Nothing’s beautiful from every point of view. –Horace
Portrait: Wood Duck Drake, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sometimes to get a shot you have to lie in duck poop! Canon EOS 7DII/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.
From time to time, I like to revisit old work and give it a tune-up. Perspective in Nature Photography was one of the weaker past offerings that I have polished and expanded in light of greater knowledge and experience.
Egg Hunter: Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta), Houston Arboretum. Tree-climbing snakes often eat eggs and baby birds. Many consider that photographs taken on-level with the subject give the image maximum impact–and snakes are hard to make look good any other way! Canon EOS 50D/100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS. Natural light.
In this expanded article, I attempt to tackle the topic of perspective from several possible angles. Ha! I offer a few tips and techniques and opine and philosophize about a few aesthetic matters. Enjoy!
Western Gull, southwest Oregon. Sometimes you have to lie in the mud, too! Canon EOS 7DII/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.
Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind. –Nathaniel Hawthorne
Portrait: Black Rosy-Finch, Sandia Crest, New Mexico. The Black is one of the toughest birds in the Lower 48 . . . except at Sandia Crest. We were thrilled to photograph all three species of Rosy-Finches at this locale, a glorious snow-capped alpine peak. Some of these images will figure in future posts and articles. Canon EOS 7DII/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC) Natural light.
Another year of enjoying birds in the field has come and gone! Please check out some of the highlights. Here’s to the next field year!
Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe? –Georges Cuvier
“Phacops speculator,” Devonian Period, Morocco. Could the pebbly exoskeletal surface texture has have helped conceal this animal in a sandy paleoenvironment? Canon EOS 7DII/100mm f/4L IS Macro. High-speed synchronized macro ring-flash.
Readers of Two Shutterbirds may know me as an obsessed photo-birder who traipses around the country doing his best to master his birds and bird photography. A few of my readers know that before my ornithology obsession, I was an obsessed fossil-nut who traipsed around the country (often with Elisa, too!) hunting for fossils, especially trilobites, trying to learn how these fascinating creatures lived their lives so many millions of years ago.
I have enjoyed our Two Shutterbirds blog so much and have felt it has lead to so much personal growth in ornithological knowledge and photographic capability, I have decided to take a similar approach with trilobites. It has been years since I have thought seriously about these creatures, and I hope preparing articles about and taking photographs of trilobites, as well as corresponding with whomever chooses to write me on this topic, will get me back into the trilo-world. So, without further ado, I launch Trilobiteseas.com: Paleobiology of a Paleozoic Icon for the Collector and Enthusiast with a new article, Cryptic Strategies in Trilobites. Enjoy!
Just to reassure: Devoted twoshutterbirds.com readers should not fret. My trilobitic escapades should in no way hinder the flow of bird-related images and prose. Cheers!
People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles. –Emily Dickinson
Portrait: Say’s Phoebe, Basin, Big Bend National Park, West Texas. This curious little bird was taking a break in the shade on a blistering summer afternoon. Canon EOS 7DII/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
2015 was a rough year. With all the unfortunate things that happened last year, personal losses and natural disasters, it’s tempting to try and forget about the whole period entirely. But that would mean forgetting the wonderful things, too—and there were plenty. It’s taken a while to put this little collection together, but here goes!
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. –John Muir
Gray Catbird, Lafitte’s Cove, Galveston Island, Texas. Most birders are after warblers when they visit coastal migrant traps, but there is a wealth of other birds and animals to be seen and photographed in these special places. Canon EOS 7D/500mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
I think of migrant traps as the first quality habitat, usually on barrier islands, visible to birds after their epic flights across the Gulf of Mexico during the spring migration. In fall, these places are the last chance to drink up and fatten up before chasing the sun south for the winter. The best migrant traps have food, water, and cover—the essentials of life for birds. Cover usually means trees, and most of the best and most famous migrant traps are mottes, slightly elevated areas with trees on an otherwise low-lying and exposed mixture of land- and sea-scape. In this new article, I discuss findings and birding adventures in some of our favorite migrant traps from Alabama to the Coastal Bend of Texas.
Swainson’s Thrush, Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Quintana, Texas. I was waiting patiently for a Yellow Warbler and a Magnolia Warbler to reappear out of a tangle of foliage when this curious little bird stepped out into the path and stared at me. Canon EOS 7DII/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4xTC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
Collecting has been my great extravagance. It’s a way of being. I collect for the same reason that I eat too much-I’m one of nature’s shoppers.–Howard Hodgkin
Savannah Sparrow, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. Canon EOS 7DII/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.
All the revision in the world will not save a bad first draft: for the architecture of the thing comes, or fails to come, in the first conception, and revision only affects the detail and ornament, alas!–T. E. Lawrence
Magnolia Warbler During Fall Migration, Lafitte’s Cove, Galveston Island, Texas. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
Gila Woodpecker at Cavity Nest in Saguaro, Saguaro National Park, Arizona. We stopped briefly at this majestic park between visits to Madera Canyon and Cave Creek Canyon. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
It’s time, once again, to reflect on the most recent year in the field. As always, we focused on birds doing what they do. Please take a look!
Juvenile Great Egrets caught in a “Muppet moment.” Given this image alone, you might conjure up images of the sweet and hapless Beaker, from the Muppet Show. Don’t be fooled… Most of the time, these nestlings are engaged in a brutal, continual battle for dominance, especially when the adult returns to the nest with food. The Rookery at Smith Oaks Sanctuary, High Island, Texas. Canon EOS 7D/500mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.—Leonardo da Vinci
The Flip: A Little Blue Heron with Water Tiger (Aquatic Beetle Larva) at Pilant Lake, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
An Innocent Pile of Algae. A camouflaged alligator patrols Elm Lake, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
Spirit: Adult Female Red-tailed Hawk at the 2014 Houston Audubon Raptor Shoot. Canon EOS 7D/100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS. Natural light.
Now that I have time, I’m working my way through the entire blog making edits and minor improvements. New images have been added to Avian Portraits and Stalking the Hunters. Please check them out!
Roseate Spoonbill Feeding Nestlings at Smith Oaks Rookery, High Island, Texas. Notice how much smaller the chick in the foreground is compared to the others. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.—Andy Warhol
Immature Male Black-chinned Hummingbird at Franklin Mountains State Park, West Texas. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.
In this new collection, we show off some favorites from our 2013 birding adventures. Enjoy!
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. —Henry David Thoreau
