Category Archives: Monday Musings

Monday Musings – Getting Close

Male Brown Headed Cowbird at Feeder

Want to make better bird images? Here are some tips!
1) Birds don’t allow you to sneak up on them. Even if you can move like Fred Astaire you are not nimble enough to get close without them knowing. So the first tip is to let the birds come to you. Find a spot that will afford good backgrounds and park your tush.
2) Don’t try to take any pictures for the first 10 minutes of your arrival at a spot, you will only prolong the amount of time it will take for the birds to acclimate to your presence. Just relax and observe your beautiful surroundings.
3) No straps! Whenever I photograph wildlife all the straps come off my cameras and binoculars. Swinging straps frighten wildlife and resemble talons of predators.
4) Wear dark colors and make sure none of your clothes have anything hanging (see item 3 above).
5) Don’t make sudden moves. Even if you keep your feet still, moving the camera on a tripod in sudden moves will spook your subjects. Birds are incredibly smart. They know you are tracking them with a lens. Don’t believe me? Go to the beach and track a gull with any lens you can hand hold. They will change directions in 90 degree turns to avoid you tracking them!
6) Put your cell phone on vibrate.

Female Brown Headed Cowbird on Perch

Now I know some of you are saying I used big, heavy, expensive glass to make these images and the answer would be you are correct. Both of the above images were made with birds only 12-18 feet away from me. If I didn’t adhere to the above principles, I would not have subjects as close as the ones I photographed. Neither of the above images are cropped!

I hope these tips help you make better images and get more out of the hobby of birding!

Images captured by D3X, 600 f/4 VRII w/TCe 1.4 II on Lexar UDMA digital film

Monday Musings – My First Publication!

The current issue of the BT Journal published by Wildlife Research Photography (WRP) contains a portfolio of images I created during the time I studied under Moose Peterson’s Master of Light Program (MLP). Here is the link for that story.

This is a really special opportunity for me. My images in the BT Journal are the first images I have ever had published professionally. I can never thank Moose and Sharon Peterson enough for their help and guidance during and after the program. I am truly honored to have my images included in this great publication. Below are 3 of my favorite images from my time in the MLP

Moose in Baxter State Park

As Moose states in the BT Journal article, I always wanted to photograph Moose. I can’t wait till the fall so I can get back up to Baxter and have another crack at some more images. I hope to one day make it to Alaska to photograph the bigger Moose of the species.

Feeding Time
Osprey Being Harassed by Red Winged Black Bird

The thing I love about this last image is the fact that you can tell which bird is harassing the female osprey, Being able to capture the red in the Red Winged Blackbird made the image special. This Osprey nest is one I worked for several months on Long Island. Moose encouraged me to keep working nests so that I could not only learn about the species biology but also document it through my photography. I look forward to returning to that nest this Spring.

Monday Musings – Check Out BirdsEye

BirdsEye App

I know some of you might have thought the title was referring to the frozen vegetable brand but I meant an app that I am currently using on my iPhone. The app is called BirdsEye. As an emerging birder, I found this app to be worth every penny (yes, I paid the $19.99 for the full version). One of the things that makes this app so cool is that it is powered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology ebird system. According to the ebird website, they utilize over 1 million bird sightings a month in compiling their data.

So you might be asking, how does BirdsEye help birders? Its pretty simple. BirdsEye makes this database available to us in an easy to navigate and use interface. There are 6 main features you can access thorough the main menu (In version 1.3, the current version).

1) Find Nearby Birds
2) Notable and Rare Bird Sightings
3) Locate a Bird
4) View Birding Hotspots
5) Select Birding Location
6) Update Life List

So far I have mostly used menu items 1, 2 and 4. The app uses the iPhones location detecting capabilities (if you turn them on) to pinpoint your location and find bird sightings collected through ebird in your vicinity. It does this all very quickly. I am actually shocked at how efficient the database access is on a 3G network.
I also love the ability to build a life list with all the species you have seen in person. What I haven’t decided is whether I will use the life list to be my portable photographic species list for birds.

There are 2 recommendations I would make to better the apps performance. First, when you select the directions portion of the mapping section, you proceed out of BirdsEye completely without any ability to re-enter the app without hitting the iPhone home key and reselecting the BirdsEye App. I find this annoying.
Second and most important to me, I would like the ability to see bird sightings closest to my location sorted by how recently they were seen. Lets face it, I see 2 basic ways to use this app, and one of them is to know the most recent sightings in and around your current location. The application does sort by species and then shows when the last time that species was seen so I assume the change I am requesting is not a big deal. The other way to use this app is to search for certain birds and have it show their sightings.

All in all, this app in combination with iBird Pro, makes for a really powerful mobile birding reference tool. I highly recommend it.

Note: Image courtesy of the BirdsEye website.

Monday Musings – Sometimes Life Gets in the Way

So my bags were backed and I was ready to go……No I am not practicing for a John Denver tribute. I was getting ready to load the car and make my way to the airport when the phone rang. Dont you hate when the phone rings when you are leaving for a trip?

African Lion Napping on the Road

So needless to say, my trip to Florida and my very first Photoshop World was scratched. A lot of planning went into selecting locations to photograph, times of day to be there, speaking to locals to get info so when such a trip is canceled it is disappointing on many fronts. Instead I’m back to tending business and family this week. I plan to photograph some new locations in and around Connecticut this week. Since I will not have new Florida images to share with you, I will work hard to pull something out of my hat. 😉

Monday Musings – Things Are Looking Up for Content Creators

Ok, I’m coming clean and telling you up front this post is going to be a rant! If you are looking for images of wildlife, come back Wednesday as I have a new visitor in my backyard I plan on sharing with you all.

I think the creative world received some very good and much needed news last week. That news was that the NY Times would be charging for their content including online distribution, not just home delivery of the paper and ink version of their newspaper (NY Times Letter to Their Readers). Why is it good news? From the perspective of someone who has had a long business career and a very short creative career, I could never understand why the publishing world allowed their franchises to melt over the last few years. It seems to me that publishers took a defeatist attitude when people wanted to read their publications via electric means and not in the print form. Instead of adapting and giving the customer what they wanted, they acted as if their customers were not there anymore.

I for one believe this is great news for the creative industry. I have no doubt that the demand for content is continuing to rise. Unfortunately because of uncertainty and/or indecision on electronic distribution of content revenue models, the readers of the publications and those that created content for said publications suffered. Readers suffered by having less options delivered the way they wanted and content creators were payed far less and in many instances fired from their jobs, all while the publishers themselves suffered from weakening financial profiles.

While I could never understand why the publishers allowed their content to be given away for free, I am glad that the NY TIMES is taking a first step in reversing this ridiculous trend. If you are in love with the ad soaked internet pages that provide content then you might not care about the NY Times announcement. But if you, like me are tired of popups and ads all over the place, then you will support the NY Times and other content delivery services to ensure we have top quality publications in the future. As I stated before, the demand for content is not going down, it is going up. What is changing is the way consumers want to expose themselves to this content. Give the consumer what they want, how they want it and stop giving away your content! 😉

Monday Musings – Immature Black Crowned Night Heron

I recently had a chance to photograph and watch this immature Black Crowned Night Heron try to fish.

Black Crowned Night Heron Immature

He was stumbling around the tidal pond while watching me at the same time. This made it difficult for him to catch fish!

Black Crowned Night Heron Stare

He will be a great specimen to watch when he gets his adult plumage.

Black Crowned Night Heron Immature Closeup

Monday Musings – A Weekend at the Beach

As many of you know, my family has spent portions of every summer at the beach, specifically the Hamptons. I love to spend time there in the winter for several reasons. First, no one is there so it is very peaceful, void of the hullabaloo associated with the summer rush. Second, there are great opportunities for shore bird photography. Unfortunately this year I did not get out there in January or February which is prime time for wintering shore birds. However this weekend I decided to venture out east to mostly visit with my parents and help them with some things around the house. This winter has been particularly bad out east and some basic maintenance was in order, so in comes the oldest of the family caretakers. 😉 I ventured out on Friday morning with minimal expectations for finding good birds to photograph. Given that it was already March, I suspected that the wintering birds had already left the area and that I was too early for any of the spring and summer species that call the area home. As I expected, I was right, not much to photograph. And with the snow all but melted from our recent heat wave, the area was a mess, devoid of any great photo opportunities, or so I thought.

Killdeer at Sunrise

After driving around for some time I came across this sole Killdeer in a hay field.

Killdeer Preening

It was interesting to watch this little guy. There was no water around where he was foraging and there was a massive construction project with a pile driver smashing piles right across the street. It was so noisy I was surprised that the bird would even be in this area let alone allow me to get close enough to take these pictures and watch him for an hour.

Killdeer Itch

I have to admit that I knew when I was making these images that I would use them for nothing other than this blog. The busy background kills the images for my taste. I prefer a minimalist background and a subject that pops from the page. However, as I often do, I used this time to practice my skills and learn biology. You can read as many books as you like about animal behavior and bird behavior in particular, but nothing beats sitting and watching first hand. I also enjoy using my gear. The sound of a shutter clicking usually gets my creative juices going which leads to other things! Maybe it helped me unearth some other images that will make their way on the blog this week?

Images captured by D3x, 600 VRII wTC-2.0E III on Lexar UDMA digital film

Monday Musings – More Northern Cardinals

This beautiful cardinal was back yesterday and very happy with the new kind of bird seed I stocked the feeders with. 😉

Northern Cardinal Checking Out Bird Feeder

This was really the first Cardinal in 2 years that didn’t appear to care that I was trying to take his picture. He left the area if I made a sudden move, which I always try to avoid, but always seemed to come right back.

Northern Cardinal

These are some of the first Northern Cardinal images I have made that I really like. Great color, sharp focus and good composition. There are some things I could have done better in the composition and my subject is not in his peak breeding colors yet but away from that I am pretty happy with the outcome.

Northern Cardinal getting ready to jump!

Images captured by D3x, 600 VRII wTC-2.0E III on Lexar UDMA digital film

Monday Musings – What An Awesome Winter Day

Wow, sunset on Friday was amazing here. After weeks of sub freezing weather and several feet of snow, we had a day with temps in the 60’s! I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and heading out.

Hooded Merganser Hen at Sunset

I have really enjoyed visiting Greenwich Point Park this winter. As I mentioned previously, one of the species I did not have in my image bank were Hooded Merganser’s. There seem to be a group of 3-4 Drakes and 5-6 Hens that hang out at the large salt water pond in the middle of the park.

Hooded Merganser Drake

The only difficulty I have encountered at this location is that the birds here are not very habituated. You would think with the hundreds of people and dogs that use the park each and every day that the birds would be used to human presence, but they are not. This has caused me to work on environmental composition and telling a different story than just a closeup of the subject. While I would like to get some closeups, the practice of story telling is one that I welcome. To me, that is how you grab the heart strings of your viewers. Without that tug, images are just representations of time.

Hooded Merganser Pair at Sunset

Images captured by D3x, 600 VRII wTC-20E III on Lexar UDMA digital film

Monday Musings – Yellowstone Adventure with Moose Peterson

Let me start off by wishing my wife, family and friends a Happy Valentines Day!

Snowy Forest Black and White

Moose Peterson announced on his website over the weekend that he will be hosting another Yellowstone Adventure next winter. I have had visiting Yellowstone on my bucket list for a while. I hope to visit Yellowstone in the winter and fall. I hear the difference between those two seasons is amazing! Since Moose is one of my mentors, signing up for this adventure was a no brainer. Yellowstone in the winter is a killer for big game and landscape photography. What a combination. It will be a great time!

You will find below a link to all the details. From what Sharon (aka Mrs. Moose) told me, there are only a few spots left for either of the 2 weeks so if you are interested I would call right away. If you are going on this trip next winter, let me know. We can plan on freezing together. Temperatures this week were -30!

MOOSE PETERSON YELLOWSTONE ADVENTURE