Wildlife Galleries

San Diego February 2010 : I headed down to San Diego over the President's Day holiday weekend, it was a relief to have a lovely sunny weekend after all the 'bad' weather recently. On Saturday morning I checked out a Hawk Watch at the Wildlife Research Institute in Ramona . It was really busy following local press coverage, clean backgrounds were few and far between; not great photography but interesting. The Wild Animal Park is only a few miles away so I headed there after lunch to see what the Cheetahs were up to. Lying in the shade as usual, but they did move from time to time while expertly staying in the shade. Fill flash with the Better Beamer helped a bit. Sunday morning I met up with a friend from the Bosque trip and I had a chance to shoot 'Dancing Grebes', a walking on water (well running flat out!) courtship ritual. Small birds, quite far away, long lens, moving fast with no warning - quite a challenge. I need to find out if there is a local lake where they dance... Sunday afternoon I headed to Santee Lakes. Using a bag of duck food as a bribe I was able to get some shots I like, especially Wood Ducks. They were great 'targets' to experiment with quickly shifting focus points on the 7D, something that hasn't been practical with my earlier cameras. My planned early Monday shoot of Brown Pelicans on the La Jolla cliffs fell apart when I slept in. The day finished well though, Grey Whale watching off San Diego. Or was it Mexico, within a couple of miles of the harbor AT&T gave up and my phone switched to international roaming on a Mexican carrier which seemed to be offering much better coverage, no news there...

San Diego February 2010

I headed down to San Diego over the President's Day holiday weekend, i ...

Updated: Feb 19, 2010 12:43am PST

Bosque del Apache 2009 : Thanksgiving 2009 was my first visit to Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico. This is a world famous location for bird photography, many thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese winter there. The photography was challenging, tracking birds in flight takes a lot of practice. It was a lot of fun despite 4AM starts each morning, I hope to return next Thanksgiving.

Bosque del Apache 2009

Thanksgiving 2009 was my first visit to Bosque del Apache NWR in New M ...

Updated: Dec 06, 2009 4:34pm PST

Ramrod Ranch 2009 : These photos were taken during a weekend workshop at the Ramrod Ranch near Soledad, CA (http://www.incredibletravelphotos.blogspot.com/). I had a great time and plan to go back next year, highly recommended! It was my first attempt shooting from a blind which allowed got us very close to the pond. Some of the birds were very tolerant (or oblivious) of our presence, but others in particular the Titmouse and Wrentit were very nervous and rarely stood still. The Gray Fox was a bonus early on the 2nd morning. Not wanting to make too much noise with many bursts of photos I bumped the ISO to 6400 to maintain a reasonable shutter speed. Maybe I won't do that next time, I had to use aggressive noise reduction which has unfortunately reduced fine detail as well. Always learning... All photos were taken with a Canon 5Dmk2 and 500mm f/4 L IS Lens mostly used wide open. For many shots a 1.4x tele-converter was also used. Fill flash using a 580EX2 and Better Beamer was used for all bird photos with a CP-E4 battery pack to speed recharging. It is easy to see why bird photographers like the 600mm and now the 800mm lens, the smaller birds really are, even at close to minimum focussing distance. Fortunately the 5Dmk2 has plenty of mega-pixels to support cropping.

Ramrod Ranch 2009

These photos were taken during a weekend workshop at the Ramrod Ranch ...

Updated: Oct 21, 2009 1:53pm PST

Hummingbirds of the Santa Cruz Mountains : This Hummingbird photography workshop in the Santa Cruz Mountains was very challenging and a lot of fun! The first photo is actually a short video clip which shows typical activity at a feeder during the workshop that I think shows the difficulty isolating a single bird. It was shot using the Canon 5Dmk2 in between photos. The built in mic was sufficient to capture the shutter activity.

Hummingbirds of the Santa Cruz Mountains

This Hummingbird photography workshop in the Santa Cruz Mountains was ...

Updated: Oct 25, 2009 6:55pm PST

Bighorn Sheep 2007 : Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in Jasper NP, Banff NP, Glacier NP and Yellowstone NP. MY focus was Bears and Elk but I really enjoyed these encounters. This gallery dates back to my Rockies trip in 2007, it was originally hosted in my .Mac galleries. I've transferred it over without any further edits to increase the variety, this Site isn't just Airshows and Seals, there is lots more in the pipeline!

Bighorn Sheep 2007

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in Jasper NP, Banff NP, Glacier NP and Ye ...

Updated: Aug 15, 2009 10:59am PST

Elephant Seals @ Piedras Blancas (Older) : The best of the rest, Elephant Seal photos from Piedras Blancas before 2009. Often less than ideal lighting but definitely some favorites here!

Elephant Seals @ Piedras Blancas (Older)

The best of the rest, Elephant Seal photos from Piedras Blancas before ...

Updated: Jul 16, 2009 9:34pm PST

On the beach at Piedras Blancas 3 : Most of the adults are back at sea now and will return to molt over the next few months. The beach and sheltered pools are a playground for the 'weaners', the young of this year who are now in turn departing for their first months at sea. The transformation from the small black pups of a few weeks ago is amazing!

On the beach at Piedras Blancas 3

Most of the adults are back at sea now and will return to molt over th ...

Updated: Mar 16, 2009 10:06pm PST

On the beach at Piedras Blancas 2 : Overall this trip wasn't as productive as the last but I did get some shots I'm pleased with. Sunday morning was totally fog bound and the sunsets weren't as good due to offshore fog blocking the sun as it got low.

On the beach at Piedras Blancas 2

Overall this trip wasn't as productive as the last but I did get some ...

Updated: Feb 07, 2009 11:44am PST

On the beach at Piedras Blancas : Elephant Seals on the beach at Piedras Blancas on the central Californian coast near San Simeon.

On the beach at Piedras Blancas

Elephant Seals on the beach at Piedras Blancas on the central Californ ...

Updated: Jan 21, 2009 10:55pm PST

Lake San Antonio Eagle Tour : Taken on the Lake San Antonio, CA Eagle Tour 01/17/09. Even with a 400mm zoom on a 1.6 crop factor camera the Eagles that we saw were very distant. At least 500mm plus 1.4x on the 1.6 crop body would be needed to get good results and that is unwieldy on a crowded tour boat!

Lake San Antonio Eagle Tour

Taken on the Lake San Antonio, CA Eagle Tour 01/17/09. Even with a 400 ...

Updated: Jan 19, 2009 10:17pm PST