(Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70mm f.2.8L lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV)

(Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV; FL 140mm)

This was [...]]]>

“Pilings” – Belmar Fishing Club Pier, Belmar, NJ

(Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70mm f.2.8L lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV)

“Roiled Surf” – Sea Girt, NJ

(Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV; FL 140mm)

This was a very busy weekend. Yesterday (Saturday) I was up at 0400 and out of the house before 0500 on my way to Baltimore, MD for the Brenda Tharp seminar presented by the Baltimore Camera Club which was fabulous. The seminar ran from 0800 to 1700 and I got back home around 2000. This morning we were up at 0500 and off for the North Shore of New Jersey. You remember two weeks ago when we went to Longwood Gardens and it was Kid’s Day? Well today we drove into the jaws of what is billed as the largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade along the Jersey shore in Belmar. Arrgh!! The festivities didn’t interfere with shooting, it just made getting around the North Shore in general and Belmar in particular a real pain in the backside.

And it didn’t help that the wintering ducks seemed to have checked out. So no cute duckies to photograph. Well that was okay because I really wanted to shoot with the new camera (5DMk2) and my birding set-up remains the 50D (because of the 1.6x crop factor) and the 300mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ 2x teleconverter. Put it all together and it gives me 960mm of effective reach, great for birds. But like I said, there were no birds to photograph.

So I turned to landscapes and seascapes shot with the new camera and my 24-70 and 70-200 lenses. I really enjoy long water exposures since it generally turns the water so silky and that is what I wanted to do here. But even at f/22 and dropping the ISO all the way down to 50, I couldn’t slow the shutter speed enough so I turned to my Vari-ND filter. It is without question a very expensive filter (between $400 and $500) but golly it works great. Put it on and you can adjust the ND anywhere from 2 to 8 stops. If you want to slow shutter speeds way down, you could wait until dark or slap one of these babies on. It will stop a runaway locomotive!

Anyway, here are just two of the seascape images from this morning. Hope you enjoy them!

What can I say? That title pretty much sums up my yesterday.

We had decided earlier in the week that, weather permitting, we would head down to the Jersey shore and visit some of our favorite lakes and ponds in search of wintering ducks and such. Yesterday’s forecast was the better of the two days, so [...]]]>

What can I say? That title pretty much sums up my yesterday.

We had decided earlier in the week that, weather permitting, we would head down to the Jersey shore and visit some of our favorite lakes and ponds in search of wintering ducks and such. Yesterday’s forecast was the better of the two days, so yesterday it was. So far, so good. Actually weather-wise, it wasn’t terrible. Cold… yes, particularly in the early morning but it did warm to the upper 20s by early afternoon. Windy… oh yeah! But it was sunny and the sunshine felt good beating down on us.

When we got there, the first thing we found was that the lakes were all about 90% frozen over. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In years past, a frozen lake just meant the ducks were gathered into a much smaller area. It was like, dare I say, shooting ducks in a barrel. Except this time, unlike years past, there were very few ducks to shoot. It seems to be a very bad year for wintering ducks along the Jersey coast. Don’t know why.  Anyway, I did get a few images (Cormorant, Hooded Merganser, American Wigeon) before moving on in search of other non-avian subjects to photograph.

Switching cameras (to the 30D from the 50D) and lenses (to the 24-70 and 70-200 from the 300 w/ 2x TC), I was off making images for sandwiches, blurs, multiple exposures, etc. Things seemed to be progressing well.

To make a very long story a little shorter, I got home and started to import the images. The few bird images uploaded into Lightroom fine. Then I moved on to the images made with 30D and the memory card went rogue on me again, corrupted and locked up Lightroom. This was exactly what happened a month ago. Same camera, same card (I had reformatted it and it seemed to be working fine) and even the same kind of shots (multiple single images for a 10-image multiple exposure). This time, I lost most of the images on that card and had to spend most of the evening trying to get Lightroom up and running again. I did. It is. But what a pain in the backside.

Anyway, this is one of the few images that actually imported (I have since tossed the card) before the corruption set in.

As we walked through this area along Shark River Inlet (Belmar, NJ), we saw these pine cones and were really taken by their beauty and by the light at that particular time of day. I ended up doing a digital sandwich with the image as I described a little while back in this blog. Then I processed the sandwiched image using Nik Dfine for noise reduction. Nik Viveza 2 for color and brightness control. And Nik Color Efex Pro where I used the Darken/Lighten Center filter to brighten the center even more while darkening the surrounding areas and finished by adding a black vignette which further served to draw the eye to the cone’s center. The effect, I believe, is to create the appearance of a spotlight shining on the single cone.

Anyway, the image above is what I came up with. Your thoughts/comments are always appreciated.

This is another image from the past Sunday’s trip to the North Shore. Sunrise was at 0658. We left home at 0455 and it is an hour and 45 minute drive. So doing the math, you will see that we arrived in that period between civil twilight and actual sunrise. I knew exactly where I [...]]]>

This is another image from the past Sunday’s trip to the North Shore. Sunrise was at 0658. We left home at 0455 and it is an hour and 45 minute drive. So doing the math, you will see that we arrived in that period between civil twilight and actual sunrise. I knew exactly where I wanted to be… beneath the Belmar Fishing Club pier so I grabbed my gear, headed for the beach and quickly got set up before the sun actually rose. Should have been there earlier but hey, we did get up before 0400.

This particular image is a long exposure (15 sec @ f/18; ISO 100; 0 EV) made just a very few minutes after sunrise. It is my favorite of the images made that morning because of the reflection on the water. I just love the path it created from my feet to the horizon as well as the early morning sunburst.

Image was made using my Canon 30D and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens w/ a Vari-ND filter providing the long exposure; camera and lens were tripod mounted.

Processing involved some Lightroom. some CS4 and some Topaz Adjust.

(1/1250 sec @ f/7.1; ISO 400; 0 EV)

My wife and I took a trip down to the North Shore area of the New Jersey coast this morning. We covered the inland lakes from Little Silver Lake in Point Pleasant Beach up to Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. For those of you unfamiliar with the area [...]]]>

(1/1250 sec @ f/7.1; ISO 400; 0 EV)

My wife and I took a trip down to the North Shore area of the New Jersey coast this morning. We covered the inland lakes from Little Silver Lake in Point Pleasant Beach up to Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. For those of you unfamiliar with the area (which would probably be most of you), these lake are so close to the ocean that you can practically spit from one to the other. In most cases, it is ocean, beach, small boardwalk, street, lake. Anyway, these lakes are winter home to a wide variety of ducks, cormorants, herons and such.

This particular Great Blue Heron seems to have taken up residence along Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. I saw him there last weekend with another photographer getting close-up after close-up. Today was my turn. I was able to ease up to about 8-10 feet of him and get my shots while resting the camera on the back of a park bench. What you see here is a full frame image (no cropping) from my Canon 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS lens with a 2x TC. I was able to get way up close and personal with this guy.

(1.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; +1 EV)

My wife an I made an early morning jaunt down to the New Jersey shore, something we will do often between now and say, mid-April. The area we usually visit is great for wintering ducks and shorebirds because there are a series of 10 or more lakes just [...]]]>

(1.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; +1 EV)

My wife an I made an early morning jaunt down to the New Jersey shore, something we will do often between now and say, mid-April. The area we usually visit is great for wintering ducks and shorebirds because there are a series of 10 or more lakes just literally yards/meters from the beaches between Point Pleasant Beach to the south and Bradley Beach to the north. This trip, our first of the year, was more of a scouting trip than anything but while wandering around, I did manage a few interesting (at least to me) images.

Our first stop is always the Manasquan Inlet jetty in Point Pleasant Beach. In the colder winter months, the inlet is home to a number of wintering Loons (both Common and Red-throated), Purple Sandpipers and a variety of other shore- and sea-birds. This particular seascape was made looking along the shore just south of the jetty. Conditions were overcast, the tide near full and the time was about 30 minutes after sunrise.

The image was made using my Canon 50D; 24-70 2.8L lens; Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter; and Tripod.

In addition to normal Lightroom/CS4 processing, I made adjustments using filters in Topaz Adjust and Topaz Clean.

Maybe. Maybe not. But I like to imagine it as so. 

This is an image of an adult and a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron looking like they are communicating with one another. The image was made at Silver Lake along the New Jersey North Shore. Silver Lake is a smallish lake (I tend to think of [...]]]>

Maybe. Maybe not. But I like to imagine it as so. 

This is an image of an adult and a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron looking like they are communicating with one another. The image was made at Silver Lake along the New Jersey North Shore. Silver Lake is a smallish lake (I tend to think of it more as a large pond) with a little island in it. Herons, and the Black-crowned Night Herons in particular, have taken to using the island as a daytime resting area during the winter months. It’s not unusual to see 20 or more of them resting in the brush along the shore of the island. Seeing them is always one of the highlights of our trips to the North Shore.

By the way, the juvenile is one the left and the adult on the right.

Obviously this image has a very busy, brushy background but that is the habitat in which these herons spend their day sleeping/resting.

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

This is another of my favorite wintering ducks from along the New Jersey shore. I love the colors and the bill is great but what really fascinates me is their feeding behavior. When on the feed, a group of Shovelers will gather in a tight circle and begin to swim around and around in that [...]]]>

This is another of my favorite wintering ducks from along the New Jersey shore. I love the colors and the bill is great but what really fascinates me is their feeding behavior. When on the feed, a group of Shovelers will gather in a tight circle and begin to swim around and around in that circle creating a vortex of sorts that must bring food up toward the surface. I have sat on the bank of the North Shore ponds and watched these ducks doing this group feeding thing for as long as a half hour, maybe even longer. I wish I could come up with a good photo of the behavior but I find these guys difficult enough to photograph as a single let along in a tightly packed group of 8 or 10. If I can find a halfway decent group image I will post it later.

(This photo is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

as in Hooded Merganser.

I swear I spent most of the winter trying to get a good photograph of these ducks. Either I got the blacks spot on and ended up overexposing the whites or I got the whites spot on and ended up underexposing the blacks. I was somewhere between “this porridge is too hot” [...]]]>

as in Hooded Merganser.

I swear I spent most of the winter trying to get a good photograph of these ducks. Either I got the blacks spot on and ended up overexposing the whites or I got the whites spot on and ended up underexposing the blacks. I was somewhere between “this porridge is too hot” and “this porridge is too cold”. I was in search of “this porridge is just right”.

The other thing about Hoodies is that they are very skittish. I have more photos of the southbound end of a northbound Hoodie than I can count. But this past weekend, I finally got lucky in a somewhat interesting way. We drove by this pond (Wreck Pond) along the New Jersey North Shore. There is one stretch where the road runs right along the pond’s edge. Much to my delight, there was a small group of Hoodies just a few feet in from the edge of the pond. I didn’t dare get out of the car. So I opened the window, shut down the Prius, and brought out my BLUBB – that’s Big Lens Ultimate Bean Bag (a custom made beanbag made specifically for a car window frame and filled with 16 pounds of Pinto beans). I laid the 300 2.8 lens with 2x teleconverter on the BLUBB and fired away. 

This is one of the images. Most Hoodies images I see are with the hood up, so I decided to post an image with it down.

Hope you enjoy it!

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)

Here’s another duck image from this past weekend’s trip to the North Shore (NJ) ponds and lakes.

I like the Ruddy Ducks. They’re funny little guys that seem to spend a lot of time just floating around with their rather large bill neatly tucked under their wing (sleeping I assume). But when they are awake, they [...]]]>

Here’s another duck image from this past weekend’s trip to the North Shore (NJ) ponds and lakes.

I like the Ruddy Ducks. They’re funny little guys that seem to spend a lot of time just floating around with their rather large bill neatly tucked under their wing (sleeping I assume). But when they are awake, they are perpetual motion and spend considerable time diving for food – over and over and over. When they do that, they eventually end up drifting over close to where I am sitting on the bank watching them. That’s when I kick into action and start taking photos. 

What really surprised me this time was the water. I didn’t notice anything unusual until I got home and put the images up on the computer screen. That’s when I first noticed the swirling patterns in the water. That is straight out of the camera and not a post-processing effect. I think it really adds interest. I am guessing that the winds were, at least in part, a contributing factor.

At first glance the back of the duck may look oversharpened but it really isn’t. What you see is a combination of speckling in the feathers and droplets of water from all the diving. 

Hope you enjoy the image.

(This image is Copyright Ed Vatza 2009. Usage without my prior written approval is prohibited.)