JJ Wildlife Photography

More Eagles and New Technique

2012-02-15T22:43:00.000-05:00

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 300 f2.8, f4 1/2500 ISO 640

We spent the weekend along the Delaware River with friends Chris White and Lee Cordner from Vermont and Bob and Rosamaria Adamowicz from Massachusetts. We met an individual that is a very good Eagle Photographer. I have followed his work on eagle photo sites for quite some time and was glad I could finally meet him in person. It was a pleasure meeting him and he helped with added techniques for our eagle photography. I have struggled with exposure on eagles to get a good balance between the dark feathers and the white head. He suggested the use of our flash units with the better beamer installed. I had used on small birds for quite a while but had hesitated on eagles due to fear of blowing out the whites. He taught how to use effectively.

We had the good fortune of experiencing fishing sequences five times so we could get some good practice in. All shots were with manual exposure setting.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 300 f2.8, f4 1/2500 ISO 640, fill flash +1 ec

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 300 f2.8, f4 1/2500 ISO 640, fill flash +1ec

Until next time

Jim Borden

2012-02-06T19:12:00.000-05:00

Joan and I spent Friday February 3 along the Delaware River and lower New York State looking for Eagles. Normally this time of year is prime to see 50 to 75 eagles a day in that area. However the warm weather this year has resulted in eagles not migrating and congregating in normal spots. The rivers, lakes and ponds north of us have been open and eagles still have plenty of food source. We did see 5 different eagles on Friday-all eagles that are nesting along the Delaware River. We were teated to quite a show at the end of the day at Zane Gray Boat Launch. Both of the resident eagles did a fishing pass for us three different times.

Until next Time

Jim Borden

Joan's squirrel

2012-02-02T20:24:00.001-05:00

Winter time blahs tend to get us out and about to see what we can find. Joan has been practicing her long lens Techniques and it seems she has it pretty well nailed! This young squirrel posed for her for a while.

Until next Time

Jim Borden

Short Ear Owls and Harriers

2012-01-22T12:28:00.000-05:00

Northern Harrier-Female

Each year in January the Short Ear Owls, Northern Harriers and Rough Leg Hawks show up at a farm near us to feed for a couple of weeks. During mid day it is fun to watch the Rough Leg Hawks and Harriers cruise the fields for food. Then, about an hour before dark, the Short Ear Owls make their appearance and chase the Hawks and Harriers from the fields. The owls dart and dive and catch mice and perch on fenceposts, telephone poles and roofs of houses and barns. I always look forward to visiting there this time of year to observe and capture the action. I have worked hard to get a good image of a harrier in flight. Yesterday, was a great day! The owls chased one of the harriers right over my head and I was able to get a good image of the female.

The owls are somewhat elusive-but I was able to get more shots of them last evening sitting and in flight. Most of the shots were high ISO so the detail is not as good as I would like.

Short Ear Owl sitting on Telephone pole. Taken off bean bag laying over car window.

Short Ear Owl in flight taken from Wimberley II mount.

Until Next Time.

Jim Borden

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2011 in Images

2012-01-08T13:09:00.000-05:00

2011 was a year of expanding my boundaries with photography. I have historically focused on wildlife and birds and once in a while fit in people, scenics and landscapes. This past year I branched out into doing more scenics and landscapes and added photographing from a kayak as a means to find more interesting subject matter. The time in the outdoors is peaceful and enjoyable and I am looking forward to another enjoyable year in 2012.

A sampling of the 2011 images are shown here. For a gallery of some of my memorable images from 2011 click here.

Enjoy

Until next time

Jim Borden

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Eagle Season

2011-12-31T08:30:00.001-05:00

Late December through January is usually an awesome time to find many Bald Eagles along the northern portion of the Delaware River and along some of the reservoir inlets in southern New York State. This year is truly an anomaly. The weather has been extremely warm for this time of year for the past two months and it has drastically impacted on the eagle behavior. Normally by now the northern part of the Delaware River and the lakes and reservoirs north of there have frozen over forcing Bald Eagles to fly to areas of open water to feed. Joan and I spent two days with friends in the upper Delaware area to find and photograph Bald Eagles. We saw about 15 eagles on Thursday and a half dozen on Friday. This is to be compared with normally seeing about 50 per day this time of year. The other thing is that other years we have been able to see and photograph up close as they are forced to open water areas to feed. This year they can be seen but are at greater distance from good viewing areas.

As we were leaving the area to come home-one perched on a tree across the Lackawaxen River and I was able to get some good photos with good filtered light (lightly overcast skies).

Until next time!

Jim Borden

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Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T14:46:00.000-05:00

Went out this day before Christmas to find owls, hawks, eagles and song birds. Saw many birds, but most did not want to cooperate today. This Northern Cardinal decided he liked me and gave me a number of poses all with a cluttered background and foreground. But, alas he is the color of Christmas and he was so cooperative, I just had to use him for the blog to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Until Next Time!

Jim Borden

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Snowy Owl

2011-12-04T15:29:00.001-05:00

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 w2xtc @f9 1/1000 ISO 640 EC-.67

Joan and I had never seen a snowy owl and for the past few winters we have been watching bird lists for sightings that would be a reasonable drive. To our surprise one had been sighted within two hours of us in November and it was still there. We took the drive on Saturday December 3. We walked about 1 1/2 miles to the area where the owl is staying and set up to take photos. We had bright skies and it was cold with gusty winds. The owl was about 150 yards from us and there was no way to close the distance without potentially disturbing the owl. There were large rocks between us and the owl and with the sun beating on them it made for lots of mirage so getting decent images was very tough. Compounding that, I found that I was not getting sharp images not explained by the mirage. The lens/camera setup had been calibrated at about 70 degrees F and I had used at 50 with slight shift in focal plane. Now at 40 F the lens was very badly back focusing. So, I kept adjusting the lens ma on the camera until I got sharp images and was able to get some decent shots. The following is an example-it has been severely cropped due to the distance away. I had to move the lens ma setting from a +2 to a -5!

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 w1.4xtc @f 1/800 ISO 1250 EC-.3

This morning (Sunday December 4) I left early so that I could be there at first light to reduce mirage. I had found an optional place to park last evening to cut the walk from 1 1/2 miles to about 1/2 mile and to also provide an opportunity to get closer to the owl without disturbing it. When I parked, I found the remnants of a dead coot that was not there last night. It appears the owl had duck for dinner after dark last night. I was able to get in better position for her today and the air and ground temperatures were closer to being the same which kept the mirage under control. I installed the 2X TC on the lens and calibrated it on the owl by taking a few shots. The image at the top of the page was done with that setup at about 50 to 60 yards. The following image was one of a series of bursts that I did when he was scratching the back of his head. If you look closely at this image and the image at the top of the page, you can see blood in his feathers around the mouth-I am quite sure it is from his duck meal.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 w1.4xtc @f6.3 1/2000 ISO 640 EC-.67

This was a lifer for me!

Until next time

Jim Borden
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Whitetail Bucks in Rut

2011-11-06T22:06:00.000-05:00

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 @f6.3 1/1000 ISO250 63 yards

Joan and I traveled to Shenandoah National Park on Friday. We arrived about noon and the top of the mountains along the Skyline Drive were socked in with fog. We drove to one of our favorite spots and got our camera gear out and walked up into a meadow to be in the open thinking we may see more through the fog that way. I was able to walk to within a few feet of a bedded buck and took pictures of him in the fog and in open moments between fog coverage. After taking a number of shots of him, we wandered out into the major part of the meadow to wait for the fog to lift. As it lifted we found ourselves surrounded by about 50 deer with three of them being bucks. The cloudy conditions made for great filtered lighting and I was able to spend a considerable amount of time with a large 8 point buck that was working a doe. The shot posted above was one I got of him after he was finished with that doe. he then chased off two other bucks and came running back to me and laid down in front of me.

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 @f9 1/800 ISO400 35 yards

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 @f9 1/640 ISO400 EC-.33 25 yards

I watched and photographed him in various light conditions and poses and thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon. Even the Golden Light photos of him at the end of the day turned out well due to the contrast with the background. This is a buck that has been photographed by friends Willard and Coy Hill and you can read more about him and see more photos of him and other bucks I have posted in their blogs (Pa Wildlife and Country Captures).

The next morning we were in the meadow area prior to sunrise and took position in the meadow as the sun rose. I was able to photograph three good bucks in the morning light-one being the above 8 point from Friday. The second one that made opportunity came running after a doe into the meadow and came close to me as he was chasing her. This is also a Golden Light photo that has good contrast to bring out the detail in the deer and be distinctive from the background.

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 @f5.6 1/1250 ISO1250 63 yards

We saw a number of other bucks through the day and photographed them in various light conditions. the sky was blue and light streaked through the trees in the woods and most of my shots were very contrasty. I had left the flash with better beamer in the vehicle and could have used it to tame the lighting. Crowds from the city were moving in as the day progressed and i decided to move back into the woods at the rear of the meadow for evening. That proved to be wise as I was able to photograph six other bucks and ended the day with the biggest of all. Prior to seeing the biggest buck I had fun watching two bucks groom each other for about a half hour.

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 @f5 1/800 ISO1250 60 yards

I did not switch to a smaller lens in time and had to "portrait" the big buck for a few shots. In this following shot he was side lit-so I got some shadow across his face.

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 @f5.6 1/1600 ISO640 35 yards

Usually the Golden Light is our friend. I like the rich yellow/golden cast of the last hour of daylight. Often it yields very pleasing photos. This following shot has those characteristics-but the background dead grasses are also yellow so I lost contrast to make him really stand out. I will just have to force myself to find him another day and try again!

Until next time!

Jim Borden

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Pennsylvania Elk Time

2011-10-20T18:16:00.000-04:00

Canon 7D, Canon 300 f2.8 @f4 1/1600 ISO640

Joan and I spent last weekend looking for Elk and other wildlife in the benezett Pa area. It is also a joy to go there and view elk. This past weekend brought rain for part of Friday and most of saturday. That did not hamper us as we have found that some of the best lighting for wildlife is during the rain or just after a rain. It requires the use of fast lenses and sometimes elevated ISO, but the contrast and color saturation is superb. We saw quite a few different mature bulls, but none as large as some previous years as most of them have been "harvested". There was still some rut activity. We walked back away from the roads and viewing areas to find the bigger groups of elk and the larger bulls. We were able to get a number of good images of the above bull who walked with a distinct limp. Looks like his right front leg had been hurt.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @ f9 1/400 ISO1250

Canon 7D; Canon 300 f2.8 @ f4 1/400 ISO320

Canon 7D; Canon 300 f2.8 @ f4.5 1/500 ISO320

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @ f6.3 1/1250 ISO1250

This next one was taken in the driving rain and hail-water was running off the camera rain cover and i could barely see-I am pleased with how the image turned out.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @ f4 1/320 ISO2000

The next image was also taken in hard wind and driving rain.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @ f4 1/250 ISO2000

I have been experimenting with a new mounting system for my 600 f4 lens on the wimberley. I was previously disappointed with the number of keepers I would get at slower shutter speeds. A friend and I analyzed the long lenses and believe they have too much cantilevered weight so we designed and built new feet for the lenses that support the lens in two places. It has made a dramatic impact on keeper rate at low shutter speeds.

Until next Time!!!

Jim Borden

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More Maine Moose and Maine Scenery

2011-10-12T22:04:00.001-04:00

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f13 1/15 ISO 200 -1EC

Joan and I traveled to Northern Maine again on September 30 to spend a few days looking for Moose and enjoying the foliage with friends Bob Adamowicz and Rosamaria Rezende. Friday evening was wonderful weather-it was calm, some of the foliage had started to turn and the skies had cumulus clouds with a dark blue background. We stopped at the Abol Bridge that crosses the West Penobscot River along the Golden Road. The hour there before sunset was breathtaking. The image above accurately reflects what we saw before the sun started sinking behind the mountains behind us. The skies became more dramatic as the sun sank behind us and HDR images had to be taken to get the full range of light.

5 image HDR Composite taken with Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f13

Saturday morning brought the beginning of rain that lasted through Wednesday morning of our trip. The rain does not spoil picture taking-it just adds a challenge to the lighting. Friend and mentor Mark Picard (www.markpicard.com) says there is no such thing as a bad day photographing-a good photographer just has to figure out how to photograph it. We walked to a very popular pond in Baxter Park to watch for moose, but only got to enjoy the beauty of lifting fog and some Golden Eye Ducks.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f7.1 1/300 ISO320 and Better Beamer

The moose were involved in the rut and were not using the ponds very much and seemed to be deeper in the woods. We heard some and called some in that stayed just out of the open. We also had coyotes come to the moose calling. We took a walk to a pond not frequented by many people and found a large bull laying in the brush across the pond. His antlers were just protruding above the brush.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f6.3 1/2000 ISO2000

We watched quietly for about 2 hours until he decided to stand and we were then able to get a few images of him eating and got some of him looking our way. This is when knowing animal behavior and habits is helpful. getting a sharp image of him in the cloudy light with a low shutter speed required watching his movements and knowing when his head would come to a stop.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f8 1/320 ISO1250

We saw two more smaller bulls later that day as well as what I am quite sure was a wolf. I will probably be heavily discounted for that remark-but I have seen a number of coyotes and wolves in the wild and what I saw was definitely 50% larger than the largest coyote I have ever seen and certainly had wolf characteristics. I will be looking for him or her again on another trip.

In contrast to the still waters of Friday evening we decided we would like to get some foggy images of the "Cribworks" which is a favorite white water spot along the Penobscot River.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f13 1/8 ISO200

We had to get back to work so we cut our trip a few days short. We stopped at one of our favorite stopping place on the way home-Nubble light house and were able to get some seascapes. I was also photographing Eider ducks and decided to use the 600MM lens for seascape to focus on the detail of the crashing tide.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @ f10 1/800 ISO200 -.67EC

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f8 1/3200 ISO640

Until next time

Jim Borden

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Moose Time!

2011-09-24T18:49:00.000-04:00

Maine Bull Moose Overlooking a pond

canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f4 1/2000 ISO 640

I traveled to the Maine North woods this past week to spend a few days looking for moose. Saturday evening found me along a good spot near Millinockett Maine watching to see if moose would enter the pond to feed before dark. I spotted one cow across the pond and got some distant shots. I met up with a friend from Vermont later in Millinockett and we decided to walk to one of our favorite spots the next morning before we departed for out trip farther north. We had clear skies and nice golden light and the very nice bull pictured above came through apparently on his scrape trail and we were able to get some photos in the golden light. The next image is an example of how one moment we can have beautiful light and a few moments later, we have shadows and highlights. The bull apparently had recently lost his eye in a fight.

Canon 1D MK IV; 600 f4 @f6.3 1/200 ISO 1000

Later in the day we traveled with three other friends over log roads to a cabin at a remote lake in the North Maine Woods. The setting was absolutely beautiful. Most of our moose looking was going to be done by kayak with some walking logging lanes mixed in. The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies scattered with puffy white clouds.

Canon 7D; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f13 1/400 ISO 320

Paddling the stream and lake was a joy. Bitterns, ring neck ducks, pie billed grebes, white throated sparrows, yellow throated warblers, bald eagles, ospreys Northern harriers, broad wing hawks and Common Loons entertained us through the week.

Canon 7D; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f11 1/400 ISO400

The water was high due to the recent storms and that most likely effected the moose activity along the water. We did however hear bulls and cows grunting and wailing in the woods and we had moose tracks right past the cabin. We did spot a few moose. It was good practice for shooting from a kayak.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 300 f2.8 @f10 1/250 ISO400 -.33 EC

Canon 7D; Canon 24-105 f4 @58mm f10 1/320 ISO400 -.33EC

Since I had the longest distance to travel home (15 hours), I left early Thursday morning. On the way down the log road I came upon a small bull in the mist. I stopped, got out of jeep and photographed him for about an hour. I practiced my bull grunts and cow wails with him and we had fun.

Here are a few shots of him:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 300 f2.8 f2.8 @f2.8 1/125 ISO 2000

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 300 f2.8 @f4 1/125 ISO2000

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 24-105 f4 @105mm f4 1/50 ISO800

One of the benefits of shooting with the Canon 1D MK IV is that it allows us to push the ISO and still get great quality pictures.

Until next Time

Jim Borden

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Wildlife Photography and Light!

2011-09-05T11:28:00.002-04:00

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f4 1/1600 ISO3200

I have touched on the need for fast lenses and high ISO in my posts before-this time I am going to elaborate a little on the topic and share experiences with the noise performance of various bodies. The above photos was taken on a very cloudy, rainy, dark day. Turkeys are normally out in weather such as that and they are almost always on the move. Their heads are continuously bobbing up and down. So fast shutter speeds are needed to get crisp shots. In film camera days one would have to wait for a well lighted day and hide and call and wait for them to get close and then time the shots for a still shot. Digital technology has helped us immensely with the ability to take shots in poorer light conditions. However, even though many camera bodies boast about ability to run ISO to 3200 or 6400, they have lots of digital noise which ruins color saturation and edge detail. I have found that camera bodies with full frame sensors and less megapixels to out perform heavily cropped sensors with lots of megapixels. For Instance, the Nikon D3s is probably without argument the best perfomring Camera body on teh market for lack of digital noise. It has a full frame sensor with only 12 megapixels-but the pixels are large and thereby can be pushed to higher ISO rating without noise. We hav etaken photos at ISO 6400 that have required no post processing for noise control. One of the worse performers in recent past is the Canon 7D with 18 megapixels on a 1.6 crop sensor. It handles ISO up through 500 to 640 okay as long as the histogram is kept to the right. Even then post processing is required. Does this mean the Canon 7D is not a good body? Absolutely not-It takes very good images at the lower ISO ratings and it can be used at ISO 640 or so with post processing. here is an image my daughter Andrea took with my 7D and Canon 300 f2.8 lens at ISO 640.

Canon 7D; Canon 300 f2.8 @f5 1/200 ISO640

She timed the shot so that she did the capture as the bear raised its head and stopped to look.

For comparison, here is an image of the same bear taken with the Canon 1D MK IV at 1600 ISO. Looking closely at the green ferns in the background, one can see the noise performance difference of the two camera bodies.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @F7.1 1/500s ISO1600

Here is a shot with the Canon 1D MK IV at dark one evening this week. It is also taken at ISO 3200 as the turkey shot was taken-however, the shutter speed was 1/25. It is an ok image and as one can see, the sharpness and "pop" is less and that is most likely due to the very slow shutter speed on a large lens (600mm). In my film days this would have been a blurry picture!!! The image has good color and contrast, but detail is missing in the hair and eyes.

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f6.3 1/25 ISO3200

From my experience with camera bodies, here is a list of best to worse performing on noise:

Nikon D3s; Canon 1D MK IV; Nikon D700, Nikon D300/D300s; Canon 7D/Nikon D80

Until next time

Jim Borden

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Hills Creek State Park

2011-08-30T21:58:00.001-04:00

View of Lake from Picnic Area next to Beach

Hurricane Irene left us without power for the machine shop and the skies the day after the storm were beautiful so I decided to take a short trip to Hills Creek State Park and the Pa Grand Canyon. Hills Creek park is very special place to me as my grandfather was one of the ones that pushed for the lake to be made and a park to be formed. I fondly remember family picnics there when I was a youngster and it is where I was taught how to use a canoe. I wanted to take the opportunity to see if I could get an exposure with a single image as compared to what I could do with HDR. The objective was to most closely match what I saw with my eyes. The wind was blowing steadily and the skies were dark blue with white, puffy clouds. I used the Canon 1D MK IV with Canon 24-105 f4 lens with a circular polarizer mounted for all shots. I found that once again the HDR compilatrions of three to five images delivered the most realistic looking images of the scenery.

View of lake from breast of dam

View from Fishing pier at lower boat access

The swamp behind the Cabins

Road across the dam.

The view at Harrison Lookout at the Canyon was great with the puffy clouds-but the lighting was harsh. A graduated density filter would have come in handy to take good images there.

Until next time

Jim Borden

Maine Lighthouses and Coast

2011-08-14T14:24:00.000-04:00

Nubble Lighthouse at Cape Neddick

A friend and I traveled to Maine last week to compete in a National Rifle Match in Augusta. We left three days early to spend some time along the coast viewing and photographing lighthouses and coastal birds. My planning was not perfect as we hit Lobster Festival weekend and the coastal highways were packed with traffic. As a result we did not get to see as many lighthouses as desired-but still had a great time. I love the rugged Maine Coast. Once again, I applied the use of HDR to some images to produce an image that was what I saw with my own eyes. I had intended to pass by Nubble lighthouse as I have taken so many images of it, but the skies were full of puffy and stormy clouds and I had to stop and see what different effects I could see. Ended up capturing a partial rainbow with the lighthouse and stormy skies.

Portland headlight is close to being my favorite lighthouse along with Nubble. We also were able to observe it with stormy skies. There were more people there this time than any time I had previously visited it. So I stayed away from doing any closeups as I did not want people to become a focal point in the images.

This was my first visit to owl's Head light and the scenery from there is absolutely gorgeous.

This was also my first visit to Marshall Point and we enjoyed a good share of the day there as traffic on US1 was bumper to bumper and the coast and crashing waves offered peace and relaxation.

The following gulls were taken in harsh lighting with a better beamer to tame the shadows and harsh light.

Until next time

Jim Borden

Adirondacks

2011-07-28T19:44:00.001-04:00

We traveled to Speculator NY last weekend to look for moose in the Adirondacks. It has been years since we stayed in the Adirondacks and it was a pleasure to return. We traveled many log roads and accessed some remote areas and saw lots of pretty scenery. We saw a black bear, lots of black bear tracks, a few deer and lots of coyote tracks. Mornings were calm and afternoons were extremely windy. We experimented with HDR and panoramas. The shot below is of Mason Lake just above Speculator New York and it is a HDR panorama. It is made up of three shots are metered exposure, 3 at -1 stop and three at plus 1 stop. The 9 shots were combined in photoshop to attempt to produce what we saw in person.

Cano 1D MK IV Canon 24-105 f4 @ 24mm f16 ISO200

Joan took the deer shot in the dark woods with her D3s set at 1600 ISO. Notice the fine detail of the deer and no noticeable noise!!!

Nikon D3s; Nikon 80-400 @400mm f8 1/160 ISO 1600

The following is another HDR shot taken with the Canon 1D MK IV. It is a set of three images so that the image actually shows what the human eye saw for light range. I find that many folks push their HDR composites to unrealistic looks. I prefer to use the technology to replicate what I actually observed.

Joan loves clouds and silhouetted trees! She captured the following first thing in the morning.

There were Black eyed Susans decorating the roadsides, the medians and even in log truck landing areas in the forest. The following shot was taken with a Canon 24-105 f4 lens with the Canon Macro filter screwed onto the lens to convert it into a macro lens.

Until next time

Jim Borden

Herons, egrets and other Wildlife at Walkill NWR

2011-07-20T20:11:00.003-04:00

Nikon D3s; 80-400 Nikon at 400mm f8 1/500 ISO250 (Joan Borden)

We traveled to Liberty Loop Trail at the North end of the Walkill NWR. The trail is part of the Appalachian Trail and a portion of the loop is in New York State and a portion is in New Jersey. It is in the "Black Dirt" region of New York State. We enjoy going there in the winter for Hawks and Bald Eagles and in the spring for the duck migration. We decided to visit it during the summer to see what we could see. We got there later than we wanted to and the lighting was very harsh for photography. We saw about a dozen Great Blue Herons, two Great Egrets, 1 Green Heron, various warblers and various insects. It was an enjoyable day. The Green heron was very skittish and avoided being photographed three times. Joan does not like the weight of big prime lenses and she has found the 80-400 Nikon lens is working well with the D3s body. We spent time calibrating the focus system during the week and it paid off.

Great Blue Heron with Great Egret in background

1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f9 1/640 ISO 400 (Jim Borden)

We enjoyed watching the Blue Herons and Egrets argue over "turf". The blue herons would share spots and fish-but became agitated when one of the egrets would get near. Lots of wing flapping and cackling would result until either the egret moved or the Great Blue Heron gave up the space.

Great Blue Heron Strutting

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f9 1/640 ISO 400 (Jim Borden)

The wet areas of the trail had lots of dragonfly and skimmer activity. Another set of subjects to photograph and then research to learn about them. That is one thing we are immensely enjoying about the immersion into photography is that it is a way to stop and "smell the roses".

Dragonfly

Nikon D3s; 80-400 Nikon at 400mm f8 1/125 ISO320 (Joan Borden)

Common Whitetail

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f9 1/640 ISO 400 (Jim Borden)

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Until Next Time

Jim and Joan Borden

Nicholson Bridge

2011-07-15T20:46:00.001-04:00

Mid-day July 3, 2011, Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f16, 1/100 ISO 200

The Nicholson Bridge (aka Tunkhannock viaduct) is a concrete railroad bridge that crosses Tunkhannock Creek in the little village of Nicholson Pa. When it was finished in November of 1915, it was the largest concrete bridge in the world. It retained that distinction for 50 years. The bridge is 2375 feet long and 240 feet tall. It is a grand thing to see. I have tried to photograph it in early morning light with mist rising around it as well as mid day with puffy clouds in the background. I am anxiously waiting to be able to catch it with clouds and a pink/red sunset on it.

Sunrise September 6, 2010; Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 24-105 f4 @24mm f14, 1/160 ISO 200 EC-1

Hopefully next week, I will return to a posting about Wildlife!

Jim Borden

Digital Noise

2011-07-12T20:04:00.001-04:00

Nikon D3s; Nikon 18-200 DX Lens at 95mm; f5.6 1/80 ISO 6400 (handheld)

I have been very pleased with my Canon 1D MKIV for getting photographs in low light. It has far less digital noise that what I had experienced up to when I got that camera body. My switch from Nikon to Canon took some getting used to though as the digital noise is different in Canon versus Nikon. The color noise is more readily seen and one has to be real careful about exposure to keep it at a minimum. Joan got her Nikon D3s last week and I am absolutely amazed at the low noise in that camera. The above photograph taken at ISO 6400 has very little noticeable digital noise. The Canon 1D MKIV shows more noise than this at 1250 ISO. This feature makes this camera body one that is great for wildlife photography as we are constantly "fighting" available light as fellow photographers Willard Hill and Paul Staniszewski discussed in one of Willard's excellent posts at Pa Wildlife Photographer. The ability to handle high ISO with low noise when couples with a fast lens makes for ability to get early morning and late evening animal activity.

Many folks are all excited about high megapixel cameras. My experience is that megapixel counts are not the important thing. How those megapixels are used to get an image is far more important. The D3s has 12.1 megapixels, the Canon 1D MK IV has 16.2 megapixels-yet the lower megapixel camera body far outperforms the higher megapixel body in color rendition, apparent clarity and noise.

The following pictures are only about 6 megapixel pictures as they were taken on full frame body with a DX lens. Consider the richness of color and amount of detail in them!

Here are some more images from the D3s:

Nikon D3s18-200 @200MM f16, 1/4 ISO200

Nikon D3s; 18-200 @200MM f16 1/10 ISO200

Nikon D3s, 18-200 @200MM F16 1/10 ISO200

Nikon D3s, 18-200 @20MM F16 1/40 ISO200

The last image sure could have used a little help from a circular polarizer.

This weekend we will be looking for some SandHill Cranes that are local and we are hoping to get some good shots of them.

Until next time

Jim and Joan Borden

Watkins Glen-A walk through the Gorge

2011-06-27T20:33:00.002-04:00

This week, the blog entry is going to depart from my favorite subjects-wildlife and is going to focus on some scenics of a gorge and waterfalls. Joan and I had to make a trip to Elmira, New York to pick up parts from heat treating on Friday. It was a beautiful summer day with light rain and peek a boo sunshine. Watkins Glen is only about 1/2 hour from Elmira, so we decided to take a detour home through Watkins Glen and visit the State Park there and walk through the Glen. It had been years since we had been there.

I took the Canon 1D MK IV with 24-105 f4 lens and Joan took the Nikon D300 with 18-200 lens. We packed along the Gitzo tripod with Really Right Stuff ball head mounted. I learned from a very good mentor (Mark Picard) long ago-do not waste your time and efforts shooting hand held. I was amazed at how many "photographers" I saw in the Glen with very expensive DSLR cameras and NO tripod. Even when the sun is completely out, the Glen is shaded so shutter speeds are slow. There is a mist in the Glen from the waterfalls which makes for a great way to get very naturally saturated images. I set the ISO to 200 and most of the shots had an f stop of f13.

The path winds along through gorge and has nicely laid stonework for the path as well as walls.

There are a couple of tunnels that are had hewn from the rock cliffs and one has a spiral staircase cut into the rocks and you emerge and pass behind one of the larger waterfalls.

The scenery is beautiful and it is a wonder to see how the water has cut its pathway through the rocks.

Until Next Time!

Jim Borden

Close Encounters of the Bear Kind

2011-06-22T21:17:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Joan and I spent in Blackwell Pa which is in the center of Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon. Jim Jr and Joyce and Joan's mother and my mother joined us for the weekend. The mountainous area between Blackwell and English Center Pa is rich in scenery and wildlife. It is a very good area to find Black Bears in the wild. On Thursday evening Jim Jr, Joyce and I saw a number of deer and we had the fortune of having two black bears fairly close to us. The sow and cub did not seem frightened by our presence and we were able to take a number of photographs before they ambled off through the Laurel (which was in full bloom and was beautiful-a good subject for a future post).

Friday night was still good for bears as we saw 7 different bears but all of them were skittish and did not present photo opportunities. Saturday evening started the same way. We saw a sow and cub about 60 yards into a swampy, open area, but they were busy tearing apart a log and it was a dark area so we did not get pictures of them, but still enjoyed them. We then saw a lone yearling cub that was rather "frisky" and was frolicking in the woods. About an hour later we saw a mother bear and three cubs in the lawn of a camp and it appeared they had been fed by the camp owner and we decided not to photograph them.

We were about ready to head back to the cabin in Blackwell when I spotted a sow with two yearling cubs in the laurel. I "woofed" lightly at the cubs to get them to stand and "momma" decided she needed to check us out. The PA DCNR fences in large areas of Pa State Forest Land after it has been clear cut to keep the animals out so that the forest can fully develop. Well, this sow and cubs were on the "wrong side" of the fence and I was wondering how they got there. Momma came directly to a tree that the fence was nailed to and promptly climbed the tree and came over the fence and down on our side. She them proceeded right directly toward Joan and I. We decided to stay calm and still. She came within two to three feet of both us and them ambled along our vehicle looking in the windows and checking out our mothers and then she went up the fence line and found another tree and climbed back into the clear cut forest and continued eating with her cubs.

The following picture is full frame (no cropping) taken with the 600 Canon lens on a 1D Mark IV at about 40 feet. The picture after it is with a Canon 7D and a 300 f2.8-once again full frame at about 15 feet.

Canon 1D MKIV; Canon 600 f4 @ F8 1/60 ISO500

Canon 7D; Canon 300 f2.8 @ F10 1/50 ISO640

Joan was shooting her D300 with 80-400 Nikon on it and she was able to get some shots as well.

Nikon D300; Nikon 80-400 @400mm f8 1/200 ISO500

Nikon D300; Nikon 80-400 @170mm f8 1/100 ISO500

It was an exciting time!! Our mothers talked about it all the way back to the cabin and then over breakfast the next morning. Certainly a memorable weekend. Just so I do not get any lectures-I have been around LOTS of bears my entire life and I highly respect them and have learned what to watch for with their behavior. This one was simply looking for hand-outs. We had just had some peanuts and pepperoni and I am sure she smelled. My concern is that folks have been hand feeding (or close to that) these wild bear sin that area and it makes them bold and approachable--a dangerous combination!

A parting shot of one of the cubs:

Canon 1D MKIV; Canon 600 f4@f9 1/500 ISO800

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Until next time!

Jim Borden

Fawns and Coyotes

2011-06-06T23:10:00.000-04:00

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 @f7.1 1/125 ISO500

We have fawns in our back yard, yet those farther away are better to photograph-right? In my case, being a workaholic, I find it difficult to photograph the fawns in my backyard (literally) because I feel guilty being that close to our business and not being in there working. So on Friday, Joan and I traveled to Shenandoah National Park and visited the Big Meadow area along the Skyline Drive. The deer there are "wild" in that they are free roaming-but they are more acclimated to humans than the deer around our area. The weekend was bittersweet. I have found that many of the photographers visiting that area have a different cultural base and set of values than I do when it comes to observing and photographing wildlife. I was appalled at some of the behaviors I witnessed there by "photographers". We saw a number of individuals that had no clue on how to act around deer. They treated them as though they were zoo animals and directly approached them. We even witnessed individuals chasing does and fawns trying to get good pictures. But alas, I digress on the soap box.

We observed about a dozen different fawns in the Big Meadow area and we were able to get some very good images of the does and fawns on Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening and again Sunday Morning.

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC @f9 1/500 ISO500

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 @f5 1/160 ISO500 EC+.67

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 @f5 1/500 ISO800

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 @f5 1/200 ISO500

Canon 7D; Canon 70-200 f4 @70mm F9 1/250 ISO400

Sunday morning was windy and cool and the deer were very skittish. The does were keeping close track of the fawns. After a couple of photographers chased a couple of does and fawns around, the does deposited the fawns in the bushes and left the Meadow. Then suddenly all the does hid their fawns and began running from the Meadow. Soon Joan spotted what the problem was-a very healthy looking Coyote was crossing the Meadow and coming directly at us. It was hunting and it came to within 20 feet of us and stopped, sniffed around and went past a fawn about 30 yards in front of us and proceeded to a hiding spot for another fawn and killed it and ate it. When it had finished that one, it found another one and killed it. It left that one lay.

Click here for more camera critters

Until Next Time

Jim Borden

Filling Shadows in Wildlife Picture

2011-05-29T09:42:00.000-04:00

One of the challenges taking wildlife photographs is uneven lighting. Many times we are in woods or out in partial open area with high sun and lots of streaming sunlight and/or contrasty shadows. many folks are aware of use of fill flash for portrait photography. Camera built in flashes work ok for that with wide angle lenses and attached flashes certainly have enough power for bigger lenses, but they do not have the reach. One unit that is available for use with telephoto lenses is known as the "Better Beamer". The unit has a bracket that attached to the snout of the flash unit and a fresnel lens attaches to that bracket. The fresnel lens concentrates the flash beam and extends its useful distance. The unit is not something that you just put on and start taking pictures with. One must develop a technique for using it to get photos that do not look like flash photos. You want the unit to put out just enough fill light to fill shadows and give some catch light in the eyes.

Here are some example pictures taken with a "Better Beamer" on a Canon Mk IV 1D with a Canon 600 f4 mounted on it with a 1.4 teleconverter also mounted giving a focal length of 840mm.

This mother bear was photographed in the woods just before dark. The better beamer was used with a -2 f stop of fill light on the flash.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC

The following picture of the two cubs was taken a little after dark. The "Better beamer" allowed a shutter speed of 1/300 and f stop of f9. Flash was adjusted to be almost at full evaluative value.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC

The following bird pictures were taken with a high sun with almost no clouds in the sky. the birds were on branches back in the trees had had "streaming sunlight" hitting them making harsh shadows. Notice how well the "Better beamer" filled in the shadows.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC

The following butterflies were photographed in the woods in an opening that had a canopy of tree branches overhead. The lighting was very harsh and without the flash with Better beamer mounted, the pictures would have been unusable.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC

Click here for more camera critters.

Until next time

Jim Borden

Fawn and Birds

2011-05-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

The windy, rainy, cloudy weather has presented some challenges for wildlife photography this spring. Doing wildlife requires having high enough shutter speeds to capture the subjects without blur. Overcast and rainy conditions reduce light. So most of the work is done at elevated ISO speeds which impacts on image crispness. It has been fun watching ducks in two of my friends ponds. One pond has Mallards with young, Hooded Mergansers with young and wood ducks with young. I have captured shots of all of them-but only a few of the shots are satisfactory for publication.

Here is best shot of the Hooded Merganser female with a part of her brood:

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f10 1/320 ISO 1000

While I was sitting in blind waiting for the ducks a male and female Red Wing Black Bird kept scolding me.

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f10 1/160 ISO 640

On my way to one of the duck ponds I cam upon this fairly new born fawn.

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f8 1/160 ISO 1000 EC+.33

Yesterday while out and about I saw a dark spot in the grass and found this little guy hiding!

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f9 1/250 ISO 640

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Until Next Time

Jim Borden

More Spring Birds

2011-05-15T10:17:00.001-04:00

I have not had time to be out and about taking photos as much as I would like in past three weeks. I have escaped for a few moments to capture some of the spring migration.

Baltimore Oriole snuck up on me as I was watching an Eagle nest.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC; @f9 1/400 ISO 800

Northern Tufted Titmouse

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC; @f9 1/400 ISO 800

One of my favorite waterfowl: Wood Duck Drake

Canon 7D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC; @f10 1/200 ISO 500 EC+.67

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Until next time

Jim Borden

Adventures with Fox Kits

2011-04-30T21:18:00.001-04:00

Had planned on going to Hills Creek Lake today to get sunrise photos for the Park Office--but it was very overcast and stormy so decided not to drive the two hours. Later morning cleared and I went to some of my local haunts! The warblers are moving in. Saw thirty three different species of birds today-not a great count-but encouraging after a long winter. A friend gave me a tip on where I might see some fox pups . I "camped out" behind a log for a few hours and it paid off. One of the little guys came out to play. I got some ok shots of him but nothing I was real pleased with. After going home to pick up Joan-we returned and before we got to the spot we saw the adult fox and could not get any pictures. We went on and set up behind some brush. Soon a Raccoon came ambling through and we were able to photograph him. He decided to snoop around and crawled into the fox den-Well, he came out a lot faster than he went in.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC; @f8 1/200 ISO800

Soon a fox pup emerged from the exit hole and we got some good pictures in nice light-but a little back lit. Soon we saw more motion and it was a second pup out running and playing.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC; @f10 1/160 ISO800 EC+.67

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC; @f8 1/400 ISO800

While watching them, I saw a bird coming at us fast and it was a Cooper's hawk and it landed in tree on a branch above my shoulder-he was too close to take a picture (minimum focus distance on the big lens is 18 feet). We were also treated to Yellow bellied sapsucker, chestnut sided warbler, pileated woodpecker, red bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker and cackling eagles.

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC; @f9 1/1000 ISO500

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC; @f7.1 1/1000 ISO400

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC; @f9 1/125 ISO500

The eagle nest that had been near there was blown down in recent storm. Other hikers were along the river and apparently the eagles were along the river as well.

Enjoy!

Until Next Time

Jim Borden

Click Here More Camera Critters

Owls and Eagles

2011-04-11T20:18:00.000-04:00

Great weekend. Visited one of the eagle nests that we keep track of and two eaglets have hatched. the nest is over two yards from road and in interest of not disturbing the eagles, I set up and take photos from the edge of the highway. Because of the clutter of branches around the next I use live view with the screen magnified 10x and use manual focus and a cable release. The photos are primarily used as documentation as they are severely cropped. Look closely and you can see the two little eaglet heads watching the adult shred a fish for them.

After watching the eagles, I went to the top of the mountain to a dense area of evergreens where I can usually find barred owls this time of year. Sure enough they were there and I captured better photos of them this year than last year due to the time I had taken to finely calibrate the af tuning on my camera bodies and lenses.

Spring must be coming!!!! The brown creepers are back!

Until next time!

Jim Borden

Another Weekend of Birding-another Eagle Nest

2011-04-03T20:33:00.001-04:00

Had planned on working all weekend as the weatherman had called for clouds and cold and general bad weather for the weekend. However, Saturday morning started out with blue skies with scattered light, white clouds-so I decided to go look for ducks. I first stopped at a small lake about 5 miles from our house and was watching buffleheads, hooded mergansers and common mergansers when a large soaring bird caught my eye. Sure enough it was a mature Bald Eagle. It landed in a tree at upper end of the lake. the residents see them here often and I have seen them in that area but have not located their nest yet. I have also seen a pair of adults near Tunhannock flying up and down the river and it seemed that they were there quite often and that it did not seem logical that they would be using the three nests I knew about along the Susquehanna.

Bufflehead male and female

Canon 1D Mk IV; Canon 600 f4 @f9 1/1600 ISO500

Common Merganser Male

Canon 1D Mk IV; Canon 600 f4 @f9 1/1250 ISO500

Mature Bald Eagle

Canon 1D Mk IV; canon 600 f4 @f9 1/1600 ISO500

I then decided to drive to a remote pond on an old farm that is in a wooded area to check for ducks. Upon arriving I saw two adult bald eagles in the air carrying nesting materials (odd for this time of year) and they were headed back to the Susquehanna River. I met the landowners and we made friends and they consented to me entering the property to photograph wildlife. We had "known" each other for years but had never really formally met. It turns out we have have common interests in wildlife and birds. While the lady and I were talking an immature Bald Eagle flew over. I found the pond had Canada Geese, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, Ring Neck Ducks and mallards on it along with a Great Blue Heron. The owners were there with a surveyor and the ducks were at the far edge of the pond and approaching them from the other side put the sun in my face. I decided to look for the Eagle nest that I knew must exist along the Susquehanna. I stopped along a road that overlooks part of the river and began scanning the tree line on each side as well as trees on the islands. I had about given up when a White spot about one half way up a sycamore tree caught my eye. Observation with the spotting scope revealed it was a nest and had an adult eagle settled into it. I found a place to park and walked the bank above the river to find a place I could see through the trees. I finally found a spot about 175 yards from the nest and I set up with the 600mm lens with a 1.4 TC mounted. Brush between me and the Eagle head interfered with focusing automatically so i used live view at 10X magnification and manually focused and used the remote release.

Canon 1D Mk IV; Canon 600mm f4 with 1.4TC; f9 1/1000 ISO 640 manual focus

Had to run some errands in town and then just before dark I decided to check on the ducks at the remote pond. On the way there I saw a pair of hoodies on the farmer's pond nearer the house and they were in good light.

Canon 1D Mk IV; canon 600 f4 @f9 1/640 ISO500

On the way home i saw two large flocks of Turkeys and the one flock had a mature gobbler strutting and fanning.

Canon 1D Mk IV; canon 600 f4 @f10 1/800 ISO1000

This morning I went to the remote pond prepared to get lots of duck shots. I had my cam clothing, my Ghillie suit, my blind and my stool. When I arrived the ducks were close to the entry road and they quickly scooted to the far side of the pond. I decided to hike back to where I had planned to set up and I did so carefully. When I got to the small cove I found it loaded with common and hooded mergansers. I was careful and setup and was waiting to get some good shots when all of a sudden two ducks that had been in the brush along the edge not 5 yards from me decided I was a threat and they exploded out of there and all of the ducks went to far side of pond (which really could be called a lake). I went to the other side and set up again and waited and the Ring Neck ducks would only come so close to the blind-but i enjoyed every minute of it.

Canon 1D Mk IV; canon 600 f4 with 1.4 TC @f7.1 1/1250 ISO500

Went home to meet Joan and we went north to another friend's place that is remote in woods and there are some good ponds there. It is only 18 miles north of us and we found most of the ponds still frozen, ice on the back roads and snow!!! We found one beaver pond only half frozen over and there were 4 female and 4 male wood ducks there. We watched them for over an hour. Then some turkeys came and spooked them. I already have quote a few wood duck pictures-but none that I ever considered "killers". Well, today I took a number of shots that are better than any I have ever taken of wood ducks.

Canon 1D Mk IV; canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f10 1/400 ISO500

Canon 7D; canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f10 1/320 ISO500 EC+.67

Canon 7D; canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC @f9 1/100 ISO500

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Until next Time

Jim Borden

Spring-A Time of Transition

2011-03-27T12:02:00.004-04:00

Spring brings new life to the woods and it is also a time of life cycle changes in the wild animals. Many antlered animals(particularly those that are truly wild) loose their antlers shortly after the RUT is over. Moose in the north country loose theirs by early to mid December to help conserve precious energy during times of heavy snows. In contrast to that, the Pennsylvania Elk loose theirs in late March. This year was in fact earlier than it has been in the past three years. We made our end of winter-beginning of spring weekend trip to Pa Elk Country the weekend of 3/18-3/20. We stayed in the Elk Hideaway on Winslow Hill (a beautiful place to stay). We were treated to six young bulls in the lawn on Sunday morning. Our tours and walks in the area rewarded us with sightings of over 200 elk (not bad considering the entire herd is estimated to be 750 to 800 animals by the Pa Game Commission). We had friends with us that had never seen pa Elk before and they had a great time. They were also amazed at how close we could get to them without "spooking" them. Our gentleman friend is a hunter and he kept remarking that he could not believe that some actually "hunted" these elk. We did not see the extremely large bulls that were are accustomed to seeing in winter at all this winter.

Prior to departing for the trip I was waiting for Joan to get her things packed and our little pond had its annual male and female mallard Ducks visiting. I had been frustrated with the percentage of good focused shots I had been getting over the past year and this winter I had calibrated my lenses and camera bodies using the Lensalign system. After using that I had found that close shots were phenomenal and longer shots were significantly out of focus. So, after studying the Lensalign unit and techniques for using it, I found that I had not calibrated at the correct distance for each lens. I re calibrated the 600mm lens at 98 feet (50 times focal length) and the 600mm with 1.4 TC at about 135 feet and was anxious to try it. The male Mallard posed for a few shots first and I am pleased with the focus result-the are of target is centered in the depth of field.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 600mm f4 with 1.4TC; f8 1/160 ISO500 about 62 yards

The female then decided she wanted to picture taken.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 600mm f4 with 1.4TC; f9 1/400 ISO1000 about 62 yards

With those shots under my belt, I was ready for elk at any distance as I had already calibrated the 300 f2.8 at 48 feet on both the mark Iv and 7D bodies. On Friday afternoon we saw 60 plus elk on the left edge of the mine reclaim area at end of Dewey road so the four of us took a walk to see if we could find the remainder of that herd and to see if any of the big bulls were hanging with the cows and calves. we found a rag-horn bull and some spikes hanging out with the cows. they were munching on the green sprouts in the reclaim area and easily allowed us to walk among them.

We had strong sunlight and had to maneuver so that we could get them at least side lighted instead of back lighted. I used exposure compensation on the first picture to lighten the exposure of the elk bodies against the back lit scene.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 600mm f4 with 1.4TC; f9 1/250 ISO500 EC +.67 over 100 yards

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 600mm f4 with 1.4TC; f9 1/800 ISO500 over 100 yards

We took a ride up Gray Hill and saw bulls in the evening darkness and saw one dominant bull that had dropped his antlers-but we could tell he was the dominate bull as he was chasing the young bulls away from the food and they were respecting him.

On Saturday morning we returned to the end of Dewey Road and found the second part of the large herd had joined with the elk we had seen the night before-now there were over 100 elk in that group. We found a lone bull with antlers standing in the woods. He had separated from the bachelor group of six bulls that we had seen earlier. he stayed in one spot all day and was acting lethargic. Friends living in the area said that the bulls seem to do that when they are ready to drop their antlers. The sun was streaming through the bare trees which makes talking a picture difficult. I normally use a better beamer in a situation such as this, but i had left it in the jeep. The picture shows a bull in his natural habitat--not an image that would be a wall hanger-but an image that demonstrates where and how the elk live.

Canon 7D; Canon 70-200mm f4 at 150mm; f9 1/400 ISO640 about 13 yards

We have always found black squirrels on this part of Gray Hill and we were treated to 4 of them on this afternoon.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 600mm f4; f4.5 1/250 ISO500 about 44 yards

A favorite spot of mine where I can usually find a large group of bachelor bulls only had one bull there and he had dropped his antlers already. He posed for us in many positions in what i considered good, contrasty light.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 600mm f4; f5.6 1/160 ISO500 about 60 yards

The elk were out feeding throughout the day and we found a group of 4 bulls behind one cabin having their afternoon snack. Two of the bulls are developing decent racks and may be trophy bulls in the future. This picture was a good candidate for me to use the better beamer with--sure would next time to help eliminate the shadows.

Canon 7D; Canon 300mm f2.8; f6.3 1/200 ISO640 about 50 yards

Canon 7D; Canon 300mm f2.8; f6.3 1/160 ISO640 about 50 yards

Canon 7D; Canon 300mm f2.8; f6.3 1/250 ISO640 about 50 yards

I have hated the tracking collars that some of the elk are wearing (put on by Pa Game Commission). they are huge, ugly and the yellow marker with numbers can be seen from long distance. I am glad to see that the collar size has decreased and it is now dark brown and sport the new smaller satellite transmitters and antenna. the number has been eliminated-YEAH!!!! This bull with dropped antlers took a few moments to pose with the new style collar for us.

We concluded our day of touring on Saturday by visiting the upper parking area along Dewey Road.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 24-105 f4; f13 1/80 ISO400

At day break Sunday morning we had six bulls in the lawn of the Elk Hideaway. They ate leisurely and sparred before heading off to other areas. Note the shutter speed on this picture-that bull had to lay perfectly still to get this shot with no blur.

Canon 7D; Canon 300mm f2.8; f6.3 1/2.5 ISO1000

The bull later decided that Ginny's bushes looked ready to eat and he meandered over to the bush while the rest of the bulls were sparring.

Canon 1D Mark IV; Canon 300 f2.8; f4 1/200 ISO 1250 about 50 yards

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Until next Time

Jim Borden

Migration

2011-03-11T19:20:00.003-05:00

The weekend of March 4 was forecast to be dreary, cold and wet in our area and Joan suggested she take me somewhere for my 60th birthday. I looked at the weather in southern Pa and decided that it was time to visit the Middle Creek Wildlife management area. We arrived there early Friday morning and were immediately treated to "lots" of Tundra Swans and 1000's of Snow Geese. Later in the day we learned that the Pa Game Commission estimated 60,000 plus Snow Geese and over 8000 Tundra Swans. The lake was covered with the Geese-it was truly moving to see such a wonder. It was awesome when two immature Bald Eagles flew along the top of the water which spooked the Geese. We also got to see Gadwall ducks, Ring Neck Ducks, Black Ducks, American Wigeon, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads, Kill Deer, Northern harriers, Red tail hawks and Kestrels. I had a great time practicing taking flying shots. the geese and swans gave me plenty of opportunities to hone my skills. Joan also had a ball getting used to her 80-400 lens with flying shots.

Swans in formation. Did not quite capture lighting correctly on this one.

Canon MK 1D; canon 600mm f4 @f8 1/2500 ISO 500

Tundra Swan against Blue Sky

Canon MK 1D; canon 600mm f4 w 1.4TC @f7.1 1/2000 ISO 640 EC +.33

Snow Goose coming in for Landing

Canon MK 1D; Canon 600mm f4 @f8 1/1250 ISO 500 EC+1

Joan got this Snow Goose coming in for landing on a small pond.

Nikon D300; Nikon 80-400 @400mm f8 1/1000 ISO 500

Nikon D300; Nikon 80-400 @116mm f8 1/1600 ISO 500

Two Snow Geese and a Blue Phase flying in

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600mm f4 w/1.4TC @f9 1/1000 ISO500 EC+1

Ring Neck Duck

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600mm f4 w/1.4TC @f9 1/640 ISO400 EC+0

American Wigeon Male

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600mm f4 w/1.4TC @f8 1/500 ISO400 EC+.67

I captured this one at same time as Joan did. I was very lucky that the goose was almost at the end of the landing and was almost stopped in the air-my shutter speed was low for a flying bird-but lucked out!

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600mm f4 w/1.4TC @f8 1/500 ISO500 EC+1

The following shot illustrates the technique of diagonals in composition--it is one of the basics that draws viewers to photos along with rule of thirds.

Nikon D300; Nikon 80-400 @400mm f8 1/1600 ISO500

Action shots are always interesting. having the camera set so that shutter speed is fast enough to stop action is important. the following image illustrates how the shutter speed of 1/1250 stops even the water droplet action-the drops seem to float in the air.

Nikon D300; Nikon 80-400 @400mm f7.1 1/1250 ISO500

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Until Next Time

Jim & Joan Borden

Spring Fever

2011-02-27T15:52:00.001-05:00

Friday the 18th sure brought out the spring fever. We were meeting friends in Matamoras on Friday evening so we could spend the next day looking for Eagles, Waterfowl and hawks. We got "lulled" into dressing for good weather. Saturday morning brought cold and high winds (up to 50 mph). We saw a number of Bald Eagles, ducks and hawks though. This winter was a great winter in our area for Rough Legged hawks.

Most of the migratory Bald Eagles have headed for "home" to rebuild their nests. This adult Bald Eagle is one of the resident bald Eagles where the Lackawaxen River joins the Delaware River. He did a couple of flyovers for us.

Canon Mk IV 1D, Canon 600mm f4 @ f13 1/1000 ISO500

I would have normally taken that shot at f8 or faster and would have had about +1 EC. However, it was a cloudy and "foggy" day with lots of light -so there was no need to counteract a bright sky. Also, since there was plenty of light I wanted to try a smaller aperture to be able to get ALL of the Eagle in focus. The image could still use some boosting of tonal change to make it "pop". So, the following is one where I have shifted the curves and applied hue and saturation to the sky.

A large flock of Mallards kept floating down the Lackawaxen onto the Delaware and then they would fly back up the Lackawaxen to float down again. I barely had enough shutter speed to stop wing and flight action on this shot. Lucked out that I caught them just as they took off and did not yet have their speed up.

Canon Mk IV 1D, Canon 600mm f4 @ f8 1/800 ISO500

From the Zane Grey Boat launch we went to Liberty Loop trail at the north end of Liberty Marsh NWR. We sighted Red tail Hawks, Rough Legged hawks, Northern Harriers and a Merlin. I plan to spend more time there before winter is over to get better shots of the Harriers-particularly the Male.

By the time I was able to get shots of theFemale Northern Harrier, storm clouds had moved in with high winds and low light. So, some digital noise resulted.

Canon Mk IV 1D, Canon 600mm f4 @ f6.3 1/1600 ISO2000

The male Northern harrier kept catching me unprepared as he glided low to ground and was upon me before I could react. I finally got a couple of shots of him.

EC +1

Canon Mk IV 1D, Canon 600mm f4 @ f6.3 1/800 ISO800 EC+1

Until Next Time.

Jim Borden

Pennsylvania Elk in Winter

2011-02-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

We spent last weekend in Benezett Pa and surrounding area. It was a pleasant weekend with freezing temperatures, some snow and some sun. The elk were out almost all day feeding on Saturday. We saw over 200 elk in our travels. Some were decent bulls-but not of the class that we have previously seen in that area. The low sun levels in the winter actually provide some of the best photo opportunities that one will have during mid day. The end of day "Golden Light" is also beautiful at this time of year. Some like to adjust white balance to take away the golden quality--I prefer to capture that Golden Light.

Canon 7D; Canon 70-200 f4 w1.4TC; f7.1 1/125 ISO500 EC-.33

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 at f7.1 1/640 ISO 1000

I was surprised to witness a bull still "checking" on the estrus condition of cows and he hit pay dirt as exemplified by the famous phlemen. i sure wish I had captured this with a snowy or evergreen background. the brown leaves make the photo "busy".

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 at f6.3 1/800 ISO 1000

Found this young elk close to the edge of the highway--those tender shots there were keeping him occupied. I was worried he might step out into traffic.

Canon 7D; Canon 70-200 f4 w1.4TC; f7.1 1/400 ISO800

Until next time!

Jim Borden

Pa Grand Canyon in Winter

2011-02-05T10:28:00.001-05:00

This week's blog entry departs from my normal comfort zone with photography (Wildlife) and ventures into scenery. Winter can be dull and dreary and yet so beautiful. I traveled home to Holiday Pa last weekend to pick up my mother to have her spend a few days with us to celebrate her 80th birthday. While there, she and I took a drive past her old homestead and went to Leonard Harrison Lookout that I have enjoyed so much over the years. It was snowing and overcast and even though the parking lot was plowed, the actual lookout area was untouched and it gave it such a remote, beautiful look. Even with overcast skies, the dynamic range of light was beyond the camera capability to capture it all-so I decided to apply HDR and took three shots of each scene-normal exposure and full stop under and over. Some of the pictures I took at my usual spots and I decided to show the fall and winter versions here for contrast-each has its own beauty!

Canon MK IV 1D; Canon 24-105 F4 at F13 1/50 ISO200 EC +1,-1 and 0

The Pa Grand Canyon is a wonderful place to visit in any season. For me-it takes me back to my roots. It also provides a philosophical lesson in understanding that things are as they are even when we have led ourselves to believe that things are as we would wish. I had not posted these before now, due to a sadness in realizing due to events of last week that things in life are as they are and not as I have wanted to believe. The ability to enjoy the outdoors and to capture some of its beauty in pictures brings a oeace and understanding to my life!

Until Next Time

Jim Borden

Back Yard Photography and Short Ear Owls

2011-01-21T07:38:00.001-05:00

This time of year is great for viewing and photographing Short Ear Owls, Long Ear Owls, Northern Harriers, and Rough Legged Hawks that have migrated to our area for the winter. As I talk with photographer friends I hear many languish about it being winter and cold and they are planning their expensive trips to Yellowstone, Alaska and other far off places. I certainly dream about visiting those areas again-but Joan and I have looked at what we can do with short, local trips and have many more opportunities versus focusing all the resources on one or two trips. The ability to locate and photograph migrating birds in our area is an example. We have been driving about 3 hours each way on day trips to see and photograph Rough Legged hawks, Short ear Owls and long Ear Owls. Recently a friend birder -Joe Demarco-clued me into short ear owls on a farm less than 10 miles from where I live. Three trips to that farm this week yielded great pictures of the short ear owls and also the opportunity to see rough legged hawks and a first for me-dark morph rough legged hawks. I need to spend more time around that farm to be bale to get quality pictures of the rough legged hawks, but our opportunities for the short ear owls have been great. Photographing them can be a challenge as they normally come out near dark and/or on overcast days in late afternoon. It requires use of high ISO and careful attention to the histogram on back of camera to make sure the pictures are being exposed to the right to keep noise down. One effect as a result of this type of photography is that the images have a slight blue cast to them--it can be corrected in photoshop-but I prefer to leave it as it is what I saw with my eyes.

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f7.1 1/500 ISO 1000 EC+1 about 30 yds

The next one is an example of where the high ISO was absolutely necessary to get shutter speed up for inflight. Even at 2000 ISO I was only at 1/1000 shutter speed which is usually marginal for in flight shots-however, owls glide and I caught him in almost a stall so he came out crisp!

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f5.6 1/1000 ISO 2000 EC+1 about 60 yds

Patience often pays off with a special shot such as this next two images. However, at 9 degrees F in blowing wind-it can be tempting to get back in a warm vehicle!

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f5 1/1000 ISO 2000 EC+.67 over 100 yds

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f5 1/2000 ISO 2000 EC+.67 over 100 yds

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f5 1/1250 ISO 2000 EC+.67 over 100 yds

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f5 1/1600 ISO 2000 EC+.67 over 100 yds

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f4 1/1250 ISO 2000 EC+.67 over 100 yds

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f4 1/1600 ISO 2000 EC+.67 over 100 yds

The following is a documentation picture-it is not as sharp as I want-nor is the composition what I like-but I am using it in my personal bird album as documentation of a dark morph rough legged hawk

Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 600mm f4 @ f5.6 1/800 ISO 12500 EC+1 over 100 yds

Until Next Time

Jim Borden

Winter Time is Eagle Time

2011-01-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC (840mm) @f8 1/2500 -.33EC ISO1000 @100+ yds

Northeast USA is a wonderful place to be in winter to enjoy the American Bald Eagle. As winter freezes rivers and lakes in Canada and the Northeast USA, the Bald Eagles migrate south in search of easier food supplies. They congregate in areas of open water with a good supply of fish. Places like the Conowingo Dam in Maryland, the reservoirs along the Hudson River Valley and the Delaware River Valley become stopping and/or wintering spots for the Eagles. Joan and I have found some places that have been good for us for eagle sightings as well as Eagle Photography. The Conowingo Dam in Maryland is a popular place for birders and photographers to congregate in October and November to view and photograph the eagles. The activity continues through the winter but with less activity than is seen in October and November. I am not certain why-but have a theory that the eagles that stop at Conowingo end up going father south for the winter months. We have found that the Northern Delaware water shed region has been a very good area for observing and photographing the Bald Eagle in winter. We visited one such area on Monday-January 3 and were treated to an entire day of eagles fishing in open water at the upper end of a reservoir. It was exciting to watch and photograph. We could not successfully photograph part of it as there were trees between the road and the stream entering the reservoir. One tree there had 12 adult bald eagles perched in it. The photography is done from the vehicle on a window mount. The reason for this is that leaving the vehicle is prohibited by law in that area when the eagles have migrated there. Many of the eagles there have migrated from areas where they have little to no contact with humans and people outside of vehicles alarm them and they fly away and do not come back. We have previously used a small boat launch parking lot and could be within 35 to 50 yards of the perched and flying and fishing eagles. However, that parking lot is closed this winter because of individuals last winter ignoring the regulations and they were getting out of the vehicle. Images can still be done in that area but the distance is 100 plus yards.

A very solid mounting system is required. Some use window bags, but I have found with large lenses to get sharp results I have to use a sturdy window mount (such as a BM or Kirk) along with ball head and sidekick Gimbal.

Here are some shots from January 3:

Immature taking flight:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f5.6 1/1600 ISO1600 @about 100 yds

NYS Blue banded D44 After Takeoff:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f5 1/1250 ISO1600 @about 100 yds

NYS Blue D44 surveying the situation:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f7.1 -.33EC 1/160 ISO640 @about 60 yds

NYS Blue Y50 sitting on stump watching ducks:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f5 1/640 -.33EC ISO1600 @60 yds

Maryland Pink Band U2 Landing on stump with a fish:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC (840mm) @f8 1/1250 -.33EC ISO1000 @100+ yds

Immature Bald Eagle in flight:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f6.3 1/1600 -1EC ISO400 @100+ yds

Immature coming in for a catch:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f4 1/4000 -.33EC ISO2500 @about 100 yds

Three adults looking for small fish along edge just before dark:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 @f4 1/320 ISO1000 @about 100 yds

Immature on stump watching ducks:

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 with 1.4TC (840mm) @f9 1/1600-.33EC ISO1000 @about 60 yds

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Until next time!

Jim Borden

2010-A year of Growth

2011-01-02T13:21:00.001-05:00

2010 was a year of growth for me with photography. Even though I have been doing wildlife photography as a hobby for over 32 years, I found 2010 to be one of the years of most significant learning. I struggled through 2009 with issues with a very expensive long telephoto lens. It took quite some time in 2009 and early 2010 to find that the issues I was having were not the result of poor long lens technique, but due to a lens that was incapable of resolving fine detail at distances over 60 feet or so away. Through the help of fellow friend photographers Mark Picard, Herb Houghton and Gary Steele and the application of my own problem solving skills I was able to finally identify the lens as the issue and was able to move on. Once I had new equipment to work with I was able to once again experiment, learn and grow in my photography skills. I am so thankful that my interest in wildlife photography was rekindled in 2007 through meeting a new friend-Mark Picard. It has changed my life. I have refocused on family and spending time in the outdoors enjoying God's wonder.

Reading friend Coy Hill's blog and his review of his best pictures of 2010 stimulated me to do a similar thing. While reviewing my images from 2010, I found it was difficult to pick "the best". I also found that while some were not the greatest or sharpest images, they brought a smile to my face through the memory of the moment when the picture was taken. I decided to share some of the images here and also share a link to a slideshow of the most memorable for me in 2010.

I have tried for years to get a great loon picture and this year I was blessed with the opportunity to get a female loon with her twins out for a ride:

I once again got to watch moose go about their business of feeding, courting and playing:

I have found the resurgence of the bald Eagle to be intriguing and I enjoy spending hours observing them and learning their behaviors:

Out maneuvering Black Bears to get good shots has been challenging and fun:

Awaking early in the morning and walking among the Elk of Pa continues to be enjoyable and informative:

Enjoying the color change in the fall has been calming:

Doing all this with my wife of 40 years has been the best!

Click here for a slide show of 2010 images

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Until Next Time

Jim Borden

Bald Eagles Along The Susquehanna (Day 1)

2010-11-26T10:42:00.000-05:00

Each fall Joan and I take a short weekend trip to the southern part of the Susquehanna River to view and photograph Bald Eagles that have migrated there from the north. The spot along a Fisherman's access area just below the Conowingo Power generation dam. The eagles find it easy to find fish there when the generators are running at the dam. It raises the water level while at the same time churning the water which brings many fish close to the surface. On Friday the 19th of November I stopped counting at 70 Eagles in the tress and along the bank. I took one picture across the river and had 13 eagles in the picture while using a 600mm lens. There is also a Great Blue Heron rookery there on an island below the dam. It is not uncommon to see 50 plus great blues. It is certainly a bird watcher and photographer paradise.

The Eagles in the trees can present a back lighting problem, but it is a great opportunity to practice those types of shots by playing with exposure settings as well as using a better beamer to fill flash the birds. All of these shots were with a Canon Mark IV 1D with Canon 600mm f4 lens on a Gitzo Tripod using a Wimberley Head and the IS was turned off on the lens.

The eagles are amazing. The fish seem to be plentiful and easy to catch. However, when one catches one, others swoop in to try to steal it away.

Canon Mark IV 1D; Canon 600 f4; at f5.6, 1/800, ISO400 EC +1

This shutter speed would normally be too slow (I like to keep at 1/1250 minimum) to capture a flying eagle crisply-I caught them at a moment in flight when they were changing direction so their speed of flight was down and it allowed a good crisp shot.

Canon Mark IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 at f5.6; 1/1000 ISO 500 EC+1

I used the eye as my focal point on this shot and could probably have taken the aperture to f8 to get a deeper depth of field-but the picture actually turned out well.

The next series of shots is a sequence of an eagle catching a fish--notice after he has caught it and begins to get airborne that he actually checks to see if he has the fish!

f6.3; 1/3200 ISO 1000 EC +.33

f6.3; 1/2500 ISO 1000 EC +.33

f6.3 1/2500 ISO 1000 EC+.33

f6.3 1/2500 ISO 1000 EC +.33

f6.3 1/2500 ISO 1000 EC+.33

The next shot was after another sequence of shots were the eagle caught one-but then he lost it. After he found he lost it, he circled back and picked the fish out of the water again.

f6.3 1/1250 ISO 800 EC 0.0

This was a difficult shot to get. The eagle with the fish was being pursued by 5 other eagles and they kept getting blinded from me by a row of trees along the river bank. Finally they came out into the open and I was able to get a burst of shots of the chase with this one being the best.

f6.3 1/6400 ISO 1000 EC +.33

After many tries on many trips I was finally able to get a Bald Eagle in a well lighted dive for a fish. This one was with the 1.4tc on the 600mm lens giving a focal length of 840mm (or about 17x magnification)

f7.1 1/3200 ISO 640 EC +.33

Enjoy!

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Until Next Time!

Jim Borden

Pa Elk in the Fall

2010-11-25T09:49:00.001-05:00

We have been busy with business and family the past few weeks but have had time to visit Elk County Pennsylvania before the beginning of the Elk Season. We saw over 275 different elk in the Benezett area-all of them in the hunt zone. All of these elk were very acclimated to human interaction. It is very difficult to understand those that support the hunt 100% when one sees how tame these elk are. Their claims that they go into the back country and the elk are not tame there is certainly a misunderstanding of the facts. The PGC claims the elk herd is about 700 to 800 animals. With that in mind I observed about 1/3 of the entire herd in two days at benezett. Joan and I took a walk back in the woods and I was able to walk within 15 yards of a small herd of elk resting in the woods. They showed no signs of fear and remained laying down while I photographed them. A certain faction of the individuals that I have conversed with from the area that are avid hunters and members of the Keystone Elk Alliance have begun calling some of us anti-hunters because we oppose the Pa Elk Hunt. One individual's conversations are laced with veiled violent rhetoric and he has even said the anti hunters better be careful in the woods during the hunt because they might get hurt. It is sad to see that some of these individuals can not have an adult conversation about the pros and cons of how the hunt is run and a discussion of the facts concerning the hunt showing that it is not a fair chase hunt. It is also sad that they can not understand that many of us that oppose the Pa Elk Hunt are avid hunters and Sportsmen!

With that part of it aside-we had a great time viewing and photographing the elk.

Canon Mk IV 1D; 600 f4 at f4 1/100; ISO 2500 EC +.67

Canon Mk IV 1D; 600 f4 at f4; 1/160 ISO 2000 ec+.67

Canon Mk IV 1D; Canon 600mm f4 at f4 1.40; ISO4000 ec+.67

Canon Mk IV 1 D; Canon 600 f4 at f4; 1/100 ISO 2500 EC +.67

Canon Mk IV 1D; canon 600 f4 at f4.5; 1/125 ISO 4000 EC +.67

Canon Mk IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 at f4.5; 1/125 ISO 4000 EC +.67

Canon Mk IV 1D; Canon 600 f4 at f4; 1/60 ISO2000

Since most of the good photo opportunities were early in the morning and late in the evening, it gave us a good chance to really push the ISO capabilities of the camera. I had previously thought I would need to stop at ISO 2000 to retain good picture quality-but this trip proved that theory wrong. I was able to take high quality pictures up to an including ISO 4000.

here is a parting shot. Joan took this picture of me after we had walked to the back of the reclaim area in hunt zone 2. I had walked across the open field area toward the elk to see if they would spook-the wind was to my back and I was in the open. I walked to within 15 yards of the elk and they did not show any signs of fear or anxiousness. This is the spot where friends had been a few weeks prior and the archer and/or the archer's "guide" that were hunting there made claims that "anti's" had interfered with the hunt. No one spooked any elk or attempted to spook any elk and the archer could have directly walked up to the elk if he had so chosen.

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Until next time

Jim Borden

Pa Fall Foliage 2010

2010-10-17T12:06:00.000-04:00

Our part of Pennsylvania peaked with fall foliage early this year-so some of the spots we usually get to visit to take very colorful pictures were rather dull because we were in maine when our peak occurred. However, there were some scenes that became very colorful late and it allowed us to take some good images.

Misty Morning Wilson Pond-Lymanville Pa

Reflection on Wilson Pond

Farm Pond near Springville Pa

View at Harrison Lookout in Pa Grand Canyon

View at Colton Point in Pa Grand Canyon

Falls on Campbell Run near Tiadagton Pa

Swimming Hole I enjoyed 45 or so years ago

Some of the above photos were taken using High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography.

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Until next Time

Jim Borden

Maine Fall Foliage and Wildlife

2010-10-10T20:00:00.001-04:00

We spent 9 wonderful days in Northern maine enjoying the scenery and looking for wildlife. We saw coyotes, foxes, spruce grouse, ruffed grouse, deer and of course-Moose! We did not see as many moose this fall as we normally do as there was quite a bit of foliage left in the woods at the beginning of the week and the moose were not frequenting the ponds and rivers as much as they normally do this time of year. We had a couple of days of little to no wind and clear skies so there were some opportunities for photographing some awesome reflections. I am certainly glad I had experimented with doing HDR photos this summer so I could put the techniques to good use this trip. Photoshop CS5 handles doing HDR composites very well without any plugins or additional programs being required.

This is an HDR composite of three photos: -2, -1 and normal exposure.

This is also a composite HDR image made up of three shots: -2, -1 and normal exposure.

It is very important to use a tripod and to focus the camera before starting and then put in manual focus and make no further focus adjustments -then take the 3 to 7 shots with various exposures about 1 stop apart.

I also found that the use of a camera with the ability to take pictures at higher ISO was a definitive advantage to get some shots that would otherwise have been missed. Early morning is often a great time for seeing moose and light is at a minimum then. Elevated ISO helps keep shutter speeds up with long lenses to prevent blur. here is an example of an image shot at 4000 ISO:

600MM lens; 1/50; f4; ISO 4000; Image stabilization off; 6:36 am

It was barely light when the above image was captured. The scene looks bright as the histogram was right of center which is important to control noise when taking images at high ISO.

The above image was taken during the time of "Golden Light". It gives images a pleasing quality. Shadows are controlled with the low sun angle. This image was taken at 840MM; f7.1; 1/1250; ISO 400.

Occasionally we get lucky when taking images. A spruce grouse caught me by surprise and there was no time to setup tripod -so I grabbed the 600 and turned IS on and spun the ISO to 1000 and cranked the aperture wide open (f4). I am surprised that the shot turned out as the shutter speed was 1/60 and I was handholding over my knee. Here is the result:

Later I had the opportunity to capture a spruce grouse when I was ready with tripod. He cooperated well:

Tripod mounted 600; f5; 1/30; ISO 400; IS turned off

We saw six different bull moose with the following being the largest we photographed:

Check out http://www.bordenphotography.com/Maine_Oct_2010/index.html for a slide show of more photos from the trip.

Click here for more camera critters.

Until next Time!

Jim Borden

Pine Creek Valley Wildlife Weekend

2010-09-12T21:51:00.001-04:00

We enjoyed another peasant weekend in the Pine Creek Valley of North Central Pa. The wildlife were very active this weekend. It seemed the ducks were congregating to get ready to migrate. We saw many mergansers fly by the cabin in large groups. We also saw a number of mallards and wood ducks. We spent some time sneaking up and taking pictures of wood ducks as they are some of our favorites. The still back waters, ponds and other still pools still have a layer of algae and pollen on them.

This one was shot with a Canon 7D with a 600 f4 lens attached. It was shot at ISO500, f7.1, 1/200. Normally I use a tripod, but in this instance Joan's shoulder had to serve as tripod. The 7D performed well delivering a sharp picture with fine detail in the feathers. More about this later.

We found three whitetail bucks feeding together in the ferns and brush. There was a spike, a scraggly 8 point and a mature 8 point. The spike would easily walk into the open and was not at all afraid of us. The scraggly 8 point would then start to come into the open and the mature 8 point would stay in the brushy area. The scraggly 8 point would start the foot stomp, ducking head routine and then he would run and all three would go into the woods and then come out again. This continued for three or four cycles and we finally left so they could eat in peace.

The mature 8 point never did give us an open shot. This picture is the type that might be used with a story in a hunting magazine.

Canon Mk IV 1D, 600 f4 lens, ISO 500, f6.3, 1/8

The sharpness of the above picture amazes me when considering it was taken with a 600mm lens with a shutter speed of 1/8. I got lucky on that one!

Canon Mk IV 1D, 600 f4 lens, ISO 2000, f4, 1/160

I did not do any noise correction on this picture and you can see some digital noise in the background, but once again the sharpness is surprising for such a low shutter speed. Good long lens technique combined with observing and understanding animal behavior helps deliver pictures such as this. Deer and many other animals have a sequence of motions that they go through and then they momentarily stop. It is helpful to learn those motions and watch an animal and determine their cycle, then wait and take advantage of that moment when they stop all motion.

Canon Mk IV 1D, 600 f4 lens, ISO 2000, f4, 1/250

This picture has had noise correction applied to the background area. The above two pictures demonstrate the quality of the Canon 600 f4 lens and its ability to deliver sharp images at wide open aperture.

We were fortunate to see black bears again this weekend. Joan took the following picture were off a bean bag as we were not in a position to setup tripods without disturbing the bear and its yearling cub. Notice the reflection of the yellow/green ferns on the bear's fur.

Nikon D300, 80-400 f3.5-5.6 lens at 400mm, ISO 400, f6.3, 1/100

If this picture looks like it was taken from the same position as the one above-that is almost correct-I was behind Joan and used her shoulder again as a "tripod".

Canon Mk IV 1D, 600 f4 lens, ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/640, EC-.67

The exposure compensation had to be set at -.67 to keep the ferns from "blowing out". The metering in the Nikon camera did not create that effect so Joan did not have to use EC.

We saw a number of hawks over the weekend and we got to photograph three-a red tail hawk, a broad wing hawk and a red shouldered hawk. We were fairly close to the red tail hawk and the broad shouldered hawk and we got good pictures. The red shouldered hawk was a little further away and I wanted to take advantage of the crop factor of the 7D body so I used the 1.4 TC on the 600 lens with the 7D body and found that i could not take a sharp picture. I will be doing more experimenting with that as I am able to take sharp pictures with the 1.4 TC and the 600 lens and the Mk Iv 1D body.

Canon Mk IV 1D, 600 f4 lens, ISO 640, f5.6, 1/400

Broad Wing Hawk (?)

Canon 7D, 600 f4 lens, ISO 800, f7.1, 1/2000

Red Tail Hawk

Canon 7D, 600 f4 lens with 1.4 TC, ISO 400, f7.1, 1/400

Red Shouldered Hawk

This was the sharpest I could get with the 1.4 TC on the 600 f4 with the 7D body. The equivalent focal length in 35MM of the above picture is 1344 mm--so maybe it is a matter of shutter speed and I will have to experiment to determine.

Until next time:

Jim Borden

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Peaceful Days

2010-09-04T08:08:00.002-04:00

For me this time of year represents peaceful days in preparation for the coming changes of foliage and weather. It is a time to reflect on the year and look forward to the next and thank God for allowing me to walk through life and enjoy his wonders yet another day. Photography has been a calming intervention in my life and even though I have enjoyed photography for about 40 years now-the last 4 years have been special-it has helped me stop, assess life for what it is and take time to enjoy the ride.

Thanks for looking.

Peaceful pond near our home. our lives are like a pebble dropping into the pond-we may make a ripple or a wave which is soon dampened to the reflective beauty we see here.

I really enjoy watching the deer in the backyard. We often travel far to enjoy and photograph wildlife and yet return home and they are right here for us to enjoy!

Until next time.

Jim Borden

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Backyard Whitetails and Some Sunflowers

2010-08-21T11:32:00.001-04:00

The deer have started to frequent our "backyard" as we approach the fall. This morning we were treated to a doe, a fawn and a nice 8 point buck for about an hour. The doe and fawn both spent some time in our old standing corn that we have left for the birds and animals. The buck remained in the shadows so we did not get any pictures of him in the Golden Light.

The doe has the beautiful Golden light on her. As a wildlife picture, this would be heavily critiqued by pros for being "too busy". However, as a picture of a deer in a natural habitat it has value.

We took a day trip on Friday and we came upon a sunflower field. The lighting was good so we spent some time taking photos. I took some with a 24-105 lens set at f14 and then some with a 600 lens set at f14 to try to illustrate the different depth of field effect that you get at the same f stop setting with differing focal lengths. The longer focal length decreases the depth of focus while at the same time somewhat flattening the image.

First Image 105mm focal length, f14, ISO 200, 1/100

Second image 600mm focal length, f14, ISO 200, 1/160

Until next time!

Click here for more Camera Critters

Jim Borden

Whitetail Time

2010-08-14T15:59:00.003-04:00

We had a great weekend with daughter's family along Pine Creek last weekend. The grandadughters played in Pine Creek, we biked and we went animal looking. We saw 8 different bears and they were difficult to get pictures of due to the time of day and they were in woods. I did get a few shots at 2000 ISO and 3200 ISo, but shutter speeds were low and the pictures were not crisp. One thing we observed was 4 different sets of triplet fawns and many sets of twins. This is certainly encouraging for future deer populations.

here is one of the does that came out well at 2000 ISO:

Next is one fawn from a set of triplets--they showed off for teh grand daughters for quite a while:

Here is a bear at 2000 ISO and low shutter speed. He has two ear tags-so may be a nuisance bear?

One thing to remember when shooting at 800 ISO or higher is to keep the histogram to teh right without bowing out the details. By doing that-detail will be maximized with minimum noise for that ISO level.

Until next time
Jim

Click here for more camera critters

Darling Run Eagles have Fledged

2010-07-17T08:33:00.004-04:00

We were in the area of the Darling Run nest on Friday and decided to stop by to see if the eagles were hanging around even though we knew the three chicks had fledged. We were surprised to see that all three emmies and both adults were still hanging around the nest area. They were all perched along Pine Creek looking for fish. It was heavily overcast and there was a haze in the air. I had to shoot at higher ISO settings than I normally do for eagles to keep the shutter speed at acceptable levels for the long lens. I tried the stabilization on and off and continue to find regardless of what either Nikon or Canon say about their new VR and IS controls--using image stabilization while on the tripod actually reduces sharpness of images.

Since the lighting was poor, I had to bring back the contrast in Photoshop to make the images appear as we saw the images with our eye. This is one of the reasons that I shoot all my images in RAW only. If I had shot them in jpg, the images would have been worthless.

The eagles at Darling Run are very accustomed to people and they sit still while people travel up and down the trail. They even sit on a branch over the trail within 20 feet of hikers and bikers at times. The only time I have seen them take careful notice is when a horse goes by. This adult seemed nervous when I could hear a horse coming and then when it came into view on the trail, the eagle "tracked" it until it was out of sight.

Here is one of the three immature eagles from the Darling Run nest-using a perch that the adults use often. It is interesting how they are such creatures of habit.

It has already mastered the "eagle eye" stare. There was a flock of geese floating around beneath it and it kept a close watch of them.

Until Next time....

Jim

http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/

Maine Sightings

2010-07-06T21:31:00.003-04:00

Just got home from our summer trip to Maine for Moose calves. This year we did not locate any calves. They certainly were there as we found the tracks and heard their blats! Maine, like most of the northeast, got their vegetation about two weeks early this year and it indexed the feeding cycles for browse versus ponds early. Most of the ponds had already turned "sour" this past week so finding cows with calves was tough. We did find a number of yearling cows and bulls and of course we had a great time being in the woods (black flies and all). Mount Katahdin still has some ice slides present on it. We were fortunate enough to see quite a few warblers and had the good fortune to observe an adult pair of loons with chicks.

It was also refreshing to observe the difference in moose behavior in the highly human frequented Baxter Park ponds versus along the Golden Road and remote ponds we hiked in to in Baxter (2 miles or so from nearest roads). I enjoy observing and photographing the moose that are wary far more than the moose that are human acclimated. I can draw a direct parallel with the elk in PA. However, I have yet to find a "wild elk" in Pennsylvania and I go more remote than most of the hunters in Pa.

This yearling moose befriended an older young bull after mom kicked him out to make room and time for a new calf.

This whitetail doe seems to be in the same area every time we go there. She is a good example of a human acclimated animal. She feeds to within a few feet of us and as one can see, she is not the least bit stressed.

This is one of a pair of fawns that we found and for most of the pictures I had too much lens. This picture was taken at 3200 ISO to keep shutter speed to a point so I could get a sharp picture in the dark Maine woods. In the days of film this picture could not have happened.

Observing and photographing a pair of adult loons with their baby chicks was a highlight of the trip. We had to wait for the right time of day because of the angle of the light then hope that they floated to an area that they had been earlier in the day. We lucked out and were able to capture about 500 images of the chicks and mom with a few of dad included. I was amazed at how ill informed some of the "eco friendly" campers were when it comes to animal behaviors. A ranger in the park and some women staying in one of the primitive cabins were concerned that some one was stressing the loons as the mother would drop below them while they were on her back leaving them vulnerable and floating on the lake. It was obvious that they did not understand that is how the chicks learn to swim and it is when mom goes for food that she then feeds them. These images were taken with a lens setup equivalent to a 22 power spotting scope.

Finally, Joan and I celebrated an anniversary of sorts when we were there. 40 years ago this past week was the last time that Joan and I were in a canoe together. Lets say that the experience resulted in two very wet individuals! I love canoeing and I was finally able to coax Joan into a canoe on a very cold Maine lake and we had a ball paddling through Moose Bog and into a beaver dam. No-we did not take the good cameras and big lens in the canoe--I am not that brave yet.

Backyard Birdies

2010-06-27T13:55:00.000-04:00

This weekend while waiting for friends to arrive, I decided it was time to practice using the better beamer with the flash unit to control shadows in harsh lighting. The morning started off foggy and then the sun poked through strong and contrasty-perfect conditions for practice. It took about 50 shots to get the hang of adjusting the flash exposure compensation, but the practice yielded good results. I am going to take the unit along this week and see how it works for filling shadows moose in the woods .

This may be the last posting for our blog. I am not sure how much the blog is getting viewed or how worthwhile it is. If you are looking and you like or do not like it, please leave a comment so I can determine if it is worth the time to do these.

Jim

Pine Creek Valley

2010-06-05T08:20:00.001-04:00

The Pine Creek Valley in North Central Pennsylvania holds many special memories for me. It was my backyard when I was growing up and the memories of picnics, fishing and hunting are near and dear to my heart. Joan and I spend quite a bit of our leisure time in the valley relaxing and enjoying the wildlife. I am truly thankful for the foresight of my grandfather and his friends that worked so hard to have the Pine Creek Gorge made into a "wild area" protecting it from urban development.

The Bald Eagle has made a significant comeback in that area. Starting at Ansonia and traveling south there are eagle nests about every 5 miles. The Pa Game Commission likes to take full credit for the recovery. However, spending time observing and photographing the adult eagles and the nests has shown that it was the Pennsylvania program combined with the New York State programs that made the success. Just about every nesting pair along Pine Creek has one of the adults originating from the Mohawk River in Upper New York State. The majestic birds are smart--they mate with others outside their own gene pool to help prevent the adverse effects of breeding within the same gene pool. Over the past month we have spent a considerable amount of time relaxing, biking, hiking and photographing in the Pine Creek Valley and the area known as the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

The Eagle photographs above were taken of an Adult Eagle (that was born along the Mohawk River in upper New York State) that was guarding one of the nests along Pine Creek. It was one of the best opportunities I have had for "perfect" lighting to photograph eagles. We had almost 100% cloud cover, but they were white clouds that allowed lots of light to still be present to keep shutter speeds up while at the same time eliminating shadows and the ever present problem with Bald Eagles of reflective light off the head that creates a halo effect.

After bike riding through the canyon last Saturday afternoon, we took a ride to the barrens area above Cedar Run to look for deer, bear and other wildlife. We found a very large black bear and I followed him carefully through the woods to get an opportunity to photograph him. I got a number of pictures of his behind, but then as he came to an opening to cross a portion of a Game Commission field, he stopped and looked at me. He was rather close, but did not seem to mind I was there. It was an exhilarating moment, but a tough one from a photographic viewpoint. I opened the aperture almost wide open and took the ISO to 2000. I was amazed and pleased with the results that I got. keep in mind that this is an un-cropped photograph!

The backlighting made his nose and fur glow, but the nostrils, eye and hair are still crisp even at high ISO.

Eagles and Songbirds

2010-05-06T06:53:00.001-04:00

Spring and fall are my favorite seasons. IN the spring we get to see the gradual transformation of bleak looking woodlands to light green foliage. The songbirds and game birds are in full mating colors and bird activity is at a peak. Joan and I spend a considerable amount of time observing a few eagle nests to see which ones are going to be successful in raising at least one chick for the season. The early warm weather this year has made the observation process more comfortable than normal. here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Darling Run Eagle--I still have not gotten his leg band number. It is New York State and has a 4 in it. Maybe next week.

N79 from Little Pine-Male born on Mohawk River in New York State.

Technically not a good picture-but interesting capture. There are two eagle chicks in the nest (Darling Run)

Little Pine proud parents taking a rest in between fishing trips to feed junior.

Backyard Friend.

Towhee in full mating Plumage.

Bird In Flight Practice

2010-04-18T22:49:00.003-04:00

The weekend was dreary and cold on Saturday and I was able to practice on eagles at long distance and some eagles flying. The pictures were sharp, but due to the ISO I tried using (3200 to 4000) the pictures were not usable. Today provided a better opportunity to test in flight focus tracking. Four osprey provided the opportunity to take multiple shots at various ISO and shutter speeds.

ISO 1000, f7.1 1/3200, +1 EC

ISO 1000, f 7.1, 1/2000, +1 EC

ISO 1000, f7.1, 1/1250 +1 EC

Mallards and Backyard Birds

2010-04-13T21:58:00.000-04:00

Went out this evening in search of eagles and wood ducks. Found neither, but enjoyed the antics a few mallards at local lake. Good chance to try out a different camera and lens (Mk IV and 600 f4)

Pheasant and Owl

2010-04-04T12:54:00.003-04:00

Went to check on eagle nests on Friday and found two of the nests we observe have hatched chicks. The photography opportunities were not there for the eagles so a side trip in the woods was taken. The pheasant was looking for a mate and he caught me by surprise so I took his photos hand held.

Had a great time listening to the owls hooting again.

This is our backyard friend from this morning

Liberty Marsh

2010-03-30T20:04:00.002-04:00

I had to travel to northwestern New Nersey to give a presentation on rifle tuning on Saturday and the trip took us through Liberty Marsh. So, on the way home we stopped to see what we could see. It was a cool, clear day with harsh light. We saw swans, a female northern harrier, a female sharp shinned hawk, ring neck ducks, red head ducks, mallards, ring billed gulls, and five red tail hawks, three of the hawks buzzed close over our heads and one landed on the power line close to us. He studied a photographer friend very closely and suddenly launched from the wire and flew directly at him and almost planted his talons his skull. Some of the pictures turned out well.

Sharp Shinned hawk

2010-03-25T22:43:00.000-04:00

Watched a Sharp Shinned hawk chasing a bird around this evening. Then he had to rest.

Shot handheld with D300 and Nikon 200-400 f4.
ISO 800, F9, 1/200 sec

Spring weekend Birding

2010-03-21T22:19:00.001-04:00

We spent the weekend in Pa Grand Canyon checking eagle nests for activity. We confirmed sitting eagles in three of the seven nest we checked. It can be a very boring exercise watching an eagle nest before young are hatched. "Shift Changes" occur every three to four hours and are quick. While the water is high in Pine Creek, the eagles look for food in other areas when not sitting on the nest. The three nest we did not spot eagles in may very well have an adult in sitting on eggs as the nest walls are high and the angle of view is so that they could not be seen.

We did however have success at watching a pair of Barred owls going through there "dating routines". It was fun to watch and listen to. The Bluebird photo was taken with a flash with a better beamer attached. I have been practicing with it to help fill in shadow areas when there is harsh lighting.

On the way to Doctor's Office

2010-03-17T20:50:00.004-04:00

Our trip to the Doctor this afternoon was rewarding in terms of photography. We spotted four Bald Eagles on a small Lake about 3 miles from our home. Three were immatures and 1 was a transitioning adult. One of the immatures was wearing a satellite tracking pack on his back.
Here are a couple of "shots":

I had set the exposure for +.7 on the immature to bring out the detail in the body and then forgot to change back as the adult soared by. the result is that I "blew out" the highlights in the white head.

PA Elk Ramblings

2010-03-07T22:01:00.011-05:00

We visited the Elk County Pa again this past weekend. We found that the bull elk still have their antlers and that they were still into aggressive sparring. We also once again observed bulls still "sniffing" the cows. This is exceedingly late in the year as the bulls will soon be dropping their antlers.

We found nine bulls together in an area where we had previously observed eleven together. One of the nine could be immediately identified as not being one of the eleven from three weeks ago as he was yet another bull with a "knob" for the right antler and this one has a poorly formed left antler.

That now makes the very mature bull that has a badly deformed right antler and a well developed 7 point left antler, two other bulls with a "knob" for right antler and immature 7 point left antlers and a fourth bull now with a "knob" for right antler and a poorly formed left antler. It is quite clear that this is a genetic trend. This type of genetic trait adds another "twist" to the management of the herd under the current methods being employed to manage the hunt. Most hunters are applying to get their chance at "trophy" bulls and are paying a considerable fee to do so. Recent publicity on one other blog has focused on the ability to get great bulls in PA (which is a very misleading statement-but that is not what is being addressed here today). Bulls such as the one pictured here are not favored by hunters and most likely will not be harvested. As long as the mature trophy bulls are harvested and bulls such as this are not, it will not be long before the majority of the bulls in the Pa herd will have the genetic trait of this bull. Micro managing a small herd of animals and running a hunt that is not fair chase and is actually a "cull" of mature bulls will lead to the PA herd being one with what could be considered poor genetics.

The picture below is being offered as an example of preferential harvest. The bull in that picture was very typical (according to my grandfather) for Pa at that time and the herd was hunted to almost extinction with little regard for conservation. However, note the maturity of the whitetail deer in the picture. That "quality" of bucks became a thing that was rarely harvested until the last few years when the Pa Game Commission has implemented a deer management program to better enable bucks to get to a mature age. Our camp still stands a short distance from where this picture was taken and it is hard to even find a whitetail deer in that area now, let alone a "trophy" buck!

We saw a total of 23 bulls this weekend and well over 125 cows and calves. Most of the bulls were immature.

We were able to enjoy 4 bulls feeding and sparring for three hours with friends Willard Hill, Richard Coy and Ron "Buckwheat" Saffer. These photographs are "crops" of the originals that can be found on our photography website. The cropping has been done for the blog to illustrate the size of the bulls versus the normal photographic composition. I will be posting a "proper" rule of thirds photo of each for comparison later today.

The weekend ended with a fun session with a pileated woodpecker in a tree next to the cabin where we were staying. The weekend elk sessions and the final session with the pileated confirmed my love/hate relationship with the 200-400 Nikor f4 lens. As long as the subjects are close, the lens performs superbly and gets very sharp pictures. When the object being photographed is much beyond 75 feet if a full sized animal or 30 feet if a small object such as the wood pecker, the image starts getting soft on sharpness.

The parting "shot" for this week has to do with the ethics and good behavior of elk observation. We are guests in Elk Country and we should respect private landowners when we are there. One land owner talked with me and indicated that he appreciated the fact that I stayed in the highway to take pictures and that i parked my vehicle off the highway out of the way. He said that a growing number of visitors to the area have little to no regard for private property and folks have gotten up in the morning only to find elk viewers and photographers not only on their property but on their decks! A few inconsiderate people can spoil the fun and ability to enjoy these animals if this type of behavior persists. If we observe such behavior, we should not wait for the land owner to challenge the individuals. We should challenge and educate them ourselves.

Hawk and Backyard Birds

2010-02-28T09:28:00.001-05:00

The snow storms have kept us close to home the past couple of weeks. Experimentation with different D300 bodies and a Nikon 200-400 lens has been the recent "focus". We were experiencing variability in reliability of focus on one of the bodies we thought with the 200-400 lens. After significant experimentation we determined that the one body was going bad and it is going back for warranty repair.

I have been playing with bean bag versus window mount for telephoto shots from a vehicle blind. This hawk was taken on a BLUB (Big Lens Ultimate Bag). The bag is filled with beans to provide weight, yet not be too heavy and bulky like sand would be.

I used my left hand to dampen lens vibration and held my breathe and gradually let it out as if I was firing a rifle.

The next two shots are using a Wimberley II head on a Gitzo tripod.

The Next two pictures are doing hand held 200-400 through a window!

the Sparrow shot showed very little movement, yet the rear leg is not in focus due to the short depth of field from using f5 to keep shutter speed as high as possible for the hand hold.

Bull 66

2010-02-19T04:26:00.003-05:00

Here is another bull from the 11 bull group we saw on Gray Hill last Friday. His collar has been cloned out-it has what looks to be 66 on it. He is a good mature 6x6. We are hoping that we will still be able to see antlered bulls the weekend of March 5 and 6. Below is a pano shot of the herd that was at the Winslow Hill viewing area on Friday. The 6x6 bull can be seen laying above the group keeping them in "control".

Wintering PA Elk

2010-02-14T23:00:00.002-05:00

I spent Friday with a friend touring the Benezett PA area looking for elk. We did not see any in the normal spots, but the weather was cold and there was some hard wind. We did observe over 80 elk from the Winslow Hill viewing area. The herd bull was still showing rut behavior. He was bugling and was "sniffing" the cows. They initially were laying in the hollow below the viewing area. The bull did his rounds and got the herd up and herded them to the top field to feed. He was a fair sized 6x6.

We headed to Gray Hill from there and we found 11 bulls wintering together. This is in the hunt zone and is said by some to be more remote and that the elk there are more wild. My friend was amazed when I got out of the vehicle and set up my tripod and walked to where I could get some good pictures of some of the bulls. The bulls remained standing or laying where they were and paid no attention to me. My friend and I stayed with them photographing them for well over an hour and they were not the least bit afraid of us. The elk in Pennsylvania have not learned to fear humans and continuing to hunt them in the scale that has been done in the past few years will only deplete the population of large bulls and will not create real fair chase hunting.

One of the bulls had a malformed right antler. He looked to be an older bull and had a very handsome left antler. There were two other bulls that also had a short deformed stub for a right antler and a well formed left antler. They appeared to be younger and I would suspect that they were offspring of the larger bull with the deformed antler.

Having hunted elk in the western states, I can say that the behavior of the eastern elk is very different than those found in the western states. The elk in the west, even those around Yellowstone Park are more wary of humans and are easily "spooked". My friend (who is also a hunter) asked me how anyone could hunt the elk that we saw and with good conscience kill one of them in the name of fair chase. I did not know how to answer his question.

Liberty Marsh Owls and Red Tail Hawks

2010-02-02T10:04:00.001-05:00

We spent Sunday morning and early afternoon at Liberty Marsh in southern New York State observing raptors. We had an eventful morning with two female harriers scooting around but they would not come close enough for good photography. The usual Red Tail Hawk did her routine with sitting on the wire and then diving to catch mice. She seems to like to have her photograph taken.

I experimented with ISO from 500 to 1250 and aperture from 7.1 to 11 to see how I could get the sharpest images of her. I wanted to keep the shutter speed fast enough so that if she decided to fly, I could get crisp flight pictures. I found that with a hawk or eagle I set the exposure comp to at least +.7 when taking pictures against the sky-that insures that the foreground comes out correctly exposed. The coaching I have been receiving is paying off-I have upped my minimum acceptable shutter speed from 1/1000 to 1/1250 and will use ISO up to 1250 on the D300. I use neat image noise ninja to control noise.

I even experimented to manual exposure by exposing for the bird and that way if the bird takes flight an d dips below treeline, the exposure for the bird is still correct and the background can not "fool" the meter.

While we were watching, all of the crows starting taking off and the harriers and red tails took off for the edge of the marsh. We suspected one of the area eagles might be approaching. However, a friend pointed out a peregrine falcon coasting around off in the distance. Once he left, the crows and hawks returned to feeding in the marsh. Early afternoon we took a short trip down the road to visit the long ear owls that have taken residence in an evergreen tree for the winter.

One sits out somewhat in the open and naps along. The other one likes to sit closer to the tree trunk. We used a low powered flashlight to barely light the feathers on this one.

We ended the day by driving to the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR and walked back in to wait for the evening to come. There were three male harriers floating around, but they stayed quite a distance away. Five female harriers started hunting just before dark and then we were rewarded for our wait by the emergence of the short ear owls just before dark. I spotted 16 separate short ear owls. It was a wonderful sight. I tried photographing them in flight, but it was too dark.

I want to thank two mentors for their help through my journey as a "budding" photographer. Thanks Mark Picard and Herb Houghton.

Jim

More Eagles and Some Deer

2010-01-24T14:34:00.002-05:00

We spent a bright sunny dayon Friday along the Lackawaxen and Delaware looking for Bald Eagles. It was a still day and Eagle activity was light. At the end of the day we had a nice "flyover" at the Zane Grey boat launch. He landed in a tree at the boat launch and gave us an opportunity to catch him in the "Golden Light". Some small birds came along and tried to pester him, but he was not in the mood. With the Bald Eagle slightly backlit, I used the 200-400 Nikor lens and a 1.4 tele-converter and aperture priority to get some good shots. Exposure compensation was set at +1.0 to bring out the feathers and keep the head at exposure. As the light dimmed, I used the mirror up mode and the remote cable release.

Saturday evening found us enjoying the warm front and bright skies in our favorite deer stand. We a group of nine young ones play together before the rest of the gang came out for dinner. We only saw one antlered deer and he was small.

The deer seemed to be watching something beyond the stand and "spooked" before dark. . When we left the stand we crossed a fresh set of bobcat tracks in the snow. It had come close to the stand in a blind area for us. After having spent so much time with the Pa Elk this fall, we had to retrain ourselves that the slightest movement or sound would cause the deer to run.

More Raptors

2010-01-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

We traveled to the Conowingo Power generation dam again last weekend to view and photograph Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons. The weather cooperated well on Friday. We had bright skies for most of the day with the warmest weather we have experienced in months. The Bald Eagles were not actively fishing as the dam was not being used to generate power on Friday, but we had a number of Bald Eagles sitting in the trees and doing "flyovers". A short hike down the nature trail along the Susquehanna yielded some "sitters".

This tree had two adults and three immatures sitting in it when I first observed them They were right over the trail at the river's edge. A group of hikers came by and the immatures flew and this adult just continued to give everyone the "eagle eye". He stayed on that branch for hours with a number of folks walking down the trail.

Standing at the Boat Ramp watching eagles "playing" in the distance also paid off with shots of "immies" scrapping and adult flyovers. We stopped counting at 70 Bald Eagles when we could no longer be sure that we were counting unique eagles.

I am still working on technique for flying eagles to get crisper images. Mark Picard has been offering advise and we will be trying some new techniques this weekend. I have tried to stay faster than 1/1000 shutter speed using aperture priority and ISO float to keep there. However, I have also been using AF 51 point tracking and release + focus as priority for the AFC tracking. I will be trying AF 9 and release priority this weekend and will try to control to 1/1250 or faster for shutter speed.

Winter with the Raptors

2010-01-11T19:46:00.002-05:00

The cold and snow of winter present unique challenges to photography while at the same time providing unique opportunities to capture wildlife in their toughest time of the year. Photographing Bald Eagles this winter has been more difficult than in recent past years. The mass migration has been hampered a bit by water remaining open north of us until just recently. Now that we have had a sustained cold spell and rivers and lakes are freezing completely over, Eagles are migrating to areas that have open water for fishing. The cloudy, stormy conditions have presented challenges to photographing the eagles in flight but we have been out to enjoy viewing them as well as other wildlife over the past few weeks. I have a particular interest in raptors and we are fortunate that we have many hawks in our area that reside here year around. Most of them are red tail hawks and it is fascinating to observe the many variations of coloring and markings on this species.

This particular one I believe is a Krider's hawk which is a variant of the Red tail Hawk. It has the bars on the chest, but the head and tail are mostly white.

Joan captured a nice shot of a Red Tail Hawk in flight in December. Getting good crisp shots of birds in flight requires good lighting so that shutter speeds faster than 1/1000 of a second can be maintained.

Shots like this one of a hawk emerging from its perch on top of a utility pole requires lots of patience. It is important to me to not stress a wild animal or bird while photographing them. Hawks and Eagles will sit for extended periods resting or surveying the surroundings for food. Patiently waiting for them to decide to fly can be rewarded by the opportunity to get a shot such as this one.

This past weekend presented many opportunities with bright skies to find hawks out looking for food. One young hawk was so intent on his meal that he ignored me for quite some time while I was able to get some good pictures of him killing and then eating his crow.

After finishing his meal he flew to a perch to watch for more prospective meals. I normally use aperture priority and try to keep ISO at 500 or less to maintain crispness and to be able to control depth of field. At times-particularly for birds in flight I will use ISO 640 to 1000. However, one must make sure that they are using a camera that can produce good images at low noise levels with higher ISO ratings (Joan and I both use Nikon D300 bodies with Nikkor lenses). Using the histograms for each picture exposure can be adjusted to keep from blowing out highlights or underexposing shadows. Often in snow, the exposure is adjusted +.3 to +1.0 stops to keep the snow from looking gray. One has to be careful with birds like Hawks and Eagles that contain a fair amount of white feathers to ensure that the white is not overexposed.

Eagle Weekend

2009-12-09T09:44:00.000-05:00

We traveled to Conowingo Power dam this past weekend to view and photograph eagles. Saturday's weather was poor. We had lots of rain and snow. However, we did see about 50 Bald Eagles and many Great Blue Herons. The picture taking was a challenge in the snowy conditions and it was hard on the equipment. It allowed us to get some interesting shots such as this one:

The weather on Sunday was brighter and cold. We saw over 60 Bald Eagles and most were on the far shore or the power transmission towers. We did however get some shots of flyovers.

We had hoped to get some "fishing" shots that were good. However, the eagles did not appear to be too hungry on Sunday and the shots we got were too far away and image quality was poor.

There has been quite a bit of concern posted on some bulletin boards about how broadly information is being shared on how to see Bald Eagles. The excuse used is that the bird is a threatened species and it is not appropriate for the public to know where the eagles can be seen. I personally believe that these birds are truly majestic and that sharing information so others can view them provides an opportunity for broader appreciation of the Bald Eagles.

PA Elk

2009-11-24T09:07:00.001-05:00

Joan and I spend a lot of time in the outdoors photographing animals in the wild. We have been visiting the Benezett area for the past two years through the year to photograph the Pennsylvania elk. We have found this elk herd for be very docile and acclimated to humans. Opening and closing of car doors, people talking and laughing, babies crying do not seem to disturb or bother them at all. We last visited on the weekend of October 24 and 25 just before Pa Elk Season opened. I was amazed that the bulls were so docile. We watched four different bulls. They were what most hunters would consider trophy quality. These bulls seemed oblivious to people being around. They were in the kill zone and we photographed them eating, resting, fighting. All the while we stood and watched the bulls, people were parking their cars along the road, slamming doors, talking and it did not phase the elk at all.

Hunting these elk is not a fair chase hunt and creates an image of hunters and hunting that is not in the best interest of hunters. Just to be clear, I am a hunter and I am a firearms manufacturer. I believe in the fair chase and harvetsing of wild animals. I do not however, believe in, or support killing of animals that are ranging in the wild but have become acclimated to humans. I am hoping that efforts that are underway by a group of individuals with a like interest in this subject will be successful expanding the Pa Elk no kill zone to better protect the animals that show no fear of humans.