Red Winged Blackbird - Spring is here

Welcome to my second post.

I'll share my camera gear some other time but for now I want to share an encounter from Saturday.

Spring has arrived!

Having moved to the burbs a year ago, it's been a long time since I visited Stanley Park in DT Vancouver to take photos. It's an amazing spot for viewing a whole range of wildlife from, ducks, swans, raccoons, squirrels, otters, cormorants, songbirds, etc etc. A must visit for any tourist.

I spent a good four hours there on Saturday crouching in duck crap taking photos of a variety of duck species that visit for the winter. As I was kneeling by the water's edge I could'nt help but be distracted by this noisy Blackbird who was singing his heart out.  He was perched thick in the reeds beside the trail path and thanks to a great deal of patience and very accommodating passersby I was ready with my camera when he finally picked the right perch so I could get a clean shot with a nice background.

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // ISO1250 // 1/500 //+2/3

Canon 7D with 400mm F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment.

Coming up next: What's the story behind the blog title photo?

In my next post I will share with you the story behind the title photo of the Fox silhouette.

Stay tuned!

Welcome to my photography blog "Looking into the eyes of the wild" by J M Douglas Photography

I thought for my first post I would share a special photo I captured during a trip last May to Nova Scotia, Canada. This Atlantic Puffin shot was taken while onboard Donelda's Puffin Boat Tours @ http://www.puffinboattours.com/. A superb trip and this was the best from a series of 15 shots I captured during a two second take off period. These little fellas don't hang around.

The story behind the shot,

I was determined to photograph a Puffin taking flight with a water trail. With so much going on around me I had to remain focussed. I had the ISO at 400 so I was confident I would achieve a suitable shutter speed given the strong light so the next thing was to find my subject. As the boat circled around I spotted this little fella and thought right he is a good distance and will potentially take off as the boat circles. I focussed using the AF area select mode, AF Point expansion and steadied myself ready on the trigger. To my delight he took flight and thanks to the 7D having 8fps I got the shot I was looking for.

It's always a great moment when things come together like this.

I will share many more photos with you here from my encounters along with a few tips and tricks every now and again.

Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // ISO400 // 1/2000 //-1/3 

Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2010

Hope you enjoy and please feel free to share a comment.

Coming up next: What's inside my bag?

In my next post I will share with you the tools of my trade.

Stay tuned!