OK - I normally try to avoid cropping at all with my wildlife photography, but that is usually hard to do. However, I rarely like to crop as heavily as I had two with these two images, but the subject material really made it worth-while.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 390mm, 1/3200th sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

That is an osprey. I actually didn't even upload a copy of the uncropped version, but suffice to say that you could pretty much only make out that it was a bird in that version. However, I am impressed with the results I got here as you can even make out the eye and some individual feathers in the full-size version

The next bird is much much smaller, but I was also way closer to it. But it still needed a heavy dose of cropping (mouseover the image for the original). This one we believe is a Palm Warbler...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 390mm, 1/320th sec at f/8. ISO 1250. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode with -1 EC plus Better Beamer. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

Ok - as promised, I cropped a couple of the shots from my set with the bufflehead. As a rule, I generally try to crop as little as possible, but in this case it definitely does help to bring out some of the detail in the bird - especially the iridescence in its seemingly black feathers on its head.

This first one I shared yesterday...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

As you can see, the exposure on these birds is tough with the bright pure white right next to dark jet black. Also, that first image has just hints of the iridescence showing up in the head feathers (see the slight purple hints at the top and bottom of the head?). This next one, however, shows it much more prominent!

Can you see that awesome purple and green iridescence showing through now? That isn't a trick of the camera or any kind of photoshopping... that is definitely how it was in person. Fleeting to see, but quite beautiful.

I also played around with trying different compositions with the crops - I go back and forth whether I like those decisions, but the increased size of the bird in the frame is definitely a nice benefit. For web viewing or possibly small prints, this kind of cropping is OK, but I still strive to get the shot just as I want it in the camera.

I tried to head out and see if I could get some photos of the hooded merganser that was on this pond yesterday, but the little bugger flew off before I could even get off the porch! I'll keep trying to get photos of these lovely migrating visitors, so stay tuned!

- Bill

So things are steadily moving towards spring (even though we did have more snow on the ground this morning) and we're starting to get our annual migrating visitors on the pond. One new visitor we've never seen on our pond before is a small black and white duck called a Bufflehead. While not the showiest of ducks, it made up for that by being at least semi-cooperative.

Most of the other ducks that visit during their migration as extremely skittish and fly off with any attempt to approach the pond. This little guy on the other hand didn't fly off, but he also maintained a very healthy distance. As you can see in the first shot, I just couldn't get close for any kind of close-up shot. He tended to maintain about a 200 foot distance (as you can see in the left most photo below) no matter how I tried to position myself.

So after about an hour I decided to try something to get him to move in a little closer. I texted Anya who was in the house and asked her to approach the pond from the other side. That worked perfectly, and the bufflehead split the difference between us and moved a bit closer so I could get at least slightly better photos...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, Various exposures. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

These are all uncropped images, and I notice that they don't show off the nice iridescence that is the Bufflehead's one bit of flashiness. I'll try to remember to crop a few tonight for a bit closer of a look at that.

- Bill

Just stopping by to share a shot of some deer...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 380mm, 1/500th sec at f/8. ISO 320. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

I know it was just over a month ago that I shared photos of the local opossum, and we've seen him plenty of times since, but today the weather was nice enough that I went out and stalked him a bit. Well, "stalked" is a bit of a misnomer, since I probably could have walked right up to him without any issues... But I managed to get some much closer shots. Here's one...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/500th sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

I still have plenty to process from the Niagara Falls trip, so stay tuned!

- Bill

We've seen this little fella (or gal, not sure which to be honest) wandering around the yard during the day recently. I figure it is just too cold for it at night when it normally would be out and active. I did some quick research and it said that opossums are highly resistant to rabies, so I think it is unlikely that would be why it is out during the day.

Either way, it stopped by the bird feeders today to get a bite to eat of any seeds the birds may have dropped in the snow, so I took the opportunity to get some photos. Honestly, though, he better be careful or one of the resident hawks or even a passing bald eagle (yeah - we saw one of them the other day) is going to decide to make a meal of him instead!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, various shutter speeds at f/6.3. ISO 320. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill

Here's a couple more of that Pileated Woodpecker...

Stay tuned for more dive photos soon.

- Bill

One good thing about winter is that with the leaves off the trees, it is easier to see birds. We've been seeing this Pileated Woodpecker come in closer and closer to the house recently, and this time I managed to get a couple decent shots...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/800th sec at f/5.6. ISO 640. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

Ok - so admittedly not as cool as the swimming pigs, but we took a quick excursion between dives to go visit an island with a ton of iguanas...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/320th sec at f/18. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

We fed them grapes - on a stick so they wouldn't be able to bite us! They really moved quick to get those grapes...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/250th sec at f/18. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Then they would settle down a bit and pose for some nice photos.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/320th sec at f/18. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

And let us get pretty close...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/120th sec at f/18. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Then the smaller curly tailed lizards showed up (luckily we still had some grapes left and were able to sneak a couple past the iguanas to feed them too!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/160th sec at f/18. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill

Ok - I'll be honest with you... when the Captain announced during breakfast that the first dive of the day needed to be kept from getting too long so that we could skip the second dive of the day to go see the swimming pigs, I honestly wasn't all that excited. I mean seriously... they're just pigs, right?

Well, sort of... they were just pigs... but it was a pretty cool experience.

As we approached the beach aboard the Sea Dog (the Aqua Cat's tender boat), there was quite the welcoming committee, including some that swam out to greet us.

So yeah - pigs might not be able to fly, but they definitely can swim.

The crew had brought a bag of apples for us to feed the pigs, so we spent some time interacting with them. I have some video that I will share soon (I think I want to put multiple clips together into a single video, and so need some extra time for that).

So yeah, as it turns out, skipping a dive to visit the swimming pigs of the Bahamas really was worth while. Talking to Brigette about it, I guess they have been on the Aqua Cat vessel a couple times before and the opportunity to visit these pigs didn't present itself, so this really was a treat.

Oh - I did learn one more thing...

These pigs really didn't have a problem with hamming it up for the cameras! (HAH! I couldn't pass that one up!)

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill