I can’t really think of a better way to spend my Memorial Day Weekend than with my family. Its even more special when you include high school graduation. Peter, our middle child, graduated from The Taft School this weekend and is on his way to Williams College in the fall.
Freshly Minted High School GraduatePeter with Grandma and Grandpa PenfieldPeter with Grandma and Grandpa MistrettaPeter and his girlfriend Katie
Peter was very fortunate to make some great friends while at Taft. 3 in particular we now consider part of our extended family. Like Peter, those boys also made the decision of leaving home early and attending prep school so that they could realize their dream of playing NCAA Hockey. While it is a very difficult thing for parents to let go, its even more difficult to do when it happens 3 years early!
I know its a cliche but its true. Enjoy every day with your children. The time goes by really fast.
I have been searching for some good Snowy Egret opportunities this spring. The terrible weekend weather has not aided my cause. Here are some of the captures I have that I am trying to improve upon. Hope you like them.
Snowy Egret ReflectionSnowy Egret PerchedSnowy Egret on Marsh Bank
Back in the day of high school, oh so long ago, I was best known for my sports photography. In fact, the very first image I sold was of the NY Islanders on display at a photography show in Roosevelt Field. We are talking the old Roosevelt Field in Garden City, not the new multi level shopping extravaganza it is now. As my kids have grown I always made excuses for not bringing my camera to their sporting events. Odd you would think for someone who loves sports photography. But the truth of the matter is that I get so involved emotionally when my kids take the field that focusing (no pun intended) on making great images is difficult for me.
This spring however, I decided that I would take out my 200-400 and photograph some of my middle son Peter’s lacrosse games at Taft given this was the end of his lacrosse career.
Hotchkiss - Taft Lacrosse GameHotchkiss - Taft Lacrosse GameEnd of the Lacrosse Road
Peter is wearing #16 for Taft in the pictures above.
So how am I tying this into photography you might be asking? Well, my making excuses for not shooting put me in a position to try and force all my lacrosse photography into one season this spring. And wouldn’t you know it, every game I attended this spring had rain. Not drizzle or mist, but pouring down rain with winds blowing the stuff sideways. This made photographing the games literally impossible. So I was down to my last game the week before Peter graduated to make some images of him and his friends. Sure enough as Lee Ann and I drove to the game, the heavens opened up. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stop until the 4th quarter. So here I was trying to force many years of pent up kid photography demand into 15 minutes, yikes! The real moral to the story is stop make excuses for not taking a camera with you at all times. Even camera phones now are able to capture great images (of things that don’t move ;-)) so we don’t have an excuse not to have a camera with us to memorialize all the great things that happen around us. I be you will be surprised at how you see the world differently once you start taking your camera everywhere you go!
Images captured with a Nikon D700 w/200-400 f/4 on Lexar digital film.
Photographing ground feeders is an art unto itself. Robins are difficult because they never sit still, kinda like kids!
American Robin Eyeing Worms
The bird above was very successful at pulling worms out of our lawn.
American Robin Profile
I would normally not think about photographing any animal on blacktop but somehow this photo works.
American Robin on Fence
Normally I don’t like butt shots, but enough of the Robin is exposed so you know exactly what you are looking at.
Overall, not much I would call great photography. Flat light and uncooperative subjects but thats why they call it wildlife photography. It wouldn’t be fun if every outing produced salable images! As I have said before, the most important thing is getting out and trying.
While these little beauties were eating me out of house and home, I have found a bird seed that they don’t seem to like, Safflower seed. So at least for now they are hanging around hoping I go back to the old seed! No chance of that as the Crows and squirrels don’t like Safflower seed either. Talking about killing 2 birds with one stone, bad pun I know.
Mourning Dove on the Grass
Mourning Doves are usually ground feeders.
Mourning Dove on PerchMourning Dove Looking Over its Shoulder
This one however, had other ideas!
Images made with Nikon D3x, 600 f/4 VR-II w/TCe 1.4 II on Lexar digital film.
Ok, I have been trying a lot of new setups to get the most of backyard bird photography. You might remember this post (Post Link) I wrote a few months ago about a feeder I was trying as a new piece in my backyard bird photography studio. It is called the Effortless Bird Feeder. I will be the first to attest that it is in fact effortless, for crows, mourning doves and squirrels to eat their hearts content. While at the start I really enjoyed using this new feeder, it just didn’t cut the mustard. I then started playing with home made feeders and perches at the close of the winter and came up with a few designs I like (I will share these in future posts). The problem with my home made designs is that they are only suitable for short engagements. I really wanted something a little more permanent that would not only be a part of my photography but also a part of my love for wildlife and birds.
It was about this same time that I became familiar with a blog entitled The Zen Birdfeeder. This blog is written by a very nice lady named Nancy Castillo (we have only exchanged a few emails about birds and pictures, I have not actually met her). After reading a few of Nancy’s blog posts, I added her blog to my RSS Reader. As time went on I happened to notice that Nancy owned and operated a store in Saratoga Springs (I have family in Saratoga Springs) that is a Wild Birds Unlimited franchise store. I had never heard of the franchise so thanks to Nancy’s blog, I started to look through their product offerings. Much of what they offered seemed to be very good quality, at least from the brochures. And then it hit me. They have a pole system called the APS which stands for Advanced Pole System.
WBU Advanced Pole System with 2 Hanging Feeders
This pole system even had attachments for holding branches as perches. This would be perfect. I went to their website and looked up if there was a local franchise as I wanted to see the product before I purchased it. It ended up there was a franchise in Darien CT owned and operated by 2 very nice people, the husband and wife team of Pat and Joe Warren. After taking up about an hour of Joe’s time, I decided to purchase my first pole system pictured below.
WBU Advanced Pole System with Feeding Ranch on Top
You may have noticed that I said, purchased my first pole system in the previous paragraph. Well, that wasn’t by accident. After just the first week of having the Ranchette, I went back and purchased the double hanging feeder pole which is the first picture on the top of the page. Because of all this I am going to need to get a third pole soon, one that can hold the bird house that my wife is going to put me in. 🙂
As you can see in both pictures, the Warren’s made sure I didn’t leave their shop without the raccoon baffles they sell to keep the squirrels and raccoons from getting to the feeders. So far they have worked like a charm. I think you can see in both images the branch perch attachments that I mentioned earlier in this post. Those little attachments really hold onto the branches well.
You might notice I went to great lengths to introduce everyone in this story, not just my topic. I did that for one reason. The two vocations of wildlife/bird observation and photography have such great people involved that I wanted to give credit where credit was due. If it wasn’t for Nancy’s effort to share information with others, I would never have found WBU and in turn would have never met the Warren’s or found the perfect product for my backyard bird studio!
So I will be posting some images over the coming days and weeks of birds visiting my new backyard bird photography studio. Stay tuned!
