Wildlife Photography across the Water: surf scoters

Friday, 22 January 2010

Trip Report-New Jersey Surf Scoters Gallery

I had seen Surf Scoters (pronounced Scooters) once before when i was in California but they were too far away to get a decent image, I had heard that there were some in New Jersey and before i went i said to my wife that i would really love to get a decent image of one, The first couple of days when everywhere except the sea was frozen i found good numbers of them with the other ducks and once i had been in position a while they came close, I always start off getting a few standard images in the bag and then become more adventurous and ended up spending some time trying to get decent images in flight, Like the other birds they liked the surf and rough close in waters and so i did some shooting there as well showing their habitat and conditions that they live in, A fantastic looking bird but with mostly black with bright white areas its an exposure nightmare, I always expose for the whites i.e make sure that they are not blown, so as before i shot manual exposure, My main PC is once again playing up so these are from my uncalibrated laptop, Images taken with either a D3+ 600 and extenders or D300+ 600 and extenders, Some full frame and some cropped

Dave

Saturday, 16 January 2010

A Great Trip-New Jersey 1

I arrived back from New Jersey after a boring 9 hr road trip, A big thankyou to Martin for keeping things ticking over whilst i was away and a big thankyou to Jim for the use of his beach house, I tried various places but just couldnt get any internet access so i will break down the trip over the next few blogs,
It wasnt until the other day that i realised that its been a while since i have been away on my own and i really enjoyed the freedom of coming and going where and when i wanted, I chopped and changed my plans as the week and conditions changed and i got some fantastic results, The weather was great but extremly cold, 14 degrees one morning with a high of 34, I was out from before light until dark, I shot a variety of birds from harlequin ducks, Red Breasted Merganser, Long Tailed Ducks, Surf Scoters,loons and waders to landscapes and even fox, I managed to find good places to shoot Robin and Waxwing as well, In the first 3 days i shot 44 gigs of images, I met lots of other photographers and some from forums that i use which was great, The new boots that i mentioned before worked great and although i was out 10 hours a day in freezing conditions i never once suffered from cold feet,So time to download and start processing, So heres a taster until next time

Dave

Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.