{"id":2686,"date":"2014-01-10T11:11:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T17:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2014-01-10T15:26:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T21:26:44","slug":"big-birds-wind-shaped-oaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/10\/big-birds-wind-shaped-oaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Birds & Wind-shaped Oaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year for the past decade of so, I’ve been\u00a0showing\u00a0photographers\u00a0how and where\u00a0to\u00a0capture images of\u00a0Texas’ largest bird, the endangered whooping crane.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0whooper trip offers\u00a0a variety of\u00a0photographic opportunities including\u00a0water\u00a0birds and\u00a0coastal landscapes.<\/p>\n

I’m doing two trips this winter, one in December and one in late January.\u00a0 Both were filled,\u00a0so\u00a0this is a good time to make your reservation for next winter.\u00a0\u00a0The photography, comradery, food and\u00a0nice lodging at the Fulton Hampton Inn, \u00a0always leave us eager for the next trip.<\/p>\n

Here are some images from the December excursion.\u00a0 If you click in the upper right portion of an image, it will enlarge and sharpen.\u00a0 From there, you can advance to the next image.\u00a0 **\u00a0 WordPress, which provides this template, is\u00a0temporarily having problems showing the enlargements through Windows computers.\u00a0\u00a0Most Mac computers are enlarging the images with no problems.\u00a0 Of course, I’m hoping someone\u00a0will come up with a fix in the next few days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Whooping<\/a>
Whooping Crane pair feeding in the shallows of Sundown Bay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Whooping<\/a>
Whooping cranes landing in salt marsh at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Whooping<\/a>
Whooping cranes preening.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Excited<\/a>
Excited Whooping Crane chasing another bird from its feeding territory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\""Backlighting"<\/a>
“Backlighting” provided some nice feather color and rim-lighting effects on the 5′ tall birds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One whooper to another, “You can’t stay this close while my mate and I are feeding”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Part of my job is to get the photographers positioned and ready for that magic moment.\u00a0\u00a0Occasionally, some coaching on camera and lens settings\u00a0are helpful, too.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A half hour of patient observation paid off when the birds gave us great action.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our afternoons were dedicated to finding other birds and some pleasing landscapes for photo subjects.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>
These liveoaks have been shaped by decades of coastal winds blowing inland from the bay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a>
Brown Pelicans\u00a0present good action photography opportunities on Aransas Bay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

While we try to get the exposure, focus and composition right, it is wing positioning that\u00a0ultimately determines\u00a0whether a \u00a0“bird-in-flight” photo is a pleasing capture.<\/p>\n

\"Full<\/a>
Full moon rising behind the masts of pleasure boats moored\u00a0in Fulton harbor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Fishing<\/a>
Fishing pier at night, Fulton, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plan to join us next year.\u00a0 Keep watching my Photo Tour schedule at www.larryditto.com<\/a> \u00a0for an update later this spring.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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

Every year for the past decade of so, I’ve been\u00a0showing\u00a0photographers\u00a0how and where\u00a0to\u00a0capture images of\u00a0Texas’ largest bird, the endangered whooping crane.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0whooper trip offers\u00a0a variety of\u00a0photographic opportunities including\u00a0water\u00a0birds and\u00a0coastal landscapes. I’m doing two trips this winter, one in December and one in late January.\u00a0 Both were filled,\u00a0so\u00a0this is a good time to make your reservation for … Continue reading Big Birds & Wind-shaped Oaks<\/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-2686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686","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=2686"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2704,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}