Wood Ducks in autumn colors

I'm in Cleveland, Ohio for the weekend at the North Chagrin Reservation pond, considered the premier location to photograph Wood Ducks with fall color reflections. I arrived at the pond (next to the Nature Centre) around lunch time and by the time I stopped photographing at dusk, I'd shot 973 images. The pond has many tame wood ducks, beautiful reflections and gets bathed in soft evening light. What more could you ask for?

I've been back in the hotel room all evening editing the photos... my eyes are bugging out from staring at the laptop.

Here's a travel tip: I stay in hotels often and save a pile of cash by booking them through discount sites such as hotwire or priceline. Tonight's room (in a 3.5 star hotel) cost about half the usual price.

Here are a few quick picks. All shot with an EOS 1Ds mark III; 500/4 IS lens (first two with a 1.4x teleconverter). More coming in the next post.

Tucson ducks

I'm killing some time at the Phoenix airport waiting for a friend to arrive... we're going on a whirwind tour to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Joshua Tree over the next couple weeks. So for those of you who are tired of all the bird photos, don't worry.... landscapes are coming!

During my few weeks in Tucson, I was focused (almost obsessed) with capturing good in flight photos of Canvasback and Redhead ducks. It may seem funny to be photographing ducks in a desert city, but any pond is an oasis for waterfowl. Out of literally thousands of attempts, here are my best results.

Photo 1: Canvasback drake in flight
EOS 1Ds3; 500mm IS lens + 1.4x TC


Photo 2: Redhead drake in flight
EOS 1Ds3; 500mm IS lens + 1.4x TC