I spent 3 and a half days in south texas (near McAllen, Texas) at a ranch which is set up for wildlife photography. The ranch has built a total of 5 blinds. One raptor blind which sits at tree level and four sunken blinds...two with good morning light and two with good evening light. This is the first time I actually went to a place which is set up for this. All my other wildlife shots are done on my own with no blinds.
It was a blast and now I have a task of going through tons of shots. John asked awhile back about how many images I shoot...it totally depends on the situation. For example this shoot we had something to photograph almost constantly throughout each boring and evening. Shooting a camera with 10 frames a second makes it easy to take a lot of shots....especially when you have birds and mammals alway doing something interesting. So without coating them, I have probably close to 6,000 shots to go through. The touch part is deciding which ones to toss out...because I actually have a crazy number of keepers if I wanted to do so.
What a terrific set up! If these are indicators of what you got in your 6000 shots, you have a goldmine on your card! What a perfect POV. LOVE the irony of the flycatcher image
and finally a Cardinal coming in for a landing. I will post probably a lot more later once I start making a dent in these. Hope you enjoy and as always honest critiques wanted.
Holy smokes Kurt, these are all very interesting, as well as beautiful. I called my wife over to have a look at these stunning images, she approved too! Thanks for sharing.
As far as I'm concerned, this is some of your best work, Kurt. What a great variety of birds here!
The first two are my favorites just because of the unique (and humorous) captures, but they are all superb.
Your 'development' of these is pitch perfect.
I'm wondering whether or not you can tease a catch light out of the eyes of the hawk and cardinal images.
It doesn't much matter, though. This is professional caliber work. Congratulations!
Looking forward to seeing lots more from your adventure.
Great work Kurt! Love the detail you've been able to capture.
One question...there is a line in the eye of the roadrunner at 2 o'clock and was wondering what it is?
Incredible shots, indeed. What an opportunity to capture these birds with their natural behavior. The only technical comment would be to lower the exposure of the cardinal a bit.
Thanks for the comments and critiques everyone. John, great tip on the catchlight. I can out that in pretty easy. Ken, not sure why you think the Cardinal shot is over-exposed. The histogram looks dead on and it looks good on my monitor, but thanks for the opinion either way.
I sure like your work Kurt. It's not just some head shot of an animal. There is a story to it. If I was going to pursue wildlife photography that's the way I would pursue it and I know I need to tell more of a story with with my own landscapes. Kudos!
Really great stuff here, Kurt. Especially the first two, with 1 being the overall winner here. I've been wanting to go to a Texas ranch for a long time and this just wets my appetite. I set up a blind in my backyard at a waterfall/pond feature each summer but because of a lot of trees and the slope of the landscape, the lighting is not the best (multiple flashes are necessary). I did shoot at a blind setup in Arizona which was great in the morning hours, but that was just one pond and one blind, still though having it set up to take advantage of the morning sun is a huge advantage. Wish I could do that in my backyard but the local geography just doesn't cut it for easy shooting. What week were you down there? How much ahead of time did you make reservations?
Hard to pick a favorite from this set, but #1 stands out for me.
While working in Houston, I had one of those west Texas ranches high on my To-Do list, but never could fit it into my schedule.
Now I'll just have to combine it with a stop at Big Bend NP.
Discussion
19 repliesIt was a blast and now I have a task of going through tons of shots. John asked awhile back about how many images I shoot...it totally depends on the situation. For example this shoot we had something to photograph almost constantly throughout each boring and evening. Shooting a camera with 10 frames a second makes it easy to take a lot of shots....especially when you have birds and mammals alway doing something interesting. So without coating them, I have probably close to 6,000 shots to go through. The touch part is deciding which ones to toss out...because I actually have a crazy number of keepers if I wanted to do so.
The first one is a very thirstily Roadrunner
Kane
The first two are my favorites just because of the unique (and humorous) captures, but they are all superb.
Your 'development' of these is pitch perfect.
I'm wondering whether or not you can tease a catch light out of the eyes of the hawk and cardinal images.
It doesn't much matter, though. This is professional caliber work. Congratulations!
Looking forward to seeing lots more from your adventure.
One question...there is a line in the eye of the roadrunner at 2 o'clock and was wondering what it is?
While working in Houston, I had one of those west Texas ranches high on my To-Do list, but never could fit it into my schedule.
Now I'll just have to combine it with a stop at Big Bend NP.