Snow Goose flying in nice light

A Snow Goose takes flight in the morning light from my recently concluded Best of Bosque workshop. Most of the cranes and Snow Geese had left the safety of the pond before the best light. Having a lot fewer birds made it easier to isolate single birds as they took off to head to the corn fields to eat.

Bosque del Apache Coyote

A different Coyote from Last year’s Best of Bosque Workshop last December. I must admit to being frustrated that the Coyotes never made direct eye contact while I was photographing them - I rather like the less intrusive view - smile.

There are still two spots to fill after a relatively last-minute health cancellation. To learn more and sign-up for my Dec. 5-9, 2022 Best of Bosque Workshop CLICK HERE.

Lesser Goldfinch

Here is another from last December’s Best of Bosque workshop. It is a great example of the Sony Alpha 1 high ISO performance. Setting my exposure with a shutter speed of 1/5,000s allows me to capture anything that decides to make an appearance - I am able to photograph action and stationary birds, without any concern for noise in my images. The key is to ensure proper exposure. In this case, I was working the abundant and active Northern Pintails landing when this Lesser Goldfinch arrived in front of me - smile.

Redhead

Earlier today, I posted a Canvasback with a brief word about how to tell the difference between the two species. Have a look here: https://www.naturephotographyblog.com/blog/canvasback

Canvasback

Canvasbacks are often confused with redhead ducks, even by an expert bird guide. However, they are quite easy to distinguish if the bird guide knows to look for their dissimilar physical characteristics. Both the birds are found in the same geographical range, but the canvasbacks are quite a lot larger than redheads. Canvasbacks have a sloping profile and a sharp bills, while redheads look more like a duck with their blue or grey-coloured bills and round heads. The males of the canvasback species have a bright-coloured chest and belly, while redhead males have a gray-coloured chest and belly.

Pied-billed Grebe

Among the most skillful of all diving birds, grebes not only plunge headfirst underwater; they also can sink slowly out of sight by compressing their feathers and driving out trapped air, thus making themselves less buoyant.

Grebes, in fact, are so well adapted to life in the water that they seldom fly, and many birders have never seen one on the wing.

Learn more about my Best of Bosque workshop CLICK HERE

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Learn more about my Best of Bosque workshop CLICK HERE 🦆

Sandhill Crane Pair Silhouette

What can I say? I am a sucker for silhouettes. The biggest challenge once I found a suitable location with some vegetation to frame the image, was getting the pair with opposing wing positions.

Mandarin Duck

Closely related to the Wood Duck (the only other member of the genius Aix), many people think that the Drake (male) Mandarin Duck is the most beautiful duck in the world; it’s easy to see why!

A native of East Asia, specimens frequently escape from private collections and there are isolated feral populations in America.

We are able to find and photograph one most years during my Best of Bosque workshop Dec. 5-9.

American Wigeon

One of the hardest aspects of duck photography to convey to workshop participants is to find a spot with the right light and background and wait: resist the urge to follow or chase the ducks around the pond as they forage. They will come back to the best light/background if you stay still and wait :)

Say's Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe at sunset during my Better than Bosque workshop last December. Just a simple image in beautiful light with a beautiful background.

The Say's Phoebe breeds farther north than any other flycatcher and is seemingly limited only by the lack of nest sites. Its breeding range extends from central Mexico all the way to the arctic tundra.

Hooded Merganser Head-on Portrait

A Drake (male) Hooded Merganser swimming strait towards us during my Best of Bosque workshop last December. I had committed to the 600 f/4 lens with 2X extender so I was really getting worried that it would get too close when it made eye contact - smile.

These birds are able to catch fish by direct underwater pursuit, remaining submerged for up to 2 minutes. They resurface to swallow their prey, turning it around so it is swallowed headfirst. This method avoids injury from the spiny fins of some types of fish.

Female Northern Pintail in flight

A winter paradise for Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes and many other birds, Bosque del Apache is located along the Rio Grande River near Socorro, New Mexico. Touted as the Crown Jewel for bird photography by many, Bosque does offer some incredible images, but there is so much more to the area than just this one place. After many, many years of visiting the refuge and surrounding areas, I've decided to offer another photographic workshop there . This is, by far, the very best New Mexico has to offer in the winter; we will visit Bosque del Apache NWR when the conditions are right, but you will also have the opportunity to join me and learn where all of the other amazing, and somewhat secret spots are. We will visit some of my old haunts, blinds and secret locations.

Raven Silhouette

As I prepared this image, I could not get Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven out of my mind. “Other friends have flown before— On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” Read The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe @ The Poetry Foundation HERE.

Snow Goose Dark Morph (Blue Goose, Chen Caerulescens, Oie des neiges) & EOS-1D Mark IV: On-Camera Tutorials

Snow Goose Dark Morph (or Blue Goose) Landing (Chen Caerulescens, Oie des neiges, SNGO) Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico, USA. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS 1DsMKIII, 500mm F4 Lens with 1.4X II Teleconverter, tripod and Wimberley Head II. ISO 400, F5.6, 1/1600s in Manual Mode. CLICK HERE TO ORDER A PRINT OR LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION. 

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV: On-Camera Tutorials

Canon USA has some pretty useful tutorial videos HERE that explore 13 specific features of the EOS-1D Mark IV. These instructional videos are designed to be viewed at your convenience: Watch them online, on the go, or even on your camera's rear LCD screen -- so you can follow along, every step of the way! If you only get out to shoot once in a while, and often forget how to properly use your Mark IV, then I highly recommend loading these videos onto a spare memory card for easy reference while out in the field.

Photographing the Ross's Geese of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and kudos

Ross's Goose (Chen rossii, Oie de Ross) Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA ©Christopher Dodds http://www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, 500mm F4 IS, 2X II Tele-converter, Gitzo tripod and Wimberley Head II. ISO 250, F8 1/1000s Manual Exposure. Full Frame. CLICK HERE TO BUY A PRINT OR LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION.

Pro Tip:

I worked very hard at capturing the above full frame image of a Ross’s Goose in it’s recognizable environment while visiting Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico last fall. I worked equally hard to get the image of a Ross’s Goose against a blue sky for my stock files. Having the blue-sky flight image in my stock photography files ensures sales to regional publications outside of that recognizable habitat of high desert mountain.

Ross's Goose (Chen rossii, Oie de Ross) Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA ©Christopher Dodds http://www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, 500mm F4 IS, 2X II Tele-converter, Gitzo tripod and Wimberley Head II. ISO 250, F8 1/1250s Manual Exposure. Full Frame. CLICK HERE TO BUY A PRINT OR LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION.

Ross’s Goose facts:

A tiny goose with black wingtips, the Ross’s Goose (Chen rossii, Oie de Ross) is about 40% smaller than the more abundant white phase Snow Goose. The Snow Goose is larger and has a larger bill without the greenish base and has a black grin patch along it’s bill edge (black “lips”). It breeds in the central Arctic and winters primarily in central California, but it is becoming more frequent farther east. It is named in honor of Bernard R. Ross, a Hudson’s Bay Company factor at Fort Resolution in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Kudos

After viewing your two excellent Nature presentations in the last year at our camera club, I have come to conclude that you are in that top echelon of truly outstanding nature photographers, creating art - rather than just photographs. When I see your presentations, I keep saying under my breath... AMAZING!
Best regards,
Frederic Hore,
Past Nature Chair,
Lakeshore Camera Club
Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada

Thanks again for your superb presentation yesterday evening.  Your images are fantastic and you are definitively an inspiration for a lot bird photographers like myself.
Cheers,
Pierre Giard
Nature Chair
Lakeshore Camera Club
Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada

Comments welcome & appreciated.