One of the highlights was photographing Red-tailed Hawks picking off gravid bats as 10 million departed a cave to begin their nocturnal feeding. The hawks managed to grab one or more bats mid air. Peregrine Falcons, Swainson’s Hawks, and Merlins joined in for the daily feast. And after the female bats have their young, 20 million bats will exit the cave each evening. (The male bats are off somewhere in Mexico while the females give birth.)
With 10 days to go in the contest, I was huffing and puffing up a hill with my 600mm, 1.4X teleconverter, camera body, and heavy-duty tripod along with a 400mm lens, camera body and tripod hoping to photograph the hawks’ bat attacks. As I reached the top of the hill I heard my 600mm lens vibrating a bit on my tripod. As I only had three steps to the top of the hill, I thought I would tighten it down when I got to the top. Too late - the 600mm lens fell from my shoulder to the solid rock at my feet. I can still see the lens rolling partway down the hill separate from the camera body and 1.4X teleconverter. Somehow the lens and camera survived but the tele was smashed.
Once a Painted Bunting landed within the minimum focusing distance and sang his song long enough to for me to hope for extra-point images. Another time a six-foot Indigo Bull Snake attacked and overpowered a resisting four-foot Coach Whip Snake.
It wasn’t until getting out of my blind or car and walking the land that I began to find even more interesting subjects to photograph, like any number of tiny bugs that feed on the flowers of the prickly pear cactus. A larger-sized, quite hairy tarantula spider raised a few of my own hairs as I zeroed in with the 180mm macro lens.
The PortfolioI submitted 75 images - 15 images each of birds, reptiles-amphibians, insects-arachnids-arthropods, mammals, and plants-landscapes. In all, I made almost 25,000 images in the 30-day period, spent two weeks in preparation or driving, and another two weeks editing. Photographers supplied actual slides or a digital storage device containing numbered sequences leading to and following all the images in their portfolio.
After the FactWould I do anything differently? Sure, I would get lower for my wide angles, research the area and subject matter a little more carefully, take better care of my equipment, and plan my activities to make certain each of the categories received equal time. I found myself concentrating on areas I do best such as bird photography.
With 10 days to go in the contest, I was huffing and puffing up a hill with my 600mm, 1.4X teleconverter, camera body, and heavy-duty tripod along with a 400mm lens, camera body and tripod hoping to photograph the hawks’ bat attacks. As I reached the top of the hill I heard my 600mm lens vibrating a bit on my tripod. As I only had three steps to the top of the hill, I thought I would tighten it down when I got to the top. Too late - the 600mm lens fell from my shoulder to the solid rock at my feet. I can still see the lens rolling partway down the hill separate from the camera body and 1.4X teleconverter. Somehow the lens and camera survived but the tele was smashed.
Once a Painted Bunting landed within the minimum focusing distance and sang his song long enough to for me to hope for extra-point images. Another time a six-foot Indigo Bull Snake attacked and overpowered a resisting four-foot Coach Whip Snake.
It wasn’t until getting out of my blind or car and walking the land that I began to find even more interesting subjects to photograph, like any number of tiny bugs that feed on the flowers of the prickly pear cactus. A larger-sized, quite hairy tarantula spider raised a few of my own hairs as I zeroed in with the 180mm macro lens.
The PortfolioI submitted 75 images - 15 images each of birds, reptiles-amphibians, insects-arachnids-arthropods, mammals, and plants-landscapes. In all, I made almost 25,000 images in the 30-day period, spent two weeks in preparation or driving, and another two weeks editing. Photographers supplied actual slides or a digital storage device containing numbered sequences leading to and following all the images in their portfolio.
After the FactWould I do anything differently? Sure, I would get lower for my wide angles, research the area and subject matter a little more carefully, take better care of my equipment, and plan my activities to make certain each of the categories received equal time. I found myself concentrating on areas I do best such as bird photography.
that's a pretty cool pic!
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