Congratulations to a good friend and good photographer, Stephen Sinclair, on a successful showing of over 100 of his wildlife prints at the Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco on Saturday.  Steve was overwhelmed at the number of friends, photographers and nature lovers who came to view his work.

I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday photographing bald eagles in the Texas hill country where two young birds were about to fledge.  The  eaglets  were flapping about the nest well before sunrise on Friday and Saturday, as several of us set up positions along a highway about 100 yards away.  Anticipating the best activity would be around sunrise and sunset, we waited patiently for chances to catch the adults bringing in food and nest material and tending the young.

Although the action was slow, but the weather was great.  We were treated to a magnificent sunset on Friday and that allowed us to make some fine images of the nest and birds with a colorful background.

Here is a sample of what we got:

Don’t forget to click on the right side of the images to make them larger and sharper for viewing.  The you can advance through the photos by clicking the arrows.

The image above was captured with a Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105 mm lens with tripod, ball head and electronic release.  1/125 second, f4.5, ISO 400 @ 105 mm.

This capture was done with a Canon 7D camera, 500 mm IS Canon lens, Wimberley head, Feisol carbon fiber tripod.  The 7D gave me 1.6X magnification effect without having to add a teleconverter  for the long shot. 1/5000 second @ f5.6, ISO 640….1/2000 second @ f11 would have been better.  I was exposing for the white head.

I used the Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 mm IS lens, and 1.4 X teleconverter to make this images at ISO 500, 1/1600 second, f8.

The image above was made with the Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 mm lens and 2X teleconverter and cropped slightly to maintain about 8-12 megapixels.

Tourists began arriving around 9:00 AM, hoping to get a look at our national symbol.  The image below was done with the Canon 7D and 100-400 lens, hand-held.

This adult hopped into the nest to check the young one last time before flying away to roost.

Photographing eagles just before fledging time requires a lot of patience, but it is so-o-o rewarding for the photographer who persists until the light is gone.

Hope you enjoyed the eagles.

Larry

Last week, we visited my mother-in-law in Wichita Falls…well, my wife visited while I photographed birds in the front yard.  About 5″ of the white stuff fell Sunday night, so I hastily set up to shoot early Monday morning and stayed outside almost all day.

It was a little difficult dodging all the plastic flowers, lawn ornaments, flower pots, etc. , but I was able to get birds in some fairly natural or pleasing spots.  Oh how I was wishing I’d planned ahead of time and gotten a few pretty perches ready.  On the other hand, the natural landing areas made for some interesting poses.

Click in the middle right hand edge of any photo to make it open in a larger, sharper format.  Then click on the arrow to advance through the photos.

 

When food is scarce, a robin can find the last berry in the bush.

 

 

 

 

 

Most of these photos were made in the Canon 7d camera, but the Canon 5d Mark II proved handy for a couple of shots.   All images were done with the 500 mm IS Canon lens mounted on the Wimberley head atop a Feisol carbon fiber tripod (the Woodpecker shot was hand held).

 

 

 

 

 

The following shot was my last one of the day.  In fact, the camera and lens were in the house when the red-bellied woodpecker appeared at a knothole in the front yard mulberry.  Hand holding the heavy 500 mm lens and camera, I sneaked into the garage and fired from around the door without alarming my subject.  This shot was at 1/350 second, ISO 640.

For me, photographing in the snow is as good as it gets.  Properly clad, a photographer (even one from south Texas) can work in the cold for several hours.

Larry