From my window

I never thought it possible, but I photographed through my second floor window, which was not too dirty having been cleaned recently. Often, during the early sunlit morning as I sit at my desk working, I look through this window. For the past few months, I noticed several spiny orb weaver webs built between two large trees,square in front of me at eye level. The morning sun provides a back light such that I can more closely observe the spider and its silky orb expanding 1-2 ft across.

A few days ago, I took interest in a couple of them. One was building or rebuilding its web, having only 3 or 4 outer circles completed. The background from my view (slightly above the spiders) is messy, consisting of buildings, grass, shrubs and trees, water and the reflections of these objects in the water. Oh yes, and ducks. With a wide enough aperture, these objects will blur out as most of them were several dozen feet away. Lighting was tricky however, with shadows and highly lit areas competing with each other.

At any rate, I set up my exposure to brighten the web and spider as much as possible and keep the background consistent and dark. I began composing, with window between me and my subject.To get an even background, I had to negotiate around my desk and computer, and had only a narrow range to work with. From the following two photos, you can see the progress made by this busy spider.


The next day, I noticed that the same little spider was rebuilding its web. Next to it was its neighbor that had a larger web. It also appeared to be doing some maintenance work on it. The next two images demonstrate some of this work.


The spider's web requires some support lines that shoot out from the center through the orb, and it appeared that she was rebuilding these, as seen here.


Soon, she was back in her center resting spot, with full support.

For post processing, I cropped only some of these photos, particularly the images of the larger spider that showed up so well in the back light. I also liked the light reflecting on the web, so I used some curve work to lighten the lights while maintaining a dark background as much as possible. No cloning or noise reduction were used on these photos. As Dorothy once said after returning from Oz, "If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard." Well, maybe I will, but it sure is a good feeling to know that the spiny orb weaver is a few feet away.

Mangroves and Birds

One of my favorite places to photograph wading birds is on Biscayne Bay, in calm waters and during early sunlit hours. That's when the rising sun casts a gentle glow on the browns, golds and greens of the mangroves and the reflections cover the calm shallow waters. In those waters, several species of wading birds can been seen, white ibis, tricolor, nightcrown and little blue heron, and the great white and great blue and yellow footed snowy egret. Sometimes, other types of birds show up. In the winter the gulls (ringed billed included) appear in large quantities, as they were yesterday morning.

I paddled out of the canal at the Matheson marina at 7:30. Low was about that time and the north wind was relatively calm as a paddled past the boat ramp where several powerboats were launching. Soon I could see the shallow grasses adjacent to the deep channel. Silhouetted by the sun, I noticed dozens of little bird bodies scattered about and one or two larger long neck types. I paddled around the flat to get into frontlighting on the birds and watched several hundred gulls resting and leisurely floating in the water. Among them were a handful of ibises and one or two blue herons. I found a good spot but repelled most of the birds that flew to a slightly further point from me and my boat. Some of the ibises flew away to greater distances. The birds were facing the north winds, meaning they were not facing me. Not ideal.


There were a few white ibises that were busily catching food. They made nice subjects as the wind rustled their clean white feathers. Always a favorite bird of mine to photograph, I try to capture a captivating moment, as I have so many photos of ibises in similar poses. But always looking for the one special shot, I stayed with them for awhile. A black bird landed and splashed around a bit. That was something new for me here and the lighting was very nice. I changed my compensation from white bird to black bird and rifled off a few shots before the bird flew off.


A tricolor heron came into the picture and soon, I was harrassing it all along the shoreline. If given a choice among my subjects today, it would be the tricolor heron. It offers a greater variety of movements, often times spreading its wings and shuffling around the water. Not as dynamic as the reddish egret, it does have a pattern of movement that gives you lots of variations in poses, especially at 5 fps. Like the little blue, the tricolor appeared to get use to me and got quite close. It was very challenging keeping the skinny necked bird in focus as it moved through various colors of well lit mangrove roots and darker shadows of mangrove leaves.

Eventually, the sun and water were getting too high. Content with my morning photos, I paddled into the creek where my fishermen friends had been searching for snapper. They spotted a woodstork back in there (not exactly the snapper they were looking for). I once saw 4 woodstorks on the bay, a couple years ago in December. I paddled to where they saw the bird today and although I did not find the wood stork, I did watch a racoon hustling from one mangrove root piling to another. I also spotted several yellowcrown nightherons, both adults and juvys hiding out in the roots.

So today, the main focus was on the birds surrounded by impressionist mangrove reflections. Another perfect Biscayne day.

Ibises rule Biscayne Bay

Still dark, I drove to Matheson this early morning with no AC and the windows partially opened. This was an experiment to test whether or not it was worth the slight discomfort to get my lens defogged before entering the water. These days, the hot humidity steams up the lens once it is taken out of the pelican case and keeps it that way for a very long time. Meanwhile, birds fly by and photo opps are missed. My little experiment worked and when I arrived at the launch site at 6:15 am, the camera and lens were ready to go. I attached the flash and better beamer before getting out of the car

The sun had not quite peaked over the horizon that was layered in some low lying clouds. There was a slight breeze out of the east. The tide that was at its lowest 1/2 hour earlier had already begun to advance on the near full moon that would push it along. The grasses of the bay were exposed widely along the shoreline. So far, no flying birds, but I expected to see a large number of ibises appear at some point.

In the meantime, the feeding grounds behind me were starting to lively up. I noticed some little blues, a snowy egret, great blue heron and yellowcrown nightherons. And as a bonus, I had a couple raccoons in there. Cute little buggers, they were taking advantage of the low tide and filling up with breakfast, something more healthy than trashed leftovers.

Soon, the ibises started flying in. I faced a shallow tide area where by now, the sun was lighting up the surroundings quite nicely and the birds were increasing in number. The ibises by far outnumbered all others and there might have been over a hundred of them within a 1/4 mile distance of the shoreline. This was going to be a classic bay experience, and the sky so far was cooperating with light cloud cover.

I pushed the canoe along the grasses as close as possible to the birds. There were several laughing gulls in the mix. But the ibises did not like that. Seems that even among birds, gulls are considered low class and were promptly booted out of the wading birds' territory.

The water continued to move in, which is a nice set up for me. It means that I can continue to move closer toward the birds and if I am lucky, they will get use to it.

It was a good day, although I would have preferred a later low tide as I only had about an hour of wading birds. Tomorrow should be better. I only have a few weeks before my semester begins, so this week is all about the bay for me. Perfect tides and so far, perfect wind conditions.

Off the water before 10 am, I decided to head over to Fairchild for awhile. I was treated to some fun photos of blue land crabs. There were several of them crossing the grasses and hiding in the stone walls. Here's one of the shots.

Biscayne Bay: High winds, high tide

November 15: It had been over a month since I was on the bay, so getting out on a day when the tide was not ideal for wading bird photography and with expected winds picking up to a stiff 10-15 knots did not seem any less appealing than a day of perfect conditions. I missed being in the canoe and I missed the bay. We launched from Deering and I thought I might see some activity despite the conditions; maybe the gulls would be hanging out at the sponge farms, maybe the bird rookery would have some activity, maybe it would just be a good day to paddle. I had no expectations. And anyway, my new Sony telephoto zoom lens was sent in for repairs, the autofocus not working. Thankfully, it is under full warranty.

I thought I would take out the Minolta 300mm today. Maybe I would find something inside a creek or maybe I could get close enough to the gulls with the 300mm. In the back of my mind I think that sometimes it is a useful exercise to take one prime lens and make the best of it. I could have taken the 1.4 TC with the 300mm lens, but decided not to bother. The Minolta is a sharp, fast lens and I thought about how successfully I photographed wading birds close up on Biscayne Bay before I had the TC attached back in 2007. Some of my best shots were taken with that single prime lens.

Today though, there would be no wading birds, the high tide was about 9 am and what a high tide it was. I couldn't figure it out since the moon was only a little over half full. The water levels were high and all the birds were treed. Some of the single birds could be seen roaming around the edge of the mangrove shoreline or flying about. I saw a handful of great blue herons, great white egrets, a juvenile yelloowcrown nighheron, kingfishers, an osprey or two, a few green herons, and several ibises. On the islands, the brown pelicans were roosting and there were several flying and diving the bay. But it was the cormorants that outnumbered everyone. They were plentiful in the island near Deering Estate and they decorated the little mangrove islands that line the channel near Chicken Key. The bird rookery was full of them and they could be seen in great number in the water near the channel.

The cormorants were taking up residence at the sponge farms but as soon as I approached, they flew off one by one. This left room for some ringed-billed gulls and royal terns that came by to perch for awhile.

At one point I passed close to the shoreline where a very large manatee was resting. I came up on it about 6 feet away when the boat scared the animal. It made a strong wake in the shallow water and quickly passed directly under my boat. Geez, that always makes my heart stop. I've said it many times and I will say it again, the only time I am afraid of tipping over is in the presence of one of these behemoths. And there it was, large as a hummer, it's grayness illuminated in the shallow water as it gracefully moved away from the strange monster that appeared out of nowhere. Once my heart settled back into sinus rhythm, I continued on watching the waters more closely.

Today was not much of a photo day, such as it is sometimes on the water. This is a tricky time of year with the high winds and fronts that can pass through on a whim. Now is the time that I spend mostly camping in the Everglades, so getting out for day trips is infrequent. Work has saddled me more than usual. When I will be out here again is difficult to say, but whenever it is, it's going to be low tide early morning and it will be where the wading birds are plentiful.

Now, I am preparing for our Thanksgiving trip, the first camping trip of the season. I will not have my Sony lens back in time for that trip, but that's fine with me. I hope to see the white pelicans, and maybe capture the group in Chokoloskee bay before heading out Rabbit Key pass. In the meantime, enjoy the few photos from this day on Biscayne Bay.

Back to the Biscayne Rookery

For the third year in a row, I have photographed a bird rookery on Biscayne Bay. During the previous two summers, I stayed close to one island watching the dozens of nesting cormorant and cattle egret families. I wrote a journal about it last summer that covers several visits from May to August. The journal is on my website at http://cmierphotoandfitness.net/birdrookery.

My first visit this year was early May when we attempted to launch from the People's Dock near Deering Estate. I planned to get to the rookery at the earliest light but as it turned out, the launch was problematic and by the time I arrived at the rookery, the morning sun was in full force. I arrived at the island that I studied intensively last year to find a disappointing number of birds. They seemed to only be located on the southwest end of the island, where they flourished in the shade. There were many flying to and fro, but scant activity from my perspective with the sun behind me. Hmmm. Where were the birds? Was I too early in the season? Last year, I did not arrive until mid-May, so maybe I was a couple weeks too early.

I knew that there were some islands on the other side of the jetty near the channel closer to the private docks along the bay shoreline. I never attempted to photograph those islands because of the deeper water and boat traffic. The island that I do photograph sits in shallower waters and is well isolated from the channel. With the little activity I saw on the island today, I decided to head over to the channel islands to see if they held more bird action. There are actually three small islands side by side. They are within a few hundred feet of a wall of mangroves that separates the water from the condominiums. I paddled over there, about 1/4 mile away to find each island feverishly active with nesting birds. As usual cormorants and cattle egrets ruled the island in their high numbers. I also spotted several tricolor herons, a few little blues and a couple anhingas amongst the crowd.

The nests were in full force. Nest building, feedings, testing young wings, etc were all happening. Clearly, these islands were going to get more of my attention this summer. I dropped my anchor and was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually caught bottom. I was able to stabilize my boat and luckily, there was no boat traffic on this side of the channel. This was good since the best lighting is on the side of the channel where I would most likely encounter boat wakes.

Since this first day, I've been back to the rookery a few times. the original island has demonstrated more activity and I've spent some quality time watching it. But the three islands near the channel have proven to be a gold mine of bird nesting activity. One day, I arrived with a total cloud cast. A nasty storm was forming in the east but it stayed far enough away that the winds did not pick up significantly and I didn't have to paddle for cover. A perfect day on the water as it turned out! It was a good day for flash and to learn how to use it on white birds. I spent the entire morning facing east despite the rising sun. With the diffuse lighting, I was able to move to any location around the islands and photograph the activity. There was a great amount of flying activity and I practiced shooting while using the flash. I captured some cormorants feeding in the nests and also in the water, which is an interesting sight to see.

The cattle egrets do a very good job of hiding their nests and thus far, I have had little luck capturing a parent feeding the young birds in the nest. One day, I came up on the island just in time to see a tricolor heron feeding its baby. As soon as I saw it, it was finished and flew off leaving the baby tricolor behind. The baby stood on a high branch in good light for the longest time seemingly waiting for mom to come back. I waited patiently for the parent to arrive again for another round of feeding, but I never saw it and missed that opportunity. In the meantime, birds were flying about and young cormorants were learning to swim. Several fledglings were learning to use their wings, never venturing too far from the nest.

I'll visit the rookery a few more times before the summer is over. This year has been more of a challenge to get on the water because of the storms and rain. But it's been a privilege as always to visit the rookery and observe the life of the birds.

Concerning photography, I've used my new telephoto zoom lens here at the rookery once so far. Compared to the prime lens (420mm with teleconverter attached), the 70-400mm lens has opened up more opportunities. I can capture entire wing spans on birds in the mangroves and flying over head. This advantage becomes most evident in flight shots where I often focus on an incoming bird getting closer by the millisecond. With the prime lens, I have a short window of opportunity before the bird gets too close and I miss the entire wing span. Obviously, I will need some practice with the zoom, but that's part of the fun of it.

I've been struggling with a chronic case of tendinitis in my left shoulder and arm. It appears to be brought on by holding my camera. To overcome this, I purchased a monopod and use it often in the boat and on land. It may or may not provide me more stability but it does take the pressure off my left shoulder. Using the monopod, however is limiting especially with flight shots. It does have a swivel head which helps, but it is still awkward when trying to move the camera about. It's especially difficult when I have the flash attached. In that case, I don't even bother with the monopod and simply try to use my knees as support for my arm.

Using the flash has been challenging and I'm still working out the bugs so to speak. Shooting white birds in daylight with the flash seems counter-intuitive but when shadows start taking over (i.e, under the wings), the fill flash is very pleasing if used properly. I typically stop down the flash to about -2 and adjust exposure compensation accordingly. It's a learning process and all I can do at this point is continue reading what the experts are saying and looking at their results.

Summers on Biscayne Bay - Matheson Hammock

Matheson Hammock area of the bay is my favorite for capturing wading birds. They usually congregate near the mouth of the creek located a 1/2 mile south of the canoe launch. There are several lone mangroves off the main shoreline on both the north and south sides of the creek entrance and among these you can find birds roosting or feeding in and around the trees.

At the earliest of light, this is one of the best places for photographing in the direction of the mangroves. the golden light is spectacular and the reflections offer some beautiful contrasts to the wading birds. At low tide, it is not unusual to find several ibises and little blue herons feeding vigorously in the flats. This is the only area of Biscayne Bay where I've seen so many little blue herons in one place. Great white egrets and a lone great blue heron can be spotted here also. Tricolor herons are present, although they tend to stay closer to the shoreline. In winter months, I've spotted wood storks herel. And those winter southeasterly winds tend to blow the portuguese man-a-wars into the shallow areas. I've captured some interesting photos of those creatures.

This summer, I found a couple black-necked stilts in the shallows. Not only was it the first time I've seen them here, it was the first time I've photographed these birds.

Another aspect of Matheson that I like is the creek that runs from the bay back into the canal. Here, I have photographed large mangrove crabs that seem to be more obvious in late summer months. Once, I captured several of them and two that seemed to be mating. These shy crabs are very difficult to photograph, with so much opportunity for hiding among the mangrove mud and roots. A flash is useful and this year, I will have a 180mm macro to take in there making the photographing easier. With my 420mm lens/teleconverter, I have a hard time getting to the right distance away from the crabs. It's easier to get close ups, thus a macro lens will serve that purpose well.

Another creature I find in the creeks is the large female golden silk spider that spins her web above the creek. This is a beautiful spider that photographs well with a clear sky background if you can situate your boat for such a scene. It's worth the maneuvering to get a shot of this large spider, but it takes lots of patience.

As for the birds, this is a great place for photographing, but only at low tides. I find the best time to come here is when low tide is between 7-9 am. The park opens very early and it will cost $5-6 to get in.

Summers on Biscayne Bay - Deering Estate

Deering Estate area of the bay has proven to be an interesting spot for photographing in the summer. It is quite beautiful for sunrise shots from the launch area. Here, you will find very large limestone rocks sticking out of the low tide water, providing a nice foreground display with chicken Key off in the distance near the rising sun. At low tide, I've spotted several great white egrets wading near by and once, I hung out with a very busy snowy egret next to the People's Dock. The bird didn't mind me being only 10-15 ft away in the very shallow water. I stayed on with the bird for over an hour while it displayed several dances and wing fanning behaviors as it fished for crustaceans, worms and other marine edibles. Early in the morning with an incoming or outgoing tide, this area is often busy with sharks and you'll spot the telltale dorsal fin moving swiftly in the shallow waters. Cormorants are almost always in the area feeding, resting in trees, or flying by.

For the past two years in August, I have come across a very large flock of cormorants swimming in the water near Chicken Key. Not sure what the behavior is, but none seemed to be feeding, they were simply swimming and staring in unison with their heads tilted upward. Even more interesting is that the herring gulls took a keen interest in the flock and on several occasions would swoop down toward the cormorants. The gulls seem to be after something in the water, but why they were doing this near the cormorants is a mystery to me. I suppose birds hang out where there is a food source or for protection.


There are a couple islands near the estate house and often you can find many birds roosting. Two years ago I found several fledgling green herons among a few adults living among the mangroves. Cormorants roost in relatively large number and I'll spot some brown pelicans doing the same sometimes. Ibises are relatively common here with an occasional tricolor heron or great white egret. At low tide, ibises, yellowcrown nightherons and others wade near the shoreline just north of the Deering Estate house. Chicken Key is not too far, about 1/2 mile from shore. At lowest of tides there is a large flat on the southeast side of the island where several wading birds feed.


Overall, this is a fair spot to photograph, but for me, it is mostly the area I paddle across before reaching the bird rookery. On a good day, I may be delayed getting to the rookery because of various opportunities that pop up along the way, especially at low tide. For photographing birds, it's livelier than Blackpoint, but not as lively as Matheson Hammock or the rookery.

A frustrating morning at Deering Estate

There is a bird rookery on Biscayne Bay that I have been photographing for over a year. It is between May and August when I spend time there, photographing the nesting cattle egrets, cormorants and a few other assorted birds (tricolor herons, green herons, little blue herons). I have a diary from the summer of 2008 that describes my discovery of this bird rookery on my website.



One of the frustrating things about this bird rookery is that I must paddle 2 miles to get to it, which in and of itself is not so bad. What makes it frustrating is that the Miami-Dade County parks system does not open the gate for the launch site until sunrise. And when it comes to local goverrnment, sunrise is loosely interpreted. So, by the time I get in my boat and paddle to the rookery, the sun is well over the horizon and the best lighting has past me by.


For this summer's exploration of the rookery, I got an idea after mulling over Google Earth and talking to various paddlers. I found that I could walk down to the people's dock on the Deering Estate before the gates open. There is a wide enough opening that I can squeeze my canoe through. The problem is, it's a long walk. To confront that issue, my partner made a canoe carrier on wheels for me with the idea that I could park at the Deering visitor center and go from there, towing my boat and cargo using the carrier.


This morning, we tried it out. Some of the best thought out plans do not work perfectly. I was so determined to find a way to get down to the dock that I completely overlooked the fact that the dock twists and turns before reaching the water for launching. I believe that it was made with the intention of allowing persons in wheelchairs to access a boat on the water. There are so many issues with the design of the dock concerning handicapped accessibility that I don't want to get into it. But all I will say right now is, what was MDC thinking?


My partner and I arrived at the Deering Estate parking lot well before sunrise and began loading our boats for the journey down to the dock, approximately 1/3 mile away. The intention was to roll each boat one at a time. This morning, the gate was wide open as two police cars were sitting near the dock. One officer was photographing the sunrise, the other was sitting in the patrol car, doing God knows what. Anyway, I rolled my canoe down to the dock first and quickly learned that any small deviation from a perfectly flat surface made it nearly impossible to move the wheels of the carrier. So with several adjustments along the way, I finally arrived with my boat and cargo at the dock. The sun was peeking over the horizon by now. At this point in the journey, the handicapped accessibility design confronted me head on. I would not be able to roll my boat to water as planned. Instead, I had to disconnect my boat from the carrier, remove all the cargo and hoist the canoe over my shoulders. I carried it around the twisting dock ramp until finally my boat rested on the edge of the dock. The water was about 6 inches lower than the dock, which is good. However, the dock designers left out a very important component, cleats for attaching your bow or stern lines.

Long story short, by the time we repeated the above with my partner's boat and we were both firmly in our canoes and in the water, the sun was well on its way to burning up the sky. I headed over to a small island in front of Deering Estate to capture some ibises and juvenile blue herons flying about as the sun cast its remaining golden morning light. I paddled the 1.6 miles to the rookery and spent some time photographing the nesting carrle egrets and occasional tricolor heron. The cormorants were in full force as well.

More on the rookery coming soon.