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A Weekly Update from Everglades Imagery

March 6, 2005

The Experience

This was a pretty relaxed week but I still feel like I got some stuff done. Also, it was a short week because of my delay due to the snowstorm in the northeast. Wednesday was a great afternoon as I spent time with a mother Anhinga and her four chicks at Anhinga Trail. These tiny chicks must be less than a week old and are very strange looking creatures. I will be returning to this nest at least once a week for the next few weeks in order to document their growth.

The rest of the week was spent at home battling a cold. By Saturday I felt much better and headed back out to try and photograph the landscape. After purchasing an 8’ step ladder I headed up into the dwarf cypress forest and Pay-ha-okee region. After an hour or so of wrestling with my tripod I managed to lash it to the ladder providing a stable structure to mount my camera about 10’ above the ground. This change in elevation allows me to actually have a middle ground in my landscape image. Instead of simply having a bush or tree in the foreground and something on the horizon with a big sky, I can actually have a foreground with a middle ground that allows the viewers eye to travel to the back of the image producing a much more appealing photograph. Because of this I am able to find more pleasing compositions as well as show more of the landscape. For these landscapes I am shooting large format film so won’t have the images for a few weeks. However, when I get them developed and find a way to scan them I will post them or include them in my newsletter.

This week I am going to continue working with the landscape as well as try to photograph the Wood Storks as they begin nesting at Paurotis Pond. I also have started to get in touch with some of the scientists doing research down here so I hope to begin interacting with them in the near future.

 

The Photos


Anhinga with chicks – Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park

This is one of the many images I captured of this mother Anhinga and her four chicks. One of the challenges of photographing a nesting situation is that there are multiple birds and it is difficult to get all of them positioned correctly. In this image, I was thrilled to see all five heads and to have clear views of all of them. This is one of the few images that has all four chicks visible.

 


Anhinga and chick – Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park

I love the way both the female Anhinga and the chick have their heads pointed straight up. Their eyes are visible and the image is tack sharp.

 


Double-crested Cormorant – Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park

In my continued attempt to get an image that really shows off the cormorant’s brilliant emerald eye I am working tighter and tighter. This is the best I have so far and am pretty thrilled with this image.

 


Great Egret in Cypress – Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park

I have photographed Great Egrets in this tree several different times but usually they are sitting at the very top. Something about this one really grabs me. For some reason I like it more with the bird at the lower left rather than directly on top.