New Bird in the Marsh
Sep 3rd
Its always fun finding a new bird in the marsh to play with. Sadly I am still not sure what kind of bird it is. I think it’s some sort of Ibis, but I am not sure it will require further research.
This trip to the nature center had some additional excitement as I got to try out the Canon 100-400mm F/4.5-F5.6 lens. I was extremely pleased with the performance of the lens. The auto focus speed is a little slow at times, but its not bad. The sharpness of the lens is good as well. I was a little put off by the slide zoom, but after I got used to it I really like it. The tension ring is a little odd and takes a while to get used to. Overall for the versatility of the lens well makes up for some of its down falls. I would recommend this lens to any Canon shooter if they need this type of lens.
The rest of images can be found in the Nature Center Marsh Birds.
Fossil Rim
Aug 24th
Headed down to Glen Rose to visit Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and for anyone that hasn’t been its well worth the trip. It was nice to shoot in a different location for a change and the extra practice shooting from the car should be useful for our trip to Yellowstone in 2 weeks. Being as hot as it is in August getting an early start is best as the animals start to head for the trees as the day wears on. One of the nice things about Fossil Rim is you really don’t need a huge lens to get some good images. The animals just come right up to the car and sometimes a little too close. All my images where captured with my Canon 70-200mm F4.
And of course I couldn’t not post my favorite of images this Ostrich in the rain. It started raining right as we were leaving and this image just makes me laugh.
The rest of the trips images can be viewed in the Fossil Rim 2 Gallery.
It’s Raining… No wait it’s sunny!
Aug 1st
It’s funny how some of the worst weather can create some of the best images. Today I got the full spectrum it went from stormy to sunny in a matter of hours. The weather however did not stop me from getting some pretty nice shots even if I was sloshing around in the mud to get a few of them.
This one I was extremely pleased with its part of a series of images of a Great Egret feeding. It’s interesting to see the different fishing styles some of these egrets use. In this case he appeared to be stalking his fish which he did get and ate behind some grass. Fairly in considered of him if you ask me.
Here I caught a Great Egret fishing in the river while standing on a log. He took off shortly after this shot. I mainly just liked the setup on this one.
The rest of the Great Egret shots can be found in the on going Fort Worth Nature Center Gallery.
A Cool Texas Day
Jul 25th
It was a surprisingly nice day for the end of July it was down in the 80′s this morning here in Texas. I got rained on a few times while out shooting today, but that didn’t seem to bother any of the birds. Ran across an American Bittern these birds are always fun to watch as they work there way around in the tall grasses of the marsh. Anytime they think they have been spotted by a threat they get really tall and straight up and down sort makes them look like the grass it’s interesting behavior.
The Bittern below was on a low branch in the weeds just hanging out.
Added the rest of the images to the Fort Worth Nature Center Gallery
Slow Day…
Jul 18th
Some days the shoots are just slow. However the one bright spot was having this Green Heron drop drop right in front of me. This is the first time I have gotten some shots of a Green Heron so it was fun watching its behavior. As you can see from the image I caught it in the tree, but it did go feed for awhile as well. Hopefully I will have a chance to observe another one pretty soon.
I am also trying a few new things with Lightroom.
For the rest of the Nature Center Gallery.
Another Trip to the Wichita Mountains
Jul 15th
This trip to the Wichita Mountains was far better than the last one. We got a much larger variety of shots this time around. I think it also helped that we had some idea of the places we wanted to hit up and what to expect. I personally got shots of Bison, Coyote, Blacktail Prairie Dogs, Canadian Geese, Texas Longhorn, and a Painted Bunting. The biggest negative about the whole trip would have to be the heat of course it was 105 outside when we arrived on Saturday around 5:30pm. It did cool however in to the mid 90s as the sun went down.
This image was taken around 7pm as you can see the sun is starting to set. This image was probably my favorite of the shots I took on Saturday. The prairie dogs were surprisingly active given how hot it was, but they also had there share of lazy moments too as you can see from the image below.
I am really pleased with this next image not because its a great shot, but its a Painted Bunting. I have been trying for awhile to get a shot of one of these.
See the rest of the images in the Wichita Mountains 2 Gallery
