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What a great November to celebrate! From a nature photography perspective I was able to photograph some of the most beautiful wading birds God has put on this earth. From a family perspective, it was nice to spend Thanksgiving with my family and eat until I couldn't move (as is my tradition). I am also pleased to announce the release of The Matt Cuda Nature and Wildlife Photography Podcast. Find out more about it at the end of the newsletter.
In this newsletter I want to primarily focus on my trip to Merritt Island, Florida and in particular a place called Blackpoint Widllife Drive located on the island.
In this newsletter I want to primarily focus on my trip to Merritt Island, Florida and in particular a place called Blackpoint Widllife Drive located on the island.
Merritt Island: a Birders Paradise
If you are an active birder or wildlife photographer then you have probably been to Florida once, or most likely, many times in your pursuit of finding the birds on your life list. And I can bet, that on your bucket list is a place called Merritt Island, Florida. If it isn't on your list then by the end of this blog post, I think it will be.
Merritt Island is a fairly large island just off the east coast of Florida which was originally purchased by NASA in 1962 as part of the Kennedy Space Center. Because much of the land could not be developed by NASA for anything useful, it was contracted to the US Fish and Wildlife department to become a wildlife refuge in 1963.
There are many opportunities on Merrit for excellent birding, but many of us in western society are always being sucked into time constraints we can seemingly do nothing about. Whether we are in Florida on business or there on a trip with the family, often, we do not have time to see all a park has to offer. The national park service recognized this and carved out a section of the island called Blackpoint Wildlife Drive. Blackpoint is a 7 mile, one way road, which snakes through large areas of salt marsh and open black water. During the drive you will see many species of birds as well as other animals such as the american alligator and rarely, otters and bobcats.
Upon entering the drive, you will see a gate, and just beyond the gate is an area where you will need to pull off, put your five dollars in an envelope, and drop it into the envelope container. Once you do this, you can drive the route all day long if you wish. Additional seasonal passes can be purchased from the visitors center.
As I began my drive through the park, I was stunned by the shear volume of birds present during the beginning of the winter migration. The American white ibis was prevalent in the park and I noticed them shifting their hunting locations from an area at the beginning of the drive to an area near the end of the drive and back again. Below is an image of a white ibis hunting the marsh.
Not surprisingly, the various species of herons were also present on the drive. Below, a tri-colored heron is showing his dislike of another tri-colored heron who has intruded on his hunting ground.
Continuing along the road, there was a sharp 90 degree bend which takes you along a very large open water area and up in the corner of this area I found a large group of various species gathered one morning. During this time, it seemed that the birds were very energetic and a bit on edge. Here I captured a shot of two egrets fighting, another in flight , and one roseate spoonbill in flight.
In this area and really throughout the drive, you can also see anhinga perched and drying out there wings after a hunt. Anhingas are also referred to as snake birds because when they swim, only their heads are seen above water. This is due to them not having oil in their feathers to keep their bodies afloat. Because of this, they must dry their wings every time they get done swimming.
Below are shots I took of the anhingas.
Below are shots I took of the anhingas.
About half way through the park is an area you can pull off and walk a trail/water control dyke which you can walk and view waterfowl and ospreys. During December, I am told this is a prime location for wintering ducks, but during mid November it was quite unproductive. There were a few grebes here and an egret or two, but nothing to really get excited over.
As I was nearing the end of the drive, I did see a hawk and plenty of kingfishers, but both species were quite wild and fearful of me and my vehicle.
The bottom line is that if you have very little time to visit the Merritt Island area, then make the Blackpoint Wildlife Drive a priority. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Here is a list of birds I saw on the drive:
Kingfisher, great egret, snowy egret, little egret, tri-colored heron, great blue heron, roseate spoonbill, pied bill grebe, reddish egret, northern harrier, osprey, american coot, common gallinule, anhinga, double crested cormorant, red-tailed hawk, American white pelican, wood stork, turkey vulture, hooded merganser
Matt Cuda Nature and Wildlife Photography Podcast
I also wanted to make you aware of a new podcast I have launched which specifically addresses wildlife photography. It is pretty rough right now as I fine tune technical aspects of the productions. I am starting out with a series on how to get into this genre of photography.
Please subscribe by going to:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-cuda-photography-podcast/id1058000035?mt=2
It dawned on me today that I have never written a blog entry on what equipment I have in my bag, how I pack, and how I prepare for a shoot. So, I guess there is no better time than now.
Location Preparation
I believe the most important component to preparing for the trip is in location preparation. For my trip to Florida, I first checked out the internet, via our friend "Google", for information regarding birding in Florida. This would include topics such as "winter birding locations", temperature and what kinds of species I might encounter. After the basic searching, I will then narrow my search by looking for hot spots already discovered by fellow birders and photographers. For example, searching on "Florida Birds Arthur Morris" turns up a myriad of locations since Art is a well known and published bird photographer.
Once I find a location where I think I will have the best chances of cranking out some great images, I will then use mapping software to see how long it will take to drive it or fly it and what kind of obstacles I might encounter. For example, in Florida there are both toll roads and costs to get into parks. I wouldn't want to get caught without the cash to even get into the national or local park. If I am going to a national park I will often go onto YouTube and see if anyone has shot video of the area so I can get a better feel for how the terrain and lighting will look.
As I get closer to the trip I will do one more check of the weather. I am specifically looking for sun direction, wind speed and wind direction. Why do I do this? First, the direction of the sun is crucial to better wildlife images. When the sun is low and coming in over your shoulder it produces a soft, golden light, directly onto your subject. Next, wind speed and specifically direction is important to determine which way a bird will take off and land. Birds always take off and land into the wind and often they will stand into the wind as well to avoid getting their feathers ruffled.
Packing my Gear
Ah this is the fun part. Every photographer likes his gear. This is an area where you will get as many opinions as there are photographers but this is what I pack:
- Canon EOS 7D Body (Primary body)
- Canon EOS 1D Mark II (old body but great for backup and birds in flight)
- Tamron 70-300mm SP VC (A light, sharp lens when the super telephoto is just too much. Also serves as a backup lens)
- Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary - This is a light, sharp, super telephoto zoom. This thing is the real deal, and very important for staying out of the fight or flight zone of wildlife and creating better bokeh.
- Canon 50mm 1.8 II (sharp, cheap and versatile) - I use this with extension tubes for macro work.
- Canon 10-18mm IS - I use this as my primary landscape lens. I am NOT in love with this lens but it does the job with some decent post production work. If you can afford something better don't buy it.
- Kenko PRO 300 DG 1.4x TC - This teleconverter, when attached to my 600 gives me an effective length of 1300mm !! Beware you will get some image degradation. This is normal with TCs.
- Cheap wireless shutter release - you can pick this Chinese made shutter releases on Amazon all day long but it works quite well.
- Tiffen Polarizer Filter and Step Rings - I use the polarizer when I am shooting waterfalls to remove the glare on the rocks. I consider this filter essential.
- Opteka Autofocus Extension Tube Set - A cheap extension tube set, but they get the job done when I need to shoot macro with my 50mm.
- Manfratto 3221 Tripod - I can't say enough great things about this tripod. It is no longer made, but has served me since the mid-1990s.
- Bogen 3030 Pan Tilt Head - A great all purpose tripod head which can even be used as a poor man's gimble head in a pinch. This item is no longer made, but can be found on the used market.
- Grizzly Camera Bean Bag - I can use this bean bag as a saddle over my car door and rest my long telephotos on it for great support. It can also be used on the ground.
- 3 LP-E6 Batteries - Even shooting heavily I can get through an entire day of shooting with these batteries.
- 2 MP-E3 Batteries - These are use for my Canon 1D Mark II.
- Battery Chargers for both camera bodies
- 4 Compact Flash Cards - used primarily in my 7D. UDMA 7 are the best version for the 7D.
- 4 SD Cards - I only use these in my 1D Mark II along with a backup CF card.
- Emergency Blanket - A light and small item which might help save your life if trapped in the car or in the woods.
- Small LED Flashlight - Great for finding the settings on the camera in the dark and checking out the trail.
- Lens Cleaner and Cloths
- Lens Pen
- Hunting Knife - The knife can be used for protection, but I have it in case I get lost or need to cut something in the field.
Note that I have two bags. One bag I put all my backup gear in, and one backpack I actually wear on my shoulders. I leave the backup gear in the car. Both my bags are sprayed with camp dry to keep them waterproof. Make sure you take your gear out of the bag before spaying the silicone and let it dry thoroughly.
Arriving at the Location
Plan your arrival time based on your research conducted during the preparation phase of the trip. For example, you want to shoot in the best lighting for animals and this is not usually in the middle of the day. Don't roll out of bed a 10:00 am and expect to get great shots during the heat of the day. Get up before dawn and be at your location no later than daybreak.
If this is a location you have never been to before, realize that it will take some time to get acclimated and find the animals. If possible stop by the park ranger's office to find out where the wildlife currently is and what species are plentiful. You might burn up a couple crucial hours of shooting, but the time could pay off for you in better shots that evening.
Finally, and above all, be patient. If you can't sit still and wait on your subject, then wildlife photography is not for you. It can take hours to get only one good shot!
I hope this was helpful for you when planning your next wildlife shoot. So now get out there, have fun and shoot!
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I read an interesting blog about letting men be men and boys be boys and that triggered me to do some additional thinking on the subject that I thought I would share. Specifically why do many men naturally have an urge to be "at one" with nature, hunt, fish, and hike? Even men who play games such as World of Warcraft end up virtually hunting, fishing and hiking. It seems to be hard wired right into us, but why?
Well, I think to answer that question we have to go all the way back to the beginning. Now, the way some of you believe, going back to the beginning means that you were once a slimy critter making its way out of some tar pit, but for me, being one of those pesky Christians, I am going back to Genesis. Specifically let's go back to Genesis 2.
Can you imagine a powerful bengal tiger or the massive grizzly bear walking up to Adam and looking at him as if he was saying "ok boss, name me." Maybe after he named the tiger, it gave him a little nuzzle and wandered off into the garden. How cool would that have been?
Eventually woman was created by God and she was made to complete the man. She did a really good job of it until she and Adam sinned. Now thousands of years later, man still wants to name his animals and tend to the garden, but the woman wants the man to hang out with her. So you see that is why man does what he does. He is being called back to the relationship with God and his duty to name animals and grow things.
Now some of this is a little tongue in cheek, but honestly these are the roots of the man. It is still here within us today. Perhaps not as pure as it was then, but it is still there calling to us. Our modern world full of cube farms, social media and cell phones leave little room to accommodate the ancient call of the wild, but we can still get out there and discover what God made for us all those years ago. Yes it is a fallen world so don't expect some tiger to come wandering up to you for naming, but we can still observe and enjoy and I highly recommend doing it.
No, I am not saying dump your job and I am not against cell phones. I have one and love it, but do yourself a favor and know when to put the machine aside and just take in His magical creation. I have a slogan in my photography: Creation is Art. If you want to experience real art made from the ultimate artist then step into the forest and let God's art renew your energy and purpose. Just make sure you put some bug spray on because some of his art bites.
Well, I think to answer that question we have to go all the way back to the beginning. Now, the way some of you believe, going back to the beginning means that you were once a slimy critter making its way out of some tar pit, but for me, being one of those pesky Christians, I am going back to Genesis. Specifically let's go back to Genesis 2.
Genesis 2:8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.So now we have man put right there in the middle of a bunch of trees, which of course grew fruit and nuts on them to eat. So now God has solved man's first crisis, which is how to keep his belly full. You know what? Man has wanted to keep that belly full every since. Men love to eat!
Genesis 2:10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.OK, you tell me. What is the next thing men like? Water sports such as kayaking, fishing (not in vogue yet), and swimming come to mind. A river running right through eden and splitting off into four other rivers provided quite a bit of entertainment. Specifically God solved several problems: eating, drinking and recreation. Hey maybe Adam even got into a little gold crafting so he could give Eve a nice ring.
Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.Wow, no wonder so many men like growing gardens and farming in the great outdoors. This was the primary way man grew the food he needed and gave himself purpose for thousands of years. Only now do we see this once great occupation dwindling away in the face of technology.
Genesis 2:19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature,that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.Well this one is a no brainer! We are still naming animals to this day. In fact, there are whole occupations devoted to naming and observing animals. Did you ever hear of a biologist or ornithologist? We even give the animals fancy latin names because we just can't stop with the common name. I'd say naming critters was hard wired into man right from the beginning. Hunting, although not part of the pre-sin garden is really just a means to attain food and observe nature. How many men hunt, are into bird watching or like the idea of roaming through the woods in search of critters they have never seen?
Can you imagine a powerful bengal tiger or the massive grizzly bear walking up to Adam and looking at him as if he was saying "ok boss, name me." Maybe after he named the tiger, it gave him a little nuzzle and wandered off into the garden. How cool would that have been?
Eventually woman was created by God and she was made to complete the man. She did a really good job of it until she and Adam sinned. Now thousands of years later, man still wants to name his animals and tend to the garden, but the woman wants the man to hang out with her. So you see that is why man does what he does. He is being called back to the relationship with God and his duty to name animals and grow things.
Now some of this is a little tongue in cheek, but honestly these are the roots of the man. It is still here within us today. Perhaps not as pure as it was then, but it is still there calling to us. Our modern world full of cube farms, social media and cell phones leave little room to accommodate the ancient call of the wild, but we can still get out there and discover what God made for us all those years ago. Yes it is a fallen world so don't expect some tiger to come wandering up to you for naming, but we can still observe and enjoy and I highly recommend doing it.
No, I am not saying dump your job and I am not against cell phones. I have one and love it, but do yourself a favor and know when to put the machine aside and just take in His magical creation. I have a slogan in my photography: Creation is Art. If you want to experience real art made from the ultimate artist then step into the forest and let God's art renew your energy and purpose. Just make sure you put some bug spray on because some of his art bites.
In my last blog post "Mostly, it's a Shutter Thing", I talked about how important shutter speed is to capture great shots of wildlife and other action genres. In this post, I will talk about how important aperture is and how it can be used creatively in wildlife photographs.
A Quick Aperture Primer
Shutter speed controls how long the shutter stays open and exposes the sensor or film to light. Aperture also controls how the light hits the sensor, and it does this by controlling the amount of light coming through the lens. Back when film was popular, the lenses had an aperture ring on the barrel measured in stops of light. The higher the f-stop number, the smaller the aperture and the smaller the amount of light getting through to the sensor. The lower the f-stop number, the larger the aperture and the greater the amount of light getting through to the sensor. In modern cameras, the f-stop is controlled electronically and for the most part there is no f-stop ring on the lens, but all the concepts are still the same.
So that handles the exposure part of controlling aperture, but there is also another benefit to your photography the aperture can provide. This benefit is called depth of field. Put plainly, depth of field is the area in sharp focus in front or behind the subject to which you have focused the lens. High f-stop numbers give you greater depth of field and lower f-stop numbers give you a shallow depth of field. So that photograph of the flower you like, that has a very dreamy and blurred look on the petals, but has a sharp center was created using a lower f-stop. By using this f-stop, the photographer allowed the viewer to see a very small depth of field accentuating the pistil or stamen of the flower. Conversely, that beautiful scenic you love where the entire image is in focus from the foreground to the background is using a large f-stop number like f16.
Turning Aperture into Art
In wildlife, the primary way to artistically use your aperture is by using the depth of field to isolate the subject. What, isolate the subject? How does that work? Remember the flower mentioned above and how the stamen was and the flower's petals were out of focus? The same principle applies here except you are going to use the shallow depth of field to blur out the background and remove the distracting elements. To do this, open up your aperture as far as it will go. On most large lenses this will be between f4 and f5.6. Now, here is the big secret that many people get wrong. The distance between the camera lens and the subject matters a lot, as does the distance between the subject and the background. Let's run through a scenario...
Close Subject Less than 10 Feet Away
In this scenario, we are usually in a blind or photographing a bird or mammal who has tame qualities. Maybe you are on your belly at the beach photographing a plover for instance. In this case, even at f5.6, you are so close to the subject, your background only needs to be a 15 to 20 feet behind the subject and you start to see quite a bit of background blur. This is one of the main reasons photographers, even with 600mm lenses, get as close to the subject as practical. As the distance from the lens to the subject increases so must the distance from your subject to the background to maintain the blurred background. The house finch below was shot only 5 feet from the lens giving the background a nice gradient blur. Even at f8 the background is blurred because of the close proximity to the subject.
What does it look like when you don't quite nail it?
Although, not a failed image by any means, this image below shows what happens when the distance from the lens, to the subject and subject to the background is too great. Note how we have blur, but not significant enough blur to simplify the background. In this image, I had to actually burn in the background to try to simplify. I really did not have a choice here and often times you won't, but I always try to simplify it whenever possible.
Conclusion
Aperture can be use to control your exposure, but also to creatively control the depth of field in the image. This is one of the oldest and most used tools in the wildlife photographer's back of tricks. Give it and try and see what happens. Oh and above all, have fun!
