Going back to the Big Bend……

March 30, 2014 by Bob Zeller

I am going to be brief with this post. Again, Ann and I are leaving tomorrow morning to spend a week down in the Big Bend National Park area. Migration is beginning and we hope to come home with some nice new photos from the area.

Here are a couple of images from the past few days. Hope you enjoy. Just click on any of them to see some enlargements.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher – first one of the season

Wilson’s Snipe

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ash-throated Woodpecker

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

We will be staying at the Casitas of the Far Flung Outdoor Center in Terlingua. If you are in the area, stop by cabin #12 and visit. Otherwise, we will be back next weekend with new photos and maybe some stories to tell.

A Little Flash of Red

March 25, 2014 by Bob Zeller

We were out driving through our local parks yesterday. Saw 43 species for a nice day of birding. But what caught our attention in one area was a flash of red across the road in front of the car. We looked to the left and saw a cute little Vermilion Flycatcher, with a grub, on a small branch about 100 feet away. I was able to stop the car, and get my Canon SLR with the Tamron 150-600mm lens into position. These images that follow are heavily cropped to give you a nice closeup of that feisty bird. If you will click on either photo, you will see some beautiful enlargements.

Vermilion Flycatcher

Let’s do the Bokeh

March 22, 2014 by Bob Zeller

If my photos make you feel like dancing, forget it, bokeh isn’t a dance. It is the aesthetic quality of the blur in the background of some photographs. In talking about a picture, one might say that it has good bokeh. I love to produce that effect myself. I get it mostly when I am photographing, for example, a bird with my long lenses. By using wide apertures such as f2.8 thru f6.3, I end up with a shallow depth-of-field. DOP as it is called briefly, is the small area in front, and in back of the subject, that is in focus. Everything in front of and in back that is blurred, is the bokeh. An example is this photograph that I captured of an Eastern Phoebe. Notice how the bird is in great focus, and the background is a nice, soft blur.

Eastern Phoebe

My Tamron zoom telephoto was set at the max range of 600mm and my aperture was set at f6.3. I was about 30 feet from phoebe. The background was several yards back. Distance can make a difference in the effect. This Osprey in the photo below, (which I published about a week ago in another post) was about eighty yards away on another tree branch. The background was made up of tree limbs and brush and you can see that the bokeh took on a different, but very pleasing look.

Osprey

Still another pleasing effect was in this photo of a Painted Bunting.

Painted Bunting

In the photo below, of the Greater Roadrunner, because of the angle of my camera, and the location of the bird, the background was more in focus, but not enough distract the viewer. The aperture was the same f6.3. Same lens.

Greater Roadrunner

In the photo below, I used the water itself as the background. I love these Greater Roadrunners.

Greater Roadrunner

While I am on the subject, I will mention that different type lenses might have a different look on the bokeh. Some will produce round dots of blurred light, for example. Also, there may be a difference in the different brands of lenses. Some may produce better bokeh that others. Personally, I a very satisfied with the results I am getting with mine. They make me feel like dancing. 🙂

Incidentally, I never mention this much, because I am not the greatest of salesman. My photographs are for sale. Just contact me and we can talk about sizes, prices, etc. I have satisfied customers all over the country, and I wouldn’t mind helping you to give additions to your walls, too.

Also, my book is still doing well, and you can check that out by clicking on the Flickr logo on the right side of this page, or the gallery link at the top of the page.

It’s all about the light…..

March 19, 2014 by Bob Zeller

I have a love/hate relationship with the sun sometimes. I love to be out in the bright sunshine, just enjoying the day. Then I pick up the camera, and ugh, there are those nasty, harsh shadows. You have a subject in the viewfinder, one side in shadow, the other in the bright light. What to do. The only thing to do is to work with it in the darkroom (digital), and hope to correct it a little.

But then, there are days like today. It was bright, but there was a very high, thin cloudiness that diffused the sun. Harsh shadows were at a minimum, and the light was spread more even.

Ann and I overslept this morning for some reason or other. Perhaps we are getting old, and enjoying our sleep more. Whatever the reason or cause, we hurried to breakfast at Stango’s Coffee Shop, finished a Scrabble game while we ate, then decided it would be a great day for the camera.

We headed towards Middle Concho and Spring Creek Parks in anticipation of seeing a few birds, (of course) and getting some nice photos. As I have been doing lately, I attached only my Tamron 150-600mm zoom to my Canon EOS 70D. The waters of the rivers and creeks have dropped by a vertical distance of about 30 inches in the past few weeks. Lack of rain will do that. We have received only .08 (that’s eight one-hundredths of an inch, or less than a tenth) to date this year.

Fortunately, the birds have faith, and are still hanging around. We saw 37 species. One was this beautiful juvenile Red-tailed Hawk soaring over out heads.

Red-tailed Hawk

We saw a few other species, such as Spotted Towhee, but it was too elusive to get a good photo. I will be back for another try. I know where it lives. As were were to enter Spring Creek Park, we spotted this beautiful Osprey atop a utility pole. I pulled over onto the grass a hundred yards away, and walked back through the trees to get a good vantage point for a photo. I got a nice image of it.

Osprey

After entering that park, we first searched for the Great Horned Owl that we have seen in the past. It was nowhere to be found, but we saw this Great Blue Heron across the river. I still have trouble resisting photographing them, and this time was no different.

Great Blue Heron

Farther along was this Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker – female

Then along the shore of the water, a Killdeer.

Killdeer

I hope you enjoy the highlights of this enjoyable day. Please click on the images to see some beautiful enlargements.

2014 Big Year total update:

#118 Orange-crowned Warbler

#119 Grasshopper Sparrow

#120 Snowy Egret

#121 Ash-throated Flycatcher

The skinny guy might have talent…….

March 15, 2014 by Bob Zeller

This past week was spent doing a few odd things around the house, and a few hours birding. Nothing spectacular captured, but after getting home and looking at my results a second time, I realized that there might be some keepers here. Here are some highlights.

American Kestrel

This American Kestrel was sitting on a utility cable near the entrance to Middle Concho Park. I love these feisty little raptors. A ferocity belies their cute appearance.

American White Pelican

Yes, we do have a few Pelicans this far from the coast. Nearly every year a few make San Angelo their winter home. I was especially proud of this image that I captured of one just placidly gliding along.

Northern Flicker

This Northern Flicker is the yellow-shafted variety as you can see by the the yellow feathers beneath the tail.

Eastern Bluebird

A female Eastern Bluebird perched on a tree.

Bewick’s Wren

This Bewick’s Wren (pronounced buick’s). He thought that I couldn’t see him, but my 150-600mm lens sought him out.

Greater Yellowlegs

The Greater Yellowlegs loves to wade in the waters of the Spring Creek Park. I wonder where he got the name.

Osprey

The Osprey, one of my favorite raptors. Hope you like this image. I feel that he is just sitting and pondering the future. As a matter of fact, the more I look at this photo, the more I like it myself. Heck, I just may have a bit of artistic talent myself. Notice in the title of this post that I opted for ‘skinny guy’ over ‘old geezer’. Hey, I still have my ego to contend with.

Click on any enlargement to see some great enlargements.

Sandhill Cranes near San Angelo

March 10, 2014 by Bob Zeller

A few days ago I received an e-mail from one of my readers, Michelle Sundeen, informing me of some Sandhill Cranes that she had seen several mornings. Since Sandhill Cranes are not regular visitors to this area, she definitely had my attention.

She told me that they were in a field northwest of San Angelo, near Miles, Texas. As everyone that is acquainted with me knows, I “have camera, will travel”, so Sunday morning, Ann and I took a drive out highway 67. When we got to the location, we looked to the left into the fields and spotted them. At first, with the naked eye, they appeared as tiny gray objects that I thought were sheep. As soon as I put the binoculars on them, I saw them for what they really were.

There were several hundred on the ground, easily 400 yards away, and as we watched several more were arriving, in several flocks of around twenty-five each. I had my Canon EOS 70D and Tamron 150-600mm lens. First I tried to photograph some of incoming birds. In the early morning sky, they appeared more as shadows, lacking in detail.

To get the best shots possible, I got out of the car, climbed down into a bar ditch, then up the other side and then onto a railroad track. I knelt down and got into the steadiest position possible to hand-hold my long lens. All these images are heavily cropped.

Sandhill Cranes arriving from roosting.

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes a little closer.

Sandhill Cranes doing mating dance.

It must be that time of year, because there were numerous mating dances going on. Click on any image to see enlargements.

Seeing the Sandhill Cranes added another specie to our 2014 Texas Big Year list, which brought our total to date to 117.

#114 Northern Bobwhite

#115 Barn Swallow

#116 Least Sandpiper

#117 Sandhill Crane

Buntings of the Concho Valley

March 4, 2014 by Bob Zeller

I have spent these cold days at the computer, re-editing some older images that I had made several years ago. Since my post-editing has improved with newer software, I thought that I would post some of those older photos again. Of course, my favorite of the buntings here in west Texas has to be the Painted Bunting. Truly, a bird that has colors, that on close examination, appears to be hand-painted by the Man upstairs himself. There are even smeared spots that it looks like He got a bit “outside the lines”.

Painted Bunting

Painted Bunting – singing from the highest treetops.

Painted Bunting – bath time.

Painted Bunting – female of the species.

Equally pretty, is the the Lazuli Bunting. This one photographed at the Hummer House Bird Refuge at Christoval, Texas.

Lazuli Bunting

Then we can’t forget the Indigo Bunting. This one seems to be enjoying a shower under an artificial mister. Photographed at the same location.

Indigo Bunting – shower time

Below we have the Lark Bunting. This specie is actually in the sparrow family, a Calamospiza, where the other buntings are Passerinas. I have included it simply because of the name. This is an adult winter male. The summer adult male is black except for the white flashings on the wings.

Lark Bunting – adult winter male

There is another bunting in west Texas that I have yet to see or photograph, and that is the Varied Bunting. I hope to get an image of it this year and you will be the first to know. I hope you have enjoyed these. Just click on any of them to see some nice enlargements.

Prints of these photos are available for sale, as is my book “Birds, Beasts and Buttes”. Contact me for more information.

Cabin fever blues and cold buns….

March 2, 2014 by Bob Zeller

Again, we are having cold, freezing moisture. It is keeping me inside, as moisture and cameras do not mix. Of course, that is just a good excuse, as I don’t like to freeze my buns off either. I will just post a few of my photos from the past few days, when it was nice enough to get few exposures.