It is a fun and interesting process but requires meticulous precision and painstaking attention to detail.  We will be here through the end of next week and then its back to New York where Carrie will be starting class and I’ll be processing the photos, video, and time lapse sequences I have created over the last month.  I also will be able to get back to blogging regularly and get to all those things on my to do list that got pushed back for this project.

Check out the panos in the meantime and I’ll be in touch soon!

There is a chance that I will be able to get on site and create a series of panoramas of the ship and the excavation but we aren’t sure yet.  Details are still being worked out so I am just headed down prepared to either shoot or work from the hotel.  Whatever happens, We will be in the city for at least the next week or so.  I’ll post some more details about the project sometime this coming week once I know more myself.

If you are in the City and want to meet up for coffee or a drink, shoot me an email or leave a comment here.  Hope everyone has a great week!

This doesn’t mean things will be completely silent, but posts will be sporadic at best.  I’ve got a lot on my plate so my focus has to fall elsewhere.  I am currently in the final stages of launching the website for my Costa Rican project, Canopy in the Clouds.  We’ll be going live next week with a soft release prior to a day of meetings at National Geographic about the project on Thursday.  The official launch will be coming shortly after those meetings, and we look forward to getting the project out there after two and half years of hard work.

In addition to this major launch, I’ve got two new business ventures in the works, at least one of which should be launching here in the next month, followed by the second later this summer.  Add to that the fact that my wife and I are moving next weekend over Memorial Day and trying to get ready for that.  Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that I have a lot of on my plate and while I hope to share when I get out to photograph, I don’t see that happening as much as I had hoped.  I’ll be back in early to mid June depending on my schedule but hope to see you then!

Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) - Genung Preserve, Freeville, NY

Having grown up in central Florida and lived in Texas for the last few years, I am used to seeing warblers during migration, not singing on territory like they do here.  This means I have quite a steep learning curve trying to learn the songs of local birds. I am making rapid progress, but there is an incredible amount to learn!

Just a few weeks ago, I was birding at Sapsucker Woods and could hear a very loud song a little ways off in the forest.  I searched and searched and searched and could not find the bird.  Not a chance.  I knew I had heard it before, but I had absolutely no idea what it was.  Finally, since it was starting to get dark, I gave up and headed back home.

Singing Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) - Genung Preserve, Freeville, NY

The next morning, I was birding at Genung Preserve very close to my house.  As soon as I stepped out of my car, I heard the song again, and this time it was very close.  After a minute or so of searching I finally tracked down an Ovenbird, singing from a fairly low branch in a conifer.  I tried for a few minutes to get some photos, but the light just wasn’t there, as the sun hadn’t cleared the horizon yet.  Since he was clearly on territory, I decided to go find some Blue-winged Warblers and return later in the morning.

After having a successful shoot with a nice male Blue-winged Warbler, I returned to the Ovenbird and followed him around for a while.  I took tons and tons of photographs, but the low and dappled light made it extremely difficult.  Out of all my frames, I ended up with a single frame (top image) that I was fairly pleased with and a couple more that are ok, but nothing spectacular.  Since this bird is right around the corner from my house, I’m going to have to return to see if I can do better!

For those of you who don’t know, my wife is currently a PhD student at Cornell University, so our daily life is heavily influenced by her school schedule.  Add to that my involvement as an instructor at Cornell Outdoor Education, and the fact that we live in Ithaca, a city with two colleges and a huge number of college students and I really do live on a semester schedule despite not being a student.

There are many advantages of the semester schedule that I really miss.  First off, I miss the fact that at the beginning of every semester you get to start from scratch with new classes, new professors, and new things to learn.  Whatever happened last semester doesn’t matter now.  You get a clean slate.  It gives you a chance to try different things and if the don’t work, it isn’t all that costly.  It sort of is like having a chance to make New Year’s Resolutions twice each year.  It’s pretty great.

However, the one thing that I have embraced now that I am not completely tied to that schedule is the ability to work on long-term projects.  With semesters, since everything has to start and finish during that 4 or 5 months, research projects tend to be short and it’s hard to get really in depth, particularly if fieldwork is involved.  I feel like nearly every lab I ever did in science classes were precursory looks at field techniques, a small sampling of what is possible, and could be much more interesting only if we had more time.

Now that I am out of school, I am able to embrace long projects.  I’ve been working on Canopy in the Clouds for nearly three years now.  I keep returning to the Everglades (a project that started on the semester schedule).  I spent a year in Australia.  I have several major projects in mind for the near and not so near future that all are more than a few weeks or months.  Once you get out of that semester schedule and “into the real world,” as we said as college students, opportunities open to create major and lasting projects, not just a sampling of technique.

In reality, I live in the best of both worlds.  On the one hand, I get to experience the renewal of a fresh start each semester.  I still think of the year divided into three periods, the fall semester (September through December), the spring semester (January through May), and summer (June through August).  These periods can help me to get short-term projects started and finished; yet I am also not completely tethered to these periods so that I can embrace long-term projects when opportunities arise.

It is a wonderful lifestyle, except that it means that the last few weeks of each semester become hectic and crazy and the blog falls silent for a week.  I’m back this week and look forward to sharing some of the things I’ve been doing.

Evening in the Everglades - Everglades National Park, Florida

I have a quick announcement for those readers in the central New York and Ithaca area.  Monday night (yes that’s tomorrow) I will be presenting a talk on the Everglades at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for the Cayuga Bird Club.  The meeting starts at 7:30 and I will probably start talking about 8:00.  All are welcome to attend.  If you’ll be there, let me know so I can say hi afterwards.  Sorry for the short notice, but hope to see you there.

Northen Parula (Parula americana) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

On Friday morning at the Finger Lakes National Forest, one of the better birds of the morning was a Northern Parula.  We had at least two individuals but, as typical with Parulas, they were high in the canopy.  At one point, I set up on a blooming apple tree to sit and see if anything would come into feed, as I had seen a several Yellow Warblers do just that.  A few minutes after setting up, this Northern Parula visited briefly for about 30 seconds.  I came away with a couple good frames, the best of which you see here.

Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

Yesterday morning, I spent a couple hours with another local photographer Raghu Ramanujan at Foster Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest.  It was a spectacularly beautiful morning and the woods were alive with warblers feeding and singing.  Despite the huge amount of activity, we struggled to create photographs because we couldn’t really get close to many of the birds.

Rather than get frustrated with myself, I decided to switch gears a bit and focus on creating images of the warblers in their habitat rather than close up portraits.  While I love the challenge of getting close to warblers and other small songbirds, creating environmental portraits can be even more of a challenge and extremely rewarding when one works.

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

With environmental portraits, there is a lot more to consider when creating the composition.  Take the above image of a Song Sparrow for example.  Not only do we have to consider the actual bird as part of the composition, we also have to consider all of the other vegetation on the right side of the image.  These additional elements can create for a busy and distracting image unless managed carefully.  Additionally, when we make the bird smaller in the frame, it commands less of a presence in the image so placement in the frame is even more important.

Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

Whenever I am creating an environmental portrait, it is my goal to use the included foliage to inform the viewer.  For example, in all of these images, the foliage is either in the process of budding out or in bloom.  This clearly indicates the images were taken in early spring.  Additionally, some of the birds are singing which also suggests a bird on territory.  By including all of these different elements, we can start to tell stories through our images, a task much more difficult with simply a single bird sitting on a stick on a solid colored background.

Male Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) - Genung Nature Preserve, Freeville, NY

As a birder, one of my nemesis birds for a long time was the Blue-winged Warbler.  I have seen all but one or two species of wood warblers that are found in the eastern half of the country but for a long time, Blue-wingeds avoided me.  I finally got my eyes on one at High Island, Texas two years ago but it was just a single bird.  When we finally decided to move to Ithaca, I knew that this would give me a chance to not only see Blue-wingeds, but hopefully get some photos as well.

I had been trying to get out and photograph this week but the weather didn’t really want to cooperate in the mornings.  Finally, yesterday, we had a sunny morning and I decided to go check out a very small preserve just around the corner from my apartment, the Genung Nature Preserve, owned by the Finger Lakes Land Trust.  Tuesday evening, someone had reported having heard Blue-winged Warblers at the preserve so I hoped there would be at least one bird on territory.

Before leaving the apartment this morning, I was sure to review the buzzy, almost insect like song of the Blue-winged Warbler.  Knowing the song makes locating the birds infinitely easier.  I arrived at the park, stepped out of my car and was immediately greeted by a Blue-winged Warbler singing about 50 yards away.  Easy enough, I got my gear set up and headed down the trail to find the bird.

Male Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) - Genung Nature Preserve, Freeville, NY

Fortunately for us photographers, Blue-wingeds tend to like low brushy habitat rather than really tall canopy trees like so many other warblers do.  Sure enough, the Blue-winged Warbler was singing fairly low down and I was able to spend some significant time photographing the beautiful male.

Male Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) - Genung Nature Preserve, Freeville, NY

Once I was satisfied with the images of this bird, I went for a walk through the rest of the preserve.  The forest was alive with bird song including several new birds for the year for me such as the Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Towhee, and Common Yellowthroat.  I also had an Ovenbird that was singing its heart out right by the parking lot.  Maybe I’ll share those photographs with you tomorrow.