{"id":1863,"date":"2012-06-18T13:28:44","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T18:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2012-06-18T13:53:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-18T18:53:28","slug":"hot-photo-action-at-the-south-texas-photography-ranch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2012\/06\/18\/hot-photo-action-at-the-south-texas-photography-ranch\/","title":{"rendered":"“Hot” Photo Action at the Laguna Seca Ranch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks since I shot with two clients\u00a0at the\u00a0Laguna Seca (Photography)\u00a0Ranch,\u00a0part of the historic Laguna Seca Ranch north of Edinburg, Texas.\u00a0 As expected for late May and early June, the weather was\u00a0hot…. I mean really hot!\u00a0\u00a0These photographers wanted very much to\u00a0capture images of\u00a0painted buntings and\u00a0other south Texas birds\u00a0in good plumage and, they got what they came for.\u00a0 The action was fantastic!\u00a0 We\u00a0were visited by\u00a0blue grosbeak, lesser goldfinch, Bullock’s oriole, painted bunting, scissor-tailed flycatcher, great kiskadee, summer tanager,\u00a0green jay, pyrrhuloxia, northern cardinal, bronzed cowbird and more.<\/p>\n

As is often the case with bird photography, it took patience and endurance to get what\u00a0they came for, but these\u00a0clients were\u00a0up for the challenge.\u00a0 Each day, we\u00a0loaded\u00a0the cooler with ice, drinks and snacks and dressed as coolly as possible.\u00a0\u00a0By sunset, we were\u00a0panting for some air conditioning and dry clothes, but\u00a0all those beautiful birds made the sacrifice worth while.<\/p>\n

Here are some sample shot from the www.PhotographySouthTexas.com<\/a> outing:<\/p>\n

Click on the upper right portion of any photo to move forward or backward with the slide show.\u00a0 The photos will open in a larger, sharper format for improved viewing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Male Bronzed Cowbird displaying for a female.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Great Kiskadee calling from a perch atop some sedges near our photo blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Great Kiskadee landing by the pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Northern Cardinal male enjoying a "tail" wind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Damselflies mating at the photography pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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When the photography gets slow during mid-morning, I like to put a teleconverter and extension tube on the 500 mm lens and shoot dragonflies\/damselflies.\u00a0 If they perch close enough, I prefer the 300 mm lens with 1.4 teleconverter.\u00a0 The above and below shots were taken from a beanbag at near ground level.<\/p>\n

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Damselflies will perch on almost anything.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Painted buntings were coming to water in a never-ending stream during the warm south Texas afternoons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bullock's Oriole female in the background joins a female painted bunting for a cool bath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Once a bird gets into the pond, others gain confidence and join them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bathing birds like this male painted bunting keep a sharp lookout for predators.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Summer tanager female ready to try the water when this painted bunting finishes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Even on hot days, wild birds approach the water with caution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Male scissor-tailed flycatcher landing on perch near photo pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Wild turkey hen with two poults coming to a ranch pond for water at mid-afternoon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Male summer tanager splashing in the photo blind pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Painted Bunting male catches a spot of sunlight while feeding in a granjeno bush.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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These photographs were made with the Canon 7d Camera and\u00a0500 mm IS Canon lens mounted on Wimberley head and Gitzo cf tripod.\u00a0 Most were shot with minimum depth of field.\u00a0 Where wings were moving or flight and bathing was involved, I tried to hold for 1\/2000 second shutter speed.\u00a0 Most of the action shots were done at ISO 400.<\/p>\n

Next week, I will show you a few more shots from the Block Creek Natural Area shoot in late May.\u00a0 I\u00a0hope to do\u00a0a workshop there in late April of 2013.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks since I shot with two clients\u00a0at the\u00a0Laguna Seca (Photography)\u00a0Ranch,\u00a0part of the historic Laguna Seca Ranch north of Edinburg, Texas.\u00a0 As expected for late May and early June, the weather was\u00a0hot…. I mean really hot!\u00a0\u00a0These photographers wanted very much to\u00a0capture images of\u00a0painted buntings and\u00a0other south Texas birds\u00a0in good plumage and, they got what they … Continue reading “Hot” Photo Action at the Laguna Seca Ranch<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1884,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions\/1884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}