Category Archives: Animals

Heron Catching a Snake

This article features a selection of images documenting a heron catching a snake at one of the ponds at Hendrie Valley. These photographs were captured in a 24 minute time frame… counted from when the heron first attacked the snake until it flew off with its catch.

These images are graphic and may not be appropriate for folks who are squeamish about some of the brutality found in nature.

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Bird Photography After 10

This article discusses doing bird photography after 10 o’clock in the morning… which is not considered to be an ideal time of day.  Birds are most active earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon.

My schedule has been a bit crazy lately, so I try to fit in some field practice when I can. I ended up arriving at Hendrie Valley just as some other photographers were leaving. The good news was that I was able to get a parking spot. 🙂 Continue reading Bird Photography After 10

DxO Smart Lighting

DxO Smart Lighting is an adjustment that I use with all of my RAW files, regardless of the subject matter in my photographs. I can’t comment on the use of this function with larger sensor cameras, but I can say that I’ve found this tool to be very useful with all of my images captured with smaller sensor cameras like Nikon 1 and Olympus/OM System M4/3 equipment.

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Local Bird Photography

For many folks, doing local bird photography is their best option from both cost and time commitment perspectives. Flying to an out-of-country location to spend a week with a professional photographer/guide to photograph exotic birds can be an exciting prospect. From a practical perspective it is simply out-of-reach financially for many of us.

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Mid-March Birding

Mid-March birding can be a bit of a challenge in Southern Ontario since the spring bird migration is only in its earliest phase with robins and grackles starting to arrive. We are left with a limited number of species… many of which some folks do not find particularly exciting to photograph. Birds like Canada geese, gulls, fairly common ducks, swans, and small species like sparrows and chickadees.

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Bird Kingdom Outtakes

This article features a selection of Bird Kingdom outtakes that were captured during an earlier visit when I was creating images for my 1200mm EFOV Test article. Photographing birds at an indoor facility with a equivalent field-of-view of 1200mm has some limitations, not the least of which is finding subject birds at suitable distances.

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Intensive Practise Session

This article discusses a recent bird-in-flight, intensive practise session I did along the shoreline of Forty Mile Creek Park… and some of the planning that went into it.

In my mind, casually grabbing a camera and going out to create a few impromptu photographs does not constitute a practise session. There is no clear objective. There is no forethought or preparation. Nor is there any discipline involved with the activity.

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