Pic of the Day

     Great Egret Chicks – Saint Augustine Alligator Farm; St. Augustine, Florida:  A heron rookery is a dangerous place as sibling chicks constantly peck and poke one another.  The day before this image was shot, two of the chicks ganged-up against the third to poke and push it from the nest.  For hours the nestling remained on a limb adjacent to the nest before finally climbing back-in.  This image illustrates how the chicks are constantly jostling each other.

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 300mm f2.8, 1/125 second @ f6.3

Pic of the Day

     Least Bittern – Viera Wetlands; Viera, Florida:  As I photographed the least bittern in the previous post it moved closer and closer toward me.  I was sitting motionless and perhaps it did not see me as it seemed quite unaware of my presence.  The sun was very low on the horizon and within ten minutes or less of setting.  Though the light was low, I wanted to maintain enough depth-of-field to keep the bird sharp.  I had to choose a small f-stop to do that.  In doing that, the shutter-speed had dropped to a very slow speed and the bittern would not stay still.  It kept moving toward me, and each exposure was resulting in a blurry image.  Finally the bittern stopped for just a moment, struck this pose, and remained motionless for only a fraction of seconds.  It was enough time to get this shot.  

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 500mm f4,  1/25 sec. @ f11 with 1.4 extender.  Effective focal length-1000mm

Pic of the Day

     Spotted Jellyfish -- Tennessee Aquarium; Chattanooga, Tennessee:  This is another jellyfish I photographed at the Tennessee Aquarium over the weekend.  Spotted Jellies were very popular among the visitors, and there were a ton of visitors.  The Spotted Jellies were in a round (360 degree) tank in the middle of the room, and there was a constant flow of people mesmerized by the little jellyfish.  The Spotted  Jellies were small, some the size of quarter and others a little large than a silver dollar.

     The round tank made shooting difficult, but I found if a jelly was close to the glass, and I shot perpendicular to the glass I could get a sharp image.  As you can probably tell, I loved shooting the jellyfish.

     The next jellyfish I will post is even smaller than the Spotted Jelly, and it flashes lights!

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 24-85 zoom set to 85mm, Handheld, 1/250 sec. @ f5.6, ISO 5000