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Photography From Tybee island
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I parked to access the beach, not far from where the lighthouse and buildings are located but further up from the more public beaches. From past experience
I knew that if any bird flocks were around they would congregate in this area. While walking the road to enter the cut through to the beach checking the
trees and bushes along the way, I viewed one large bush that had an abundance of butterfly activity and this really caught my eye. This was too good to
pass up and I placed/leveled my tripod in an attempt to capture some of the beauty I was viewing. I took quite a few shots before moving on but as I
maneuvered to keep the focus distance corrected for the lens at 700mm I was in the road. There were many work crews about and I moved more than once
to let their trucks pass. I could well imagine what they thought about my activities but they were really decent about it all, appeared to have an
interest in what I was doing & were friendly in all respects.
Gulf Fritillary - Canon 5D, camera on tripod; 1/200 second, ISO 400, 700mm at f8. |
Here comes Kiro's butterfly sampler from this stop:
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As I walked out to the beach there were a few people around, some surf casting, others sitting on the beach. Today wouldn’t be considered ‘beach weather’
by local standards but I found it pleasant. The wind was light as I walked to the water’s edge to seek out shore birds. I expected to see Willets and
Sanderlings running around the surf in their comic routine. Initially I was a bit disappointed because there was little to no activity in sight
compared to other visits. As local birding authority Diana Churchill, had pointed out, November is a slow month for birding in coastal Georgia.
Monarch - Canon 5D, camera on tripod; 1/400 second, ISO 400, 700mm at f8.
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I continued to walk along the sand until I could spot a flock in the distance. Not nearly as many birds were present compared to a month or two ago but I was pleased to see many Black Skimmers in the group.
On my last visit I found just a few of these around and hoped to enter a ‘target rich environment’ to add some my photographic archive.
These birds are familiar with people walking around their environment but they defiantly will not let you approach if you appear overly interested. I never could understand why beach walkers don’t give these flocks a wide berth but instead walk into or close enough to spook the birds. I walked in as nonchalantly as I could to close the distance and then dropped the tripod down to knee height and over time worked my approach closer. Birds always know you’re around but if move towards then slowly and methodically with no quick movements and leave an open escape lane for them, they’ll tolerate you enough to get some closer photographs. At this point my greatest fear was that a walker would enter the birds ‘comfort zone’, spook the group causing them to relocate and I’d have to start all over again... This time it didn’t happen however and I was close enough to obtain a good image scale while hanging out with the flock. Brown Pelican & gulls on board a passing fishing vessel - Canon 5D, camera on tripod; 1/500 second, ISO 400, 700mm at f8. |
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I’d visited here hoping to image some Black Skimmers and didn’t leave disappointed in this respect. There was enough activity in the time I was near the flock to allow
ample opportunities to photograph these birds both
with the tripod mounted camera and handheld.
On several occasions the flock was spooked by whatever and took off in a frenzy of activity. I wasn’t exactly in the middle of this tumult but the effect occurring all around me was fairly amazing. I took a series of shots of the commotion and although the reduced web version below doesn’t lend itself quite as well as being there, one can get the idea... I also took some tern flight shots as can viewed in the group below. Black Skimmers - canon 40D handheld; 1/2000 second, ISO 640, 400mm at f5.6.
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I took quite a few shots, enough I estimated to call it a successful afternoon as the light began to fail. Walking back to my vehicle took considerable longer as I was walking into the wind on the return.
I hope to get back to check this beach again after the New Year commences.
In closing this section of ‘Southern Photography’, I’d like to leave this account with my favorite photograph of the day as noted below. The master file of this image is outstanding and another I’ll have mounted for personal display. |
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One Last Photographic Stop - A Refuge Along the Roadway
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I turned in, followed the entrance road and entered the facility. I was only there for just over an hour but I could see this place was large, spread out & had great imaging potential.
During the time I spent driving and walking around I didn’t see another person. There were various trails running off the gravel road, some wide enough for vehicular traffic and it
appeared to be well maintained. I wondered if my being here may be problematic as this looked like a privately funded reserve but it was open to the public and nothing I saw indicated
visitors weren’t welcome. I’m always careful to not disturb anything and except for someone spotting my vehicle or me walking with the tripod they wouldn’t even know I’d been around.
American Alligator - Canon 40D handheld; 1/640 second, ISO 640, 400mm at f9.
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There were multiple choices of roads to follow. I was concerned with the possibility of getting lost or disorientated so chose one that had a sign indicating this was the way to more water. I can’t say about the rest of the place but this was a good choice and soon came upon many birds and gators wading and hanging out. Included in this group was a large population of Wood Storks. Not in itself unusual in George and South Carolina but I was pleased to see them in this environment. I parked the truck and got the cameras prepared as I walked over to take a look. |
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I viewed more gators in the one spot that I’d seen at any time in a visit to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. There are many gators at SNWR of course but it’s what you can view
from the wildlife loop that you’d recall. This spot had several groups of alligators and some off by themselves. I viewed the common wading birds here, Great Blue Herons,
various egrets and a few others besides the storks. There was also a great deal of Turkey Vulture activity near where I was located.
Wood Storks - Canon 40D handheld; 1/640 second, ISO 400, 400mm at f9.
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It was getting on into late afternoon and had many miles north yet to travel before I stopped for the evening. I didn’t take many images from this stop but below you’ll find a few more as I close out this section of the account... |
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A Few Thoughts in Closing
About the photographs – I shot thousands of images during October and November when in Georgia, Florida & South Carolina. Of this collective group, I enhanced perhaps five hundred into master files, suitable to produce large scale prints in most cases, for my archive. Afterwards most images are rendered to a reduced jpg suitable for web use, ‘framed’ and formatted individually to display in this photojournal as it was constructed. I can’t begin to tell you how much time this process takes from digital capture, image evaluation and enhancement to final display on my website. I would comment however, this article collectively took many hours to produce… I always shoot in Raw format, evaluate and enhance in 16-bit mode using Photoshop CS3, Adobe Bridge & Camera Raw version 4.3 and employ Pixel Genius programs (and a few other plug-ins) in the sharpening and enhancing workflow. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my workflow.
I appreciate the kind response, visits and hit count my website receives from my photojournal and photographic efforts. I offer a special ‘Thank You’ to Derek and Jeannette Lovitch of the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth and Stan & Joan DeOrsey, master birders all for aid in species identifications when my skills proved inadequate in this regard over the past several years.
December 2007