Its all about the Spoonbill

Was surprised to see a lone Roseate Spoonbill the other day working first a small wet area in the fairway and then a more predictable body of water. Staying to the shade in already 95 plus heat and burying the spoonbill in the mud and water, I captured a lot of images of a pretty pink bird that really didn’t want to show his defining feature to anyone. Like a lot of times in wildlife photography, patience paid off and he finally took a moment to reposition himself at the edge of the pond.

Roseate Spoonbill


I think I’ll have a bug for breakfast

We have a lot of Red-Shouldered Hawks in the area. This one was more interested in finding breakfast than worrying about me. Standing as still as a statue on the edge of the fairway, it suddenly broke out in a dead run, buried its head in the grass and came up with breakfast. Still loving the Nikon D6 with the Nikkor 500mm PF combination.

Red-Shouldered Hawk on the run
Red-Shouldered Hawk with cricket


Feeding Time 1

Shooting with the new Nikon D6, I have been working a lot of birds in the early hours. Whether out on the golf course or out back of the office, we have water and there is an assortment of tidbits that draws the birds in. This Great Blue Heron surprised the heck out of me (and probably the turtle) when I watched him grab a small turtle, fiddle with it for 5 minutes and then swallow it whole. Hadn’t seen that one before….

Great_Blue_Heron_with_Turtle


Keeping alert for opportunities

We tee’d off just at sunrise. My favorite time to play golf since there is usually no one behind you and it is full of shooting opportunities at that time of day. I have been shooting with the new Nikon D6 with the Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF ED VR lens; a combination that I am really enjoying. It is producing excellent image quality.

As I was driving past a large shade tree, I noticed a red-shouldered hawk fly into the middle of it. With the early sun illuminating the leaves around its head, the D6 performed with its usual brilliance; especially considering the hawk was deep within the canopy keeping a low profile.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Testing the new Nikon D6 during Dinner Time

Thanks to Bedford Camera and Nikon Professional Services, the new Nikon D6 arrived on my doorstep in the past week. To date, I have been pleased with the results I am getting during my testing. The greater selection of Auto-Focus options has been particularly interesting. Despite a steady downpour of rain, a Black-Crowned Night Heron suddenly appeared out back on the edge of the pond. Shooting with the Nikon D6 and AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens, I followed him as he went about getting dinner….


Shooting in the face of COVID-19: “Distracted”

The June edition of KHL’s American Cranes and Transport (ACT”) just hit the stands. I was excited to see that an article I finished up in late April was selected for the issue. “Distracted” includes 20 of my images from ConExpo 2020 selected by the editors at ACT, as well as my take on the show and shooting with the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding before our eyes in Las Vegas. While all this took place in the first week of March, it seems such a long time ago at this point in time. Besides COVID-19, the biggest challenge was really bad weather for largely an outdoor trade show.

I have to say that my new Nikon Z6 consistently performed alongside what would be my last serious shooting with the Nikon D5 before moving to the new Nikon D6. When you have small windows of time to capture images, you can’t be worrying about your equipment. Nikon camera bodies and lenses came through again.


American Cranes and Transport: June Cover

After two days of miserable weather at ConExpo 2020, the sky began to clear and for a time we were treated to a blue sky with great clouds. Walking by a Kobelco Crawler Crane, I highlighted the yellow boom against what was going on above. Keeping it simple and at the same time creating a lot of space for text if it were to be chosen from my cover submissions.



American Cranes and Transport, April 2020 Cover

Trying to capture the scope of a trade show on the scale of ConExpo really requires some height. To tell the story of the size of the show, I’ve shot from parking garages, rooftops, hotel rooms and exhibit scaffolding.

Over the weekend prior to the show, I shot what I hoped would be a cover image from an adjacent parking garage rooftop, after getting permission from the very nice manager of the hotel that owned it (trespassing to get a shot is not advised, especially in Las Vegas). Nice light, most of the crane lot in frame. Only one problem, most of the show was not in nice light and if you attended the show you probably didn’t see the blue skies of the weekend. The image that was actually was chosen by my editor was shot by me out a hotel window of the Sahara Hotel across the street from the crane lot right after one of the rainstorms that confronted us during the first few days of the show. And yes that’s the parking garage in the distance where I shot what I thought would be the cover….