American Oystercatchers At Fort Desoto North Beach

The North Beach at Fort Desoto park is a treasure trove for bird photography, especially this time of year when so many varieties of birds are visiting.

One of the most interesting and colorful birds you can encounter on the North Beach is an American Oystercatcher. True to its name, it feed on bivalves (oysters, clams, and mussels) and uses its brightly colored bill to get at them.

They can be kind of skittish as many wading birds are, but if you take your time, don't rush, and ease your way along, you can often get very close to get some great shots.

I was able to follow a couple of American Oystercatchers for a while among the back bays on the North Beach of the island. Being patient, they eventually got used to my presence and I was able to get some good close-up portraits of the couple.

Here is a few shots that I took that afternoon:

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It's good to use a fairly long telephoto lens for these kind of shots, such as 400mm or more, so you don't get too close and alarm them. Another suggestion is to put the camera close to the ground, maybe just a foot or two above it, to take the shot. This provides a nice perspective of the bird, as if you are right at eye level, and helps to throw the background almost completely out of focus.

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Improve Your Composition - Get Closer

One of the easiest things that the average photographer can do to get better quality images is simply to get in tighter on the subject of the photograph. This can be done in the field as you take the shot or in post-processing, but the goal is to highlight and feature the main purpose that the image was taken in the first place.

This means that before you press the shutter button on your camera, you need to know WHY you are taking that particular shot. What is the main focus of the image you are creating? Once you know that, the next step is to remove everything from that image that does not contribute in some way to the main subject of the photo. In many cases, the simplest images are the most visually appealing and enjoyable.

Cropping tight on the main subject is especially important in nature photography. As an example, here is a photo I shot of a tri-colored heron just a couple of weeks ago:

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The truth is that this image is pretty good. I loved the late afternoon light and how it lit up the detail in the heron's feathers. But I really wanted to highlight the bird itself and in my opinion there is just too much marsh grass and a big old green leaf in the picture that detracts attention away from the heron rather than contributing to its presence in the image.

Fortunately, I had taken some other shots of this particular bird and I had gotten one that was much stronger visually because it removed all of the extra features of the above image that did not really belong. Here is that result:

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In this image, the marsh grass is still present to give a feel for the setting where the photo was taken. But because I was a little closer when I took this shot, the grass was more out of focus and so the eye of the viewer does not travel to that part of the image as easily. Also, in bird photography, capturing the eye of the bird is a main point of interest. And in this shot, the red eye of the tri-colored heron becomes the focal point of the entire image, which is exactly what I wanted to accomplish.

So is it best to make your final crop of the image in the field or on your computer during post-processing? Personally, I find that it's best to get a few shots of your subject at different focal lengths in the field and then during post-processing pick the strongest image and make your final crop from it.

So get out there and take some photos. Just remember what your main subject is and get in tight!

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Black Skimmer At Fort Desoto

It's no secret among serious enthusiast photographers in central Florida that Fort Desoto is a great place for nature photography. Just visit the Facebook page devoted to Fort Desoto and you can see why.

There is an incredible amount of wildlife in the park, but it has more than it's share of colorful and interesting birds too. Everything from small songbirds to Great Blue Herons can be found, and usually in abundance.

One of my favorite colorful birds is the black skimmer and this time of year Fort Desoto has plenty of them. When we visited the park last Sunday, I happened by a small band of seagulls and almost did not notice that a black skimmer was right in there with them. Of course, I was a little anxious to get set up for the shot and in my hurry I ventured a little too close for his comfort and he flew away.

I was a little discouraged that I didn't get as much time with him as I wanted, but lo and behold, he only flew a short distance away and set up shop in the sand at the edge of the incoming surf.

This time I took my time and made sure that he didn't feel threatened by my presence. So after several minutes I could tell that he was relaxed around me and I was able to get some really nice close-ups by the water's edge.

This is a good lesson for bird photographers about the need to be stealthy and not too obvious in your zeal to get the shot. Birds are often nervous and anxious when you initially approach them and if you are too quick in your movements or come too close for their comfort, you will most likely just see their backside as they are leaving. So the trick is to stay calm, take your time, and let them get comfortable with you. Many larger birds will almost forget that you are there after a while and you can get much closer for some fantastic close-ups.

So anyway, here is a nice close-up view of my buddy, the black skimmer at Fort Desoto:

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Photographic GAS updated

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about photographic GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). You can find it here.

Today, I received an email from 500px.com with a link to another article by an obviously talented photographer named Pedro Quintela who wrote about the same subject on his blog. I thought the points he made were excellent and well worth mentioning here in my blog as well.

This is such an important subject because so many people are fooled into thinking that good photography can be bought by simply getting the best and most expensive photo gear available. But nothing could be further from the truth.

There is also a large group of photo snobs who will look down their nose at photographers who they deem are inferior, not because of the images they produce, but simply because of the equipment they have in their camera bag. The interesting part of this particular syndrome is that most of the time the images produced by these photo snobs may be technically perfect in terms of sharpness and contrast, but the photos themselves have no soul, no real eye appeal or interest! And isn't that really what photography is all about?

As Pedro points out, having "good gear" is very useful, but thinking that the latest and greatest will improve your photographic art is just untrue. He suggests buying gear that will help you get good, solid images and investing whatever other funds you have available into education about this art form, or in photo trips that will actually help you be a better photographer.

There are plenty of other valid points made in his article and he presents the whole subject in a very relaxed and easy-to-read format. Please do read this article and enjoy his wonderful images as he is a photographer that clearly knows his craft. You can read the article here.

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Anhinga With Large Fish - Lesson Learned

Recently I was visiting Circle B Bar Reserve when I came across an anhinga that had just caught a large fish. Anhingas are also called "snake birds" by some because they love to stick their slender long neck out of the water while their body is still submerged and they can look like a snake poking out of the lake from a distance.

Well, in this instance, this particular anhinga had gotten himself a mouthful of fish. In fact, here is the two shots I took shortly after the fish had been caught:

As you can see, the bird and fish are strongly backlit so I had to open up the exposure to get as much detail as I could without totally washing out the background. So anyway, after I got the shots I wanted, I thought to myself that this anhinga had to be a little crazy and there was absolutely no way that he would ever get that fish down such a slender throat.

So I wandered off down the trail for about 15 minutes and took a few more photos of a willing tri-colored heron in the marsh. On my way back I passed by the anhinga and was shocked to see that he was in the last stages of actually swallowing that fish whole.

I have to tell you that I was stunned as I never thought it would be possible. But I will never doubt another anhinga again!

One more lesson is learned - stick around and see how situations like this turn out. It would have been an interesting series of photos to show how that anhinga progressively swallowed that fish in one piece. I missed it this time, but I'll be on the lookout for the next opportunity!

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Nature Photography At Circle B Bar Reserve

Last week the weather went cold and rainy around here for a couple of days. Fortunately, it cleared up at the end of the week and I could make a visit to one of my favorite spots for nature photography in central Florida. It's called the Circle B Bar Reserve.

The Circle B Bar Reserve is an area of protected lands in Polk County, Florida that sits on 1,267 acres. The area is managed by Polk County and is free to the public. It once was a cattle ranch and that is where the name originated.

Today, you can find a wide variety of wading birds like great blue herons, white egrets, tri-colored herons and so forth, as well as all kinds of other bird species. On any given day you may see alligators, raccoons, bobcats, anhingas, cormorants, snakes, eagles, ospreys, and almost any other wild animal indigenous to Central Florida.

One of the things that makes Circle B Bar Reserve so much fun is you never know what you are going to find, because it varies from day to day. I have been there on one week and gotten shots of turtles, raccoons and ospreys, and then the next week it's eagles, great blue herons and painted buntings.

So last week I ventured out to Circle B Bar Reserve again and here are some of the birds I found:

Tri-Colored Heron

Common Gallinule In The Marsh

Anhinga In The Sun

Anhinga Drying His Wings

Tip - this time of year the foliage is pretty brown and dried-out so you have to be very conscious of the background to get a shot that is pleasing to the eye. Try to get as close as possible and get a background that will provide enough contrast to let the animal show up well in the foreground.

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See my latest nature and wildlife images at:
www.duanelipham.com
Cherokee Sun on Facebook