Tag Archives: birds

2015 Chatham County Photography Workshop

The workshop last Saturday in Chatham County was a lot of fun, and some great images were created. We met before dawn on the shore of Jordan Lake. Persistent thick fog provided wonderful light. Before we started shooting, I gave a short talk about the visual language of photography and encouraged everyone to avoid photographing the lake, and instead make images of color, texture, shape, line, contrast, pattern, etc.

Maggie Zwilling created this wonderful black and white image with leading lines and high contrast.

Kim Hawks created this surreal abstract impression by focusing on the reflections of pines along the lake shore.

While discussing composition I was distracted by this brown-headed nuthatch.

After several participants made photographs of these charismatic sticks in the lake, I created this image to demonstrate how shooting from a lower angle causes the sticks to cross the horizon, creating more visual impact.

As the fog began to lift we moved to a forest along the Haw River. The spring ephemeral wildflowers were just getting started, and the cloudy skies provided excellent light for plant photography. I encouraged everyone to choose a subject and work it for the next two hours before we took a break for lunch and moved to the classroom portion of the workshop.

While searching for trout lilies I came across this 1/4 inch wide scene. The perfection of a rain drop on each and every leaf tip seems impossible.

Rachel Jones made one of the best trout lily photos of the day. These tiny flowers are challenging subjects, and she worked very hard for this image, lying on the wet ground and trying different ideas until she found one she liked best.

Julie Tuttle gave herself a very challenging subject when she decided to work on beech drops. It takes a special eye to appreciate the beauty of these parasitic plants, but an eye for their beauty is not enough. Julie also put in the time to work this subject until she came up with this excellent composition.

Our two hours along the Haw River flew by, and most people only had time to work one subject well. After lunch we spent the rest of the day in a classroom reviewing our images, discussing which we liked best, and going over ways to improve our favorite images on the computer. I am always impressed with the different perspectives and ways of seeing that come out of these workshops.

2014 Bald Head Island Photography Workshop Results

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The 2014 Bald Head Island Photography workshop was a great success. We had a wonderful group of nine photographers who sustained their enthusiasm through a grueling schedule and the inevitable sleep deprivation that comes from working with natural light over several days.

I was very impressed by the progress everyone made over the course of the weekend. Most participants began the workshop only able to use their camera in automatic mode, and during the workshop they were able, for the first time, to create some great images using manual exposure control. I also really appreciated the way the more advanced members of the group were so willing to share their knowledge and help those just getting started.

The workshop began with a social and orientation on Friday evening just after sunset. I advised the participants that if they arrived on the island early it would be a great opportunity to photograph the nearby lighthouse in the late evening light while I was setting up our classroom.

Maggie Zwilling made one of the best images of the workshop before we had even officially started. Kim Hawks photographed Maggie as she was working with the rapidly shifting late day light on the door of the lighthouse. Kim’s image on the left shows Maggie while she was hard at work exploring the subject, but also shows how the door appears in a literal sense. Maggie’s lovely image on the right shows a recognition of shape, texture, and light, independent of the meaning of the object. In other words, Maggie found a composition not bound by the logic of a door.

The next morning we all met in the dark before the first light of dawn to prepare for our morning field session in the salt marsh. I knew this was going to be a tough session since almost everyone was about to start shooting for the first time in manual mode. Learning to do this the first time is challenging enough without having to learn how to do it in the dark. But manual exposure skills are necessary for making good images in the rapidly changing, complex light of dawn. We gathered under a porch light so we could see our cameras, and I divided the group into Canon and Nikon users. Then, each group went about making all the necessary settings to their cameras for shooting low pre-dawn light. Fortunately, there were people in both the Canon and Nikon groups that knew how to make these adjustments and could help me get everyone ready to go. Once we were all set, I turned them loose into the marsh.

Making a great image can be difficult if your mind is focused on the technical aspects of photography, like setting a manual exposure for the first time. Despite this challenge most people made some very nice images. I particularly liked this composition by Linda Phillips created in the soft pastel light before sunrise, and one of her first manual exposures.

Robin Prak created this image from near the same place Linda created the previous image. The difference is Robin used a long telephoto lens after the sun had passed above the horizon. This morning was also Robin’s first experience with manual exposures.

You can probably tell by now that Maggie has a very recognizable style, black and white, high contrast, and simply elegant compositions. Like her lighthouse door image, this one shows an appreciation of shape, texture, and light, independent of the meaning of the object. Yes, this is a salt marsh, but the image is not bound by the logic of a salt marsh. Her style is so recognizable I probably don’t even need to point out that she also shot the next image.

Guess who shot this view of the marsh.

There were a few wildlife photographers in the group. Wildlife photography is a difficult subject to learn if you are also just learning the technical side of operating your camera. You have to not only learn how to operate the camera, but you have to learn to operate it fast enough to keep up with your subjects.

Kim made an image of me advising Robin about photographing small birds. Robin is a very fast learner and made several great wildlife images during the workshop.

I led a nature walk for the Bald Head Island Conservancy the morning before the workshop that dealt with how to be more present and aware in nature so you can be observant enough to find interesting subjects. Since Robin attended that walk and was interested in wildlife photography, I also included how being fully present can help you create wildlife images. Ruby-crowned Kinglets are tiny, fast birds that don’t give you much opportunity to even point a camera at them, much less set exposure and focus. Over about half an hour I showed Robin how observing wildlife can result in noticing a repeating behavior pattern. This allowed Robin to create this excellent image by waiting for the kinglet to come to her, rather than a futile attempt to chase after the bird.

After the mid-day indoor image review session, we all met on the beach for a one mile hike north into the Bald Head Island Natural Area. The hike is well worth the effort to reach a place far from houses and roads, where you can find a great example of a wild maritime grassland habitat. I advised everyone not to be distracted by the sun as it approached the horizon, there are already plenty of photographs of that. Instead, I asked them to pay attention to what that low angle sunlight was doing to the foreground and make that the focus of their compositions. This was not an easy assignment; the maritime grassland has a subtle beauty.

Just as the sun was at the horizon it cast a soft warm glow on everything. Kim captured that glow here by including both the warm sunlit sand and the cool sand in the shadows. These contrasting warm and cool tones are fleeting and easily overlooked. In a simple way, this composition is saying this light is beautiful, important, and worthy of attention.

Many beginning nature photographers stop too soon and pack up once the sun has gone down. We kept working as the sun disappeared and the light became soft and pastel. Linda created this image after the sun dropped below the horizon, casting the Earth’s blue shadow into the pink sky.

Kim used the soft pastel light after sunset to great effect with this patch of muhly grass. The soft light made the feathery tops of the muhly grass that much softer, and the pastel magenta colors of the sky brought out the magenta tones in the grass.

We squeezed every last bit of light we could out of that day. Robin demonstrated mastery of manual exposure skills when she was able to capture this image as we were wrapping up in the twilight. By increasing her ISO she was able to achieve a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the people with what little light was left.

The last light of the sun had completely faded by the time we finished the mile hike back down the beach. I decided to offer a bonus astrophotography session since it was a new moon and the Milky Way was high in the sky. The night skies can be very impressive on Bald Head Island since it is far enough away from the light pollution of the cities on the mainland. Everyone was able to make images of the Milky Way, which is a subject that requires manual exposure skills. Kim shared this image where she not only captured the light of our own galaxy, but also the light of the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest spiral galaxy neighbor. You can see the bright glow of Andromeda’s central core and the faint spiral arms by looking along the top edge of the photograph, right of center.

After a late night photographing the Milky Way, there was not enough sleep before we had to get up for the sunrise shoot on the beach at Cape Fear for our last field session. This time I wanted to put their manual exposure skills to the test. In the darkness just before dawn we reviewed setting a camera up for manual low light photography, then I gave everyone the assignment of photographing the crashing surf as the sky brightened from twilight to sunrise. I asked everyone to try many different shutter speeds until they found one that renders the waves in a pleasing way. There is no right answer, everyone has their own preference, but this assignment demonstrates one of the creative advantages of manual exposure. You can choose the shutter speed you like best and get that result every time. With a camera on automatic you have no say in the matter.

Robin made this image with a slow shutter speed during the soft pastel light before dawn. Slow shutter speeds render moving waves with a painterly effect.

Audrey Dyer made this image of sunlight shining through a crashing wave with a fast shutter speed. A fast enough shutter speed will freeze motion to reveal the beauty of the order within the chaos.

This workshop was made even better by the generous support of the Bald Head Island Association who provided a room and AV equipment for our indoor image review sessions. I am very grateful to them and the participants who agreed to share a few of their photos for this blog post. I have little time for my own photography while teaching so it is great to have a record of what we did, and to be able to share it with those who were not able to join us. Thanks again to everyone that participated and helped make this weekend a success.

A Meeting with a Painted Bunting

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I had a meeting last week with a painted bunting. I came down from Raleigh; the bunting came up from somewhere in Cuba or Central America, and we met on Bald Head Island. I decided last year that the book I am currently working on about North Carolina’s barrier islands needed a photograph of a painted bunting. They can be quite common on the southern barrier islands of North Carolina, among the maritime forests, hammocks, or shrub thickets. Most people never see them, which is a shame because they are so outrageously spectacular. Some say the males look as if they have just leapt off the page of a children’s coloring book, I presume because young children aren’t encumbered by logic or previous experience when choosing which colors to use.

Since I had never worked with painted buntings before, I had no idea what to expect. I have been very lucky so far with this book, and I have learned that just putting myself in a position to succeed is often the most important thing. So many things are beyond my control that when I do succeed I just have to look to the sky and thank the universe for the gift when everything does come together.

This story began last fall when a workshop participant on Bald Head Island mentioned her friend had painted buntings coming to her feeder the previous summer. I was not interested in photographing birds on feeders, but at least I now knew a place where they would occasionally come down from the tree tops. What was even better about the location was the back porch allowed me to be up at the height the birds were perching, rather than looking up at them from the ground. The owners of the home graciously gave me permission to spend time on their property once the buntings retuned in the spring.

Fast forward to the predawn hours of last week, April 25th. The painted bunting had just arrived a week or so before to establish his three acres of territory for the breeding season. I arrived the night before so I could be on site before dawn. Although I had not worked with painted buntings before, I have worked with enough birds to know they love to sing at dawn, and the image I really wanted was a close-up of a male singing. I followed a boardwalk out to the edge of a maritime hammock and looked out into the salt marsh as the dawn light slowly started to spread across the sky.

Boardwalk to Bald Head Creek

While I watched the sunrise and waited for the birds to wake up I familiarized myself with the song of the painted bunting using a recording on my phone. You can listen to some recordings of the sweet warble of the painted bunting at the all about birds website.

As soon as light started to fill the sky, the birds started singing; northern cardinals, yellow-rumped warblers, Carolina wrens, house finches, and one painted bunting. I could hear him but I could not see him. I moved to the porch to get a better view over the vegetation. Before long the painted bunting perched in the cedar tree right by the porch and the feeder. I thought photographing singing behavior was going to be difficult, but he was singing in the first photograph I made of him.

Painted Bunting Silhouette

This image made me laugh because the low sun completely silhouetted the bird against the dawn sky and a silhouette of a painted bunting really seems to be missing the point to me. But it was a good sign that this was going to eventually work. As the morning wore on he was singing constantly. He would perch on top of a tree and sing, move to another tree top and sing, and slowly move around his territory. About once every hour he would end up back in the area of the feeder. He would perch on the live oak near the feeder and sing, fly down to the feeder and sing, eat a few seeds and sing, fly to the nearby cedar tree and sing, and then fly off to patrol his territory and sing some more.

Painted bunting singing in the tree tops

While this photograph shows him singing, it is just not good enough for the book; you can’t look into his eye and feel, just for this moment, that you know him.

While I waited the hour for him to come back, I had plenty of time to watch all the other activity in the area.

Green Anole

This anole was proudly displaying his dewlap on the same cedar tree the painted bunting liked to use. I really like the out of focus palmetto leaves in the background.

While watching the anole I noticed a second painted bunting. I could still hear the first one singing behind me so I knew this was a second bird. Unlike the first painted bunting, this one came in low, amongst the shrubs, and quiet, not making a peep. He went straight to the feeder, ate some seeds, and quietly flew off in the direction he came. It was obvious that this feeder was inside the territory of the male I had been photographing, and this second bird knew it.

I had one chance every hour to make the image I was after, but each time the painted bunting came near he was either too far away or obscured by branches. Finally, the sixth time, after about six hours, he perched right in front of me in the nearby live oak. The light was soft except for a shaft of hard light striking the green feathers on his back and his blue face.

Painted Bunting

I was only able to make two images before he started singing. It turns out photographing him not singing was the difficult thing. He lifted his head to the sky and let out his sweet warbling song. When he lifted his head he moved it out of the shaft of hard light that was striking his face, rendering more feather detail and more saturated color. His posture seemed to mirror the way I give thanks to the universe in moments like this, when months of planning, serendipitous conversations, and 6 hours of constant vigilance all come together to make an image. You will have to wait for the book to see the image of him singing, but this last image gives a sense of the intimate connection I was trying to capture.

2012 Bald Head Island Photography Workshop Results

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I thought I would share some of the images I made during the Bald Head Island photography workshop last week. When we arrived at Cape Fear Point just after 4pm the sun was too high to make dramatic landscape light but it was making interesting shadows with the sand fences.

I’m not happy with this image but it is the best I was able to do under the circumstances. I would have preferred to find a perspective without any grass so I could make a more abstract image of just the fence and the shadows on the sand.

As the sun moved closer to the horizon it started to light the sand in interesting ways, especially near the point where the tide had sculpted repeating patterns in the shore. Eyes are naturally drawn to the sun as it sets but it is important to look around you at what the light is doing.

I made this image to demonstrate how the setting sun was causing the sand to glow and to show the colorful effects of mixing the warm light of the sun with the cool light of the shadows lit only by the blue sky.

The moment the sun dropped below the horizon I swung the camera around and started shooting in the opposite direction of the sunset. Here the sky is often lit by a range of pastel colors. Water and wet sand easily pick up this color.

Some participants did not have tripods and as the sun dropped below the horizon it became more difficult for them to hold their camera steady enough in the fading light. Rather than fight the slow shutter speeds I suggested they use it to their advantage and make intentionally blurred images.

I made this image to demonstrate for the workshop participants the effect of panning the camera horizontally with a slow shutter speed to create an abstract painterly effect.

The next morning we returned to Cape Fear Point before dawn to photograph the sunrise. There were a lot more pelicans, terns, and gulls to photograph during the morning session.

Three of the participants at the Bald Head Island photography workshop photographing the sunrise from Cape Fear Point.

I liked the curve of the shore and the sun reflected in the wet sand but not quite enough to make an image. When the pelicans flew through the scene it added some additional interest.

One of the participants photographing birds in flight.

Brown pelicans and terns over Frying Pan Shoals.

But the coolest images I made were at night. I invited all the workshop participants to join me at Cape Fear Point for a bonus free session to photograph the peak of the Orionid meteor shower from 3 to 6 am. No one took me up on that offer so I had the beach to myself, except for a fox that hung out with me for a while. Somehow, in the light of the milky way, I noticed the silhouette of a fox trotting down the beach. I watched it trot to within about 30 feet of me where it sat down as if this was the exact spot it had been determined to reach. We sat there together for about 5 minutes, looking south toward the milky way, but the fox evidently had a busy night and could not stay long.

The Peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower from Cape Fear Point. This is a composite image of 34 minutes of exposure time resulting in 29 captured meteors. Some of the more faint meteors are not visible in this low resolution jpeg.

After making the meteor image I noticed the planet Venus rising within the almost vertical band of zodiacal light. It is difficult to describe the feeling of standing on the edge of the sea, bathed in starlight, with the universe wheeling overhead, but I think this last image captures something of that feeling.

Venus rising in zodiacal light. Click the image to see a larger version.

Wild North Carolina Outtakes: Carolina Dark-eyed Junco

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I’ve been very busy lately putting the finishing touches on the new book. What little time I have had for photography has all gone into improving images for the book or creating images we realized we needed as the last details came together. The book content is all wrapped up now and it looks like everything is on schedule for spring 2011 publication. We also have a title, Wild North Carolina: Discovering the Wonders of our State’s Natural Communities.

Animals are an important part of natural communities but including them in the book was a challenge. Not just because they are difficult to photograph but because they tend to move around the landscape, making it difficult to associate an animal with a specific natural community.

At first glance the Dark-eyed Junco might seem like an unlikely candidate for including in the book. Juncos are common birds seen across North Carolina in winter. They migrate here from their breeding grounds in New England and Canada and can be found in many different natural communities as well as lawns and at feeders.

A dark-eyed junco that frequented my feeder last winter.

But there is a subspecies of Junco called Junco hyemalis carolinensis that breeds in the high mountains of the Southern Appalachians and does not migrate like the more commonly seen juncos from the north.

Adult Carolina Junco feeding a fledgling in the Roan Highlands.

The Carolina Junco breeds in the spruce-fir forests on top of high mountains and migrates down slope for winter. Carolina juncos are the only juncos here in the summer, but you can distinguish them from their northern relatives in winter by their stouter white bill.

Bill differences between juncos that migrate to North Carolina for winter and those that breed in the high mountains of North Carolina.

Nuthatch Couple

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A few days ago I spent a morning at the top of a 20 foot ladder photographing a brown-headed nuthatch couple building a nest. I made about 200 photographs trying to catch those moments that tell their story.

Brown-headed Nuthatch Series.

Clouds softened the early morning light for the first two images in the series above. I concentrated at first just on capturing a typical nuthatch pose next to the nest cavity. After a while the clouds parted and direct sunlight fell on the nest. The brighter light allowed me to use faster shutter speeds so I could capture some of the action. Instead of just dropping wood chips out of the hole, one of the birds would carefully perch at the opening and flip its head several times back and forth in a complete circle flinging the wood chips in every direction. It was very funny to watch but almost impossible to catch in a photo because it all happened so fast. At one point one of the birds took a break from excavating the cavity to just take in the morning, and perhaps to wonder what that human was doing on the ladder. This image made me laugh because the feathers on top of the birds head were all messed up from the work it had been doing down at the bottom of the cavity.

A little later some high thin clouds diffused the harsh sunlight and provided the perfect amount of contrast. It was bright enough to use the base ISO on my camera and still have enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur.

Brown-headed Nuthatch Pair

Finally, everything came together. While one of the birds was excavating the cavity, the other one was stuffing it with dried grass. It seemed to me that it would be better to wait until the excavation was finished before bringing in the grass but no relationship is without its challenges. Anyway, at one point the removal of wood chips and the bringing of dried grass coincided so that both birds were at the nest hole at the same time. At this moment the light was perfect, bright, diffuse, and warm, and I was ready.

Florida Birds

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I recently returned from a bird photography trip to the east coast of Florida. I spent most of the time at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge just north of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. This is a huge undeveloped area teaming with wildlife.

Salt Marsh and Palm Hammock

Well, you can’t see any animals in that picture but trust me, they are in there!

My friend Lee invited me to join him on his trip to the Space Coast Birding Festival. I used to work with Lee in forestry at NCSU before he retired. Lee has more money than most people I know, yet uses coupons to save ¢50 on a hamburger. This works out well since I have less money than most people I know, and I could not afford to hang out with him if he lived closer to his means. On the drive down he suggested we split a $5 foot long subway sandwich. Lunch for $2.50, even I can afford that!

Each day Lee went on one of the festivals birding tours, and he let me borrow his Saab. The weather was perfect, and I had good luck finding and photographing animals.

I had a great time photographing the large wading birds. Each species has a different personality, resulting in behavior that I find visually inspiring. I can really identify with the little blue heron. They hunt just like I make wildlife photographs. They wait patiently, methodically, hardly moving until the time is right.

Little Blue Heron

You get a sense of the bird’s patient stillness in this photograph. I had to wait for it to move a little to create the circular ripples in the water.

The reddish egret looks similar to the little blue heron but has a completely different hunting style. This bird chases fish by running at full speed through shallow water, sometimes flapping its wings and spinning around. This reminds some people of drunken staggering, but I think it looks more like unbridled enthusiasm.

Reddish Egret

You can get a sense of how fast this bird is running from the forward leaning posture and the wake it is leaving in the water.

The green heron is a much smaller bird and likes to hunt from a branch over the water, especially when the water is too deep to stand in.

Green Heron

You can’t see its long neck in this photograph because it is coiled up preparing to strike. Just seconds after I made this photograph, it caught the fish it was watching and flew away.

I also had an interesting interaction with an anhinga. These birds swim under the water and spear fish with their sharp bill. They often swim with just their head and neck visible, the rest of their body submerged. This behavior gave them one of their common names, “snake bird”. I was surprised to see this one swimming toward me. It made for a very elegant composition to illustrate this type of swimming behavior.

Anhinga

After I made the photograph it just kept swimming toward me until it climbed up on the bank just a few feet from where I was sitting. I could not figure out why he was being so friendly until I noticed what was swimming right behind him.

American alligator

I guess the anhinga felt safer on the shore with me than in the water with the alligator. After the alligator swam away, the anhinga started drying his wings.

Anhinga Drying its Wings

A woman was nearby explaining to her daughter how these birds are not very well adapted to their environment because they have to dry their wings after swimming. I am always glad to see parents teaching their children about nature but it irks me when they just make stuff up. These birds are perfectly adapted to their environment! By absorbing water they become less buoyant and can stay under water without effort. Most birds that dive trap air under their waterproof feathers and have to constantly expend energy to stay under. As soon as they stop swimming they pop up to the surface like a cork. The anhinga can stay under without effort as it chases fish; the only downside is it can’t fly until it dries out a bit.

On the last day of the trip Lee and I planned to spend a few hours at dawn in the wildlife refuge before driving back to North Carolina. We were late getting out to the refuge because Lee discovered the hotel had slightly overcharged him. By the time he got that straightened out the sun was already up. This turned out to be a good thing. For the past three days I had driven past a marsh with palm hammocks on my way to the refuge. This is the same place pictured in sunset light in the first photograph. The light before dawn at this location was not interesting the previous three days. But this time the sun was up as we drove by the marsh and the light shining through the early morning fog was spectacular.

Sunrise over a Palm Hammock

We spent a few more hours in the refuge and then headed back to North Carolina; on the way we shared another $5 foot long subway sandwich.

Red-cockaded Woodpeckers

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Red-cockaded woodpeckers are unlike other woodpeckers in that they build nest cavities in live pine trees. Other, seemingly more sensible woodpeckers excavate their nest cavities in the softer rotten wood of dead trees. It is difficult to build a nest cavity in a live pine tree, and as a result, young red-cockaded woodpeckers often stay with their parents for years rather than move out and excavate their own cavity. This means the parents have some help raising the next set of young, but it also means there are fewer birds raising their own families. These extended families often forage together, constantly calling back and forth to stay in contact with each other.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Red-cockaded woodpeckers prefer to build their cavities in old growth longleaf pine trees. These trees often have heart rot that makes the core of the tree soft and easier for the birds to excavate once they hammer through the hard, sticky sapwood. Old growth longleaf pine has all but disappeared from the landscape, making it difficult for these birds to find suitable nesting and foraging sites. With their preferred nesting trees all but gone it is no surprise that the red-cockaded woodpecker is on the endangered species list.

It might seem like these birds are making things difficult for themselves by insisting on nesting in live pine trees. This was a good strategy hundreds of years ago when the frequent fires that maintained the longleaf pine savannas would have burned away any dead trees. In just a few hundred years we have changed the landscape to suit our needs by eliminating fires and converting the savannas to other uses. Some animals have benefited from these changes; the red-cockaded woodpecker has not.

Go with what works

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Brown-headed and red-breasted nuthatches have been visiting my suet feeder for the last few months, and I have been looking for an opportunity to photograph them. Just as I was working out a way to do it, a yellow-rumped warbler decided to claim the suet as his own and defend it against anyone smaller or with less attitude. This included, unfortunately, all the nuthatches.

At times like this I try to remind myself to just go with what works. The nuthatches were chased off when ever they came into the yard. The warbler, however, was present constantly as he chased the other birds with his tail feathers flared. I made lots of photographs of him over several days but I like this one the best because of the way it shows his attitude. I get the sense from this photograph that he is starring right at me and I am next on his list! Can you really blame him though? I mean, wouldn’t you develop an attitude if people kept calling attention to some obvious feature of your posterior?

Yellow-rumped Warbler with an attitude