WELL it’s that time again, from the early summer months until now in the frigid late November, I’ve been storing up a good 35 thousand new images, and its time to parcel and blast them out. For the fall months I was slammed again with sports work, which is often fun, (I’ve thrown some into a bit of a portfolio).  But in the meantime in between time I’ve done plenty of wildlife work, along with the usual steady studio work on still life and on-figure fashion shoots.

During this time I guess I’ve been working on a few photo skills; focusing on getting higher quality light on my subjects, (which I think will really show in my Egret work). Less image quality killing contrast, making the right settings decisions, stopping motion, chasing subjects less, being in the right places more. Missing with focus less, using less AF points, (as the camera has a penchant for grabbing water instead of bird).

I’m further defining my wants in an image, and the now full year with the Sigma 150-600C has given me a clearer picture of it and my capabilities. Tracking is still hard, takeoffs are hard, (waiting is hard), settings decisions are hard, but its all fun when you find subjects (and don’t make absolute garbage decisions and destroy A+ opportunities). The better you place your physical self in relation to your subject, the higher quality your opportunities will be, and I made plenty of good decisions in the last few months, and learned a lot more about the patterns and behavior of my local watering holes’ inhabitants, which I will chronicle here in a few parts.

But first I’ll start simple. Probably my most remarkable find of the year (by New Jersey standards), my 3 separate sightings of a Juvenile White Ibis in Morristown. I was told I was only the 4th person to record seeing it, and I certainly thought at that point, I had the most remarkable encounter with it. It was certainly odd and a little disconcerting to see so many people out at the lake to see it once word got around that it had stuck in town. It’s typical territory doesn’t take it much farther North of South Carolina. Anyways, here are my chance encounters with it. Thanks for viewing! More to come soon!

Thanks! I think I can get more out of some of these frames if I go to print one or two in the future. Otherwise, I’m fairly pleased with the odd encounter.