Carolina Footprints

Black Bellied Plover

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:42:44 +0000

In it’s summer plummage the little Black Bellied Plover is a striking bird to see. It can also be a very challenging bird for photographers to make properly exposed images of. Honestly, and black and white bird can be problematic for getting the exposure right. A bit too little exposure and there will be no detail in the blacks and the whites will turn grey. Overexpose and detail is lost in the white. This is a situation where bracketing… taking multiple images at different exposure settings… can be saving grace. Of course birds don’t always stay in place allowing one to shoot multiple exposures. As such, when they do learn from the resulting images. Take a little time to examine and study the resulting images to learn the quirks of your camera so you can increase your success raitio when photographing difficult subjects. Below are a couple of recent photos of a Black Bellied Plover taken along Taylor’s Creek, Beaufort, North Carolina.

Common Loon on Taylor’s Creek

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:43:23 +0000

The other day while paddling my kayak on Taylor’s Creek along the Beaufort, NC waterfront I came across a loon that was quite comfortable allowing me to get close for photos. I just love close encounters of the wildlife kind. Here are a few of the resulting photos.

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Little Blue Heron

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:15:24 +0000

While paddling my kayak this morning I came across three Little Blue Herons. Two of these tres hombres were quite shy and took to wing before I got within camera range. But one was absolutely calm in my presence and just kept fishing along the waters edge. The bird was in classic breeding colors (hint, look at the head, neck and bill), making it a very handsome model. These and Reddish Egrets are my favorite large wading birds. I’m always thrilled when I get to observe them. Below are a few photos from the encounter.

A Few Shorebirds

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 12:50:31 +0000

I went for a nice paddle yesterday morning. It was a little windy but I still had a wonderful time exploring the Rachel Carson Estuarine Reserve by kayak. There is definately a large variety of shorebirds to be found around the reserve. While I didn’t get photos of everything there were several different plovers to be seen, as well as sandpipers and other lovely wading birds. Below are a Shortbilled Dowitcher, A Semipalmated Plover and s Whibrel.

Oak Toad: Anaxyrus Quercicus

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:27:20 +0000

I paid a visit to one of the area’s pine savanna areas yesterday morning. I wanted to look around and see if any of the various wild orchids that grow there had appeared yet. While I didn’t find any orchids I was lucky enough to notice a couple of Oak Toads. These are considered the smallest toad in North America mesuring .75 to 1.3 inches in length. A carnivore, they primarily eat insects. Endemic to the southeastern United States, they are found from southeastern Virgina to Florida and west to the Mississippi river. Below are a couple photos of these interesting little toads.

Daisy Time!

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:10:51 +0000

There’s something about Dasies. They make me smile. Sorry but they just do. I was glad to find a few of these lovely little flowers in bloom this afternoon. A simple white and yellow flower I find it interesting to try to find interesting and unique compositions for these little bloom. Below are a few from this afternoons attempt.

When All Else Fails Get Creative

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:38:39 +0000

Yesterday didn’t go well as far as shooting days go. I forgot to set my alarm and over slept, so ended up blowing off the morning and running errands such as getting groceries and other necessities. For the afternoon I decide to head out on a section of the Neusiok Trail to see if I could find some interesting subjects. To be it was more a scouting trip than a trip where I had high expectations of getting some decent shots, but you never know. The hike was mostly uneventful without a lot of good opportunities to be found. I did, however, notice this plant with really large leaves and interesting patterns and textures in the leaf. I decided to try a few shots using my macro lens. Flat, natural lighting really wasn’t getting me the results I wanted so I decided to try backlighting it with the little LCD light panel I keep in my photo backpack. Sure enough the backlighting gave me the kind of results I had in mind. Depending on the distance I held the light away from the leaf, or the position under it, I’d get slightly different results. Below are my favorites of the leaf.

Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium atlanticum)

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:57:56 +0000

While out exploring last weekend I came across a small patch of Blue-eyed Grass. A native wild flower of the Carolinas this pretty little flower is a member of the Iris family. I find the combintaion of the blue-violet petals and yellow center quite striking. Here are a couple photos of this lovely little perennial. (There are several different “blue-eyed grasses” so hopefully I identified this one correctly!).

A Tough Shot from a Kayak!

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:57:12 +0000

I launched my kayak last Saturday afternoon with the goal of paddling into a blackwater swamp and sitting for a while in hopes of getting a shot of a Prothonotory Warbler. It was suppose to rain that hint and all-day Sunday. As I started my paddle the wind was starting to pick-up and I could see clouds building off in the distance. I made it into the swamp as planned but my stay was cut a bit short as light was fading quickly because of the increasing cloud cover. Finally I realized it was time to head back to the ramp or risk a return trip in total darkness. As I made my way to the ramp I noticed a Great Blue Heron feeding along the river bank. It was a picturesque location and certainly was worth an attempt at getting a shot.

The challenge was going to be getting a useable shot. In the dim light getting a shutter speed that would be fast enough to make a sharp image was going to be tough. I started cranking up the ISO, going all the way up to iso 1250! A high setting like that would almost insure a lot of noise in the resulting image. Checking my exposure settings, even at that high ISO setting, my shutter speed was going to be less than 1/100 of a second. That’s much too slow to insure a sharp image when hand-holding a 500mm lens. In order to get to a faster shutter speed I opened my aperture up. I know this lens and this lens is at its sharpest at around f/8.0. Opening the aperture wider than that can result in images that a bit soft. I ended up compromising, choosing an aperture of f/7.1. That got me a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. A speed still much slower than the theoretical minimum target of 1/500 of a second for hand-holding a long lens like this. Considering I’m shooting from a kayak on choppy water and ideally I’d have a shutter speed closer to 1/1000 of a second! In these lighting conditions this was the best I was going get, 1/125 at f/7.1 and iso 1250. I tried to steady myself, holding as carefully and steady as possible and squeezed off a few shots. Honestly I was optimistic about what I’d find on the memory card.

When I got home I unloaded and stored the kayak away, put the camera up and spent some time visiting with my wife. I didn’t even bother to check the images for several days. I knew the odds of getting and image that was even suitable for use on the internet were pretty low. Much to my surprise there was a fairly decent image in the series. Was it perfect? Not by a long shot but the noise wasn’t too bad and it was reasonably sharp. A little post processing work in photoshop include a touch of noise reduction resulted in a fairly pleasing image.

Sometimes conditions are tough. When you understand the limitations of your equipment it’s easy to convince yourself to not even try to make and image in some situations. Personally I think it’s always worth the effort to give it a try. You probably won’t get anything for the effort except the comfort that you gave it your best shot. Then again, sometimes you get lucky. Below is the image described above.

From Fire Springs Life

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:09:09 +0000

I made a visit to a pine savanna in the Croatan National Forest. A couple weeks prior to my visit there had been a control burn in the area. It was interesting to see the lush green of new growth springing up from the charred, burnt ground. There’s a special shade to the green of new grasses and ferns… bright… vivid. The grasses, herbs, trees and carnivorous plants of the savanna are dependent upon fire. Without fire shurbs would take over the forest floor. Trees not usually found on the savanna would invade, closing the canopy and robbing the forest floor of life giving sunlight. Even the seeds of the Long Leaf Pine are dependent upon fire to help them start new life. Like the fabled Phoenix these plants rise up from the ashes of the burnt forest floor. The following are a few of my photos from the morning.