First Hawk - Oops - Turkey Vulture

Photographing birds in flight is never an easy thing to do. Between trying to keep the bird in focus (or in some cases even getting the bird in focus) and framing the shot it is very difficult. Add to that the fact that you need a decent zoom or prime lens it gets even more difficult. My longest zoom is a 200-400mm but it is too slow for getting useful shots of birds in flight so I am now using my 300mm f/4.0. My guess is that I will go to a 1.4 or 1.7 teleconverter for more reach when I am doing photos like this in the future as you lose some detail when you crop a hawk shot at 300mm.

D300, 300mm, f/11.0, 1/400s, ISO 200

Moon over Wanaque

The half moon decided to make an appearance this afternoon and led to this photo:D300, 300mm f/4.0, f/7.1, ISO 200, 1/400s

Which was follow by these robins who were very comfortable in a budding springtime tree.D300, 300mm f/4.0, f/10.0, ISO 200, 1/400s

Ducks at Sunset

I was going through my photos from yesterday (didn't really get a chance to shoot today because of the rain) and found this shot that I took right after the sunset skies that I posted yesterday. I like this picture because I captured so much of the scene. The ducks, the sky, the water - I just like the way it all fits.

D300, 18-200mm VR, 48mm, f/4.5, 1/30s, ISO 320

Geese Flying

I stopped at Sunset Lake tonight on my way home to play with my camera once again. I took lots of pictures of the ducks and geese but this is one my favorites. The geese coming in to land from the direction of the setting sun.

D300, 70-300mm VR, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO 200

Is it Spring Yet

So it isn't really spring yet but I am not sure how you can tell. Maybe the snow on the ground for the last few days is a clue but with all the rain we had today a lot of it has melted. I have seen a few blue birds and cardinals in the last few weeks but while we were at Botanical Gardens on Sunday I caught this fellow in a tree.

D300, 18-200mm, 200mm, f/8.0, ISO 200, 1/250s

Right next to him was this other little guy who had just finished eating some of the berries from the tree.

D300, 18-200mm, 200mm, f/9.0, ISO 200, 1/320s

Time for a bath

I went to the other side of Sunset Lake where a river runs into the lake. As it was in the 40s and the water was moving the ice had melted in this part of the lake. The birds had congregated and these 2 decided they needed to clean up.

All shot with D300, 70-300mm VR, 300mm

Seagulls from York

So i am now going through all the pictures that I took in Maine. I started my trip in York Maine around 10 in the morning and my second stop was by the Nubble Lighthouse. It is gorgeous lighthouse on an island about 50 feet away from the peninsula. While I was there I met a fellow photographer who was up from Franklin NH with his family. They were feeding the gulls and I took about 200 pictures. Sure made it easy and I was shocked at how well they came out. Made it very difficult to cull the photos down to a manageable amount so I could put them up on the web site but finally finished. Here is one of my favorites.