Sandhill Cranes and a bit more waterfowl

Once again today I headed to Ladner for some waterfowl photos. The weather was pretty much the same as yesterday...dull and overcast, but it beat staying inside watching daytime TV. Since the weather was the same, the behavior of the ducks was the same too. Hardly any flying so I just focused on the same type of shots as yesterday. Some Sandhill Cranes also made an appearance and were more photogenic than usual...waterfowl and crane photos to follow the paragraph below.

I would also like to take this time to explain my thoughts on overcast vs. sunny shooting conditions in regards to photographing wildlife. I'm sure those of you that read these regularly have noticed that my thoughts on shooting under overcast skies are normally pretty negative. While this may be true, this negativity is only in comparison to shooting on a sunny day. Once you've seen what photos look like in great light, why would you want to take photos with no direct/flat lighting? Well I'll tell you why. When it comes to wildlife photography, you have to understand that the birds and animals are going to do what they do regardless of the weather. Say you want photos of Grizzly Bears fishing for salmon in a river. Bears only feed on salmon in the rivers during a fairly short time span each year, sometimes as little as two weeks depending on the location and the salmon run that year. If it's rainy and there's horrible lighting, you're not just going to pass on shooting the bears that year. You just have to suck it up and realize that when it comes to wildlife photography, capturing the moment/action is more important than capturing only shots with perfect lighting. However if you can do both, all the power to you. Keep in mind all this good vs. bad lighting talk is only in reference to wildlife photography and is purely my thoughts on the subject. I've been guilty of passing up landscape shots due to poor weather on plenty of occasions because lets face it, a sunset on a heavily overcast/rainy day is very boring in comparison on one when the sun actually makes an appearance. Basically all I'm saying is don't let the weather stop you from getting the shots you want.

Alright so now for today's photos. I'll start with the waterfowl ones...

1/750 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/350 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/750 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/1500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/1000 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/1500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800, +1.oev

As I mentioned above, I had some Sandhill Cranes land near me and was lucky enough to get some shots of them....here they are.

1/180 @ f/6.7, 400mm, ISO 800, +1.0ev

1/500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/350 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

1/500 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 800

Thanks for reading!

www.brandonbroderick.com

First Waterfowl Shots of 2010

This past week I've been at home resting up after yet another concussion so this morning I decided to get some fresh air, and my first waterfowl photos of the new year. It was raining in North Van so I headed to Ladner in hopes of better weather. It was raining there when I first arrived but it stopped shortly after and actually cleared up a bit and presented me with some amazing light...for about 45 seconds. Okay that might be a bit of an exaggeration about how little time I had decent light, but it honestly didn't last very long.

For some reason the ducks weren't flying much today. It could have been weather related but I'm not 100% sure. I mean with the overcast conditions it wasn't optimal for flight shots anyways so I wasn't too disappointed. So without them flying, I decided to just focus on behavioral shots. Preening, fluffing their feathers, diving, stretching...stuff like that. Here are some of the shots.

1/750 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 1000

1/3000 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 640, -0.5ev

1/750 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 640

1/1000 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 640

1/1000 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 640

1/2000 @ f/5.6, 370mm, ISO 640

1/2000 @ f/5.6, 300mm, ISO 640

When the weather did finally clear for a few minutes I did happen to get a flight shot...here it is

1/3000 @ f/5.6, 400mm, ISO 640

The rest of the photos from my day can be found here

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2916210&id=61927899276

Thanks for reading,

Brandon Broderick

www.brandonbroderick.com

Photo Tip: Slow Shutter - Flowing Water

There's not much to write in this blog, the video says it all

enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGRmPh7Gv-Q

Coyotes 1, Brandon 0

Like I mentioned in the previous blog, I was going to attempt to get some shots of coyotes today. And attempt I did, however results were sub-par. I was given access to some property in Langley from a buddy of mine and had a lot of confidence about the area. As soon as I arrived I did a quick walk around the property to see what I was dealing with. A creek ran through the right side of the property and through the back as well so that was a good sign. The creek area was also pretty thick with trees so this spot had some real potential.

I brought my camouflage, blind, predator call, and long distance lure just to maximize my chances of seeing one of these animals. The long distance lure was placed, my blind was set up, I was fully camouflaged and just as I was about to sit down, I saw it. An animal coming from the left side of the property. I believe it was a Bichon Frise and it belonged to the neighbour. That pretty well ended my attempt at coyote photography for the day.

I couldn't just give up like that though. I had driven all the way to Langley from North Vancouver so I decided to make the most of it. I've heard coyotes had been spotted at a park close to where I already was so I decided to head there. Once again I put on my camouflage, grabbed all my gear and headed down a trail. The trail went through a forest and opened up into this field that looked really good. Just as I started to set up, 3 people walked by. Another place that wouldn't work.

If you're wondering why I gave up so quickly at these spots, it's because I need to call in the coyotes. This involves using a predator call which is made to sound like a rabbit in distress. This call is very loud and it needs to be if it's going to attract coyotes, however with it's high volume, it also attracts overly curious people and pets. Once people and dogs start showing up to my location, my location is blown.

The more I take photos, the more I realize that things don't always go as planned and you just have to move on and try to make the most of the day. I could look at this whole coyote thing as a negative, but I'm turning it into a positive because now I know where NOT to go to look for coyotes in the future. Speaking of which, if any of you reading this know somebody who has some land in the lower mainland of BC that has coyotes on it, please email me at brandon@brandonbroderick.com and there may be a print or 2 in it for you.

Now to talk about how I made the most of the day. Since I was already in the Langley area, Ladner wasn't too far and it's always a great place to at least get a few shots of some waterfowl. Even there I didn't have much luck with photos, but I still managed a few. Here they are...

This photo isn't anything special, I just thought it illustrated the struggle between webbed feet and ice.

1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

A Mallard making an icy landing.

1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Since I mainly try for flight shots, this is my favorite photo of the day. Enjoy.

1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 500, 400mm

www.brandonbroderick.com

Sunrise, Cranes, and very few Eagles

Early this past week the weatherman was calling for perfect weather this weekend. And I can't be the only one out there that is a little skeptical when I see the weather forecast 5 days in advance. However for some crazy reason, the weatherman was right and today it was beautiful out. It was freezing cold, but just blue skies and sun. With the weather being so rainy/overcast here all winter, I had to take advantage of such a nice day and decided to take pictures from sunrise to sundown.

I'm not sure why, but for sunrise photos I decided to head to a place an hour from North Van...Tsawwassen. This meant getting up extra early, but once I was finally awake, it wasn't so bad. I was originally planning on taking some photos of the sunrise itself, but with no clouds in the sky, it was pretty bland. However the scenes I did capture really illustrate the temperature and the beauty of the sunrise.

1/4 @ f/22, ISO 200, 17mm, -2.0ev

1/250 @ f/11, ISO 400, 60mm, -1.0ev

1/60 @ f/22, ISO 400, 60mm

After the sunrise photo session I headed to Ladner once again to try for some waterfowl shots. I did accomplish my goal and managed a few waterfowl photos, but some Sandhill Cranes caught my attention so I ended up focussing on them. I don't have many shots of the cranes so it was a hard opportunity to pass up.

Here are some of the waterfowl shots. This first one is a female Wigeon on thin ice.

1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 500, 400mm, -0.5ev

This one actually came out pretty cool. It's a mallard taking off from the ice.

1/2000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 300mm, -0.5ev

This ended up being the only decent flight shot of the day. It's a female Pintail.

1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm, -0.5ev

I started off the waterfowl photos with a shot of a female Wigeon on thin ice, so I'll close it off with this shot of a drake Wigeon in the same situation.

1/1500 @ f/8, ISO 400, 400mm, -0.5ev

Alright so now for the Sandhill Crane shots. There's not much to say about them so enjoy.

1/4000 @ f/5.6, ISO 500, 400mm, -0.5ev

1/4000 @ f/5.6, ISO 500, 400mm, -0.5ev

1/4000 @ f/5.6, ISO 500, 400mm, -0.5ev

1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 500, 400mm

From Ladner I made the long trip out to Harrison to hopefully find some eagles. Eagles were found, just nowhere near the shoreline. There were some really strong winds and most of the eagles took advantage of them and just soared high above the valley. The ones that weren't in the air were sitting on some sand flats out in the middle of the river, far beyond the reach of my lens.

The photo below is the only decent shot I got in Harrison. It's 2 eagles attempting to lock talons. They didn't end up locking up but if you look closely you can see the one eagle is actually grabbing onto the tail feathers of the other.

1/4000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Well that does it for my December 5th photo blog. Tomorrow I'm in search of some coyotes to photograph so keep an eye out for that blog...maybe a video too.

www.brandonbroderick.com

Rainy Day Eagles

Rain, rain, rain. Lately, that's all it's been doing here in Vancouver. And on the days that it's not raining, I'm at work, so I haven't done much shooting this month. Today I gave in and decided to brave the elements to hopefully get some photos of Bald Eagles.

A co-worker/photographer/writer, Ryan Frawley (http://www.ryanfrawley.com/) has been talking lately of a place near Harrison where there are tons of eagles and today we headed out there to try and find some to photograph.

Neither of us knew if the eagles would be very active due to the constant downpour but with optimism leading the way, we headed to Harrison.

As soon as we pulled up to the spot we knew immediately that we would get a few photos. This photo below is unedited and merely to show the amount of eagles we came across. Anybody care to count 'em up??

1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, 105 mm

So once the "evidence" photo was out of the way, it was time to get serious and photograph some eagles. The first eagle we spotted was hanging out atop a post in the river.

1/750 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, 400mm

Shortly after that, there were a few eagles flying around and we were able to snap a few quick shots of them. They were out further than I normally like to shoot, but distant shots are good too because they place the eagle in its natural setting.

1/750 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, 400mm

1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 1250, 400mm

After those 2 flight shots, the action died down a bit so I took one more shot of a few on posts and it was time to hit the road.

1/125 @ f/11, ISO 800, 300mm, +1.0ev

With photo gear and rain gear packed up, it was time to head home... or was it? As we rounded a turn in the road, we saw one last photo opportunity, and it ended up being one of my favorite eagle photos I've taken. The rain may complicate many things when it comes to photography. It can damage your gear, it can make for an uncomfortable time, and it also means that it's cloudy out, and therefore lighting isn't the greatest. And since lighting isn't the greatest, settings need to be set in a way that is normally not ideal such as high ISO and a slower shutter speed. The rain also cuts down on visibility and the further away the subject is, the more rain between it and your camera, and the photo loses detail. But in this photo below the rain actually ends up having a positive effect on the photo by giving it a certain mood and despite all the negative things I've just mentioned about shooting in the rain, I'm definitely going to do it more often.

1/180 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, 400mm

www.brandonbroderick.com

More Snow Geese

Sunday morning I once again headed to Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Ladner, BC. My goal was to take some waterfowl photos in the sanctuary, however that plan changed on the way there. Just before I reached the sanctuary I came upon a very large flock of snow geese and they were a lot of fun to photograph last time so I had to do it some more.

1/2000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

The only problem I found during this snow goose photo session, was that they were hanging out in an area that had a few houses in the distance and the odd telephone pole. When it comes to photography, I personally feel that the background is just as important as the foreground or subject. However it wasn't only man-made objects that needed to be edited out of the photos,. When photographing specific birds in flocks, you tend to get a wing or a head coming in from the top or side of the photo. This isn't a huge issue but I'm picky when it comes to that stuff so even some goose parts were edited out of a few photos. In these next photos I'll first post the completely unedited original, followed by the edited version to give you an idea of what sort of work goes into editing them.

Photo #1

Original

1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Edited

1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Photo #2

Original

1/2000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Edited

1/2000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Photo #3

Original

1/3000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Edited

1/3000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Photo #4

Original

1/3000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

Edited

1/3000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400mm

All photos were shot in RAW format and processed/edited with Aperture. The text was added with photoshop.

If you have any questions about how some of this stuff is done, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for reading,

Brandon