Snakes Workshop Report

The workshop sure was fun, and challenging! These snakes were brought to us by Amy Fennell (thanks Amy!) were quite the performers. I was surprised that they did not move around too much, but I did find I needed to shoot in continuous focus AF with my camera., unless the snake decided to sit still for a longer period of time.

To view the images, click on them, and return here with your back button!

I did use a tripod for all of my shooting, looking for a small aperture settings and lots of depth of field. To view all the images and their exif info, go to my Recent Photos Gallery. In the gallery you will be able to see all the settings from the camera.

Thanks to all the nice people who attended the workshop, I do look forward to seeing some of your images. I did fire a lot of frames, using the 6 fps burst.... this method uses a lot of memory, but increases the odds of getting at least one sharp image.

For easy viewing of all the images I have them on my homepage in the slide show here! Out of about 1000 frames, I was able to work on and edit about 23, so there were quite a few deleted frames, mostly due to camera movement. I do have the worst tripod head you can imagine!

No flash was use during this shoot... although some of my guests were using a flash for some of the shooting. I do like natural light, as I find a flash to give the image an artificial look.

This last image is one of my favourites.... I like the head on look, similar to some flight shooting with the birds. Having the body in the background helps tell the story of the shot., with very little of the snake in actual focus.

I hope to do another workshop with Amy and her snakes this summer, if you are interested in joining us, please let me know!

Some new projects are in the works, so please check back here as often as you can. Also, join me on my Facebook.. the link is here on my home page.

take good care!!!

Raymond Barlow

How big in the Frame?

Not that big in my opinion... a subject concerning the rules of composition. Well, most of us know about the rule of thirds, where we try to place the subject in the outside of center area in the frame. Sure, I follow this rule very often, it works!

There are times though when I wonder about how big does a bird need to be in the picture. Yes, we like to see them up close, full of great colours and details, but there are times when we can let the environment take over the image.

I do not have the super telephoto lens that I often dream of having right now., my arsenal is limited to the 200-400mm Nikkor lens. There are times in great / bright light when I will add the 1.4 tele-convertor, which will give me 550 mm on the D300, along with the 1.5 crop factor.

This is plenty of reach for me in most situations... mainly because I am looking for the artistic environmental shot most of the time. As in the attached images, the setting simply makes the shot. Maybe a close up "tight" image of the snowy owl would be what a lot of photographers would be looking for with this situation., I am one to stay back and enjoy the scene.


"To each his own" is what Oscar Barlow (dad) always said., and he was absolutely right., we all have our own style to enjoy and share with others. Please visit my owl galleries here...

And comment if you wish. We are also looking for short stories, adventures, photography tips if your interested in sharing with others, please email me here... ray@raymondbarlow.com

The Peregrines of Niagara Falls

What an amazing sight! Two of the worlds wonders at one place! Last summer there was a real amazing sight here on the Niagara Peninsula... 2 adult Peregrine Falcons nested in the gorge, and had 4 chicks.

Thanks to a tip from my friend Brandon Holden, I found myself hanging over the railing looking down at the rivers edge and the cliffs for many hours. I believe I was there 14 times, and fired over 5,000 images of the falcons.

There were days when the action was unbelievable! The young birds would fly everywhere, fighting for food, or just practicing flight maneuvers for later hunting opportunities.

This image attached (click on it to view full size) has an interesting story that goes with it... this adult bird lifted off the cliff and made a run to my right almost right to the falls. It was well above the falls when it stopped, and turned, got into a stoop, and did a dive coming right for me!!

I was able to lock on focus and began firing the shutter as it approached... but the interesting thing was I could not keep up with the bird while looking through the viewfinder as it crossed my view... flying at probably 50 mph. I actually let the camera release from my face and tracked the bird with my arms extended away from me.. and was sooo lucky that the bird was in the frame, and was in focus!

The shot is about 75% of full frame, with slight exposure and contrast / sharpening changes.

For more images of my Peregrine experience, just Click Here!

Comments welcome, and have a good weekend.

Camping at Guelph Lakes (Ontario Canada)

Hooking up the big rig and heading out to a campsite is just about the best summer time experience one could imagine for a nature photographer. Yes... it is a house on wheels, with all the comforts, I even bring my laptop for late night editing!! But it is still good fun.

I am able to get up before the sun (sometimes a little late) and jump in the truck, wake up all the neighbours when I start it... then head off to my favourite shooting grounds.

On this latest trip we were able to find several great species to shoot.. including Osprey, Bobolink, Eastern Bluebird, Gray Catbirds, Savannah Sparrows, Northern Flicker, and a family of House Wrens. Ohh and also Hummingbirds. During this type of "park" shooting, I like to stay in the truck, and shoot through the window.

Birds are much less afraid of a parked vehicle then they are of a person standing and shooting with a long lens. Parking on the side of a road and watching birds carry on in their lives can be so much fun. My daughter Maria (3 1/2) has seen so much with her binoculars, and watched her dad through many shooting opportunities.

These images are easily viewed in full size by clicking on them, just use your back button to return to the Blog.

Please join me on Facebook!! here is my link...

http://www.facebook.com/raymondbarlow

Take good care, and also please feel free to post a comment! and share this Blog with your friends please!

Choosing the right Focal Length and Settings

Last weeks flight shot workshop was challenging! These birds lift-off and fly to the falconer.. James Cowan in a split second. I usually like a little environment around the bird, even with flight shots so with my 200-400mm lens, I was able to pull back and create a second opportunity to catch the bird in flight.

At 260mm this shot turned out nicely with an aperture setting of F4. A sutter speed of 1/2500 sec was plenty to freeze the action, but I think ISO 320 was too high. Later in the session I moved my ISO down to 200 for better details and less noise.

The D300 AF works very well, so much better since the firmware upgrade. Setting would include the turning the focus selector to AFC on the camera for moving subjects. Inside the menu, I work with 21 point, or single sensor for flight shooting., depending on the size of the bird in the frame, and relationship to the background.

Sometimes i will go to 52 point full frame sensor for the smaller fast flyer's., like the kestrel. Also, I set the focus lock to short., and I use the rear AF button for all focusing activation., the shutter button is used only to activate the shutter., since I almost never use the VR.

These images are viewed by clicking on them, and using your back button to return to the blog.

To see more images, please visit my main website... www.raymondbarlow.com ... new images are added almost daily to the opening slide show. For all the technical info please click on the Galleries button, all the specs are below each shot.

thanks for visiting my blog... lots of new stuff coming soon.

Almost Dark!

Late Thursday afternoon, we trekked north to visit Karl Egressy in Guelph as he was ready to tour us through a cool forest where some owls have been reported. We were not lucky enough to find the owls, so the back up species were there for us to enjoy.

This pretty Pine Warbler came in to perform for us. using a tripod and shooting with my lens wide open I was able to catch a few sharp images.

This image was captured at 1/50sec ... f/4.0 at 400.0mm using ISO 250. I really enjoy the challenge of low light photography. And this shoot was especially challenging since the warblers are not a bird to sit still for very long!

Using a high frame rate really helps. After you lock on the focus, blast away!! If you have enough opportunities, eventually you will catch a sharp frame where the bird is sitting still. Fortunately we found this friendly little bird, and the chances were many, but I am sure I deleted at least 80% of my shots!

Karl caught some nice frames too, and they can be viewed at this Forum ,... check it out and sign in so you can share your photos with everyone!

Lots more new images on my website here<<.

Snakes!!!

My friend Amy Fennell owns this very beautiful snake., it is a Red-tailed Boa (boa constrictor). Amy will be co-hosting an upcoming photography workshop with me on June the 27Th, 2009. The location will be the Mountsberg Conservation Area.

(just click on the pic to see the larger size, and use your back button to return to this very exciting story!) Amy will have 5 species there for us to photograph, and there will be a 2 hour instructional program before these amazing creatures hit the stage.

We may also have 2 more special guests, with some other interesting species... more news on these additions when the workshop starts!! the complete info for the workshop is here....

http://www.rayswildlife.com/Snakes.html

For this shot, I used the Nikkor 200-400 lens, taken from about 7 feet, shutter fired at 1/160 sec. at F4 with an ISO setting of 250. I use the Nikon D300 body., which has a 1.5 crop factor on the sensor, so the effective 35mm focal length is 600mm. I used a mono-pod for support., and sorta wish I had lugged the tripod to this set up. I would have tried F8 at a much lower shutter speed, for more depth of field. This means, by stopping down to F8, I would have more of the snake in focus from the tip of its nose through the middle of its neck.

The tripod would have allowed me to shoot with the aperture at F8 and a lower shutter speed, 1/80. I would probably gone down to 1/20 and a much tighter aperture., leaving even more depth of field. the one thing I strongly suggest to any photographer ... when you out in situations like this.. Experiment! charge your angle, ISO, set up, aperture, and always watch for different backgrounds.

I do have an email list for workshops.. please send me a quick note, and you are welcome to join in... ray@raymondbarlow.com

More images of the snakes on my slide show here!

Please join me on my Facebook., more information and updates daily here!

Comments are welcome too!

The Rescue at Bronte

Thanks to Sue and Gavin Edmondstone, a tiny baby grebe had a second chance for life. The fourth chick in the east nest at Bronte Harbour Marine seemed weak, as it could not get up on the adults back, or back into the nest.

The tiny bird would swim to the shore for a rest, so concerned about abandonment, the Edmondstones rescued the bird, and asked a local boater to transfer the wee thing back to the nest. This happened a second time later on, and again, the concerned on-lookers were able to send it back home.


Special thanks to Monica Taylor for this image of the chick in Gavin's hand... Wonderful!! Monica was able to make the connection back to Gavin and Sue through the Ontbirds email network.
Both the east and west nests are easily viewed from the marina path along the small lagoon. Many photographers were there for a visit Monday night, along with concerned people who were interested to learn the fate of the wee one, sadly it did not survive.

During my last visit I saw 3 healthy chicks in each nest, and lots of feeding activity. It was great to see wildlife photographers Steve Rose, Mike Veltri, and Brandon Holden.

More images will be posted on my website slideshow soon, here is one of my latest edits below...

A Family of Five!!


To see the full sized images, just click on them... www.raymondbarlow.com

A Day at the Races with 5 photogs and a Falconer

What an awesome day today with Falconer James Cowan and 5 photogs including the artist who took this fine image, Gary Irwin. Also, Harry, Jerry, Russ, and Nick were out near Simcoe for this Flight shooting workshop. (click on Gary's image for full size view)

The action was fast and furious., James kept the 6 of us shooting for over 3 hours, and what a blast!! We set up some flight paths considering the wind, light, and backgrounds... and we would all pick our favourite position for the shot/s!!

The birds would fly on command, (sometimes it would take a few seconds), and we blaze away at high frame rates, trying desperately to keep the bird inside the frame. Tracking these fast flyer's is tricky, it takes fast reactions and a lot of practice.

Setting your camera up with the right auto focus configuration is a major key for success... Try different setting, and practice on moving targets. Sit beside a busy roadway, and shoot licence plates! I did! Or boats, water skiers, a train, hang around an airport! Each flight shot situation needs a different set up

It depends on the size of the bird, how many mm your shooting, what the background is, contrast in the scene, how far the background is behind the bird, etc... it is very complicated.

New images will be posted (hopefully tomorrow) if I have time.. I fired almost 800 frames, and uploaded just less then 500 to my external hard drive., many out of focus shots deleted in camera.

www.raymondbarlow.com for more images!

Red-necked Grebe Family fights off Intruder!

Oakville Ontario Canada: A family of Red-necked grebes nesting in Bronte harbour had to deal with an unwanted guest at their home Monday afternoon. This neighbouring female crossed into this territory, and muscled its way onto the nest of an establish pair of grebes who already had 3 chicks! (click on the image to see full size)

The host pair fought the intruder for about 10 minutes, constantly pecking away at the birds head, trying to force her off their nest, finally she left, leaving behind a fresh egg. It appears that the male wanting no part of raising another toddler, and it immediately went into the nest, removed it, swam about 15 feet from the nest and let it drop to the bottom of the lagoon.

It was an amazing experience to witness natures fury, I was able to catch about 100 shots of this battle royal, so here I am at 2:30 am posting this cool story on my brand new blog!

Thanks for joining me here, and please come back for a visit soon.

For more pics and all my galleries, please visit www.raymondbarlow.com

Saw-whet Owl

This image was photographed at the Mountsberg Raptor Center near Campbellville Ontario, Canada during a recent workshop I hosted. It is a captive bird, and I cloned out the jessies.

This bird is almost blind, as I believe it was hit by a car., you can see the difference in each of the birds eyes if you look closely.

Our host for the day was Amy., she did a wonderful job, and will help me on some future workshops with her own personal Snakes! I think she told me she has 20! More news on that as we have a workshop with Amy at Mountsberg on the 27th of June.

Email me at ray@raymondbarlow.com for more info.

A swamp and a Marina

Well, this morning at 3 am, my partner woke me up with a nightmare, and 3 hours later with no sleep, I am on my way to a swamp in St. Kitts., some fun with a Catbird, and a Flicker, then off to Oakville late this afternoon to see the Grebes at Bronte...

It was great to see my friends from Whitby, Mao, Jimmy, Sharky, Paul e Wog, and the Scheenaard Family.. I miss seeing you guys, and hope to hook up again soon. Too bad the light was so bad tonight.

also, great to see my friend Tom and his wife from Oakville., we can get out for some shooting with better light soon.

Tuesday is the big day for the next Workshop in Simcoe, some flight shooting, and we sure hope for some nice weather.

More news soon!