park, so I never expect to find much, but yesterday morning was very enjoyable.  A Great Blue Heron was begging me to take his picture, several Limpkins were out busily gathering snails, some Double-crested Cormorants perched on Lake Jesup for me, and a Bonaparte's Gull stayed pretty close to shore.  I saw nothing new or unusual, but I still had a pretty great 45 minutes before work. Limpkin with Tricolored Heron Limpkin Double-crested Cormorants Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull

Savannah Sparrow at Marl Bed Flats When I first moved to Central Florida, the first places I visited for nature and bird photography were in Brevard and Orange Counties.  I didn't know of any good places to visit in Seminole County where I live.  Every new place I found was in another county. But last year I began discovering my home.  It turns out that, while Seminole Co may not have quite the same variety of birds that its surrounding counties my have, if you know where to go, you can actually do pretty well here.  And there are some places in the county that are quite beautiful for nature photography and  landscapes.  So I thought it would be good to collect my favorite birding and photography locations within Seminole County and share them. Econ River Area My favorite places in eastern Seminole Count are located near the Econ River.  I began discovering places around here in June of last year.  It was so fun to begin finding pine fores...

Bonaparte's Gull There are several Bonaparte's Gulls that have been hanging around the rte 417 bridge over Lake Jesup.  This morning I drove by there on my way into work, and three of them were hanging around Overlook Park.  A couple of them were flying circles around pier where I was standing.  One in particular was very interested in making sure it looked good for the camera and decided to fix its feathers while flying so that it would be in perfect form for me.  He also flew up a little stream so that I could photograph it with a green background--I don't get many gull shots with a green background behind them. Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull Bonaparte's Gull

Limpkin I had very little time this morning, but I did drop by Overlook Park for about 15 minutes on my way to work.  Sometimes things just seem to work out even when you're in a hurry.  I walked out to the dock, and there floating in the water some distance away were several Bonaparte's Gulls.  I've never seen these gulls in my home county before.  Other birds then just landed on the dock for me to photograph, particularly a grackle and a Limpkin.  An Anhinga was spreading her wings close to the dock as well.  And when I walked back to the car, out of the corner of my eye I saw a heron strike the water.  I looked and then photographed a Great Blue Heron with a fish.  Fifteen minutes can be fun. Bonaparte's Gulls Boat-tailed Grackle Great Blue Heron Great Blue Heron