Have a look at photos of wildlife, festivals and travel sites here. Sharing tips for travelers with a twist of humor is part the life I enjoy in Okinawa, Japan. Photos and text Copyright © Michael Lynch. All photos contain traced digital watermarks. You may contact:http://www.ryukyulife.com/ for licensing.
Showing posts with label Birds in Flight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birds in Flight. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Wildlife Photos: Northern Shoveler Ducks
They Have Returned to Okinawa
Today, I went out for a walk with the Pentax 300mm lens.
It was a bit of a surprise when these birds flew over but, good practice for shooting.
Now that I know where they hangout, I'll go back again, someday.
And, see if I can shoot the whole herd.
There must have been 40 or 50 of them in the fields bordering Kin Town.
That's a good reason for me to get out of the office for a few days.
It's a long walk to the wetlands but, at least the wife can't find me when I'm there !
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Wildlife Photo: Spot-billed Ducks in Flight (Anas poecilorhyncha)
Related Post:Spot-billed Ducks: Landing Gear Down
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wildlife Photo: Pigeons in Flight + A Girl Named I Eat My Pigeon !
Today I'm feelin a little rough around the edges from too much cold medicine I guzzled last night. So, all you get to see will be these pigeons flying and I'll introduce you to this gal I met one day when I Googled to see if anybody actually eats pigeon.
Most wildlife photographers probably don't even consider pigeons to be wildlife. I know, I don't because the dang things are everywhere, city, country, jungles and even flying around dropping little white bombs on government buildings, statues, landmarks and state capitols.
Pigeons do make great subjects for a cameraman wanting to practice shooting birds in flight, though. They're fast and pull off some pretty fancy aerial maneuvers so, when nothing else worth shooting shows up and I get bored, I shoot pigeons for practice (with my camera, of course).
There was even a time when pigeons were drafted into the Army to be messengers during a war. Now, the guy who came up with that bright idea must have had a awful lot of time on his hands or been really, really bored. It's hard enough for me to get one of my dogs to bring me something. How in the heck are you supposed to teach a bird to deliver a message and bring back a reply?
Fortunately, along came the internet and we don't have to draft pigeons anymore. We just keep them around to entertain bored photographers and old people sitting on park benches with stale bread crumbs. And, we allow them to deface government property. It's the right thing to do.
This is no joke. There's a Girl Named I Eat My Pigeon. I don't think she really ate anybody's pigeon or ever even thought of eating pigeons. It's just a name she picked up along the way. I don't want to steal her thunder so, if you're really interested in these sort of things, after you're done drooling over my Pigeons in Flight photo, you can pop-in on the Girl Named I EAT MY PIGEON and find out what made a name like that stick to her. She's really, alright, I think !
Most wildlife photographers probably don't even consider pigeons to be wildlife. I know, I don't because the dang things are everywhere, city, country, jungles and even flying around dropping little white bombs on government buildings, statues, landmarks and state capitols.
Pigeons do make great subjects for a cameraman wanting to practice shooting birds in flight, though. They're fast and pull off some pretty fancy aerial maneuvers so, when nothing else worth shooting shows up and I get bored, I shoot pigeons for practice (with my camera, of course).
There was even a time when pigeons were drafted into the Army to be messengers during a war. Now, the guy who came up with that bright idea must have had a awful lot of time on his hands or been really, really bored. It's hard enough for me to get one of my dogs to bring me something. How in the heck are you supposed to teach a bird to deliver a message and bring back a reply?
Fortunately, along came the internet and we don't have to draft pigeons anymore. We just keep them around to entertain bored photographers and old people sitting on park benches with stale bread crumbs. And, we allow them to deface government property. It's the right thing to do.
This is no joke. There's a Girl Named I Eat My Pigeon. I don't think she really ate anybody's pigeon or ever even thought of eating pigeons. It's just a name she picked up along the way. I don't want to steal her thunder so, if you're really interested in these sort of things, after you're done drooling over my Pigeons in Flight photo, you can pop-in on the Girl Named I EAT MY PIGEON and find out what made a name like that stick to her. She's really, alright, I think !
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wildlife Photo: Spot-billed Ducks in Flight: Landing Gear Down
Now that I know they're back on island, I'll take the 500mm lens with me when I go out at nab some better shots of these birds. They are Spot-billed Ducks (Anas poecilorhyncha) and migrate to Okinawa from Northern Japan, Siberia or China to escape the cold weather. They hang out in marshlands here from November to March. These two were making a landing in the mangroves as I was leaving the Guinness Record Taco Rice event Sunday with only my 18-250mm lens stretched out as far as it would go. Give me a good sunny day with the right lens and I'll light the eyes up on these ducks whether their landing gear is up or down. Stand by for more.....
Friday, February 27, 2009
On Being Artistic
For you folks that have those old Black and White monitors on your computer, I figured I'd give you a treat; a B&W photo ! Why would a nature photographer take a beautiful picture of an Osprey with all those neat colored feathers lit-up by the early morning sun and ruin it by presenting it in Black and White ?
Because it's my picture and I can do any damn thing I want to with it ! No, really I was trying to be artistic. Yesterday was the first time in about a month I had a blast doing what I like most in life; hunting for wildlife with my camera. I was awake before 4AM, coffeed my body-up, walked my dogs, loaded-up my cameras and was out waiting for the birds to wake up before 6AM. Froze my butt off wearing my Grandpa T-shirt, shorts and flipflops but I was happy; no dogs, I snuck-outa the house before the wife woke-up, not a care in the world. Just me and my cameras; Man against the Elements !
Got 179 great photos of all kinds of birds in the wild and even shot some fish in a riverbed. All in about 4 hours. I was actually on my way home when I spotted the Osprey and then, another Osprey. I know their habits pretty well, so I had plenty of time to do manual settings on my camera. Tripod: forget it, it's a waste of time when you have to move as quick as they fly (unless you maybe have a 800mm lens and you're in a tower somewhere). Just act like you're not going to shoot him and when he gets close enough, SHOOT !
When I get home and download on the computer ( Mine has a color monitor) the first thing I do is delete any photos where I didn't catch the eyes just right, unless the critter is doing something really interesting, like reproducing or taking a nap, or, eating another critter ! Then I get rid of any photo that just isn't composed right and can't be recomposed by cropping. Then, I take my absolutely best photos and hide them in my Million Dollar Folder which I hide under my mattress. The rest I enter in contests, put on my website or post to my Blog.
Some folks think B&W is artistic, so, I thought I'd show everybody; I can be artistic, too ! The truth of the matter is I was going to throw this photo away. All the rest of yesterday's Osprey shots were taken when the bird was flying in clear blue skies. This was the only shot I had where he flew with a big grey raincloud behind him. Comments ?
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