Wildlife Photography across the Water: new jersey

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

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Trip Report-New Jersey-Long tailed Duck Gallery

The Long Tailed Ducks were one of the highlights of the trip for me, I wasnt expecting them and they were there in large numbers, They were also approachable, Either where you could walk close to them comparatively speaking or where you could stay in one spot and they would approach you, The way to get LTD in flight would be to have some close by and just behind you, At some point a flock would fly in from the sea and land close to birds in the channel, This would mean that they came straight at you and then dropped (they don't land delicately) into the water close by, I think they are a very beautiful duck with a comical face, I think i spent more time shooting LTD's than anything else, They have very white heads and you had to make sure that your exposures were good and not to blow the whites out, As they were fairly numerous i would every now and again take a shot of a duck and check the histogram to make sure the light hadn't changed and that there weren't any blinkies, New Jersey was certainly a great winter venue for the Long Tailed Ducks and i will be visiting again this time next year, Some images have small crops for presentation, The images were processed on my uncalibrated laptop so any colour problems are easily solved, These are just a small selection of the LTD images, I have still to download and go through all of them so just picked a few of my favorites

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.