Cormorants in the fog

Last week I was in Florida doing some bird photography. I made over 6,000 photographs of various species of birds and a few landscapes. Don't be taken aback by the number. When photographing wildlife it is quite common to come away with a large number of photographs. Between anticipating the action and shooting in burst mode the number climbs rather quickly.

When presented with a foggy morning I have a tendency to go into landscape mode. This is generally a good idea as birds don't let you get too close. Thus, may not be visible through the fog. But not it Florida! This is because the birds are more habituated to humans and allow us to approach a lot closer.
This was one of those mornings where the conditions were just right. The light fog allowed me to create images of the birds in their environment and work on some silhouettes.  Here are a few photographs I made of the double-crested cormorants. I'll post photos of different birds in upcoming blog posts.

Before sunrise I focused on the graphic design of the dead palm trees. Notice the cormorants on top of every tree.

As the sun started to peek through the fog the light was beautiful (as demonstrated by the photograph above). The blog image was made shortly after this one. The fog reduced the contrast and I was able to capture the color in the sun.

As the fog started to lift I continued to look for attractive silhouettes. That's when I found these two just hanging out on a dead palm tree.

I'll be posting more photographs from Florida in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned.

Upcoming Workshops and classes:

March 12 - Photoshop for Photographers
April 16 - Flowers & Close-ups Field Session
April 23 - Spring Flowers Workshop
April 28 - May 1 - Chincoteague Island Workshop
July 16 - Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Field Session

View full 2011 workshop schedule...