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ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
JANUARY 2006
One of the more bizarre things you can do
with digital is to create weird effects which really don't have their
place in nature. But the techniques are available just so if you find a blue
leaf in your walk in the woods you know someone from Photoshop has been there.
On the more practical side is the subject of panoramas. These ultra wide photos have been attempted for years with special cameras and equipment but can be done rather easily with digital cameras and some software. A series of images in a row are taken and then combined with a "stitching" software. Photoshop will do this and you have great control over the combining process. This has great applications in landscape photography and I am excited about the prospect of attempting this even next month when I go to Florida. The grandeur of a large landscape photograph may become even greater with its longer width and detail. I will still shoot 120 and 35mm film but will combine the images in Photoshop. I have ordered some special equipment to do these. My photo of a parking lot in Highland Recreational Area combined five single images for a nearly 180 degree view. The possibilities are enchanting for example, I could do a thin vertical photo of waterfalls or a thin horizontal of a band of autumn color in some trees. Enormous wide landscapes could be obtained with my Mamiya 6X7 and stitched to produce huge, detailed photographs. Another digital gem is the ability to digitally blend or join two images. A major problem with film photography has been the range of the film itself. Photographing a sunset, for example, when you set the exposure for the bright sky, the foreground goes dark or silhouettes. If you expose for the foreground the sky goes super bright and washes out. Film simply can't handle the contrast range, so we compromise the best we can. Neutral density filters help but only to a limited extent. Now, with digital you can take one photo of the foreground properly exposed, and another for the sky, properly exposed, and combine them in Photoshop. Then you have a photo with eight-stop latitude, an impossibility with film.
In my photographs above of Muskrat Lake in northern Ontario taken about ten years ago with my 35mm camera, I scanned the slides into Photoshop and went to work on the blend. This technique really has great promise when I go up north in Michigan, or to Florida and out West. These new digital ideas promise to bring some real excitement to my photography. Date this page was edited: January 12, 2006. ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
FEBRUARY 2006 I use this page as a record of the work I am currently doing as well as some of my past experiences and publication work. I may also include future plans in my pursuit of nature photography. One of the more frequent sightings in our backyard bird feeders is a Cooper's hawk. These birds are becoming more bolder and commoner as more people feed the birds in the winter. The hawks feed almost entirely on birds and can catch them with their great speed and stealth. They are built for pursuit, they have large, broad wings and a long tail which gives them great maneuverability. Few birds can out fly them and instead will try to find cover or simply freeze in position so the hawk doesn't see their movement. We've all see birds when they begin flight, they flutter and flap furiously to get airborne and then can gain speed and movement. The Cooper's hawk only flaps once or twice with its broad wings and it is at top speed and comes diving in for pursuit.
Sometimes I look out my window and see a downy woodpecker at
my feeder in a "freeze" mode. I know that means a hawk is nearby. I scan the
trees in the woods with my binoculars for a hawk which are very protectively colored and blend in
well. They are hard to spot unless they move. I don't always find the hawk but
many times I do as it is perched watching the feeders. Cooper's hawks were one of the birds that the fall hawk counts have kept track of. At strategic places bird watchers tallied the migrating birds and have kept good records for many years. Recently, the Cooper's hawks numbers were way down and it became a cause for concern. But it was found out that the birds simply were not migrating. With all the bird feeding going on up north, the hawks were staying here for the winter and now are fairly common birds to be seen in my area here in Michigan.
Cooper's hawks are magnificent predators that are trying to survive the winter just like the rest of the birds. Watch your feeders this winter for a sighting of this "blue darter" as he comes through your yard. Date this page was edited: February 21, 2006. ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
MARCH 2006
Another bird I encountered further on was the golden-crowned kinglet. It is the smallest bird next to the hummingbird and is only with us here in southern Michigan in the winter. It has a call I can barely hear as it is so soft and high in frequency. Once heard, I scan the trees with my binoculars and it usually takes some time to locate. When I do find it they are always hard at work looking for insect eggs and larvae. It is hard enough for birds to survive with seed supplements but this one eats almost nothing but insects and that keeps them foraging constantly during daylight hours. They can often be drawn closer by "pishing", making squeaks with your lips and I even had one land on my boot once. This winter being milder than usual, I didn't see one golden-crown until late February whereas I normally find them on every hike I take in the winter.
Walking back home I had covered three miles but saw very few birds. In another two months I will see a hundred or more walking the same trail. In the meantime, a trip to Florida is planned where the numbers of birds are at their annual highest count. Date this page was edited: March 1, 2006.
ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
APRIL 2006
Every state run campground I stay in Florida is great, they
put a lot of effort into design and maintenance. Each one has a resident camper
who stays free for a month or longer and in turn cleans the bathrooms and
showers and handles any problem that comes up. In Myakka, a couple from Canada
gets up even before me and we share wildlife sightings in the mornings. They
refer to their work as their fun job and really enjoy what they do while
wintering far from the frozen north. All the campgrounds have a camp host like
this and it keeps everything running smooth. I stayed at three different campgrounds this year and all were just fabulous. I wouldn't even consider a private campground unless I didn't have any choice. My first week was at Collier-Seminole State Park which is near Naples, but really in the heart of the Everglades. This park has canoe or kayak trails and foot trails nearby with great wildlife viewing locations. This spot is not far from Fakahatchie or the Big Cyprus Preserve which has many more miles of trails. The campground is wooded with palm trees and laurel oaks where red-shouldered hawks called all day. At night Chuck-will's-widows call and the fireflies are everywhere. This park, as all the state campgrounds, have a locked gate that can be entered or exited at any time with the combination they give you at registration. So, I could photograph sunsets many miles away or leave early enough for a sunrise while my camper was safe and secure.
My second week was spent at Koreshan State Historical Site
in Estero, Florida, near Fort Meyers.
This state campground was once the location of a religious sect where the leader
believed he was immortal. He got a large following and the people lived in a comune there. Unfortunately
for the group, the leader died and the religion disbanded and the
state took the land and made it into a beautiful park. Here, each campsite
was set apart from the next by a buffer of palmetto and scrub trees that gave
one a sense of privacy. Many of Florida's campgrounds are done this way and its
is a nice touch. This buffer was so thick in spots that gray catbirds hung out
there, a bird that loves thickets, and their meow calls were
My third state park was up in Gainesville, the Payne's Prairie State Park. This was another beautiful place and my spot had many sweet gum trees which gave the air a slight sweetness. Also there were swamp chestnut oaks and water oaks, trees I have never seen before. But really unusual were the southern Magnolias. These are evergreen trees that grow to 60 to 80 feet tall and must be spectacular when in bloom. In Michigan they are only shrubs and hard to keep in our climate. The whole area is beautiful and I spent early mornings and evenings photographing the scenery.
Some people really get involved in camping, setting up their
site with all the comforts they can. Others just park and go somewhere else
hiking, fishing or kayaking and just use their camp for a place to sleep. Some
have giant motor homes, others have small tents. Whatever the use, it is always
better to have a beautiful campground that is comfortable and easy to enjoy like
they have done all through Florida.
You must book early (you can only book ten months ahead) and you can only stay in one place for a maximum of fourteen days during the busy tourist season. Just go online and book through ReserveAmerica, you can always cancel for a small fee. The parks are full during the winter as everyone wants to stay in these beautiful state parks. It is hard to know my schedule - for example which art shows I will be accepted in, etc., so I double book to be safe. If I wait until I'm sure of my schedule, the campgrounds will certainly be full. I'll have to write a letter to the governor about these Florida campgrounds, if they are self-supporting and successful, why don't we do this here in Michigan? Date this page was edited: April 13, 2006. ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
MAY 2006 Please see my Art Show Schedule, it is now nearly complete for the year. I hope to see you at one of my shows.
Most of my photography was concentrated in the Everglades and Big Cyprus Swamp where I have been working on making panoramic images of the scenery which I will post on my website as I finish stitching them. At the far east side I found a great place in the Kirby-Storter park along US-41, the Tamiami trail. It was in this former roadside park where I found many of my Michigan wood warblers spending the winter, and that was twenty years ago. Then it had been closed and was falling apart but I could walk in to a stream and pool by some old cypress and get close to the birds. Now, they have fixed it up into a beautiful small park with a long boardwalk leading back to the old pool. Here and all along the road were great places to shoot for scenics of the wildness in the Everglades.
My only trip to Shark Valley was disappointing. Usually in
January or February I walk in at dawn and can get great photos of green herons,
purple gallinules, snowy and great egrets, and great blue, tricolored, and
little blue herons. But now the birds are scarce and the brush has grown so tall
and thick you can't get good photos anyway. I did get some career photos of a
black-crowned night-heron which is usually not too common down there or at least
not as easily photographed as the yellow-crowned.
The bald cypress trees which lose their needles in winter, were just about all leafed out and gave a beautiful light green background to my scenic photos. Most of the early wildflowers were blooming and the weather was wonderful, only having rain on one day. I wanted to find out how Florida is in March and April and I think I could enjoy going there at that time of year in addition to the January and February in which I am used to. That would be a sure cure for the Michigan winter blahs. Date this page was edited: May 12, 2006. ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
JUNE 2006
These birds hunt along the tree tops looking for insects, lizards, birds, or snakes. They have a pure white head with white undersides that are outlined in black. Its back is dark blue-black but its most distinguishing feature is its deeply forked tail. It is the largest kite in North America. John James Audubon wrote about the bird in 1840 saying, "They dive in rapid succession amongst the braches, glancing along the trunks, and seizing in their course the insects and small lizards of which they are in quest. Their motions are astonishingly rapid, and the curves which they describe, their sudden doublings and crossings, and the extreme ease with which they seem to cleave the air, excite the admiration of him who views them while thus employed in searching for food." These birds originally ranged all the way north to Minnesota, but now are found only in the extreme south of the U.S.
I mentioned a road I found in the Ten-thousand Islands
National Wildlife Refuge last month where I found a black-necked stilt among
other things. I was seeing the kites back there as well. I decided to try for
some photos. If I stood on the road which was the highest point around, and set
up with my 500mm telephoto perhaps I might just get lucky. Where I normally
spend most of my spare time hiking in Florida, the weather was such that it was
just too hot to spend the energy out walking and so I reasoned I could just
stand there and hope for the best. Besides, there could be osprey or
turkey vultures to shoot, they were always about.
Date this page was edited: June 1, 2006. Return to PHOTOGRAPHY JOURNAL main page.
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Happy
New Year everyone, I am going to spring right into January with some continued
talk on the digital photography I have discovered. Last month I talked about
some pros and cons of the digital age but this month I will talk about some
techniques only available in digital.
Sometimes
the hawks appear in my yard and proceed to land on a tree branch surveying the
feeders. The birds are well warned of his arrival by the shrieks and calls of
other birds, mostly blue jays. The birds then hide in the evergreens or shrubs
where the hawk cannot enter and there they wait it out. But the hawk has other
tricks. Sometimes I've seen them leave a tree branch, swoop very low to the
ground and fly directly to the feeders which so intimidates some birds that they
burst from their hiding places and are nabbed. If not, the hawk often lands on
the feeder itself and waits some more. Often he will then fly and flutter at an
evergreen or shrub as if to trying to land but is really trying to flush out the
birds that are cowering in its midst's. But the best approach of all is to
just totally surprise the birds by flying through the subdivision at house
height until it gets to my yard where it makes a quick turn and just barely
clears the front roof. As it goes over the house into the backyard, the birds
which have been squabbling over bird seed and position at the feeders are
immediately overcome with terror and mass confusion begins. The birds fly into
the house and each other in their mad effort to escape and the hawk can usually
pick out one of the birds for a meal. 
Bird feeding people can give the birds in their yard a
better chance from these hawks by keeping their feeders in sheltered areas. In
fact, if you don't have good shelter, you will get very few birds for that
reason. No bird wants put its life at risk in its pursuit of food, it will go to
another safer area to feed. Although evergreens appear to be a good cover, I
have found that the birds seem to prefer medium to tall shrubs like service
berry or hawthorne. When a bird suddenly has to fly for cover because of a hawk
attack, the evergreens are less appealing because they don't know what is in the
darkness, there may be a cat for example, and the birds may avoid it and be
forced to fly out in the open where they are easily overtaken by the hawk. A
shrub on the other hand lets the bird see immediately that there is no danger
and can fly right inside it and then perch on one of its branches. The pursuing hawk must veer away or risk a
wing injury that would be fatal. He may even land on the top of the shrub while
the birds look at him only a few feet away but they know they are safe and stay
put. Hawks seem very impatient and if there is no action they soon fly off to
another yard.
I took a walk in the woods early Saturday
morning. The trees rattled leafless braches above my head. Low bands of clouds
in the east gave no indication if the day would be sunny or not. I was soon
joined by chickadees, titmice, and white-breasted nuthatches that seem to have a
curious nature and always come to investigate someone walking through their
territory. It seems like they think I'm looking for food and they want to help.
They call with squeaks and whistles saying "Look! Over here!" and pull apart
pieces of bark on trees to snatch dormant insect larvae.
Back a mile or so from my house is a river.
I usually approach it quietly so I can spot birds before they spot me. But this
time it didn't work. A pair of wood ducks burst into flight with loud flapping
and giving their whistling call flying out over the meadow and into the woods
beyond it. Further down the river I watched a belted kingfisher flying by
giving his rattling call. A rare bird this time of year but with the open water
in the river, he could find plenty of fish to survive on. I thought of all the
kingfishers I see in south Florida every year, there is one it seems every
hundred feet on powerline wires along the canals. These birds would be perched
watching the water for fish with the bills agape trying to cool off in the hot
sun. Here, in Michigan, this one kingfisher who didn't go south had his work cut
out for him just to stay warm.
At
art shows and campgrounds I talk to lots of people from other states and when
they see that I am from Michigan, they often ask me about nature places to visit
in my state especially in the Upper Peninsula, its seems to be a destination
a lot of them would like to go. I can recommend many areas that are beautiful
for waterfalls, shorelines, and scenic wonders as well as wildlife. But when it
comes to camping, I can never recommend the state campgrounds, I always tell
them to go to private facilities. This is really a shame, for some reason the
State doesn't want to bother to build and maintain the scenic campgrounds that
would attract a lot of travelers to our state. The campgrounds could be made to
be wonderful and profitable. Florida always gives you electricity
and water which is all any camper needs. Michigan usually only gives electricity
so you must continually fill your water tanks and empty your waste tanks during
your stay. Our Department of Natural Resources should just look and study
Florida State Campgrounds.
heard
all morning. I only stayed a few days here to do my art show in Sanibel, but it
was a great place. I returned to Collier-Seminole for the remainder of the week.
My second campsite there had a 100 foot palm tree on the lot.
I
spent three weeks in Florida in late March and April doing only one art show. My
real mission was to photograph the swamps and bayous with the greens of Spring
everywhere, having never been there at that time of year. The one show on
Sanibel was good but I found the island to be quite bare of the birds I usually
find in February. In fact, most of my regular haunts for birds was pretty dismal
such as Shark Valley and Corkscrew Sanctuary , the birds having moved on
to nesting grounds or better feeding areas. But birds were not my main purpose
and so I didn't mind. 
An
old road that leads back from highway 41 goes into the Ten Thousand Islands
National Wildlife Refuge. This turned out to be one of my best birding trails. I
found a black-necked stilt there, a bird I have photographed fairly well in
Texas, and one that I didn't know was even found in Florida, it was the first
one I have ever seen there. All along the trail an occasional bird would fly
over that could be photographed in flight mostly egrets and vultures, but once
in a while an osprey or the spectacular swallow-tailed kite. 
Leaving
US-41 for the Loop Road, the area back there has become the spot for birds and
scenics in south Florida. I used to never see anyone back there and the road was
so bad you couldn't move along it but now it is maintained and there are quite a
few nature lovers taking it. I think the Big Cyprus Swamp headquarters are
probably recommending it to tourists and so it has become quite popular. Here I
found a Florida cottonmouth snake and got some great scenics and bird photos.
This
winter in Florida I was driving back from Marco Island where I had gone to get
supplies. My campsite in Collier-Seminole State Park was a fair drive from a
grocery store and I knew where a good Publix was from my experience doing art
shows at Marco. As I was driving along the coastal estuary I spotted a
hawk soaring just above the trees along the water. I immediately recognized it
as a swallow-tailed kite, there could be no other bird like that, and I pulled
off the road to watch it. It was a bird I had never seen before, but this year I
was later in Florida then I had ever been before, and this bird was returning
from its winter grounds in South America. I marveled at its buoyancy and how it
could fly so easily. Other soaring birds seem to just go where the breezes take
them, but this kite kept in perfect control with just slight tail movements and
was aligned along the tops of the tree row barely clearing the uppermost braches
as it glided out of sight. Kites are birds of prey in the hawk family and are
known for their great flying ability. They rock back and forth with forward
consistency and seem to soar and glide effortlessly. The kites we fly on a
string were named after the birds, not the other way around. I've seen the
white-tailed kite in Texas and the snail kite not far from where this bird was,
in the Everglades but closer to Miami. Still, my first impression was of a bird
that was a flying master, one which seemed to have a it all over the other
birds, this birds presence seemed to exude flight perfection.
I
figured the sighting to be just a chance encounter, but I began to see more in
the next few days. When the ranger at my campground asked me what I had been
seeing, I was proud to tell him: Swallow-tailed kites! He didn't seem too
impressed and told me yes, they should be coming back from down south now. When
I looked them up in my Everglades check-lists I was astonished to find that they
were actually listed as fairly common. As the days went by I did begin to see
more and more. 
I set up one afternoon and watched and waited. After about
an hour, I did see a swallow-tailed kite but too far away. I did get some nice
osprey shots. After about three hours I quit, but came back the next day, same
place, same time. This time it wasn't long and I spotted a swallow-tailed kite.
It was moving towards me at an angle and seemed to be hunting along a row of
trees. I did get some shots but at a great distance. Awhile later, another bird
came from the other direction. This one came much closer and I actually saw it
grab something from a tree. When it did, it suddenly swooped up doubling its
height above the ground in an instant. It had caught something, a grasshopper or
small lizard and tucked its head under its wings while bringing up its feet to
eat it. These birds don't land to eat or even to drink or bathe, they just sail
over water and skim the surface like a swallow. During this afternoon set I got
lots of shots of the bird while marveling at its incredible power of flight. One
bird grabbed a fairly long snake from a tree and started eating it from the
front and continued to do so until it flew out of sight like it was a long piece
of spaghetti that was growing shorter the further along it flew. Sometimes a
bird would suddenly flare up from its flight pattern and hover as if it saw
something in a tree and wanted to look further at it like we might hold a book
further from our eyes to see it clearer. From horizon to horizon I watched these
birds work the marshes totally in control with grace and beauty.
The
swallow-tailed kite will no doubt become one of my favorite birds and one I will
be looking for every time I am in Florida in the future. If I could just stay
there next year until the end of April, maybe I could find a nest . . .?