Author Archives: Laura Meyers

Herring Gull in flight

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Herring Gull in flight

In order to continue my attempt to improve my skills in shooting birds in flight with my Canon EOS7D, I have been going to where the Gulls are. This was taken just past the Verrazano Bridge off the Belt Parkway on the perfect day. It was overcast and windy when we pulled into the parking lot. I noticed the spot where the Gulls were stalled in the air by wind and I got as close as i could to the gulls and started clicking away.
Once again I came home with a bunch of noisy pictures from my Canon EOS7D but I did some serious work in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and came up with a few pictures I am very pleased with.
Inherently I am the type of person that likes to break rules. The one here of not having the whole bird in the shot I think works really well. I worked on other pictures where the bird was cut out of the frame that I would have normally deleted and I am reallly liking the sense of movement that is being created.

House Sparrow with a feather in his cap

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House Sparrow with Gull feather

While in my Gulls-in-flight practice shooting mode zone ( oops I forgot that I was going to post my special Gull in flight picture today )this little feathery friend happened in my field of camera sight. I believe his purpose was to bring this feather to his nest and I caugt a moment. A Tree Sparrow has a very lowly status as these things go in the human treatise of birds. I actually get to see Tree Sparrows more than any other bird becuase I live in the heart of Manhattan.
The questioin I ask myself is should I even post a Tree Sparrow? One of the most critical parts of my photography process is deciding which pictures to work with, delete, post, etc. I am trying to develop a voice in this genre – so there are many unanswered questions at the moment. My decisions are based on my personal emotional reaction to a picture.
This can be easily overridden by a “great” technical capture.
It is a process.

American Robin

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American Robin

On Friday it looked like rain, so we decided to do a little exploring in Brooklyn and not stray too far from the car. The first stop was Owl’s Head Park in Brooklyn. Not too many birds except for this beautiful American Robin just waiting to have its picture took.
No worry about awkward shadows on this overcast day – just soft transitions on the Robin red breast. By moving just a couple of feet around the Robin, I was able to capture a lovely background and still get a good angle.
After this we pulled off at a rest stop just past the Verrazano Bridge where I was happy to be able to continue my practice of shooting Gulls in flight. Perhaps that will be tomorrow’s bird of the day.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet male

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Ruby-crowned Kinglet Male

The picture of this Ruby-crowned Kinglet was taken in Prospect Park on a very cloudy dark day. I started experimenting more with the Canon Speedlite 580 EXII that I have attached to my Canon EOS7D. I would not have had a decent image of this Kinglet without using the flash this Saturday. The challenge was to choose the correct setting. I pretty much went with +2. I had not thought about the fact that when using continuous shooting mode, the flash worked on only the first shot.
It is a process and i am loving it!

Red-winged Blackbird and what branches do I photoshop out?

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Red-winged Blackbird

Do I or don’t I take out the branches and distracting elements in a bird picture? Personally I have a hard time following rules that are imposed on doing any type of art work. This stems from my fine art school days. On one level keeping in all the details of the nature photo capture seems “correct” but on the other hand getting the feeling and beauty of the bird seems most important.
It is really difficult to find some speicies of birds that are not enmeshed in a myriad of leaves and branches.
In the picture of the Red-winged Blackbird, I removed some branches that I felt were distracting. I kept in the blurred out branch in the background because it seemed to balance out the composition. And I do like to represent the fact that Red-winged Blackbirds do perch on and among many branches.

Tree Swallow and My Breakthough with My Canon EOS7D Camera

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Tree Swallow

Originally uploaded by Laura Meyers

The picture of this adorable Tree Swallow was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Sunday April 11. I had a big breakthrough with my Canon EOS 7D camera this weekend. I have owned this camera for about four months and have been really frustrated trying to get better pictures than I did with the Canon EOS40D that I owned before. I am very motivated because I love having the 18MP size on the Canon EOS7D because I can crop way down in order to get in close on a small bird such as this.
When I first started with the Canon EOS7D, I pretty much used it as I did the Canon 40D not wanting to spend the time learning the new autofocus system, etc. Reading the CanonEOS7D manual was not very helpful. I purchased the Charlotte Lowrie book which was one of the first to come out and was not inspired. I got a little more information from the Magic Lantern Guide for the Canon EOS7D but I remained frustrated at the noisy soft pictures i was getting.
Additional I was scouring the web and nothing struck me.
I purchased the Arthur Morris guide and a small thing he said about how the sharpening is really soft in the RAW format (and can be made more sharp in the menu) made me review my sharpening options. I was using the clarity function in lightroom and the smart sharpen option in Photoshop CS3 and getting really lousy results.
I set upon checking out what other options I could do – like unsharp mask, etc. What worked for me was using the sharpening option in Lightroom – especially the detail slider. I bypassed clarity entirely. I feel like I have overcome a big hurdle and am no longer ready to through the Canon EOS7D out the window. And I can continue my learning curve with some clarity as to where to go next.

Song Sparrow foraging on ground

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Song Sparrow foraging on ground

Originally uploaded by Stillwel

The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is especially delightful this time of year as the season is changing. I think I love the smells the best as I first start walking from the Visitor Center to the West Pond. Each step brings a new scent with the smell of the salt water everpresent blending in.
The Song Sparrows are present at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge year round. Their beautiful song is always a treat. I took the picture of this Song Sparrow just as I entered the West Pond path. He was busy foraging on the ground and paid absolutely no attention to me and my camera.

Common Grackle in the right light

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The picture of this Common Grackle was taken in Prospect Park, Brooklyn on April 4. There was a dense fog in the morning which gave me the opportunity to play with foglight. I got this shot as the fog was beginning to lift and the sun was breaking through. This Grackle puffed up very similar to the Red-winged Blackbird each time it sounded which is what created this unusual pose with the feathers “extended” like this.
When I opened the picture in Adobe Lightroom, I could not believe the colors that were captured. I enhanced the saturation just a bit and dodged some of the lighter areas but other than the usual sharpening, I did very little else. I decided that I like the branch configuration as is because it echoed the cragginess of the bird itself and I really love the various sizes, shapes and intensity of the lines that are created by the various branches which was helped by the fog.
This Grackle is very far from being common.

Pine Warbler

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Pine Warbler

Originally uploaded by Laura Meyers

The picture of this Pine Warbler was taken at Prospect Park in Brooklyn on the first Sunday of the month birdwalk given by the Brooklyn Birding Club.I find I have much success going in a birding group where the birds are being pointed out. At least until I become more familiar with each bird’s behavior.
Getting pictures of Warblers is a fun challenge because they rarely are still for more than a moment. The first sight is that of a tiny object flitting around as a silhouette in a tree. I try to watch for any movement patterns so that i can perhaps get my lens a few flits ahead in order to get the shot.
It is definitely easier to capture pictures now that there are no leaves on the trees. This is not going to last very long though.

Palm Warbler

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Palm Warbler

Originally uploaded by Stillwel

The warblers are starting to migrate. On the walk with the Brooklyn Bird Club in Prospect Park this Sunday, April 4th, we saw the Pine Warblers and Palm Warblers. I found The Spot in the park where the Palm Warblers were flitting around sometimes at more ideal heights than others. Surprisingly they rarely landed on the ground.
I felt like I was getting in shape for the Warbler Season. I am somewhat challenged by the CANONEOS7D. I am still trying to get the Autofocus system into my muscle memory. I have been finding getting an accurate focus more difficult than when I was using the Canon EOS40D. I have been working really hard to master the autofocus system. I did get better results this weekend. I am also getting used to more noise in my pictures and tell myself it looks more artistic. The major upside to using the CANONEOS7D is the large file size and I am getting beautiful prints.