Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 500 mm lens | ISO 200 1/160 sec @ f8

Sunny and 70 was the forecast for Saturday and we were excited by the possibilities of shooting at Green Island.  We were suppose to meet Becki and Steve in Bellevue for coffee and then head out to Green Island.  Above Jeanne is looking at what she hopes is an immature Eagle.   Turns out it was.

We were 20 minutes late meeting Becki and Steve.  It was 49, damp, and there was a  gray haze overcast.  Not a very good environment for shooting.  Little or no contrast for the auto focus to do its job.  Washed out colors and the wetlands were inundated with black Coots.  It’s like they decided to hold a conference at Green Island and Saturday was check in time.  Now I don’t have anything against Black Coots, but they were every where.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 700 mm lens | ISO 200 1/200 sec @ f8

Just as we got to the place where we decided we would walk Steve got a call from a client.  So we walked on and left him to do business (talk about being dedicated.)  So when he finished up his call he joined us on the walk.  Steve really enjoyed Green Island.  Even though he is not a photographer he enjoys wildlife and he kept saying how enjoyable the experience was.  We quickly learned that you can’t walk around and get any good images.  The wildlife were very skittish and as soon as we got anywhere close to them they would simply fly off. (I have lots of images of birds behinds.)

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 700 mm lens | ISO 200 1/320 sec @ f8

We did see some other interesting wild life.  There were some Herons, Geese,  and we saw 4 Sandhill Cranes .  They were pretty far off and their coloration blended into the background so much that the auto focus really had a tough time.  I may (may) have gotten one decent image of one of them.  I haven’t processed them yet.  I shot 500 images and culled that down to 70 on the first pass so that gives you an idea of the difficult shooting conditions.

Above Becki is shooting with a Nikon D90 DLSR and a Nikon 70 -300 mm lens.  She has a very creative eye and I’m anxious to see what she captured this day.

Nikon D700 | Tamron 200 - 700 mm lens | ISO 200 1/200 sec @ f8

We ran into my friend Adreas Exner today.  Andreas had said he planned to go to Green Island on Saturday and I was happy to see him there.  We didn’t get to spend much time together but he did get a chance to photograph the Sandhill Cranes, which I know is one of his favorite birds.  I am hopeful that I get to do a fair amount of shooting with Andreas over the coming months.

So we spent about two chilly hours looking at the wildlife.  If you’ve never been to the Green Island wetlands and you enjoy nature at all it is a wonderful place to visit.  I know that I will spend a lot of time there from now on and enjoy the change of the seasons and making images there.  If I keep this up I may have to buy a wildlife field guide. 🙂

We finished the morning off at the Off Shore Restaurant.  We invited Andreas to join us but he was having a lot of enjoyment with his photography so perhaps another time.  We had a great lunch and said goodby to Steve and Becki.

On the way home I saw a Blue Heron in a stream along the side of the road.  I quickly pulled off the side of the road.  But by the time I got my camera set back up and got to the stream the Heron had decided to relocate.  So I got 12 images of this amazing blue blur.  😦

That’s it for today.  Hopefully (depending on the day’s events) I will have some of the images of wildlife captured from the shoot to show you tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by.  Be careful.