Breaking in a New Lens for Wildlife Photography

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

On Friday, I purchased a new lens that is typcially used for wildlife and bird photography, and today, I experimented and tested it by photographing some of my neighbors, not the people, but a few of the birds, squirrels and ducks on the lake behind the house. Early this morning, when I looked behind the house on the lake, I saw several Mallard Ducks across the cove. I grabbed the camera, new lens and tripod and went to my dock and fired off a few shots, two of which are below. The ducks were at least 150 yards away.  Two of the images follow. Mallards do not live on our lake. So this small group was probably migrating south and stopped to look for food. They were not there long and eventually flew away.

Below are a few images of birds I photographed in the trees behind the house today. They include an American Goldfinch, Morning Dove and Female Cardinal.

Finally, the last image is of one of the squirrels that lives in the trees behind our house sitting on a branch eating a seed from the tree. Click (twice) on the squirrel’s face to see it up close and in detail. The new lens is, as they say, “tack sharp.”

Bottom line, I am very pleased with the performance of the new lens (Nikon 600mm f/4 VRII) and am looking forward to using it to photograph more of my “neighbors” and other wildlife in the area, as well as in other places to include some of Florida’s state parks in the next couple of weeks.

Posted in Bird Photographs | 6 Comments

Sunrise at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

Just before Thanksgiving, a friend and I went to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland, to photograph the sunrise and, after the sunrise, to photograph whatever wildlife we discovered.  As it turned out, we saw a lot of eagles and were able to photograph them in addition to observing and photographing a spectacular sunrise (below image).

We arrived at Blackwater just as the horizon was beginning to glow and turn the dark sky into vibrant reds and oranges, so we stopped at the first opportunity to capture the morning light.

As the sun was rising, the view and colors across the lake kept changing with one large cloud glowing more brightly than the others. The orange cloud kept getting brighter and more brilliant. It was glowing and looked surreal. While photographing it, I turned to my friend and said that I was glad that he was there with me witnessing this amazing show of colors, because if I successfully captured and displayed it, people would think that I photoshopped it to make it look like this. What you see above is what we saw that morning.  Click on it to see it enlarged. The reflection on the water enhanced the spectatular view.

I normally post more images in my blog articles, but I have been very busy and just wanted to share this image with all who follow my blog. I will eventually share more images from that sunrise, because the beauty continued as the sun rose above the horizon. The Creator was obviously an artist and created so much beauty for us to enjoy.

Posted in National and State Parks, sunrise, Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

Manatees at Blue Spring State Park

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

On Saturday, I went to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Florida. It is hard to believe that after living in Florida for more than 30 years, I never went to Blue Spring before this weekend. I had heard about Blue Spring and had driven past signs to it more times than I could possibly remember. After this weekend’s visit, I am very disappointed that I never went before. It is a nature lover’s paradise.

Blue Spring State Park is over 2,600 acres and includes the largest spring to feed the St. Johns River. The spring run is the winter home to West Indian Manatees. On Saturday, there were 25 manatees present, swimming gracefully in the crystal clear water. In the opening image to this article, a lone manatee was swimming along the shoreline of the spring run. Manatees can grow to a length of 13 feet and weigh over 1,300 pounds. Above there are three manatees swimming below the water.

In mid-November, because the population of wintering manatees is high, the State Park closes a portion of the Blue Spring run to protect the manatees from boats and swimmers. The images in this article were taken in the closed area where the manatees swim right along the shoreline allowing for photographs such as the one above where I was practically looking straight down on them.

One of my favorite images is below where the three manatees (in the above image) swam by and then broke the surface. Someone nearby said the two smaller manatees were the young of the much larger female, and the younger ones were still nursing, which is why one of them is tucked under the female.

Above as the manatees snuggled, one of them stuck its entire face out of the water. The manatees surface every few minutes for air. In the below image, when coming up for air, this manatee blew water out of its nose before taking a breath. This did not happen often and was somewhat of a unique capture.

Below a group of four manatees swam by with one of them obviously very young and small staying very close to what is probably its mother.

The manatees were not alone in the spring. Just down the spring run from where I photographed the above images, there was an alligator sunning itself (below image). I also saw Blue Herons, Cormorants, many very large Alligator Gars and one Large Mouth Bass that was easily over 10 pounds. I have photographs of them and will be uploading them to my Website at http://stabone.com/p800471225

Obviously, it was a fantastic day for me and the manatees at Blue Spring. They seemed content, and I was thrilled to be able to see and capture them digitally.

Posted in Landscape Photographs, National and State Parks | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

De Leon Springs State Park

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

Saturday morning, we (Angela, Amy, Duncan and me and my camera/Nikon D700 with a 28-300mm lens) went to De Leon Springs State Park and Blue Spring State Park, both located in Deland, Florida. After an “all you can eat” pancake breakfast at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill restaurant located in De Leon Springs State Park, we hiked one of the trails around the springs.

The Old Spanish Sugar Mill sits beside the spring named for the legendary explorer Ponce DeLeon. Originally constructed to crush sugar cane utilizing the power of the 16 – 18 million gallons of water flowing from the spring daily, the mill boasts a 100 ft. undershot waterwheel. The actual construction date of the mill is a source of much debate with the date of a nearby chimney from the original mill dating back to 1570. We really did not need an all you can eat pancake breakfast after two days of feasting on Thanksgiving turkey and all the fixings, but it was a great place to start our visit to De Leon Springs. The pancakes were outstanding, by the way, and were made on large griddles embedded in each table in the rustic, historic restaurant.

On the trail, the first “critter” that we spotted, and I photographed was a very large (almost 2 inch) Golden Silk Spider, also known as the harmless banana spider. Harmless or not, we did not get too close. The spider and its web were located at the foot of a wetland that we passed.

As we continued to walk the trail, we heard a hawk calling loudly as it flew above the trees. Then, we noticed that it stopped flying and perched about 60 feet up on the top of a nearby dead tree. As we approached the tree and hawk, I captured it looking down on, as it continued to call out loudly.

As we watched the hawk, I continued to photograph it until it leaped into the air and flew away, as seen in the following images.

After the hawk flew away, we continued on the trail and back toward the spring. As we were getting closer, we noticed squirrels snuggled up and napping, until we disturbed them. Below is one of the squirrels.

After returning to the spring, we left for Blue Spring State Park, where we saw many manatees, wading birds, fish, turtles and an alligator. I was able to photograph many of the manatees at Blue Spring and will post an article about them in the next couple days. Eventually, I will get back to processing the images from Bombay Hook and Blackwater National Refuges. I have had a couple wonderful and rewarding trips in several national and state parks lately and am behind in image processing. I hope to never get caught up, since that would mean more trips into some of nature’s amazing, beautiful and peaceful natural beauty.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

On Sunday evening, I returned from a spectacular weekend at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Delaware and Blackwater NWR in Maryland, where I witnessed and photographed incredibly beautiful and memorable wildlife, sunrises and sunsets. I left my house at 0230 Friday evening (or Saturday morning) to meet with a friend and drive to Delaware’s Bombay Hook NWR before sunrise.

We arrived with plenty of time to locate a good location to shoot the sunrise. However, as the first light began to appear on the horizon and as we began to photograph it, thousands of Snow Geese exploded off a pond and marsh behind us. The sound of the liftoff of the snow geese was a very load roar, and when we turned in the direction of the roaring sound behind us, all we could see was a massive grey cloud lifting in the darkness.

As the snow geese lifted into the sky, the roar diminished and turned into the sound of thousands of flapping wings and the loud honking calls of the geese. To make the experience even more exciting, the geese were flying in the direction of the sunrise, right over us.  The image at the top of this article shows the first light, and if you look closely (click on the image), you can see many of the Snow Geese as they flew toward the rising sun.

Unfortunately, we were not able to photograph the liftoff or flyover, because we were not prepared for it (we were prepared for shooting the sunrise), and it happened very quickly. It also would have been impossible to photograph because it was very dark behind us/the opposite direction of the sunrise. Regardless of not capturing the liftoff of the thousands of geese, it was an experience I will always remember.

Above as the sun broke the horizon, the sky began to brighten, and as it did, we saw wave after wave of Snow Geese flying from north to south. Bombay Hook NWR and other areas in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia are the winter homes to many thousands of Snow Geese that migrate over, 2,500 miles from the Arctic Tundra in Canada.

I have many more images to review and process from Bombay Hook and will eventually upload them to my Website. Not only was the sunrise and Snow Geese spectacular at Bombay Hook, but the sunset (below) was breathtaking too.

After shooting the Bombay Hook sunset, we drove to Blackwater NWR in Maryland where we spent Sunday photographing the sunrise and wildlife, to include many eagles.  I will be posting those images to my blog and Website after Thanksgiving.

Posted in Bird Photographs, Landscape Photographs, sunrise, Sunset | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments