Charles Bush Photography Newsletter – December 2024

Thinking of Spring

Roseate Spoonbill at Rip’s Rookery Jefferson Island

As the year winds down, it’s the perfect time to start planning for spring! Our Spring Bird Photography Tours are designed to capture the stunning nesting wading birds of Southern Louisiana. You’ll have the opportunity to photograph majestic egrets, herons, ibis, the vibrant Roseate Spoonbills, and Osprey in flight in their natural habitats.

Tour Highlights:

• Locations: Cazan Lake, Miller’s Lake, Jefferson Island, Lake Martin, and Henderson Swamp.

• Structure: Three half days by boat and three half days on land to ensure a diverse range of photographic opportunities.

Learn more and book your spot today—limited availability for this unforgettable experience!

Great Egret Courtship–Cazan Lake

2024 Fall Tours Completed

Lake Martin early morning

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s fall tours! The stunning cypress trees with their fiery autumn hues and the golden-hour reflections made for some incredible images.

Want to see the best shots from this season? Click here to view the gallery.

Looking ahead, the 2025 Fall Tour Dates will be announced soon. Stay tuned for updates in early 2025 and be ready to reserve your spot.

Sunrise at Lake Dauterive

Photo Mechanic / Fast Raw Viewer Update

I’ve put Fast Raw Viewer and Photo Mechanic through their paces this fall during the tours. Here’s a quick update:

• Fast Raw Viewer: A fantastic tool for quickly checking exposure and sharpness, making it an essential part of my workflow. But it won’t replace Photo Mechanic as the import and keywording tools are lacking.

• Photo Mechanic: Still my go-to for downloading and keywording images efficiently.

I’ll publish a detailed comparison soon, including insights from real-world use on the fall tours. Watch out for this on the blog!

Photo Computer Backup Strategies

Backup strategies are a hot topic, especially as we handle ever-larger files. I’ve been working closely with a client to develop a robust backup system tailored to photographers, particularly those using Apple computers.

New options, including improved cloud integrations and hardware setups, are making it easier to protect your images. I’ll be sharing these insights in an upcoming blog post to help you create a backup plan that works for you.

Stay Connected

Thank you for being part of the Charles Bush Photography community. As always, your passion for capturing the beauty of nature inspires everything we do. If you have questions about tours, tools, or techniques, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Happy holidays, and here’s to another year of extraordinary photography!

Warm regards,
Charles Bush

Choosing the Perfect Boat for Nature Photography

Aluminum Hulled Boat Used on my Photo Tours

Photographing nature in Southern Louisiana often means shooting from a boat. Previously, I discussed techniques for shooting in a boat. For this post, I'm talking about what type of boat to use in the swamp. Considerations include;

1. The ability to get into areas with shallow water
2. How quiet the boat is, mainly when photographing wildlife
3. What your point of view is, you want to be low for some subjects, high for others
4. The stability of the boat you don't want to fall in
5. Your ability to Photograph without the boat or anyone in the boat obscuring the view
6. You want to be able to transport the boat to the shooting location easily
7. The ability to operate the boat while you also photograph with the camera?
8. Cost

I include the following types of boats in this post:

1. Skiffs
2. Mud Boats
3. Airboats
4. Canoes
5. Kayaks
6. Perogues

Motor Powered Boats

Skiffs

I've been working with the folks at The Atchafalaya Experience since 2003. They use aluminum-hulled boats with outboard motors and a center console for steering and control. These boats get us into fairly tight places with several feet of water. They sit moderately low on the water so you can get a relatively low point of view, often ideal for landscapes and suitable for birds wading in the water. They are rugged and extremely safe. They are stable enough for you to stand so you can achieve a higher point of view for birds perched in trees or nesting on a treetop. They are relatively quiet, allowing reasonably close access to birds without stressing them. They can quickly cover a large area allowing you to shoot at multiple locations.

Ideal when multiple photographers are photographing and with people with limited experience operating a smaller boat that requires paddling.

Downsides include obscured vision with multiple people in the boat, vibration from the motor, difficulty transporting and launching the boat, and cases where you want to have a point of view at water level. This type of boat is best when the captain is not photographing.

Mud Boats

Gator Tail Mud Boat on the way to Cow Island Lake

Mud boats are similar to skiffs, except that they have an outboard air-cooled engine allowing them to traverse areas of little or no water. As the best swampy areas to photograph are in shallow waters, this can prove a significant advantage. My friends at Atchafalaya Experience used this type of boat for several years. However, they proved to be unreliable, and for wildlife photography, their propensity to backfire when restarting the engine proved to be problematic. These boats are as stable as the skiffs with the same issues with transporting and launching. As with the skiff, you need a dedicated captain, who is not photographing.

Airboats

A flat bottomed boat fitted with a large automotive engine and an aircraft propeller. It does not require water and can go over swampy areas. Very noisy and vibration prone. Hearing protection usually needed when in use. Wildlife doesn't tolerate the noise, and the vibrations make photography very difficult. The point of view is high, and there is little ability to move about in the boat when in use. The only practical function is to drop off photographers in remote locations not reachable in any other way. A skilled, dedicated captain is required.

Human Powered Boats

Perogues

The Perogue is the classic cajun boat used for fishing and trapping in the swamp. Originally a dugout made from a cypress tree, the most common form of it is now handmade from 1/4 inch marine or exterior plywood. Classically the boat is push polled with the person standing in the Perogue, but many people sit and paddle with a single-headed paddle. Flat bottomed, it has a very shallow draft and can operate in very shallow water. It is typically less stable than a canoe, but more stable than a Kayak. I've never photographed from a Perogue; however, many years ago, my wife and I paddled in Bayou Dularge south of Houma in one built by her Grandfather. Unfortunately, it had developed a leak, and the two of us slowly sank. I think of this when I consider photographing from one. A Perogue may be a good option for swamp photography. Perogues are inexpensive if you're able to construct it yourself, stable, quiet in the water, reasonably simple to transport, and low in the water. Like all human-powered boats, you're not able to move from one area to the next rapidly, so you need to pick your location carefully. Also, being small, you're limited to shallow protected waters; you don't want to be out in rough weather.

Kayaks

Kayaks are the modern replacement for the Perogue. Lighter and available at low cost, they don't require construction. They ride lower in the water than the Perogue so they may offer a better point of view. I haven't photographed from one, but know many who have. They represent an easy, inexpensive way to get on the water. Again, you need to pick your location, you can't quickly paddle across and a large body of water. They are quiet, easy to transport, and you can launch nearly anywhere. Typically they are paddled with a double-headed paddle, but foot-powered kayaks are available, which would leave your hands free to photograph, and you are less likely to splash water on the equipment.

Canoes

A Canoe may also be an excellent way to photograph on the water. Heavier than either the Perogue or the Kayak, they are more stable, but they are harder to transport or launch. Like the Perogue and Kayak, they are quiet and have a shallow draft. Typically they are paddled with a single-headed paddle, a disadvantage over the Kayak as it is more likely to splash water on equipment. Like the other human-powered boats, moving quickly to another location is not possible.

I've relied on motor-powered boats for the 19 years I've been doing photography in Louisiana. Over the next year, I hope to explore one or more of the human-powered alternatives to allow me to get out more on the water.

Infrared Photography to Extend Shooting Window

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Oak Tree–Lake Martin Visitor's Center

Infrared Photography (IR)

Why Infrared–Extending the shooting window

I've been frustrated for some time about having a very short window of good light early and late in the day. The middle of the day has always been a challange. Fortunately there's one form of photography that is best in the middle of the day with bright light, Infrared (IR) photography.

Basically IR is a lower frequency radiation than we can see (red is the lowest we see so it is a wavelengh longer than red). the image is brighter for those objects emitting the most of this longer wavelength radiation which tends to be things that are warmer. IR images often taken on a dreamy other worldly look.

How to Shoot IR

There are two primary methods of capturing IR images, using a filter over the lens of a normal camera, or having a camera converted to capture IR and not visable light. Our normal sensors have a filter over them to block most of the IR frequencies, so the filter doesn't work very well, involving very long shutter speeds, so for most of us that is not a good option.

I experimented with that many years ago with a Coolpix 950 2.1 megapixel camera, and while it did a good job of capturing IR images, it required a tripod and the resolution was very low so prints were not really pracitical.

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Bayou Scene Taken with Coolpix 950

The most practical method is to have your camera converted by one of several companies specializing in this process. They remove the filter over your sensor and replace it with one that blocks visible light and passes the IR frequencies.

Camera Conversion

I got an older D800 camera converted by Kolarivision. There are several wavelength options from displaying only black and white images to allowing a bit of color through. The filter I chose was a 665nm filter which they call an enhanced color filter. With a bit of post processing, which I will discuss in a later post, you can achieve a look with dark blue sky and white leaves. I also got their AR coating which helps reduce hot spots visiable with many lenses. Kolarvision did a very good job with the conversion and turned the camera around very quickly.

Another well respected company doing conversions is life pixel. While I've never used them, I know several people who have who were very pleased.

There are people on the web who have converted their cameras themselves, I would recommend against attempting this as it is a complex process prone to errors and with the risk of trapping dust between the filter and the sensor.

Shooting with the converted camera

While shooting with the camera in color mode you see the image with a deep red tint. This tint with most cameras can be corrected with a custom white balance. Unfortunately it took a bit of effort to make that work with my D800. The image was out of range for the camera to make the white balance, but I was able to work around this by shooting a light blue card and then applying the maximum amount of correction in the white balance fine tuning control in the custom settings menu. Another option would be to set the camera to monocrome, shoot in raw and post process using the resulting color image.

Another consideration is that the focus point is different from visible light and while the conversion company makes a correction for this, not all focal lengths of lenses work the same. The best approach is to use live view to focus where both the contrast detect autofocus and manual focusing will give accurate results.

Next Steps

I'll discuss Post Processing in another post. Suffice to say it's a bit of effort to get good results.

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Oak Jefferson Island

Verdict

I'm really glad I had the D800 converted and I'm pleased with the results that can be achieved. It does in fact extend the shooting window.

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IR Pano–Houma, La