Dave's Wildlife moments of the Year 1

My year started with a bang when i spent a week in New Jersey, I shot over 6000 that week which for me is a tremendous amount, I went specifically to shoot Harlequin ducks, The weather was at its worst temperature wise with  the inlets that were over a mile wide frozen solid, Some days the temperature never rose above -4 and i was very glad that i had clothing to deal with the cold, It was a long week being out before dark and returning well after dark but i was pleased to get what i wanted with added bonus of good long tailed duck and Surf Scoter, I have an opportunity to go back this winter and am trying to sort a trip mid Jan
Harlequin Duck

Long Tailed Duck

Surf Scoter

 Red Breasted Merganser

It was a great trip and far exceeded my expectations and with the added bonus of finding a great place for friendly fox

We travelled quite a bit up and down the East cost taking in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida
I knew Florida would be a bit special and it was, The weather is great and the birds are very relaxed, My list of birds 'wanted' included Laughing Gull,Skimmer,Rosette Spoonbill and all the Egrets and Storks, We hit it just right and the birds were in the rookeries and again the cameras turned into machine guns and thousands of images later i had just what i wanted, We spent time both in rookeries and on the coast, I cant wait to go back even though the birds there have been done to death, Its a very special place and must go to for the wildlife photographer
Wood Stork

Snowy Egret

Skimmer

Laughing Gull

Rosette Spoonbill

 So thats it for part 1-My best bits are still to come in my next blog

New York New York 1

We drove up to New Jersey and stayed with family last night, Had a few too many and didn't get to sleep until 2 am-a very long day, Today we moved into the city and i am at present in Times Square, We dropped our bags and out our tourists heads on and headed to the Empire State building, I haven't been here for about 20 years so it was nice to be back, First impressions of NY for any body who hasn't been is that its a very busy and dirty city-i am not a city person-and its roads are worse than India's, but photographic opportunities abound so i soon filled a 4 gb card and will be doing some night scenes again as we are right in the heart of it, I did manage to get some wildlife in as we had the company of some pigeons at the top of the empire state, Tomorrow i am heading to long island for some shore birds, I damaged my arm a few weeks ago and its still painful just shooting handheld with a wide angle so a 600 could be a problem-we will see tomorrow
For those of you thinking of coming to NY a couple of tips, Go to the 86th floor of the Empire state building and don't bother with the 102nd as its extra money and you have to shoot through glass and get your tickets at the desk and not the guys in the street who will tell you its an hours wait etc etc, there wasn't much of a queue and it was cheaper to buy from the desk, i shot with my D3 and 14-24 and you really do need a wide lens as everything is soo tall





Dave

New York New York

I am writing this late Sunday as we leave early for the long trip back to NC Monday (today) Today i travelled south to the New Jersey beach but apart from great weather it was a waste photographically-ca la vie, You cant win them all i guess and a couple of places have been noted for future reference, Last night i went to the Hudson river and from the New Jersey side took shots of the Manhattan skyline as the sunset-it was a fantastic view with perfect weather conditions, I took a couple of hundred images as it turned from sunset to night and will stitch them together when i get home,i will cover this later as well as the settings and technique for this type of landscape shooting, We will only be home for a couple of days before we head off to Tennessee where the photography will go into over drive-cant wait

Dave