2010-A year of Growth

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

Click here for more Camera Critters

Until Next Time

Jim Borden

Maine Fall Foliage and Wildlife

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