Tag Archives: Hawk

Lake Apopka wildlife Drive

Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Apopka, , , , , , , , , ,

My friend Tom M. wanted to go out shooting last week and hadn’t ever been to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. The drive itself is only open to cars from Friday through Sunday, so we met on Friday morning and went over.  It was raining when I got up and still cloudy on the way over, which made for interesting skies in my infrared photos.

Lake Apopka Pump HouseLake Apopka Pump House – 2 frame panorama, infrared, black and white.

We did have a bit of good light while we were there.  We saw this bird struggling to swallow a fish and stopped to watch for a few minutes.  It was on the side of a canal with the clouds reflecting in the water behind it and flowers blooming in front.  I stayed in the car so I wouldn’t bother it and shot a series of single frames while we watched.  This one was the best one of the series.

Nice catch! Nice catch! – an Anhiga tosses a fish it caught along a canal on the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive.

On this trip, I brought my micro four thirds cameras.  I’ve used the system for about four years and they’ve worked very well.  The dynamic range and noise performance are not as good as larger sensor cameras, but it’s “good enough”.  And the noise is not an issue for me.  DxO Optics Pro does an outstanding job processing the RAW files.  The focusing capabilities have been fast for static subjects – but I’ve never been able to do very well with continuous focus.  Well, I recently traded up to a used Olympus E-M1, which has phase detect sensors built into the image sensor and it’s been doing a great job with continuous focus. So much so that even for birds in flight it’s working “good enough” too.  Here’s an example from Friday:

Checking me outChecking me out – A hawk in flight looking at the camera

You can view other photos I’ve made with the micro four thirds system in this album on Flickr.

Lake Apopka is an awesome place, I’ll definitely go back.  I’m collecting photos from there in this folder on Flickr, and you can also read an earlier article I wrote about it here on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

©2016, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Audubon Birds of Prey Center

Birds of Prey Center, INSIDE FLORIDA, Maitland, Orlando, , , , , ,

Description

The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey is located at 1101 Audubon Way  – just off of highway 17 / 92 in Maitland, Florida.  They treat injured or orphaned birds of prey (raptors), and release a great many of their former patients back into the wild. The Center also provides environmental education to local students, teachers, and visitors. Many birds that are too injured to be released are given permanent homes at the center.

The educational displays and permanent residents present an outstanding opportunity for the photo enthusiast.  A visit here will take an hour or two depending on how thorough you are.  Below is a photograph of one of the permanent eagle residents at the Center, which I made during a visit in 2007:

eagle

Photo hints

Lenses :  Bring a long zoom lens.  My 70 – 300 mm  on my 1.5 crop body D90 DSLR, gave me frame filling head shots of the bald eagles in the court-yard just inside the main entrance.  On the smaller birds (hawks and owls) in this courtyard, you can still get frame filling body shots. Below is a photo of a hawk: hawk

You should also bring a macro lens or attachment if you have one, since there are some very pretty flowers on the grounds of the center. flower

Tripod / Monopod :  I believe that tripods are allowed, although I didn’t use mine and didn’t ask.  There aren’t usually any big crowds here and there’s no narrow passages where a tripod would cause a problem.  I did bring my monopod and it came in handy, although you can probably get by with an ISO boost or by strategic use of gates and other structures to prop your camera on.

Other :  A flash would be handy for photos on the porch where there are smaller birds (kestrels, falcons, and small owls).  I didn’t have mine with me and opted to raise the ISO on my D90 to 1600, which worked pretty well.  Below is a kestrel photo, made on the porch. kestrel

Note that one of the attendants told me that photography “is permitted here as long as you don’t sell the photos.”  If you do plan on a commercial use, please talk to someone at the Center about it.

Summary

The Audubon Birds of Prey Center is a wonderful place to spend an hour or two with a camera.  You can learn a bit about raptors and your $5 entrance fee supports the center’s work.  You can also make some very nice photos of Birds of Prey.

My Gallery (22 total photos): https://edrosack.com/090524_Birds-of-Prey/
Website:
Address: 1101 Audubon Way Maitland, FL 32751 (407) 644-0190
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating: Hidden Gem!

©2009, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.