Author Archives: Vincent Mistretta

About Vincent Mistretta

Photographer and wild nature enthusiast that enjoys sharing visual stories about our wonderful planet.

Springs Not That Far Away!

I have to admit I am a Spring, Summer and Fall kind of guy. I like Winter, but in only small doses :-). Given how much stress New England is under with yet another snow storm due to hit today, I thought I would change it up a little and show some pictures of Spring.

Peony Sun Shower
Peony Portrait

So enjoy your day and stop fretting over sub zero temps. The warmth of the sun is not far away!

Monday Musings – The Blubb

I plan on increasing the frequency of blog postings on equipment. I receive a lot of emails asking me about what equipment I use and which camera settings I prefer. So instead of keeping my thoughts (but not secrets) to just those that ask I think I will share. 🙂

The first item I want to talk about is The Blubb which stands for (Big Lens Ultimate Beanbag). This is also the most recent piece of equipment I have picked up receiving it as a Christmas gift from my beloved wife. The Blubb is the brain child of Art Morris, Avian Photographer extraordinaire. (If you click on the link above, you can see more images and Art’s commentary on The Blubb).

So far I really enjoy using The Blubb. I have looked far and wide for a versatile bean bag. What attracted me to The Blubb in the first place was its design. It is designed from the ground up to use in a car. I often find myself using my truck as a blind when photographing birds. It is not always practical to “sneak up on” birds. It is especially not practical to sneak up on them when the temperature is below freezing! The reason you need something between your camera lens and the naked car door is vibration. Even with the car off, any vibration from the camera is amplified by the hollow metal car door which results in blurry images. It is virtually impossible to get sharp images unless you use some medium in between lens and car body.

I have tested The Blubb on several different car doors and it seems to work well regardless of model or size. I have also used The Blubb on the hood of my truck and given how high it is (and how short I am) it works just like a tripod. If you were to use this on a car hood, you would need to hunch over considerably. The unit I received was well made, sturdy as a rock. I suspect it will hold up well for many years to come. I really like the overall construction.

A few points here. 1) DO NOT use your power windows as a way to adjust the hight of your Blubb and long lens, it will not hold up to the weight. In fact, I like keeping the window down if at all possible. 2) Art mentions in his instructions included with The Blubb to use approximately 16 lbs of pinto beans as filler. I found that 12 lbs was right for my needs. I did also experiment with using bird seed as filler and I think that is a better solution given the decreased cost of seed over beans!

So if you are looking for a bean bag to help you stabilize your camera and long lens from a car, or a dock, or a patio or the ground for that matter, The Blubb is a great compliment to any camera bag.

Note: I do not currently receive any compensation or free products from Birds as Art or its affiliates.

Bufflehead

This has been a week of firsts for my image files. Unfortunately non of the firsts were files I would consider keepers. So goes the life of a photographer.

Bufflehead Drake and Hen

The difficulty in photographing Bufflehead is the location of the eye in relation to their dark feathers. You truly need to “catch light” (pun intended) in their eyes in order to tell they even have eyes!

Bufflehead Drake Catch Light

The other thing to try and do is show the different color reflections their feathers emit as the light hits them from different directions. In the image above you can tell that the drakes feathers are emitting a green tint given the light angle.

The real trick is to be able to show all these things and not end up with a butt shot!
Have a great weekend!

Hooded Merganser

I had the chance to add a new subject to my image files this weekend. One of my favorite things to do in photography is create images of wildlife I have not had the pleasure of observing and shooting before.

Hooded Merganser Male

As I mentioned the other day, I plan on exploring Greenwich Point Park this winter. I headed down there on Martin Luther King Monday at sunrise. As you drive down the main road, there is a pond on your left hand side as you pass the stone gates. This pond is part of a sanctuary. Due to recent snowfall, the walking path around this area is not plowed.

Hooded Merganser Male 2

The night before I saw what I thought was a Hooded Merganser in the pond. However, the subject was back lit and the light was not worth making any clicks. I decided to return in the morning when I could position myself so the subject would be front lit. I had attempted to get out of the car and move around the subject so it would be front lit. However the Hooded Merganser would have none of that and quickly swam off when I got out of the car. So I needed to use my car as a blind. The hope was the park would be very quiet in the morning so I could use my truck as a blind. It worked well. This was not practical the previous eveing given the park traffic and position of the sun at sunset.

Hooded Merganser Female

Caution: The park road is VERY NARROW and due to the snowfall shared by cars and walkers. This park is very heavily used and using your car as a blind is not always possible. It was 14 degrees fahrenheit this morning so I figured I would have little competition for the road from walkers/joggers!


The Blubb

Needing to use my truck as a blind gave me the opportunity to use a Christmas gift my wife purchased for me. The product is called the “Blubb” and is available through Art Morris’ Birds As Art website. I plan on writing a review of the Blubb in a week or two.

The above Male Hooded Merganser was with 2 females. One of the females appeared to be a breeding female. While I added some files to my image library I did not get a shot I am really happy with, due mostly to the fact that the Mergansers wouldn’t come close enough to the truck :-). Even with a 600mm f/4 and a 1.4 TC, I didn’t have enough glass. Another reason is that the morning was overcast and I think the subject would pop if the light was better. I look forward to bringing you captures of this great subject as I head back to Greenwich Point Park.

Note: Picture of the Blubb courtesy of Birds As Art website!

Monday Musings – Make the Most of Every Opportunity

Over the years you hear people say that “Life is short” and to “Make the most of whatever opportunities come your way”. While that is true in the business world, it is also true in photography.

Brant Geese Flock

A photographer that I admire very much (Laurie Excel) once shared a story that I still think about today. Her dad was also a professional photographer and had given her the following advice (I am paraphrasing here). The advice was to make the most of every shooting opportunity because that opportunity could change or be gone in a minute or the next day.

Where Did They Go?

Unfortunately for me I didn’t/don’t always follow advice and have to learn the hard way. You see the images of the Brant Geese above are not representative of my best work. In fact, they stink. Why did I put them up here? Well, as I was scouting out a new location to photograph birds during the winter in and around where I live, I came across this flock of Brant Geese. Cool I thought, the whole winter to make images with a bird I don’t get to see very often. There were HUNDREDS of them here that day. Do you know what? I haven’t seen one at that location since! So all I am stuck with are marginal images instead of my best work.
Moral of the story…..Make every click count and take nothing for granted!

Greenwich Point Park

Ring Billed Gull Reflection

Recently I spent some time at Greenwich Point Park. In short order, I have become very fond of this location. I have seen several species of gulls, ducks, swans, eagles, starlings and geese in just 2 visits. I plan on spending a lot of time here over the winter. Why over the winter you may ask? This park is closed to non-Greenwich Connecticut residents from March 1- December 1, this is why I have not been there before now. 🙂

The only problems I have seen so far are the crowds. One visit was during the week while the other occurred on the weekend. During the week there were a lot of people, on the weekend it was mobbed!

Even with the crowds, I plan on heading down there this weekend, MLK weekend, to see what I can find!

Master Light Program (MLP) Followup

I received several questons as a result of the post Moose Peterson did about my time with him during his Master of Light Program (MLP). Several of the questions I thought would be interesting to many of you so I decided to do a post with the answers to the top questions. Here is the link for the post on Vincent Mistretta – MLP.

1) How much work was the MLP?
The answer to this question is more complex than a number of hours. I will give you an example. In general, Moose sent me 1 major assignement a week. When I sent him the completed assigment, he would often either develop a new assignment based on some element of the work I sent him or ask me to redo the assignment with some new twist. This new work would be due in 1 week, in addition to the next regularly scheduled assignment. As you can imagine, I did have a few periods of time when I was juggling 5 assignments for the program.

2) How long does the program last?
It is 3 months long which includes a weekend shoot with Moose and attending a DLWS event. We went to Baxter State Park in Maine together after the Maine DLWS.

3) Did Moose really spend that much time with you?
Yes. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how generous with his time he was. I will make a confession here. As many of you know I have had a long career on Wall St. I am a fundamental trader/analyst by training. Very regemented in how I approach things and evaluate situations. I am known as a numbers guy and believe numbers don’t lie! One of the things that I love about photography is that it touches the other side of my brain, the creative side that doesn’t get used in a numbers don’t lie environment/lifestyle. However, this transition for me, made Moose’s job very difficult. It feels now like he spent the first 2 months training me to let go of my rigid self. I mention all this because I feel Moose went above and beyond what I think would be customary. He clearly did more than I think the “fee” associated with the MLP should have provided.

4) Did you learn everything you wanted to learn?
This is a really interesting question. I am going to answer it in a slightly different manner. The thing I learned the most from my time with Moose is what I didn’t know. This set the stage for me to learn in a more meaningful manner. Photography is an evolutionary process for many and the time it takes to improve is different based on aptitude, time spent in the field and frankly, attitude. I learned a lot, but I have also learned a lot since finishing this program. Put another way, I think the program has empowered me to learn at a faster rate.

5) Would you take the course again or recommend it to others?
Yes and yes, very much so! If you envision a career of some sort in the business of photography, this course is highly recommended. It is also excellent for just improving your photographic skills.

6) Can you complete the course while working another full time job?
I think this depends on the person and their resolve. I did it while working a full time job. But I admitt I did a lot of work on the weekends and at night. If that is too much for you then you might want to heed the comment Moose made in his blog post which was “Not everyone makes it through the program”! I suspect this is one of the reasons for past participants not making it through.

If you are interested in more information about Moose’s program, here is the link for the Master Light Program.

Monday Musings – Fresh Snowfall

The east coast had fresh snow to deal with this weekend. Temperatures stayed cold all weekend and winds were minimal so many of the trees and bushes stayed coated in the white stuff. I tried to make as many “pattern” images as I could. Criss crossed branches with drifted snow on them creates an interesting design element. A difficult element to control when photographing patterns is DOF (depth of field). In most instances with good light, I prefer to utilize as much DOF as possible when photographing patterns in the snow.

Snow Pattern in Black and White

When I made this image I was thinking about black and white so while in Photoshop, I used Nik Silver Efex Pro to convert the image to B&W.

The other area of interest for my photography this weekend was, you guessed it, birds. There is nothing quite like adding snow as an element in bird photography.

White Throated Sparrow Hiding
White Throated Sparrow Eating Snow

There have been many White Throated Sparrows at the feeders this year. I would estimate at least 12. The other big resident in terms of numbers is the Dark Eyed Junco which is a challenge to photograph in the snow. While the Juncos are plentiful, they are not in the numbers that we had last year.

First Bird Images from Effortless Bird Feeder

I have been writing the last few days about this feeder. Its the first in a series of back yard projects I started building bird photography perches. Here are the first bird images taken using my perched out Effortless Bird Feeder.

Black Capped Chickadee

I have had a lot of fun using this feeder. Actually, so much so that I might buy another and take down the feeders I have hanging in the trees. The one warning I will give you is with squirrels. The baffle on the bottom of the feeder keeps them from climbing the pole. However, you need to keep the feeder far enough away from bushes and trees so that they cant jump onto the feeder platform. I learned that lesson the hard way 🙂

Tufted Titmouse on Perch

Backyard Bird Photography Studio

2 weeks ago I wrote that I planned to try 2 solutions to creating a perfect backyard bird photography studio. One would be purchased and the other homemade. Both would require some customization but my goal was to do this in a manner that would be easy enough for anyone to replicate. I decided on the “Effortless Bird Feeder” as my purchased option, you can read about it here.

So after a few days of using my pimped out bird feeder, I have to say I made the right choice. The results have been truly amazing. I was able to use this combo in the middle of the blizzard we had last week. I will post some of the bird images on Friday but suffice it to say that it held up well to 60 mph winds and 18 inches of snow with 4 ft drifts.

Below are some images I made of how I added the perches. Remember, my intention was to do this in a way that any of my readers could replicate with no need for power tools or mechanical knowledge. At some point after using the feeder, I might change the perches but so far I have been very happy with the results.

The first thing you need to do is find branches that will make perches suitable to the birds in your area.

Use Gardening Tape to Make Perches One Piece
Use Cable Zip Ties to Attach Perches to Base Using Drainage Holes

Below is the back of the unit once complete.

Back of Completed Unit

Effortless Bird Feeder from the Front

These might not be the best pictures of the unit, I only had my iPhone with me when I took them, but I think you get the point.

The most important element however is that the birds love it and I have had many different species on the perches in just the first few days.

Enjoy making your studio and let me know if you have any other customization ideas for this unit.