OCTOBER 2022
This month’s bird and wildlife photography article is about environmental bird images, that is mostly images with the bird fairly small in the frame that shows the birds environment and/or habitat. It features images from a scouting trip that I took to West Texas recently.
The first spot we visited was Monahans Sandhills State Park, we saw a few birds including a nice Swainson’s Hawk. But the main attraction for any photographer going there would be for landscape photography as there are interesting dunes, which were covered with white flowers while we were there. I did find this Scaled Quail which shows a bit of the environment there. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF11, 1/4000 F11, iso 3200, Av mode, handheld.
While not so much an environmental shot, I thought this image of a Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay showed how we often see birds, half obscured behind the foliage. This was taken at one of the Fort Davis Mountains State Parks bird feeding blinds. I found the blinds to be not very good for photography as they are dark shady areas with a lot of cover and the background close. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF lens, 1/160 at F11, iso 3200, handheld, aperture mode, evaluative metering at 0.
Our next spot was Gage Gardens in Marathon, Texas. There are some nice walking paths through a wooded garden and then a longer walking path around an open area in the back. We found this beautiful male Vermillion Flycatcher near the start of the open area. Oftentimes doing this type of walk around photography it’s difficult to get really close to the bird, so you have to opt for a habitat type of shot. For this one I placed the bird high in the frame to include a lot of the vegetation, then cropped from horizontal to vertical. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF lens, 1/800 at F11, iso 2000, Av mode, evaluative metering -0.7, handheld. I am always very careful to underexpose this species as I find it’s very easy to lose details in the reds.
Here’s another shot of the same Vermilion Flycatcher. This time he had moved to a tree on the edge of the gardens, with quite a dark background. I thought the colors of the tree complemented his plumage. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF lens, 1/320 at F11, iso 2500, Av mode, evaluative metering -1.7, handheld. With the dark background here I had to dial in a lot of negative exposure compensation to keep from blowing out the reds. Of course when taking habitat shots like this, it’s helpful to have a beautiful subject like this male Vermilion.
We took a day visit to Big Bend National Park which has some beautiful scenery. The bird photography highlight was this Common Raven which perched on this interesting tree. Of course if you can find an attractive flowering tree, this will often lend itself to an interesting bird habitat type of shot. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF11, iso 2000, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld.
On our way back to Midland we stopped at Sandia Springs Wetlands, which is a forty acre site where there are some ponds that provide habitat for waterfowl and waterbirds. We did see a lot Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler and a couple of Mexican Ducks there as well as shorebirds. While walking around the ponds I came across a male Blue Grosbeak in nice plumage. I couldn’t get very close to him so I composed this shot with him in the top right corner using a rule of thirds composition. You can see in the previous two images I used a rule of thirds composition to place the bird as well. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF 11 lens, 1/2000 at F11, iso 2500, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld.
Here’s another shot from the Sandia Springs Wetlands project near Balmorhea, Texas. This Greater Yellowlegs had just come in for a landing. The water was still so I was able to capture a nice clear reflection, again the bird wasn’t big in the frame so I opted for an environmental shot showing some of the reeds reflecting in the water as well. I composed the bird in the center to show the trail of where it had landed, these reflection shots are kind of the exception in that I will center them, where I normally would have the bird more to the right when it is looking left on a shot like this one. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF 11, 1/2000 at F11, iso 2500, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld.
While this isn’t really a habitat shot per say, this species, the Lucifer Hummingbird, was our top target on this trip and we did photograph them at a remote spot in the desert near Big Bend National Park. This species just barely gets in to the US in Texas and Arizona, living mostly in Mexico and farther south. The techs for this shot were Canon R5, 800RF11, 1/640 at F11, iso 3200, Av mode, evaluative metering at -0.7, handheld.