sunilsphotos

Sunil's Bird Photography

photography

Audubon Photography Awards Win

by 2 Comments

I’m thrilled with my win of the Fisher Prize in the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards. The winning photograph shows the interaction between a pelican in the water at night and the ghostly silhouette of a shark swimming up underneath it.

Brown Pelican and Galapagos Shark

From the APA description of the award:

 It recognizes the most creative approach in photographing birds—for example, highlighting an unexpected point of view—blended with technical expertise and an original composition. The Fisher prize pushes the traditional canons of bird photography to daring new heights, while never compromising strict ethical guidelines.

The image was created while on a family trip to the Galapagos last year. You can read more about that trip as a whole here.

Suffice to say, the cruise was photographically very productive, but the fun doesn’t stop when everyone goes to bed. At night, when the boat was anchored, the lights off the stern attracted many little fish. This in turn attracted several Galapagos Shark as well and a Brown Pelican. With my daughter acting as a spotter, I was able to photograph a few different interactions between the two species including this shot where the shark swims right under the pelican.

I have always been a huge proponent of shooting in very little light, and the latest technology makes it easier than before. That said, this was a very noisy shot at ISO-25600. Many props to the fine Canon R3 and denoising capabilities of Topaz Denoise AI for letting me pull this off.

The image will be in the Summer edition of Audubon Magazine.

Birds of the Rio Grande Valley

by Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity to spend a day in the Valley this winter. Many of the species found here are typical of eastern Mexico, not found north of the border beyond extreme south Texas. This Long-billed Thrasher is a non-migratory native of the area.

Long-billed Thrasher

With the normally dry weather in this area, birds are attracted to any and all sources of water – so blinds set up near these ponds can be exceptionally productive.

The Northern Cardinal is of course a much more widely ranging bird, but some beautiful opportunities were presented with this species here.

While a day was all I had, I was able to visit the Raptor blind at the Laguna Seca Ranch. Crested Caracara were the stars of the show.

Crested Caracara and Black Vulture

As with other species, a long lens was able to accomplish much closer shots showing great behavior.

And here are some remaining shots to wrap up the work from the day.

So until next time!

Harris’s Hawk

Roseate Spoonbills from Florida

by Leave a Comment

“Gorgeous at a distance and bizarre up close” is a fairly accurate description of the Roseate Spoonbill. These gregarious waders are locally common in coastal Florida and even non-birders generally know of this distinctive bird. I was able to dedicate a weekend photographing these birds at a colony in Tampa Bay.

I was able to get some photos before the dawn light hit – slow shutter speeds and blurry artistic shots are definitely my cup of tea. But I always seem to get some – did you drop your camera while you got that shot sort of comments 🙂

After daylight hit, I was able to get some more conventional wading shots. The pink in the feathers get a little yellow tinge when direct sunlight hits it.

And some photographs of interaction between individuals as well. This is breeding behavior in the species.

Roseate Spoonbills are gorgeous when you capture them with their wings outspread. Unfortunately these feathers made them a prime target for hunters in years past.

Here are some flight shots of these large birds as well. Shooting into the sun is unconventional but results in a very ethereal washed out image.

And to wrap up this post, here are some of the other birds I observed while on site for this brief weekend.

Bald Eagles of Skagit River

by Leave a Comment

The Skagit River has arguably the largest concentration of Bald Eagles int the lower 48. In about November, the birds from Canada and Alaska start showing up to feast on the dying salmon.

I spent a long weekend photographing these birds from the water.

There was plenty of opportunity to photograph the eagles interacting with each other as they tried to get to the salmon. No one was hurt in all the fighting – that I could tell. This sort of aggressive behavior is typical at this time of year.

With some patience and skillful maneuvering by the boat captain, we were able to make some close approaches for some stunning head shots. I’m particularly liking the shots showing the birds nictitating membrane over their eyes.

This Great Blue Heron thought it could get in on the action. And no – it was no match for the juvenile Bald Eagle.

I’ll wrap up this post with a few other action shots from the weekend.

Gannets of Shetland

by Leave a Comment

After a fantastic time with the confiding puffins of Fair Isle, I decided to spend some time photographing Northern Gannets on some of the other Shetland Islands. Northern Gannets are some of the largest seabirds of the North Atlantic. They breed in only a few large colonies and spend most of their time out at sea. Their stunning white plumage is as beautiful to see as its hard to photograph properly.

First stop was Hermaness National Nature Reserve on Unst. Overlooking Muckle Flugga – Britain’s northernmost point, this is a haven for seabirds with the gannets here representing 5% of the entire Western European population. And at the right time of year, it is a busy busy place.

Places like these are where wide angle photography really helps give you a sense of what it’s like. Changing light conditions allowed me to capture a few different views.

But while the pictures above show the sheer vastness and numbers, it’s difficult to capture how busy it is. I tried to come up with a way to capture this very busy colony in still photographs – and this is the result: the photographs capture the gannets as streaks in long exposure. I love spending time at seabird colonies and these are some of my favorite photographs. Imagine sitting at the edge of a cliff with seabirds flying all around – the smells, the sounds cannot be photographed but some of the action can.

I took out my long lens equipment for some tight close-ups as well.

As a bonus, I was also able to spend some time photographing a chick at a nest. They look quite a bit different from a grown adult! This one has quite a bit of growing up to do.

As the sun set in the distance, fog moved in which made for some challenging shooting before I wrapped up for the night. A puffin photographed in the fog here:

Here’s a Great Skua bidding me goodnight.

The other opportunity I had to photograph the gannets was from a very different vantage point. Gannets hunt by diving dramatically into the sea to capture fish. The only way to get up close to the action here is from sea – so I hopped on a small boat loaded up with chum and made my way to Noss National Nature Reserve. Not the largest, but certainly quite dramatic as far as seabird colonies go.

As we approached the tall 180 meter high sea cliffs of Noss NNR from sea, I was able to appreciate the scale of these colonies in a whole new way. There are over 45K nesting guillemots here but they are overshadowed by the noisy 8K gannets.

A little closer approach saw many of these birds going about their daily lives. But the most remarkable parts of these birds were photographed under water. Have you ever wondered what these massive birds look like when they dive after fish in the water? These photographs were made with the camera in a dive housing.

Prehistoric monsters come to mind.

Here the camera is partially submerged showing the cliffs of Noss in the background as this gannet begins it’s dive.

Some other images of underwater gannets here:

I spent hours on the water here and this was some of the most fun time I had getting up close with these birds. Thanks for following along.

Puffins of Fair Isle

by Leave a Comment

Clowns of the sea – puffins are unique and iconic seabirds.

I’ve had the pleasure of photographing Horned and Tufted Puffins at leisure from various bases in Alaska including the dramatic colonies of St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. Atlantic Puffins are found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and while there are several places to view them, after some research, I settled on the tiny rock called Fair Isle in northern Scotland.

Fair Isle doesn’t seem to get a lot of visitors – relatively speaking – which is a good thing because the infrastructure can only support so much. One of the reasons might be the notoriously poor chances of actually making the journey to the island. There are two ways – by a very rocky four hour ferry ride or a small twin-engine plane from the tiny airport near Sumburgh Head on ‘mainland’ Shetland. Both are regularly canceled due to fog or bad seas. Here is where my luck came through – I was able to make the journey rather uneventfully from the midwestern United States to Glasgow to Sumburgh.

After recovering for a night, I was up before five in the morning – blame jetlag. So I took a quick shower and made the somewhat long but invigorating walk to Sumburgh Head.

The trail took me along the edge of some sheer cliffs – with lots of seabirds – guillemots, murres and fulmars in plenty – but no puffins!

After a brief couple of hours, I doubled back to my hotel and from there went right to the little airport and finally to Fair Isle by small aircraft. Right off the air strip we were whisked off to a reported sighting of a pod of Orca (!). Hours after landing we were greeted by rain – but that only lasted the night. Four glorious days of mostly sunny weather followed.

And the puffins. There were puffins. So. Many. Puffins.

Close enough for headshots.

Sometimes – crazy close. With some patience and disregard for laying in puffin excrement.

But some of those shots stood out – this one I took in pouring rain. One morning, the usual sunny sky clouded over and the skies opened up for a while. This was my opportunity for a little something different. This puffin didn’t stop bringing back food, so I kept shooting with frequent wiping off of my gear with my shirt.

Another opportunity presented itself a different morning. As the sun rose and the light got harsher I was thinking about breakfast. I had been up since 4 am and gotten little sleep thanks to some late night storm petrel banding action. And then there arose a great racket from the other side of the cliffs. Great Skua – but that wasn’t all. It caught breakfast of it’s own – at point blank range.

There were opportunities for backlit puffins as well. With clear skies and sometimes dramatic sunsets reflected in the water below. Can you tell which ones are sky vs water?

The birds were so approachable, that I managed several in ultra-wideangle.

But at the special time known as golden hour, it was time to play with flare and wing flaps.

Flight shots were tricky – these birds are as quick as bullets – but I managed a few of those as well.

And while I’m flirting with puffin overload – here are some other special shots of these beautiful birds to wrap up this post.

And last but not least – my last gorgeous sunset on Fair Isle. I had to catch a ferry at the crack of dawn in about 6 hours (ferry is actually on the right side of this shot), but couldn’t pull myself away from the last sunset of my holiday here.

Much appreciation to the following for their help with logistics, great company and fantastic food:
THE GOOD FOLKS AT NATURE LENS
ACE PHOTOGRAPHER KEVIN MORGANS
FAIR ISLE BIRD OBSERVATORY
SUMBURGH HEAD HOTEL

See an article in National Geographic about some of my puffin photography here: