Eagle Pan-Blurs
When light levels are too low to capture sharp images of wildlife in action, consider using slow shutter speeds and panning the camera with the subject as it moves across…
Photographing Eagles and Ospreys. Part 1: Eagles
After retiring in February 2021, eagles and ospreys were near the top of my list of desired photographic subjects. At the time I had only a few images of bald…
Black Bears of Eastern North Carolina: 2022
I made several trips this year to photograph the bears at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and Pocosin Lakes NWR. I captured some nice images, but overall did not have…
Photographing Elk in the Smoky Mountains
Elk once roamed much of eastern North America. Their range quite possibly exceeded that of white-tailed deer. With European settlement and excessive hunting, elk gradually disappeared from the east. Elk…
Black Bears of Eastern North Carolina
My favorite wildlife subjects by far have been birds. Upon retiring in February and having more time for photography, I decided to make a concerted effort to photograph other subjects. Black bears were an obvious choice for two reasons: 1) Eastern North Carolina has one of the the largest concentrations of black bears in the U.S., and 2) Good locations were within 2-3 hours of my home.
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Twenty Minutes of Light
I spent two and a half days in mid January at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina. I did not have any luck with my photography until…
Different Ways to Photograph Hummingbirds: Part 1
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only species of hummingbird known to occur regularly in my home state of North Carolina. Over the years there have been at least 11 other…
Photographing the Eastern Screech Owl
The eastern screech owl is a subject that I’ve wanted to photograph for many years, with no success whatsoever. Although I’d heard their eerie and distinctive song many evenings, I had never even seen one in the wild until this year. In late January I discovered one using several wood duck boxes on my pond as roosts and nocturnal feeding stations. The only photographs I took were of the owl asleep inside a nest box. My luck finally changed in April,
(more…)How Big is a Wood Duck?
Wood Ducks are typically shy, elusive creatures of woodland waterways. They are generally less commonly seen than some other types of waterfowl. And for those who have never personally seen one, it’s often hard to tell the size of a wood duck from a photograph.
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