The equipment for bird photography can be very expensive. Part of this is the nature of the business, photographing small moving objects requires long telephoto lenses and effective autofocus systems Beginning bird photographers would be well served with a good cropped sensor camera body and 400 mm f/5.6 lens or a 300 mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. By applying several common sense strategies you can acquire such a system at a reduced cost.
There are many foggy mornings in Southern Louisiana. This is very fortunate! I love to photograph Foggy Cypress Scenes over the water. The limited vision afforded by the fog enables the trees to be seen against a stark white background. Even better, mornings with low lying fog allow the photographer to create stunning images of the fog appearing to be on fire.
As I write this, Southern Louisiana is in the grips of an unusual cold snap. Not the kind of weather I would go wandering around finding things in nature to photograph and certainly not the kind of weather I want to be out on the water. I would argue, however, now is the most important time for my photography and the success of the shooting season is dependent upon much of what I do now.
For the May tour, nesting season was in full swing with excellent conditions at both the Millers Lake and Jefferson Island Rookeries. Millers Lake has a huge number of nesting birds in stark contrast to last years poor showing.
Every year brings another batch of "must have" digital cameras, ever increasing resolution, faster autofocus, better high iso performance, etc. But some of the most memorable images were made decades ago, some with low resolution digital cameras, some made with ancient film cameras. So what is the role of the camera and the role of the photographer, my take on this subject.
The second Louisiana Bird Photo Tour was held from the evening of May 12th through May 16th. The weather was great and photo opportunities were numbers. Continue to read the highlights and see a slide show of my best images for the tour.
An update on photography at Lake Martin. While the birds are not yet back near the road and many of the price landscape locations are now blocked, Lake Martin is still worth a visit if you're in the area.
Long focal lengths and large apertures allow a photographer to pick what is and is not in focus. However, autofocus often makes things in front or in back of the focal point to be in focus. Camera makers have responded by allowing you to fine tune the point in focus. This blog post explores this.
Adobe has announced a change in the way the deliver and sell Photoshop and their other suite applications. This could well mean the end of Photoshop as we know it.
Cow Island Lake is the best place in Louisiana to photograph Osprey on the Nest. In a typical year there are at least a dozen nests many of which are located on cypress stumps just over the water.
Many people living in or visiting Southern Louisiana have driven 18 mile the stretch of the highway from Lafayette to Baton Rogue which is elevated over an immense wetland. The area below the highway is an incredible area of Cypress Trees growing in the water with an abundance of wildlife. This area, which I know as Henderson, from the name of the town on the West side of the area, has been one of the go to shooting sites for my tours for many years.
Despite challenging lighting and several issues at prime shooting sties, the April 14–17th tour offered excellent shooting opportunities. A little planning and a lot of luck maximized the 3 hours of sunlight. The high ISO capabilities of the newer camera bodies and careful selection of subjects and their backgrounds yielded some nice images even in low light.
Living in Southern Louisiana, we are surrounded by water. Over 40 percent of the wetlands in the lower 48 states are within Louisiana. The crown jewel of Louisiana Wetlands is the Atchafalaya Basin. The Atchafalaya Basin is North America's largest swamp and has an abundance of wildlife. With all this water, a nature photographer in Southern Louisiana will at some point spend time photographing from a boat.