If I have any reputation at all as a blogger, it is that of someone who crams a variety of topics and pictures into a single post.

Here we go again.

One of my absolute favorite things to do, is to pull up a chair, or more likely a tripod, and watch and photograph a group of Purple Martins at what I call, The Martin Hotel…no reservations accepted…first come first serve.  Male Martins are a nightmare to hold details on those shiny dark feathers.  This is especially true when you have females and males in the same picture frame.  There is software on the market that is supposedly very good at readjusting highlights and shadows.

Let’s celebrate life at The Martin Hotel.  The males are the iridescent dark birds.

I should also state that if The Martin Hotel is in a public place, and they usually are, you will not bother the birds in the least when you make pictures.  Just as long as you are reasonably quiet, and don’t actually approach the structure,  they will barely notice you.  From the photography standpoint, if you photograph from a close distance, you will have to live with a steep viewing angle.  You could move back farther but the above images are all crops with my 500mm lens and the angle is still steep.

Got this female Red-winged Blackbird with dinner for the kids while I was standing in front of the hotel.

I have never hesitated to photograph birds with manmade structures or feeders.  As long as I also photographed birds in natural settings.   My believe was that it helped me tell the whole story.

Red-bellied Woodpecker and suet feeder.

A winter plumage Palm Warbler in a natural setting

I have shown a lot of highly detailed images of Red Head Ducks, but they are usually not doing anything. Preening is doing something so here we are.

Every photographer has a little place near home where visiting becomes a yearly ritual.  For me it is this stand of Virginia Bluebells on the exit road of a local county park.  For several years in a row, I said “I have worked this spot enough”, but there I was back again. The truth is I never get enough of these “special places”.  They are old friends that must be visited over and over again.

I know photographers who have visited this location because of my suggestions and they tend to wait for sunny days.  Photograph inter-forest locations like this on quiet, overcast days unless you have thought of a creative use for spotty, dappled light.  On a cloudy day your image will be pleasing to the eye,  the colors will be saturated, and the future viewers of those images, will fully appreciate what your intent was when you clicked the shutter.

Of course spring does mean flowers.  I found this (and many others) at Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary.  Hawthorn is a stone’s throw from the park with the Bluebells.

I know I write a lot about how I have never been disappointed with the locations that I visited in my life, whether it be as a photographer or a tourist.  I think one reason is that I don’t really go with expectations.  I mean I do think about what I will see or photograph, but I am up for anything that I find.  I learned when I was still a little fellow that if you are in a constant search for something to make you exited, or to fill you up, you will be forever sad and empty.  Even when those things happen that do excite you, you will become empty once again, as soon as that thrill is gone.  Go without expectations but know it will be fulfilling, and it will. I promise. Most of life is about attitude.

Enough preaching on that subject and on to the next.

Wildlife Photography Today.

As I read about the great owl invasion of 2012/2013 in this area, at times I am saddened that my days of chasing owls are over.  Then I read about the crowds at some locations, I see postings by birding groups begging people to not tell where the owls are so they won’t become habituated by greedy bird photographers who feed them over and over again.  Those photographers will of course go home and leave the birds to contend with the aftermath.  To be honest working in crowds was usually not my thing anyway.

If I were an active and mobile nature photographer today, my wildlife photography would come from what I could learn and develop on my own.  That of course, could leave me well short of spectacular images, but I would somehow manage. Frankly, if on occasions I craved (and I would ) a crowd to make pictures with, our national parks or good local sites and their landscapes would be the direction I would turn.   Finally when I wanted to get that real natural experience, and crowds were not my fancy, I would immerse myself in the miniature world of macros.  I have never found a crowd of people down there.  Bugs yes, people no.  I have photographed endangered species of both insects and flowers, without anything inhibiting me from crawling around on all four. I was alone except for my subject, every time.  While I love all three major disciplines of nature photography, I am quite sure that today the most difficult of those three forms of photography, macros, would be my mainstay.

One great thing that I am currently seeing is an outcry to attempt to lessen the people pressures on special wildlife.  There is slowly becoming a concerted effort to keep the knowledge of the location of such critters to a minimum.  I know what your thinking.  The only thing that will happen is a few photographers will get all of the pictures of each sighting. That may be true but that will still lessen the impact on owls and other critters.  Ostracizing photographers who bait or put excessive pressure on wildlife, within the wildlife photographer community helps.  That means you and I need to take responsibility. Nobody truly wants to be an outcast.

There are workshops with captive owls and animals all of the time in North America.  While the best of those are expensive game farm workshops, others are done with rehabbers and they only require a donation.  It will cost less than the price of all of the mice being bought to bait the wild birds. Many of these captive birds can fly giving you an opportunity for action images.  Images under those circumstances are no more deceptive than a group of photographers “training” a wild owl to come to the mouse.  Both are done to make things easy, and to fool the viewers.  Great shots today of owls and other birds making their kill are….well a dime a dozen.  For all of the potential harm to the owl, you will be a hero with your pals for maybe one day.

I belong to a fine bird/wildlife photography group that is based in the UK.  I look at dozens of action pictures of baited Red Kites and Barn Owls every day.  No the photographers don’t admit it. It is not hard for experienced bird photographers like you and I to know when birds are being baited.  The repeated images of birds of prey flying towards you, or diving predators like kites executing spectacular dives, will tell you what is happening.  Eventually those baiting photographers lose the respect of the great photographers who capture natural behavior.  In a recent local report it was said that some photographers threw snowballs at a Great Gray Owl.  I suppose this was to done to force the owl to fly, so those “heroes” could get some flight shots. God was shining on all of us that I wasn’t present when this occurred.  I can read the newspaper headlines now. I am not sure if this is true, but I am saddened to say that I know photographers who I believe would do this.  It isn’t so much that throwing snowballs at the owl will hurt it.  It probably does more long-term harm to feed it, and the snowballs may make the owl fearful of people (a good thing), it is just the fact that what kind of people do this for a picture.

Ask the question if it is fair to rob other photographers/birders of their chance to see and photograph these birds under natural conditions?  A few selfish photographers ruin it for all of the others.

In 2005  a friend and I repeatedly photographed a Snowy Owl at a local state park.  On a few occasions there were crowds who patiently waited for the owl to do something. They were polite to the others who were present, and to the owl.  Some were rewarded and others never got the picture.  I never heard anything that suggested that any of these people were not happy just to have been there and saw this magnificent creature.  My friend and I also spent time with the owl and only the owl.  There were not people crowding in every day putting more and more pressure on the owl.  I once spent three hours with “The Queen”, just her and I.  Can you imagine that today?

The last thing I would want to do is cast aspersions on photographers who merely hear where a suitable subject can be found, and then travel to make pictures, only to find the baiters are present. You are of course going to make your pictures.  On one occasion I did too, but as this behavior began to appear more often,  I would pack my gear and go home.  I am saying that together, we can at least slow down this harmful and self-serving behavior.

Whew!!  I feel better!  I promise that I will eliminate the complaining in the next post.

Better Stuff

It is funny how often it is that the things that become special to us, begin with doing something for someone else.  I am not talking about the clear benefits we get from a major act of charity, but of less obvious things.

My photography was my idea and it was about me. I make no apologies for that.  What about all of my other passions? I have written much about the more than 20 years I spent in the world of horses. It was a big time passion for me.  The benefits I received from both the people I met, and the horses, are too many to list.  Just the same I did not begin that journey for myself. That is unusual for me. My young wife, like many females I’ve known, had a love for horses. I knew she would die to have one, so I suggested we get two.  Yes one for me and one for her. Now I really didn’t want a horse. I could see the passion (there’s that word again) in her for these critters.  She always generously took part in my many passions and I wanted to share in hers. We bought two geldings an Appaloosa and a Quarter Horse mix.  After my wife and I were long divorced I still owned horses. It was one of the most important parts of my life and it all happened because I had a rare moment when I thought of someone else first.  It is amazing how we are rewarded for an unselfish act.

Make today special and may God bless,                                                                                    Wayne