Monday was Jenny's birthday, and I took the day off of work to spend with her. She got to decide how we spent the day, and she wanted to go to the Woodland Park Zoo to see the new tiger cub that was born at the zoo December 12th. Monday was the first day the public could view the tiger cub, it is only 37 lbs.

We happened to get there at the perfect time to get a great spot near the front of the line, with only 15-20 minutes before the exhibit was scheduled to open. In reality, it didn't open for another 30-45 minutes after that, but it was worth the wait! I couldn't believe how many people were in the line, and how much press coverage there was! John Curly from Evening Magazine was there to announce the tiger's name (there was a contest to pick the name).

Hadiah is a cute tiger cub, and was very active when we got to the exhibit - running and jumping, chewing on branches, etc. It was pretty dark, and we only had a few minutes there before they hustled us out. We did manage to get a few photos though...

More on Hadiah from the Seattle-PI (pictures).

Here are some of the photos of the family taken during our recent vacation to Sanibel Florida

Jenny and I just got back from a week-long vacation in Sanibel, Florida. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun as well. The weather was great (low-mid 80's every day, and only one day where it was cloudy most of the day). I have been to Sanibel twice before, but this was Jenny's first trip. We spent a lot of time exploring the area, and taking a lot of photos! Jenny and I both love taking photos, and I'm especially partial to bird photography. Although the main reason for our trip to Sanibel was to vacation with my family, the timing of the trip happened to coincide with the end of the peak birding season in Sanibel. Many species of birds spend the winter in the area, and Jan-March is typically the best time to see them.

Although I had been to Sanibel before, and knew a few places to get some good shots (Ding Darling, Corkscrew Swamp), the trip would not have been nearly as great a success had it not been for Arthur Morris. He's an amazing bird photographer based out of SW Florida. I purchased one of the guides from his site: http://www.birdsasart.com/, which gave me the low-down on all of the places to see. The advice was invaluable - the burrowing owls were worth the cost of the guide by themselves!

I'll post a few photos here, along with some details of the trip. As I get a chance to edit some more photos, they will eventually end up on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_dart/

Equipment

I shot with my Canon 20D, while Jenny used her Rebel. I probably spent most of the time using my Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS, switching to my 70-200 f/2.8L IS when I needed more flexibility than the prime lens provided. When I needed more reach, I used either a 1.4x or 2x extender. Jenny spent most of the time with the 70-200 f/2.8L IS, and used it hand held with the 2x a lot at Ding Darling. I hand-held the 300mm for two hours at Cayo Costa, which is about my limit with that lens. The rest of the time, it was hanging off my Winberley sidekick on my RRS BH-55 ballhead.

Workflow

The workflow that I used for this trip was all new for me. Generally, I shoot RAW+JPEG with my Canon 20D (I do this so that I can use the JPEGs for small/quick previews that I can tag, share, etc. while still having the RAW files for when I need to edit photos for more critical output). I wanted to maximize the space on both my CF cards and laptop, so I only shot RAW on this trip. I used Adobe Lightroom for the first time, and found it to be a good tool overall (with some very frustrating quirks). I couldn't get it to import properly, so I just used the Windows Vista Photo Gallery to import my RAW files. Canon released their RAW codec for Windows Vista too late for me to use on this trip, but Vista can still import RAW files without the codec. I also used FolderShare for the first time, which worked amazingly well. By the time I got home, I had multiple copies of all of my photos waiting for me on various machines. Of course this only works when you have network connectivity...

Ding Darling

We went to Ding Darling almost every morning for sunrise. Sunrise was typically 15-20 minutes after the reserve opened, which was perfect timing for us. We usually got there early enough to get a good spot in line and get our gear in order. When the gate opened, there was a caravan of photographers racing to find the best spot to set up that morning. The experience was very hit-or-miss though. The first day was the best, with two major feeding frenzies in progress right after sunrise. Literally dozens of birds from many different species all hunting for food in close proimity to each other (and the road). We were lucky that they were on the left side of the road, which is ideal for the morning light. Unfortunately, we made a rookie mistake and didn't bring any bug spray on that first morning, so we both got eaten alive. Also, the spoonbills took off about 5 minutes before the sun hit them. Apart from the bugs, the biggest problem was editing: with so many subjects to choose from, it was a real challenge picking the right subject to focus on. At times, it was actually too busy, with a stray bird wandering into the background of what otherwise would have been a great shot of the subject you were trying to isolate.

Our second trip to Ding Darling was on the only day that it was overcast, so there was no direct light on the birds. This was too bad, because the spoonbills stayed around all morning, and we got some great shots of them (as best we could given the light). Again, there were multiple feeding frenzies underway throughout the reserve. We thought we were in for a great week...

...but the remaining trips to Ding Darling were pretty much a bust. Our third trip was cut short because we had to catch the boat to Cayo Costa. It was just as well, since there was hardly a bird to be found at sunrise that day. And it was one of the lowest tides of the week too, go figure...more of the same the next two days, although on the last day we did see quite a few birds (including several spoonbills) at sunrise, but they were all on the right side of the road, so we were shooting them into the sun. After the poor results on the previous two days, we were willing to settle for it! We also tried Ding Darling at sunset one evening, but it was unfortunately a ghost town.

Burrowing Owls

I think this was the highlight of the trip! Jenny and I got up early to make the commute to Cape Coral, following the tips that we had gotten from Art (which were spot on). It's amazing how many owls there are - just hanging out in the middle of the city. We saw a few on the way to the first nest we had targeted, and even more as we drove from site to site. We headed straight for the first nest, and got our gear set up right in time for sunrise. One owl was sitting outside the nest, and another soon came out to join him. In all, we must have stopped at 10 nests. The only downside was that we didn't see any babies, but all of the owls we ran into were friendly and photogenic!

Ft. Myers Beach

After visiting the owls, we headed south to Ft. Myers Beach. We wanted to check out the lagoon. We got there around noon, so the light was terrible, but we figured that we'd check it out. We saw a wild feeding frenzy in the small pond that used to be the lagoon. I don't know if it's due to the hurricanes over the previous years, or the general drought conditions that we saw everywhere else, but the lagoon didn't resemble what we saw on the map at all. We only got a few photos here. The light wasn't great, and by the time we had eaten lunch, many of the birds had moved on. We thought about making a trip back at sunrise, but instead we focused our energy on Ding Darling at sunrise.

Corkscrew Swamp

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...I had been to Corkscrew Swamp in the past. While not great, I had gotten a handful of shots that I really liked there, so I figured it was worth the drive again. I started to think we had made a big mistake - the traffic was terrible, and the water level was so low that it could hardly be called a swamp at all. I would say that 95% of the 'swamp' was completely dry. However, the remaining 5% was packed with wildlife. Several gators, turtles, and many species of birds. We were able to get some great shots, even better than at Ding Darling due to how close you can get to the birds. We were fortunate to observe an Anhinga and a turtle who appeared to be playing a game with each other. The Anhinga would poke the turtle on the back until it stuck its head out of the water, and then the Anhinga would poke the turtle in the head until it went back under water. They repeated this over and over for about 10 minutes until the turtle tired of the game and swam off (I don't blame him!).

Sanibel Beaches

We stopped at many of Sanibel's beaches over the course of the week. Some of our best shots came from Blind Pass Beach, where we ran into a very tame Great Blue Heron every time we were there. It was begging for leftovers from the local fishermen with great success. It also had its head in their bait buckets if they turned their back too long. Jenny got a great shot of this, but she shot it from a perspective that made it look like the heron was eating out of a bag of potato chips instead of bait! Too funny. We also got some nice shots of some egrets at the Sanibel fishing pier (by the ligthhouse). We tended to head there around sunset when we could.    

Cayo Costa

We took a boat to Cayo Costa, which is a small island to the north of Captiva that is only accessible by boat. They run charters for people who go there to collect shells. My family went for the shelling, but I took my camera in the hopes that I'd see some birds. I was lucky, there was an osprey nest right near the beach. I was able to get some good shots of the Osprey coming and going. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I caught one coming back to the nest with a large fish. I had a great shot of it landing with the fish that was obscured by branches in front of it. Eventually, I was able to move to a better vantage point. 

Wrapping Up

That's all for now, I've got a lot of unpacking and laundry to do! I've also got to get myself adjusted back to Seattle time...I still find myself waking up at 3:00am so that I can catch the sunrise in Florida :)