{"id":3380,"date":"2015-09-19T18:09:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T23:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=3380"},"modified":"2015-09-21T08:44:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T13:44:37","slug":"photographers-dove-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2015\/09\/19\/photographers-dove-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer’s Dove Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

About the 1st of September each year, a\u00a0field near my house ripens with grain or other seed producing crops.\u00a0 The various dove species in south Texas know when the field is\u00a0ready\u00a0and they begin flying in\u00a0just after daylight each morning.\u00a0\u00a0I try to\u00a0sneak into the\u00a0field before the birds arrive and get situated for some fast and furious flight photography.<\/p>\n

Most of you know how much I love to photograph birds on the wing, and doves are among the most challenging subjects.\u00a0 So, I get about two hours of great action before the light gets too white and I\u00a0have a blast doing it.\u00a0\u00a0It takes\u00a0about 500 captures\u00a0to get about 25 “keeper” shots.\u00a0 My favorite pose is a dove coming at me\u00a0and setting its wings\u00a0to land.\u00a0\u00a0For some reason this year, they\u00a0would land only “with the wind” so I got a lot of tail shots.<\/p>\n

\"Molting<\/a>
Molting mourning dove at top speed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"White-winged<\/a>
White-winged dove in flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This white-winged dove flew by so close that I had to blend two images to make one.<\/p>\n

\"Beautiful<\/a>
Beautiful adult white-winged dove.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I always like to get a few shots that show the primary markings of the species.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo taken with dove behind an out-of-focus\u00a0plant, but the lens held focus.\u00a0 The plant gives the photo a pinkish cast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"White-winged<\/a>
White-winged Dove wondering what just popped up among the crop plants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Typical<\/a>
Typical landing shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Perched<\/a>
Perched white-wing\u00a0just after sunrise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I know most of you are wondering why I didn’t move around to get the sun and wind in my favor.\u00a0 I did…morning sun to my back and southeast wind to my back.\u00a0 These birds\u00a0altered the normal\u00a0procedure and landed “with the wind” most of the time.<\/p>\n

All these photos were made with the Canon 7D Mark II and 500 mm lens (the old, heavy one) hand held while I was sitting on a camp stool in the crops.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The average shutter speed was 1\/4000 second to insure the action was frozen.\u00a0 \u00a0Of course, I was\u00a0extra careful not to damage any plants.<\/p>\n

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

About the 1st of September each year, a\u00a0field near my house ripens with grain or other seed producing crops.\u00a0 The various dove species in south Texas know when the field is\u00a0ready\u00a0and they begin flying in\u00a0just after daylight each morning.\u00a0\u00a0I try to\u00a0sneak into the\u00a0field before the birds arrive and get situated for some fast and furious … Continue reading Photographer’s Dove Season<\/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-3380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3380","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=3380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3392,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3380\/revisions\/3392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}