Photo of the Week! A Loon with Open Wings!

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 500mm f/4 AFS @ ISO 500, f/7.1, 1/2500

A symbol of Minnesota and one of the prettiest birds you'll see, graced me with this beautiful photo opportunity this weekend. This photograph was taken in north western Minnesota on a calm summer evening.

The hardest part of photographing loons has been find them when the environment was just right and the environment was just right last weekend. I'm talking about a nice low sun angle, calm water, a clean background not to mention a cooperative loon.

With all of the elements in place I slowly approached this loon from my fishing boat. I used my trolling motor which I operated by remote control. Once the boat was in position with the sun to my bad I fired away with my camera lens resting on the calm edge of the boat.

Now if that was the end I would have been excited with an amazing experience and photographs but that wasn't it. The loon suddenly leaned back and stretched his wings and I let loose another burst of shots. I knew immediately that the focus and exposure were dead on and I was ecstatic!

Photo of the Day! Downy Woodpecker

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 500mm f/4 AFS, SB-600 fill flash @ ISO 400, f/8, 1/1250

This downy woodpecker was photographed a few weeks ago long with 12-15 of her buddies. The sheer number of woodpeckers was very helpful to get the shot. I'd like to thank John Nelson again for letting us use his backyard feeders. This was a really amazing set up and experience!

Photo of the Day! Bald Eagle!

Nikon D90, Nikkor 500mm f/4

Bald Eagles are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, but this year we haven't had a lot of luck with them locally. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will be able to post more eagles images! The image above was taken in early 2010 and was actually one of the first photographs I got with my 500mm lens.

Photo of the Day! Goldfinch!

Nikon D7000, 500mm f/4 AFS + TC-14E II @ 700mm, ISO 640, f/8, 1/400

This American Goldfinch image is from yesterday. We spent the whole day running around looking for varies species to photograph. The blurred out background is actually a lake that is partially frozen.

Florida Day 2

I've had pretty limited internet connectivity but here is my day 2 update from Florida. I had a chance to run back down to the lake with the Ring-necked ducks. This time I had quite a bit more luck. The wind was much calmer and I was able to get pretty good sun position. Above is one of my favorites so far, but its not easy editing on this laptop, so I will hopefully have more up when I get back. Enjoy!

Florida Day 1

I have been chasing Ring-necked ducks in Minnesota for a while, but they have eluded me because they are quite skittish here. Recently I got some good information on an area in Florida where these ducks spend the winter. There is something about Florida that makes many birds much more tolerant of people. So I checked the area this morning and sure enough, there they were! They were cautious, but they allowed me to get some shots. I was hoping for some calm water and it happened to be very windy. Not perfect images, but my best Ring-necked ducks images to date!

Male

Female