My Best of South Florida (big post!)

traunerk

I was in Miami for a few days last week and got about an afternoon and a half to ditch the family and go see what Florida offers.

Harry, I gotta tell you it's really unfair. Up in the NY area I have to crawl in mud and tiptoe through the woods to get close to any critters. In your neck of the woods, they pose just a few feet away.

Anyway, it was a rare chance for me (and I did not take my 400 f/5.6 so all shots are with the 70-300 DO - except for the red shouldered hawk, for which a fellow traveler allowed me to attach my 30D to his 500mm lens <g>)

Hope you enjoy my sampling - I have many more ...Regards...Keith

kdog

Wow, great series, Keith! Very good shots. I guess it goes to show you that location matters.

It's also very interesting to see how well the 70-300 DO works in capable hands. I've read mixed reviews on this lens. However, your results certainly show the lens in a very good light (no pun intended.)

The hawk shot is awesome, and it must have been a thrill to try out the 500. So, are you getting one now?

Cheers,
-joel

Tommyboy

You Floridians have such an abundance of wildlife to shoot. Really nice stuff; thanks for showing.

Antonio Correia

Tommyboy wrote:

You Floridians have such an abundance of wildlife to shoot. Really nice stuff; thanks for showing.

Yes, it was a good ideia to show us.

Andy

traunerk wrote:

Yum, great action, super shot

What is this?

traunerk

Thanks, Joel...
The 70-300DO is a great travel lens and stopped down in good light is terrific. in low light, it's not bad with IS, but it's hard to get the kind of sharpness you see here. A compromise lens for wildlife, but there can't be many better travel lenses. With this and a 17-85 or a 17-55, you're pretty much set for the road.

I think I would be exhausted carrying around the 500 for more than a few minutes and I certainly wouldn't want to handhold the beast. But it was fun to look through...

Regards...Keith

traunerk

Andy...that's a Purple Gallinule...
see below...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Purple_Gallinule

Yep - it was my first time as well. Was it as good for you?

Thanks for lookin'

Keith

dbaker1221

some fantastic photos!

Harryb

Outstanding set Keith. It really is unfair with how easy it is to get wildlfie shots down here. The wildlife is much more used to human contact and is much more tolerant than in other areas of the country. When I lived in NYC I saw a great egret every once in awhile in the Jamaica Bay sanctuary but they were always about 100 yards away.

BigAl

Very nice series. That small heron (it looks like our Greenbacked Heron) and the Purple Gallinule are *really* special!

BPCooper

Great series. I like the first because you can clearly see what the out-of-focus ones are too.

traunerk

Thanks, Harry...
I think my favorite, other than the Anhinga of course, is the Limpkin.

I took a couple of these at the Anhinga Trail in Everglades Park (where I went with my family who were ready to leave when I could have stayed for hours) and the rest at Loxahatchee near DelRay Beach when I drove up from Miami for about 3 hours of walking around. Could have played golf or shot pics and decided to be anti-social . I was truly amazed at the variety - there are a number of other birds/critters that I saw that aren't in this post.

you should also look forward to a post with the largest thing I have ever seen a gbh eat - it was either a muskrat or a very large rat or other rodent that I thought he would never get down his throat - watched him fail two or three times before he stuffed it down, shooting the whole way. Unfortunately, he was a very selfish bird, mostly facing away from me, but I still got a few pretty amazing shots.

regards...Keith

traunerk

We call 'em green herons here as well....
Thanks for the kind comments.

regards...Keith

BigAl wrote:

Very nice series. That small heron (it looks like our Greenbacked Heron) and the Purple Gallinule are *really* special!

traunerk

Thanks, Ben...
You have some really cool photos on your site - i love those rockets

Yes, that's what i saw too and I had to take about five shots to make sure that i wasn't overlapping any of the near and far birds. Maybe I'll try to replace the sky and see if that improves it further.

Regards...Keith

BPCooper wrote:

Great series. I like the first because you can clearly see what the out-of-focus ones are too.

Harryb

traunerk wrote:

I think my favorite, other than the Anhinga of course, is the Limpkin.

I took a couple of these at the Anhinga Trail in Everglades Park (where I went with my family who were ready to leave when I could have stayed for hours) and the rest at Loxahatchee near DelRay Beach when I drove up from Miami for about 3 hours of walking around. Could have played golf or shot pics and decided to be anti-social <g>. I was truly amazed at the variety - there are a number of other birds/critters that I saw that aren't in this post.

you should also look forward to a post with the largest thing I have ever seen a gbh eat - it was either a muskrat or a very large rat or other rodent that I thought he would never get down his throat - watched him fail two or three times before he stuffed it down, shooting the whole way. Unfortunately, he was a very selfish bird, mostly facing away from me, but I still got a few pretty amazing shots.

regards...Keith

GBH's are very paranoid about their catches. I caught one yesterday with a large frog and he kept turning his back on me. When I moved to the side to catch a profile he flew off, he was taking no chances on me stealing his frog.

The Anhinga trail is one of the best spots to shot in Florida.

Daver2112

Awesome shots. Don't you just love florida.