Great Day!

My day at the Fontenelle Forest wetlands didn't start out great.  I hiked to the lake and found it relatively empty.  There were a few Northern Shoveler Duck at the far side.  I checked out the prairie area.  It was quiet too - only a couple of Redwinged Blackbirds. 

As I hiked in the forest on the way to Stream Trail, I could hear birds but couldn't see them.  I spent some time trying to get a Ruby-crowned Kinglet photo but it remained deep in the branches.  I spotted several Brown-headed Cowbirds high in the trees.

 

I noticed a large bird fly away out of the corner of my eye.  I thought it was an owl.  I hiked near the area it had flown to and discovered a big hole in a huge cottonwood tree.  I thought I saw something move in the hole so I decided the owl was about to fly out.  Elliott Bedows walked by.  I told him about the hole and the owl.  Elliott said that Great Horned Owls don't live in holes.  He did point out that it was in plain sight several trees away.  Sure enough,  I was able to photograph it there and in a couple other places as it moved around.  I wonder if the lack of ducks on the lake had anything to do with their fear of the Great Horned Owl.

As soon as I started walking down Steam Trail, I saw many more birds.  There is more cover for them along this trail.  A group of Blue-winged Teal flew by.  It isn't easy to focus on little ducks when they are in front of trees - the camera's autofocus always picks the trees instead of the ducks.   I panned the camera and was able to get a shot of the flying ducks.

 A Redheaded Woodpecker was on a fallen log.  I seldom get to photograph them at eye level.  They are usually high in the trees.

As I proceeded down the trail, I ran into Elliott again.  Elliott had found another great thing for me to photograph - a Great Egret.  Apparently all I need to do to get great photos is to follow Elliott around.

A couple of male Cardinals were chasing each other around.  I watched them for awhile - but they didn't stay in any place long enough for a photo.  The only image I got isn't very good but it reminds me of the chase.

Canada Geese are so common in the wetlands, that I usually ignore most of them.  Today was different.  This shot is my favorite image of the day.  It isn't just a photo of geese, it shows behavior, action and the interaction between them. 

April 7 - Fontenelle Forest

The Barred Owls were out in force this morning at the Fontenelle Forest Wetlands.  I photographed two of them high in a tree.   Unfortunately, they were too distant and high in the trees for decent photographs.

 American Coots are fairly common on the lake.  I've found them difficult to photograph. If I expose for their black feathers, the white bill is overexposed.  If I expose for the bill, I lose detail in the black feathers.  Their eye often disappears  when their visible side is in shadows.

Today, a solitary Coot was extremely cooperative.  It was very overcast day and just starting to sprinkle.  The resulting light was very soft. My photos captured the Coot's red eye along with details in both the feathers and bill.

A Wood Duck couple was high up in a dead tree.  They were well out of the range of my lens and silhouetted against the sky.  This image is a crop from a fraction of the image.  The ducks are so small in the image that I would normally throw it away.  As you can see, Photoshop was able to rescue this image.

Some of the Red-winged Blackbirds have arrived and are establishing territories.  They tend to perch on the highest perches in the area.  This one is resting on an upturned log that still is covered with debris from the 2012 flood.

First In

Today, I was the first person to hike to the lake in the Fontenelle Forest Wetlands.  I found three Double-crested Cormorants were sitting on a branch next to the trail.  The only reason I was able to record the sight was my stealthy approach and super-telephoto lens.  A few seconds later the Cormorants entered the water.  The second person would only see an empty branch.

I scanned the rest of the lake after the Cormorants left.  I expected to see plenty of wildlife.  It was nearly empty.  There were a few Hooded Mergansers and Wood Ducks in the distance.  They were gone before I reached their location.

 I changed direction to leave the lake and to walk along the stream.  A couple of Red-winged Blackbirds were high in the trees.  Cardinals were calling each other.  My eye was drawn to an Eastern Phoebe that was moving from stem to stem ahead of me.  It didn't want to leave the stream and it didn't want to be very  close to me either.

A Lincoln's Sparrow didn't welcome my approach either.  Instead of moving down the stream, it moved deep into a bush on the opposite side of the water.  I could see movement but it was always obstructed by branches.  I was patient.  When it moved to an outside branch for a couple of seconds, I was ready. 

 Some of the ducks that weren't on the lake were in a small pond next to the stream.  The ducks didn't see much danger in the trail from this location because they were only visible from a couple high points on the trail.  They were protected by the stream and  tangled brush.   I was able to photograph a Hooded Merganser couple.  My telephoto was able to make some of the out of focus vegetation disappear but the female is still very blurred.

Some Green-winged Teal were in the pond as well.  They spent most of their time with their head below the water and their bottoms up in the air.  One male was more interested in sex than food.  He would make himself look as attractive as possible and then display his intentions to every female nearby.  The Teal would have left if they noticed me but the same brush that was partly hiding them obscured me as well.

Wood Ducks are extremely difficult to approach in the marsh.  I was fortunate to notice this couple before they noticed me.

There are places in the United States were a photographer can find very tame examples of each of the birds I photographed today.  A tame Wood Duck would look the same in a photo as a wild Wood Duck.  I've heard people criticize wildlife photographs saying  "How many photos of a bird do you need - they all look alike?"  It's a valid question.  I didn't NEED another photo of a Wood Duck.  I did Need to leave the sofa, brave the elements, carry heavy camera gear into the wild and then enjoy the challenge of putting everything that I know about photography a photo of a Wood Duck.

Good Bokeh and Bad Bokeh

Bokeh is a buzz word that describes the out of focus portions of an image.  If you want to impress your peers, point to a photo with a lot of out of focus areas and say "Wow, the bokeh in that photo is amazing."  Most likely, your peers will nod in agreement.

The definition of bokeh is subjective.  To a large degree, you know good bokeh when  you see it.  I describe bad bokeh as an image where the out of focus areas are distracting.  Instead of a smooth and gradual move to blur, the bad bokeh image creates patterns in the blurred area.

Look at the image of the Northern Flicker and Harris Sparrow above.  The Flicker is in focus.  The nearby Sparrow isn't.   The creamy green out of focus area behind the Flicker is good bokeh.

A super telephoto lens has an extremely shallow depth of focus.  It is so shallow that I often have to decide what portion of my subject should be in focus because I can't make the whole  subject sharp.  In this photo of a female Red-winged Blackbird,  I used the shallow depth of field to highlight the bird and to create a mood.  There were so many plants in front of the Blackbird, that it would not have been recognizable with a normal lens.  With a shallow depth of focus, the stem in from create a blur that lowers the overall contrast.  

This photo of a Swamp Sparrow illustrates bad bokeh.  The sparrow is sharp and crisp in spite of the tangle of branches around it.  The background is out of focus.  Portions of the left side of the background have a weird pattern.  When you look at a large version of this image, the background patterns are a flaw.  Bokeh so bad that there is a name for it - nisen bokeh.   This is when an out of focus line is broken into several light and dark out of focus lines. 

Good and bad bokeh is usually considered to be an attribute of the lens.  Canon uses extra blades in the iris of some of  their lens to make the aperature more circular.  This prevents the pattern of the blades from showing up in the out of focus highlights.  In this case, the same lens produced good and bad bokeh on the same day.

What went wrong?  I'm not an expert but at least two factors contributed.  First, the bad bokeh on the left side of the image is out of focus branches between me and the sparrow.  Just like aperture blades, they imprinted their shape on the out of focus highlights. Second, heat waves in the air caused distortion of the highlights.  Look at the out of focus specular highlight a little above the sparrows tail.  If you enlarge it, you will notice that it isn't a smooth blur but there is extra detail in it.

I could have reduced or even prevented the bad bokeh in the sparrow image by moving my camera to a place without branches beteween the camera and sparrow.  That works in theroy but the reality was that the sparrow wasn't posing - I had to follow it.  I do try to do most of my nature photography in the early morning before the heat waves become a problem.

Fontenelle Forest - September 1

The Fontenelle Forest Wetlands looked different today.  Summer is turning into fall.  Birds are beginning to flock.  The backgrounds of some of my photos are turning into shades of yellow and orange.  Birds are more difficult to identify as the youngsters mix with the older birds.  Sunrise is arriving later every day.

A Ruby-throated Humming bird visits a flowering Bull Thistle in search of nectar.

A sparrow searches for another bug.

A Raccoon  searches for food along the back of the pond.

A young Cardinal  is learning to live on his own.

A Red-winged blackbird watches from a Maximilian Sunflower plant.

A couple of young Red-winged Black Birds enjoy a September morning.