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Getting used to the camper
After having spent years tent camping and carrying our gear on our back or in our kayaks we are now getting used to the considerable luxury of having it all on wheels. Getting used to moving around with a camper and all the nifty things that come with it takes some time and a few weekends of close to home camping and photography.
Wayback Wednesday - Costa Rica 2010
Back in 2010 Salwa and I had an opportunity to stay at a “resort” near Corcovado National Park on the Southwest Coast of Costa Rica. This trip would mean a flight into San Jose, a second “white knuckle” flight to Puerto Jimenez and then an hour and a half 4x4 ride to the Pacific coast and the Bosque Del Cabo Rain Forest Lodge.
Birds in Flight challenges - Autofocus improvements over the years
Learning to use your tracking autofocus is not just a matter of picking up a new camera and point it at a subject.
Our New mobile nature photography setup
One of our plans when we moved out west was to be able to get closer to nature for longer periods of time, and do so with a bit of comfort. In this video we pick up our new camper trailer and go on a trek from Edmonton Alberta back to the Okanagan Valley through some spectacular scenery. This is hopefully just a taste of what is to come for us in the next few years.
Spring migration - short post for an odd spring.
We had a very odd spring this year, cold and wet until the last couple of weeks of May and then 30 degrees Celsius immediately afterwards. No transition, and due to that the spring migration of birds felt kind of abbreviated.
Latest Gear - Sometimes you can get what you wish for.
Technology moves ever forward, and the improvements that I have seen in capabilities of cameras for photography and more specifically for nature photography just in the last few years are pretty amazing.
High Resolution cameras and nature photography
I was often cropping my 16 MegaPixel pictures down to a point that they were ok on the internet but as soon as I tried printing them the details started falling apart.
The Kootenays
Our move out west during the pandemic has been interesting. A long drive across Canada in December, and a month in Nelson in the amazing Kootenays is a good start, but we are still looking for a final spot to live so that we can fully explore the nature and landscape of Western Mountains and coast of Canada.
Winter wonderland - Wandering through some of Ontario’s Parks and conservation areas.
On our first winter back in Canada after 5 years down in South Carolina we were not really looking forward to the prospect of weeks of below -30 degrees Celsius, but we were looking forward to some hikes in the parks… hopefully after a big snowfall.
A7III and 100-400 GM - how did it come to this?
Depending on what you do and if you get paid for it there are a number of camera combinations that people think of as apropos for that genre. For amateur/enthusiast nature photographers it is often the medium resolution but reasonably fast midrange camera and a 100-400 lens.
Okanagan Winter
The second stop on our Western “where to live” tour will keep us in the Okanagan Valley possibly for the next year. In our first couple of months we have managed to hike and explore much of the valley. I have spent a good amount of time looking for good nature locations for photography and continue looking for that piece of land that we will want to call home.
Short eared owls in Shortyville (or how I learned to stop worrying and love my 200-600)
Short Eared Owls are not a particularly rare owl, but up until this year I have had little success in getting to know them. Near the end of this winter I got a call from another nature photographer with some local knowledge of a great location to be able to shoot Short Eared Owls…not owl…owls.
Urban Refuge - nature in a tiny woods near the mouth of the Niagara River
Screech Owls, Coopers hawks, migratory birds all come to this tiny woods in Fort Erie, Ontario. A piece of woods that may not be here much longer as urban sprawl continues to take over Southern Ontario. This location was an amusement park for Buffalo tourists about 100 years ago but nature took it back over in that short time. This is my first attempt to give a bit of narrative in a video that we filmed over a couple of months in the spring of 2020. Hopefully I will learn to be more comfortable in front of the camera but you have to start somewhere.
A tiny haven for nature
One small wooded area on the beach near where we live that can still be a resting and replenishing area for migrating birds. Located near Waverly Beach, this small plot was the sight of the Erie Beach Amusement Park nearly ninety years ago.
Using mirrorless cameras for nature photography (My progress over time)
I started with a little point and shoot canon and quickly got hooked on taking shots and on how to improve the shots that didn’t look as good as I wanted. I started, and continue today, to use Canon cameras….point and shoot, then Rebel, moving up with my skills and as my budget allowed.
A quick tour of Vancouver Island (first big trip with only Sony gear)
Got a new toy and places to go. I picked up the Sony 200-600 and was able to test it out on Osprey before the start of our one week trip around Vancouver Island. This is the first big trip I have done leaving my Canon gear at home and only going with Sony.
Beach Boneyards at Botany Bay Plantation
Every year we tried to get to Edisto Beach on the South Carolina coast. Camping at Edisto State Park gave us a great location for day trips out to places like Botany Bay Plantation and the beach boneyard that was a landscape photographer’s dream.
Kayaking in sparkleberry Swamp
Kayaking in a swamp on the north-west end of Lake Marion in South Carolina. This was one of our favorite nature spots, only a couple hours from our place near Greenville. Pretty much any time of year this area was worth a paddle. Summers could be a little too hot, but spring and fall were great times to look for owls, osprey, ibis, herons and even a pair of limpkin. The alligators and turtles were abundant, and the scenery was just out
Beach Boneyards of South Carolina
The coast changes rapidly along the eastern seaboard. Weather makes new sand bars and takes them away over time and sometimes within one storm. One interesting part of this change are the beach boneyards…
Sparkleberry Landing - Entry to a Cypress Swamp
From a nature lovers point of view, there is a hidden gem in central South Carolina that I kind of happened upon accidentally.
Okefenokee Swamp - Shooting from a Kayak
Growing up there were stories and TV shows on Saturday mornings of people living in the southern swamps. Amazing waterways with Cypress trees and grassy areas that you could travel by airboat. I had heard of the Okefenokee Swamp long ago but…
Getting the shot - Screech owl after dusk
I thought at first it was a small hawk buy the way it took off, but the shape was wrong…a little too small and round looking.
Photographing Black Bears in Cades Cove
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the busiest park in the US, and Cades Cove can seem like you are in the worst of New York and Toronto commuter traffic. So why on earth would you want to spend a perfectly good weekend stuck in traffic?
Photographing Elk in the Cataloochee Valley
It doesn’t take long before the sun casts a warm yellow light on the meadow, revealing a glimmering frost on the grasses. As the fog begins to lift, the shadowy outlines of solitary trees begin to take shape.