As I make the transition

Luck plays a huge role in getting good nature photographs, I finished my last post with an image of a great blue heron in flight. Because of the angle at which the heron flew past me, it wasn’t the greatest photo in the world. But, I kept on shooting, and while I had a better angle on the heron for the next image, I snapped the shutter just as it flew past a boat in the Muskegon Lake channel.

Great blue heron in flight

You can also see the USS Silversides, a WW II era submarine…

The USS Silversides

…in the background as well.

I didn’t even notice that I had the boat in the background in that first photo, I was concentrating on keeping the heron in the frame and in focus as I continued to shoot.

Great blue heron in flight

Of course by then, it was moving away from me, so these shots aren’t what I would have liked.

Great blue heron in flight

One of the many things that I love about Michigan is that there’s wildlife nearly everywhere because there’s enough undeveloped land and water all around the state to keep the wildlife happy. I can go to a suburban park just on the outskirts of Michigan’s second largest city, Grand Rapids, and shoot nature photos…

Turkey

…that few people would suspect…

Male Rose breasted grosbeak

…hadn’t been taken in some place more remote.

Red-tailed hawk in flight

I can go to the Muskegon County wastewater treatment facility and capture a range of subjects that many people never see in the wild.

Spotted sandpiper

 

Male ruddy duck

 

Least sandpiper

 

Lesser yellowlegs

 

Upland sandpiper

The same holds true of the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve, it’s a great place for birding…

Great blue heron

 

Juvenile red-winged blackbird

…and other subjects as well.

Iris

 

Damselfly with lunch

However, one of the other things that those places, along with the other places that I go regularly,  share is people.

People are alright, after all, I’m a people too. However, they’re not so good to have around if I’m trying to get a good close-up of a bird…

Male Common yellowthroat

…because some one else passing by usually results in a shot like this.

Male common yellowthroat

To go along with that, I don’t appreciate being struck by a jerk on a mountain bike who thinks that the signs saying “No Bikes” don’t apply to him. And, while I think that it’s a good idea to introduce children to nature at an early age, having a family decide that where I’ve set-up to shoot for the day is also a great place for a picnic is not going to result in a photo like these.

American coot

 

Male northern cardinal

 

Virginia rail

None of the last three were cropped at all, that’s how close I was to the birds when I shot the photos, neither was this one.

Muskrat

I know that the plans that I have come up with both for future purchases of camera gear, and also for how I’m going to go about getting better images in the future are going to work well. However, as I make the transition from how I have been doing it, shooting what I see while hiking, to setting up a hide and waiting for the chance for an excellent image, I see that I also have to find some more out of the way places to set-up the hide, or it will all be for nothing.

If I’m going to sit in a hide for hours hoping to get a shot like this…

Male Baltimore oriole

…then I’d rather not have the chance ruined by a jogger, some one walking their dog, or a herd of other birders passing by at the wrong time. Actually, I hope that if I sit in a hide for hours that I’ll get a better photo than that one, but the oriole snuck up behind me, so the light was wrong for that one. But, it does illustrate how close that birds will approach me if I’m at least partially hidden, and remain still.

Yes, luck is part of a good nature photo, but as in every other endeavor, you can make your own luck.

Finding new places to go is especially important if I want to shoot more videos in the future, and I do. There’s too much human background noise in most of the places that are my regular stops now.

One of the things that I have on my wish list that I’ll be ordering soon is a unidirectional microphone, that will help to eliminate unwanted background noise. However, I doubt if it can totally eliminate the traffic noise that echoes off from the hills and trees around home, or at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve, or the whirring of pumps and other equipment at the wastewater facility.

There’s another reason to shoot more videos, to aid in identifying species of birds. The only difference between a willow flycatcher, and an alder flycatcher is their call. It’s the same eastern and western meadowlarks, they look the same, their song is the best way to differentiate between the two species. Seen from the front, a dickcissel also looks very similar…

Male dickcissel singing

to a meadowlark as well.

Male eastern meadowlark singing

However, from the back…

Male dickcissel

…it’s quite easy to tell a dickcissel from a meadowlark.

Eastern meadowlark

Some of the new places that I find to set-up a hide may require overnight stays, then, the laptop computer that I’m going to purchase will come in handy.

By the way, I’ll probably be placing my order for the next batch of stuff this Thursday. The model of Macbook Pro that I had on my wish list has sold out, so I’m going with a similar, but cheaper model. It has less RAM, which is okay, I can add more later much cheaper than it costs from Apple, just as I did with my iMac. It also has a 500 GB hard drive versus a 1 TB drive, but I think that 500 GB is large enough for temporary storage of photos, and I could always replace that drive with a larger one, at less money.  It’s an older model, but that’s its appeal to me, it can still be user upgraded if I want, where the newer MacBooks are factory sealed, and you can’t upgrade anything yourself. In fact, I could install a large SSD drive for less than Apple wants for the larger 5400 RPM drive. The model that I’m going to purchase now is $400 less than the model I was going to buy, but I can fill the cheaper one with RAM and install a larger, faster hard drive for around $100. That’s a $300 savings, nothing to sneeze at. With those savings, I am going to update the old version of Lightroom that I’ve been using to Lightroom 6.

If I am going to go on more weekend long trips, then the battery grip with two batteries will come in handy so that I don’t run out of juice while I’m shooting. The battery grip also makes it easier to go from this…

Water lily

…to this.

Water lily and reflection

While still on what I plan to purchase soon, the last item worth mentioning is the last of the 6 stop neutral density filters that I need to have one of those filters for all my lenses. I haven’t had too many opportunities to use them, but when I have…

Train trestle and dam in Hamilton, Michigan

…I’ve been very pleased with the results.

I had planned to begin scouting new locations within the Muskegon State Game Area last weekend, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It was extremely hot on Saturday, too hot for me to go tramping around in the woods all day, and it rained on Sunday morning.

What I’m going to be looking for starts with water, for not only do you need water to attract ducks…

Male Blue-winged teal

 

Blue-winged teal pair

…but also for shorebirds…

White-Romped sandpipers

…and of course, wading birds. If I find a good spot, I may get one of these wading…

Green heron

…instead of being perched in a tree facing the wrong direction.

In fact, I think that water features are very important for all species of birds. Of course the birds need water to drink, but there’s more to it than that. Part of it is the vegetation that grows up around bodies of water.

Eastern wood pewee

 

Song sparrow

 

Marsh wren

There are only a few species of birds that live in the tops of mature trees, and I don’t have any photos of them at the moment. Most birds prefer a mix of vegetation, especially around water, because many of them feed on insects, and near water is where there are the most species of insects…

Red-winged blackbird taking a dragonfly to its young

 

Female Baltimore oriole taking home a spider to its young

Also, many species of birds use mud to construct or line their nests, as with the cliff swallow from the last post…

Cliff swallow gathering mud for its nest

…barn swallows…

Barn swallow

…and robins.

American robin

Ideally, the place that I’m looking for would have a number of small ponds connected by a stream flowing through them, that empties into a lake. It would have a mix of vegetation, from cattails and reeds, to willows and alders, and the higher ground would have a mix of both pines and hardwoods.

I may never find one place that fills all the requirements that I’m looking for, but since several of the places that I go to regularly now come very close, I hope to find something similar, but with less human traffic to scare the critters away while I’m trying to photograph them.

Breaking news! With this weekend being the long 4th of July weekend, and with me possibly getting Monday off from work, I placed the order for the new stuff this evening. Hopefully, I will have some new toys to play with  new tools to learn to use this weekend!

I will continue with what I’m looking for as far as new places to go and other things in my next post.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!