by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Jan 6, 2016 | Chicoteague, Fall photography, Nature Photography, Photo Tour, Photo Workshops, Uncategorized, Wildlife Photography
Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge/Assateague Island
Trip Report (Dec 2015)
Snow Geese Flock
Arrived at Chincoteague, VA on Thanksgiving 2015 to spend several days with friends for the holiday. On Friday, at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center, I delivered a presentation on wildlife photography as I do for the refuge at least once a year. My friends departed at the beginning of the week leaving me to begin scouting locations for my upcoming workshop, sites most likely to provide participants with good photo opportunities. The weather was rainy and cloudy much of the week making my job challenging. To make matters worse, the number of birds, particularly snow geese, this year was fewer than in the past, perhaps due to the warm weather in November and early December. It did not help matters that the phragmites along the banks of the borrow ditches was high in many places making photography difficult and the birds hard to spot.
Luckily there were some small breaks in the weather. Sleeping-in is not wise since you never know what Mother Nature has in store for you. One morning at dawn, light fog floated over the water that reflected the golden color of the sky. Geese floated into the scene and provided some needed foreground. Later that day I spotted a fox squirrel in soft light gathering leaves for her nest. On another day, I spotted her again on the side of the road dining on pinecones. The low light meant I had to use ISOs higher than normal to freeze the action (800 and 1600). On another morning, I grabbed a striking pre-dawn shot of the lighthouse as I enter the refuge.
Sunrise
Sunrise Beach Road
Dawn at Chincotegue Lighthouse
RudyTurnstone
Outside the refuge, I explored the town of Chincoteague and the small boat harbor. I talked to a few watermen and photographed them off-loading their catch. This year was the first time I witnessed workboats returning to the harbor at sunset. This presented me with nice opportunities for sunset photography.
Fishing boat returning
With the low number of birds present of the refuge, I was concerned that my workshop participants arriving on the upcoming weekend would be disappointed with photo opportunities. Besides the small boat harbor, I looked for new subjects to photograph around town. On a foggy morning, I stopped at the intersection where there was a steam driven tractor on display. I had passed it many times but never took the time to examine it. With camera in hand, I discovered interesting details worthy of snapping some shots. Elsewhere in town I took a few shots of outdoor displays and a peculiar mallard with feathers stuck on its bill.
Mallard Duck Quacking
On Friday, finally the weather improved. At dawn, the sky had a bit of color near the horizon so I combined silhouettes of pines against the colored background – layers of color for a slightly abstract feel. Weather conditions continued to improve and so did the number of birds on the refuge. The small group of snow geese that had been hanging out on the beach at Toms Cove near the Life Saving Station, moved north resting on the sand near the beach parking lot. Honking as each new wave of geese arrived, their numbers grew. Against the blue sky, one V of geese after another filled the sky and descended to join the original flock. It was a beautiful sight. I spent the better part of morning photographing the spectacle, much of the time photographing from in my car to avoid disturbing the birds. (Lens primarily used: Nikon 80-400 mm chosen for its flexibility).
Snow Geese landing
In the afternoon Friday, 4 Dec, the impoundment along Beach Road was full of birds – ruddy ducks, buffleheads, cormorants, and flocks of yellowlegs and herons. Weirdly as quickly as the birds appeared, the number dropped significantly the following day when my workshop began.
Trawler at sunset
I had a full workshop this time with 8 participants of varying skill levels. The critique sessions revealed that all walked away from the workshop with very nice images and fresh ideas to improve their photography. Saturday ended with a great sunset at the small boat harbor. We arrived just in time to catch a huge sun dropping behind a trawler tied up at end of the dock. Sunday began with sunrise photography at the beach to be followed by photography of horses and a few herons along the service road. (I rented the Chincoteague Natural History Association tram for part of Sunday morning.)
Fox squirrel
My lesson learned. Don’t give up despite the weather or other disappointments. If you keep a positive attitude, you are bound to find something interesting to photograph.
by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Dec 17, 2015 | Autumn photography, Canadian Rockies, Digital Photography, Fall photography, Nature Photography, Photo Tour, Photo Tours, West Virginia, Wildlife Photography
Two of my favorite locations for autumn photography are the mountains of West Virginia and the Canadian Rockies.
Aspen on hillside, Canadian Rockies
With the arrival of fall, to the delight of photographers, leaf color changes, birds migrate, and animals move from the high country to lower elevations. But also rain and overcast skies often accompany the seasonal change as temperatures fluctuate and the weather becomes less stable. Such conditions can render images dull and flat, but can also be an asset.
Rain – the Sliver Lining
In the Canadian Rockies this September, we had 2 days of continuous hard rain, so much that rock slides blocked the main highway. We just took the time to relax, read, and work on images. Although being driven inside by the rain was disappointing, the following morning was spectacular with beautiful fresh snow on the mountain tops.
Snow Peaks, Canadian Rockies
Rain can be a both a blessing and a curse. With rain, the grass becomes greener, rainbows appear, water droplets adorn leaves and spider webs, pools of rainwater reflect the colors around them, and waterfalls and cascades flow more swiftly. The color of vegetation becomes more saturated. By using a polarizing filter to remove shine on surfaces, you can make colors even more intense.
Tangle Falls after rainfall.
Ok, so the next image is not related to fall photography but it makes the point that rain can be a good thing. My photos that I shot in Costa Rica of hummingbirds in the rain, were some of my favorite from that trip. (A cheap kids poncho or large plastic bag will keep your gear dry in case of an unexpected downpour.)
Fiery-throated Hummingbird in the rain, Costa Rica
Fog & Overcast Skies
Overcast skies, low cloud banks, and fog generated by temperature changes in the fall can present photographers with unique photo opportunities. When I rise in the morning, I let the light direct my activities. On a foggy morning, I will head to a nearby lake, pond, or low area where the fog creeps along the ground and slowly rises with the heat of day to reveal interesting ghost-like silhouettes of trees, bushes, and mountains ranges. If in Shenandoah National Park, I am likely to go to a high point to photograph the fog hanging in the valleys between the mountains. (Note: Be careful when exposing foggy scenes. Depending on your camera, if your light meter is reading off of the fog layer, then it will adjust the exposure to render the fog mid-tone gray. This will often result in an underexposed photo. Add more exposure to compensate).
Snow covered peaks near Canmore, Canadian Rockies
Morning fog over river, Jasper, Canadian Rockies
Blackwater Falls State Park, Fog over Pendleton Lake.at dawn.
If instead of fog, I wake to a sky that is lightly overcast, I will head to a location where the soft light complements the scene, e.g. to a waterfalls, cascade, stand of trees, woodland trails, flowing streams, delicately colored wildflower, etc. On a bright sunny day, photographs of these subjects will often be disappointing with distracting backgrounds, hot spots, and deep shadows that hide important details. (If the sunlight becomes to bright for your subject, you can sometimes get acceptable results by waiting until the light is diffused by a passing cloud.)
Linde Point, Blackwater Falls State Park, view down Blackwater Canyon. Soft light reveals details.
The Wonders of Backlighting
Backlighting and side lighting bring out the vibrant color of autumn leaves. By using a polarizing filter you can intensify the effect by removing glare from the surface of vegetation. Even towards mid-day, polarizers can sometimes help you achieve satisfactory results. Take note that flare can be a problem when pointing the camera towards the sun. Flare appears as unwanted bright spots across the image or a bright wash over the photo. Flare spots are created by the sunlight reflecting off of glass surfaces within the camera lens or filter. How can you reduce flare? Your lens shade can help but you may need more assistance. You can shadow the lens with a jacket, hat, card, umbrella, or person’s shadow. You can also stand in the shade of a tree or building. Sometimes you can reduce flare by aiming your lens such that the sun is blocked by an object such as behind a cloud or tree limb.
Pond at Canaan Valley State Park. Fall color reflecting in a pond. (For reflections in ponds and lakes, you may capture better color in the water from the surroundings trees by moving to a higher vantage point where more of the water’s surface is visible.)
Backlit fern
Backlit Tree, Canaan Valley
Dolly Sods. Leaves from blue berry bushes turn red in the fall and glow when struck by the late afternoon sun.
Isolation and macro landscapes
Instead of using your wide-angle lens for all landscape photos, consider isolating portion of the scene using a telephoto or macro lens. (Be careful when using wide-angle lenses for landscapes. They alter perspective and shrink the size of items in the background; thereby, lessening the impact of a photo. The mountains you emotionally reacted to are reduced to bumps on the horizon.)
For any photo, identify what attracted you to the scene. Then chose your lens , angle of view, lighting, etc. to emphasize what initially impressed you. Concentrate on the key elements and simplify the image, eliminating the non-essential components. Instead of capturing a broad landscapes all the time, look for patterns and portions of the scene that have high visual impact. These are what I call macro landscape. Little things such as bubbles in a stream, water droplets on a fallen leaf, lichen covered rocks, distinctive patterns on tree bark, colorful reflections in a pond, the flow of water across a rock, etc. can be perfect photo subjects.
Bubbles in stream
Fallen leaves floating in pond, fall color, Canaan Valley
Iceland cascade.
Bark Patterns
Slow Shutter Speeds
For streams and waterfalls, its fun to experiment using low ISOs, small apertures, and neutral density filters, achieving slow shutter speeds to blur the motion of the water for an artistic effect. With flowing streams, slow shutter speeds can add sense of motion which can be sometimes enhanced by swirling patterns of colorful leaves, bubbles, or foam. There is no way to perfectly predict what the final results are going to be, so take a number of shots with different settings. Use your camera’s playback mode to judge results.
Slow shutter speed. Photo of cascade. Canadian Rockies.
Swirling water in a stream.
Roadside cascade, Canadian Rockies. Slow shutter speed to show action. Soft light to avoid hot spots.
Location, Location, Location
If the leaf color is not good in one area, don’t give up. It might be spectacular a short distance down the road. Autumn colors vary with temperature, rainfall, and altitude. The arrival of peak color in any one location varies from year to year.
Fall color reflected in a stream, West Virginia, Near Elkins, WV. Spotted the possibilities as I was crossing the bridge where I took this photo.
by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Oct 21, 2015 | Autumn photography, Fall photography, Nature Photography, Photo Tour, Photo Tours, West Virginia
Dolly Sods
West Virginia Fall PhotoTour (Trip Report)
Blackwater Falls State Park is situated in the West Virginia mountains near the town of Davis and is approximately a 5 hour drive from my home on the East side of Baltimore. Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Canaan Valley State Park are only a short distance from Blackwater. They all lie within Canaan Valley, a 13 mile long high valley, nestled among the higher ranges of the Allegheny Mountains. The average valley floor elevation is 3,200 feet (980 m) above sea level which accounts for its cooler temperatures and early arrival of fall. Within the valley are extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River which spills out of the valley as Blackwater Falls. Highly photogenic, its amber-colored water plunges down 62 feet before cascading through an eight-mile long gorge (Blackwater Canyon).
Blackwater Falls
This part of West Virginia is a favorite destination of mine during the first two weeks of October when the hillsides are ablaze with the colors of autumn. This year the colors were less then prime due to wet weather and warmer temperatures but still beautiful. Views from the overlooks at Blackwater Falls State Park such as Pendleton, Linde, and lodge provided ample photo opportunities. Canaan Valley State Park offered more opportunities to capture fall color as the sun back-lit the leaves of aspen, maple, oak, and fern. In ponds and along the Blackwater River, the colors from the surrounding vegetation reflected in their surface. For the first time in a long while, I took the Canaan Valley ski lift to a ridge opposite the park. (The lift does not operate all year so check the schedule if you are interested). Once I step off the lift, it was a bit of a hike to reach an open area with a clear view of the valley, but the trek is worth it. As I climbed towards rocks of Bald Knob, along side the trail I encountered a large group of vibrantly colored red-leaved blue berry bushes which begged to be photographed. From here, I continued to follow the trail upward until I finally reached the rocky overlook with a panoramic view of Canaan Valley. After sitting down for a few minutes and enjoying the view, I began to photograph the valley below using the large bolders as foreground. (You can either return to the parking area the way you came using the lift or follow a steep, leaf covered trail to the bottom. The later can be a bit challenging but I made it down despite being a little sore the next day).
View or Canaan Valley.
Way to Elkins, WV
While in the area, it is worth visiting Dolly Sods, a high rocky plateau. Its 10,215 acres, are part of the Monongahela National Forest and Allegheny mountain range. As a result of logging, fires, and harsh winters, the plant life is unique and more similar to that found much farther north with one-sided trees, sphagnum bogs, and low growing bushes. There are 3 main access roads to the road that runs the length of the ridge of Dolly Sods. All are gravel and can be a bit challenging for cars with low clearance. There are a number of overlooks of the Allegheny mountain range once you reach the top. My favorite area is the end near the end of the road in a section known as Bear Rocks. Here there are few trees, large lichen covered boulders, and fields of blueberry and cranberry bushes with leaves that turn red in the fall. Late in the afternoon, these leaves glow when backlit by the setting sun. (See under tips, notes for avoiding flare in your photo). This year the leaves were more brown than previously but there were still some areas where the color was nearly prime. It had rained the day before I arrived and puddles had formed on the trails. The water reflected the blue of the sky and the colors from the surrounding vegetation offering some unique opportunities for photography.
Dolly Sods
Dolly Sods
No mater when you visit, these West Virginia treasures offer the photographer plenty to photograph. There are more possibilities in Southern West Virginia, where I have done workshops in the past–the New River Gorge, Sandstone Falls, Grand View, Babcock Mill, Pipestem State Park, Hawks Nest, and other locations offer photographers great photo opportunities in the fall. Fall comes a bit later in these locations – late October. No matter where you go, think of photographing more that the grand vistas and consider simple things like bubbles in a stream, water droplets on the grass, a caterpillar, a backlit fern, or a deer drinking from a pool of water. The possibilities are endless for an autumn photo tour.
Elakala Falls near blackwater lodge
Robert Hitchman in his “Photograph America Newsletter” describes autumn photo opportunities in locations across the U.S. including Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan, New Hampshire, and more. wwww.photographamerica.com
by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Oct 5, 2015 | Canadian Rockies, Nature Photography, Photo Tour, Photo Tours, Sunrise, Wildlife Photography
Fog Lifting
Photo Tour of the Canadian Rockies – a brief trip report of our adventures
This is far from a complete review of the photo opportunities in the Canadian Rockies. Just some highlights from my recent trip this fall. Summer is the high tourist season and to my mind, not the best for photography and reasonable cost for lodging.
I visited the Canadian Rockies 13 – 26 Sep 2015. Early in the trip, I stayed in the town of Canmore which is bisected by the Trans-Canadian highway and located 50 miles west of the City of Calgary. It is within a 15 to 20 minute drive to Banff National Park and is located in the Bow Valley near the park’s Southeast boundary. It served as a good base of operation to explore Banff NP and the surrounding area. It was a peaceful town with reasonable hotel rates and not as crowed and filled with tourists as the town of Banff. A variety of good restaurants are found on Main St including an Argentine Grill. Impressive mountains are nearby for early morning photography that could be done from right outside your hotel. Local hiking trails offered access to other scenic views of the mountain range along the Bow River.
A friend and I visited Banff, Kootenay, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks on this trip. Banff NP, with more than 25 peaks over 9800 ft was my favorite with regard to scenery. I loved its snow-capped mountains and beautiful lakes such as the elongated, turquoise colored Peyto Lake. Like many lakes and rivers, its color is attributable to an influx of the fine particles of glacial flour. Near Lake Minnewanka, my friend spotted our first black bear. Unfortunately, like the one we saw later in Jasper, it stayed just inside the protection of the forest making photographing it impossible. Lake Louise was impressive but the crowds and heavily overcast sky made the experience less enjoyable. In one photo, I featured a person sitting alone by the lake implying he was enjoying the solitude of the wilderness. If you were there and looked behind him at the crowds of people, you might doubt he found the location is as peaceful as the image suggests. I preferred nearby Lake Moraine where a path leads you to a high overview of the lake and large boulders could be used as the foreground of your photos.
Horse with aspen in fall
One day we took the 48 km long Bow Valley Parkway which paralleled the Trans Canada Highway leading from of the town of Banff. We took photos of the golden aspen along the way and Steller’s jays in a garden at an inn just before the Parkway ended. We also checked out Mount Norquay where a small group of bighorn sheep grazed and where we could photograph the Vermillion Lakes below with fall color. (Also shot the lakes from below. Beautiful reflections). We stayed at the Lake Louise Inn and then Saskatchewan Crossing on our way to Jasper to give us more time to explore the areas. (Note: The Crossing hotel (the only hotel in this area) closes early Oct. The Icefield Parkway heading to Jasper is not maintained once winter comes. Significant snows can begin as early as the beginning of October and sometimes before that date. Snow is possible in any month. The road from Edmonton through Jasper is maintained and open year-round since it is a major route for trucks moving cross country. Flying into Edmonton may be a better choice for visits to Jasper in October.
Ground Squirrel staring at me hoping for food.
In Kootenay NP, the Marble Canyon was a worthwhile stop with water running through a deep crevice. But the best part was the friendly squirrels who played hide-and-seek beneath the cars in the parking lot. In Yoho NP, we checked out the tall Takakkaw Falls reached from the main highway by a road that climbs to the falls parking lot with extreme switchbacks. The flow of the falls was slow and photos uninteresting, so we retreated to a bridge down-stream of the falls for some interesting slow motion photography. (There is always an alternative photo opportunity if you look hard enough.)
Jasper offered the best opportunities for wildlife photography with salt licks that attracted goats and bighorn sheep and open areas where elk grazed. The mountains were not as snow covered as those in Banff but were still beautiful. They were spaced farther apart than those along the Tans Canada Highway and Icefields Parkway allowing light to strike meadows and lakes earlier and later in the day. Therefore, the geography made it easier to spot wildlife while in good light. (Note: Due to the northern location of the parks, the sun was never directly overhead even at noon. Therefore the light was softer and at a lower angle to better accent the topography and illuminate the wildlife.) In September, it was rutting season for the elk with the males gathering their females and bugling. (Love the sound). In terms of small animals, some Columbian ground squirrels, red squirrels, and chipmunks were still above ground busily eating and gathering food for the winter.
It rained and often poured constantly for two days mid-way through the trip. This was a good time for a little scouting and working on images but not for photography. The situation was a bit disappointing until we woke on the morning of the third day and saw that the rain had stopped and fresh snow covered the surrounding mountain peaks. What was perceived as a negative event initially, offered us great opportunities to photograph locally and as we moved north. Even the waterfalls benefited from the fresh supply of water and were more photogenic. The change in color of the aspen leaves from green to gold even seemed accelerated. (The leaf color seemed to peak during the 2nd half our trip, particularly on the southern part of our journey back to Calgary to catch our flight home.)
NOTE: In late Sep and early Oct, crowds thin out, animals are more visible, and snow coats the mountain peaks. However, the chance of bad weather increases, possibly hindering travel.
Sunrise near Canmore Alberta Canada
