Don't let backyard photography give you cold feet

The black-capped chickadee is no ivory-billed woodpecker. Dozens visit my office window every day to feast on the free suet.

But just because they're common, doesn't mean they are not interesting. And a recent snow storm that, at times, had my yard buried under nearly 10 inches of snow allowed me to create some images that help tell their remarkable winter story.

That much snow is relatively unusual for the greater Seattle area where I'm based, but the black-capped chickadee is unusually well prepared for it.

The bird looks cold in the image, but it's probably not uncomfortable. It likely can't feel the ice it's standing on. Chickadees, another other tiny songbirds in the passerine family, have very few nerves and blood vessels in their feet. Because of that, they're not really bothered by the cold.

With food scarce and days short in the wintertime, they also have another key feature that helps them conserve energy: they can put themselves in a state of hypothermia at night. In fact, they can lower their body temperature from 107.6 Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) in the day to 86 Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) at night. By slowing their bodies down, they use less energy, but they still remain alert enough to be able to make at least a feeble attempt to get away from predators.

The snow storm here lasted a week. Early on, I captured images of chickadees on their icy perches. As the storm progressed, though, I continued to head out to capture images of the songbirds dwarfed by the towering piles of snow.

Chickadees may be fairly common, but they are tough to photograph. They're fast. They would flit around deep in my overgrown rhododendron, then briefly appear on a branch and race to the feeder. During the winter, chickadees travel in flocks, helping each other find food.

What worked to my advantage, however, is that they do not like to share the feeder. One at a time, seems to be their motto. When one was on the feeder, occasionally one or two others would wait patiently on a branch, in full view, for their turn to feed. They had a few favorite branches so I concentrated on those.

This required quite a deal of patience on my part. I would venture out for an hour or two at a time. Each of those sessions resulted in only a few minutes of productive photography.

Look close and you may notice a small highlight, or catch light, on the bird's eye. I used an off-camera flash to bring out the colors in the chickadee and add the glimmer to its eye.

When working some distance away from small birds, it's helpful to use an attachment that extends the reach of your flash. Attachable Fresnel lenses, such as the Better Beamer or the Flash Extender Kit from Harbor Digital Design (I use the latter), concentrate your flash's power into a narrow beam that travels farther. This image was captured with a 600mm lens, so the more narrow coverage area was not a problem.

One tip, however: When using a projected flash, it's important that your flash is at least a foot away from your camera. If the flash and lens are too close to each other, the light from the flash will be too intense as it reflects back into the lens. It won't harm the bird, but it will cause the bird's eye to look like a steel marble. In fact, this phenomenon — the same issue that causes red eye pictures of people — is known as "steel eye."

I got around this problem by placing the flash on its own tripod that was about two feet away from the camera. I used a cord to connect the camera with the flash, however, you could use wireless PocketWizard transceivers.

Technical challenges aside, the story of the black-capped chickadees and their adaptations to winter weather prove that you don't have to travel around the world to photograph fascinating animals. Sometimes amazing stories and photos are right in your backyard.

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Best images of 2011

For each of the past few years, I have compiled a small gallery of my favorite images from the year. It was something I did when I first started out in photography; Jim Goldstein, whose blog collects the best-of collections from more than a hundred other photographers, inspired me to restart the tradition.

I think the exercise of reviewing and editing your work is quite helpful in refining your art and identifying opportunities for improvement. For me, one of the things that was immediately evident in past years was that I often relied on travel to exotic locations to fuel my creativity. In 2011, I worked hard to bring the level of excitement and passion that I feel in a new place back to the familiar scenery at home.

I think it worked. One of my favorite images was taken within walking distance of my house. Four more were taken within 30 miles. One of the images that nearly made this list was taken right outside my office window. It feels great to again be doing my best and most creative work in the area that gave me my start.

In no particular order, here are my favorite images from 2011:

I've been photographing bald eagles for nearly as long as I have been a photographer. I photographed nesting eagles before, but this year I discovered a nest just a few freeway exits from my house. The close proximity allowed me to visit several times a week from the time the eggs hatched until the two young eagles flew away for good. I really got to know the birds and their habits and routines, and it paid off with some of my best eagle images ever. This image is of one of the two young fledglings. You can check out the rest of the series here.

I drove past this field many times over the years. It's a buffer area behind a strip mall not far from my house. It's incredibly beautiful for a couple of weeks when the buttercup in in bloom. Each year, I would say someday I'll stop and take a picture. This year, I finally did.

Thor's Well is the remnant of an old blowhole on the Oregon coast at Cape Perpetua. The hole is too wide for the water to blow out with much force, but when the tide is high and the conditions are just right, you can capture a nice 360-degree waterfall as the water races back in. It took several attempts over the past couple years to get this image.

This image is also from Cape Perpetua, Oregon. I had a few hours to wait for the sun to set, so I hiked along the coast, found this patch of sea palms and worked to create an image that showed them in the context of their tough environment.

My photography career began in the Seattle Arboretum. I photographed the wildlife in the wetlands from an inflatable kayak. I got my "big break" when a publisher discovered my work and created a book using many of my images. I returned to the wetlands and made many new images. My favorite is of this familiar bluet damselfly waiting on a water lily for his mate.

Yosemite National Park is incredible in winter. Even during a storm, the Tunnel View pullout was packed with photographers. Most were waiting for the weather to clear, but I found it much more interesting to photograph ravens flying around in the heavy snow.

Here's another image of Yosemite in winter. I took a short hike along the Merced River and had this view all to myself.

And here's another raven image. Actually, these two are crows. It's an example of how sometimes "bad" technique can result in exceptional images. Look closely at the birds. See how their eyes are glowing? That happens when you use a projected flash too close to the camera. The glowing eyes are the animal equivalent of red eye pictures of people. In this case, though, I think it helps make the image more moody.

The wide panoramas of the Painted Hills in John Day, Oregon are stunning, but the deep shadows, strong lines, and vibrant colors made this image my favorite.

Skagit Valley is known best for the huge flocks of snow geese that winter there. These are starlings. A long exposure, combined with parts of the flock flying in different directions made this one of my favorite images of the year.

Mount Shuksan in Washington's North Cascades is one of the most photographed mountains in the world. But the unusual weather in the Northwest this year allowed me to photograph fall and winter at the same time.

There are only a few days each year where you can capture the full moon with Mount Si reflecting in this lake near Snoqualmie, Washington. This has been on my calendar for a few years. For once, the weather worked out.

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Moving the camera to stop motion

The usual goal in photography is to create an exceptionally sharp image. If you're photographing a bird, for example, most photographers want an image that's so sharp you can see every feather on the bird and every barb on the feather.

To capture that, you typically need a sturdy tripod, a cable release, lots of light — and a stationary subject.

But what if the light is dim and your subject is moving? That's when you need to pan — moving the camera with your subject. It involves moving the camera so that your subject is always at the same spot in the image. If during the exposure your subject is always at the same place on the sensor (or frame of film) it's like your subject isn't moving at all. Meanwhile, everything else blurs into a swath of solid color.

The image of a flock of starlings in flight at the top of this post illustrates the concept. The birds were flying fast and not in the same direction. Some were flying to the right. Some were making a U-turn. Some had already started flying left.

My exposure time of 1/50^th of a second was far too slow to capture every bird in sharp detail, so I panned the camera with the birds that were flying to the right. By moving the camera in the same direction at the same speed as they were flying, they are sharp in the final image. All of the other birds appear as streaks of light.

Panning is one of the more difficult photographic techniques to perfect. With most DSLRs, the viewfinder goes black during the exposure so you have to follow your often unpredictable subject without being able to see it.

Despite the challenges, you can raise your chances of success with a lot of practice and these tips:

Get a good tripod. It may seem odd that a tripod, which is designed the hold the camera steady, does anything but hinder panning. I actually think a tripod with a smooth action head is a critical piece of equipment. While you can do without a tripod, I find the support of the tripod results in smoother motion.

A tripod with a ball head, though, probably won't help much. I use a Wimberley II, a gimbal head that places the weight of the lens and head below their pivot point. Set up correctly, even a heavy 600mm lens moves as if it was weightless. A cheaper option is the Wimberley Sidekick, which allows you to temporarily convert any ball head into a gimbal head.

With either, it's important to perfectly balance your camera and lens on the head. Even with the two panning knobs loosened, the camera shouldn't move at all. Gravity should hold everything in place.

While panning, I have the two panning knobs as loose as they will go and I rest one of my arms on the lens to provide varying amounts of tension.

Use "fast" shutter speeds and short lenses. The longer your exposure time, the harder it is to perfectly pan with your subject. Longer exposure times allow you to turn more of the background into a blur, but any mistake you make in tracking your subject will cause it to blur, too. Shorter exposures cut the chances for making mistakes.

Also, shorter lenses are more forgiving than longer ones. Very powerful lenses magnify everything, including any panning mistakes.

The image of the starlings was captured with what's effectively a 1,200mm lens (a 600mm lens with a 2x tele-converter). With that much magnification, an exposure time of 1/50^th of a second is plenty slow. With a 50mm lens, however, that same exposure would have captured all the birds sharply. Start off with just a little blur and gradually switch to stronger lenses and longer exposures as your technique improves.

Shoot in a burst and track your progress. Most of my successful images have been in the middle in a series of a half dozen or so shots. The first shot or two are usually off, but by about the third, I'm usually in tune with the animal.

In a flock, I try to pick out one particular bird. When tracking a single bird or other animal, I try to pick out a particular feature, such as its eye. In every shot, I try to make sure that the bird or the feature of the animal is on the same autofocus sensor. I hold down the shutter button and in the split second between shots when the scene is visible in the viewfinder, I adjust for any tracking errors. It's all about getting the rhythm of the animals.

Practice in movie mode. Most digital cameras offer a movie mode nowadays. You can see what you're recording on the LCD screen at all times. Unlike panning with the viewfinder, you don't have to cope with the screen constantly going black.

Practice making movies where you pan with wildlife. Keep practicing until your movies are no longer jerky. You may also find it easier to start your practice on your own pets before graduating to wildlife.

These digital cameras typically let you take still images while the screen is on. If the viewfinder blackouts really bother you, try taking your panning pictures in this mode.

Even with the blackouts, I like using the viewfinder because it allows me to support the camera better, which results in smoother motion. (I also learned how to pan before I had a camera with a live view LCD, so I may be biased for that reason.) But there is no one correct answer. Do what works for you.

Don't give up. Panning is a difficult technique to master. You probably won't master it on your first try. Or your second. Or your third. I didn't. Thanks to digital cameras, however, it's free to practice. Keep trying until you get it. The results are worth it.

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Dramatic sunsets: Two shows daily

If you're out photographing a sunset and you're not happy with what you get, you can try again. In a half hour.

For photography purposes, there are two sunsets every night. The sun actually sets below the horizon just once, but the dramatic golden color on mountains and clouds happens twice. And it's that golden color that photographers typically care about.

Like most photographers, I used to set up for the sunset and pack everything away after the color faded from the sky. But one day, while on a long post-sunset hike back to my car, I saw the sky turn red again. It wasn't anywhere near as bright as the first sunset, but the colors were just as intense.

Over the years, I've learned that wasn't a one-time show. It happens every night. (Actually, it happens every morning, too. There's a bonus sunrise about a half hour before the sun actually climbs above the horizon.)

The physics are too complicated to explain without a few graphs, but in a nutshell, even with the sun is below the horizon, some of its light still colors the atmosphere. About a half hour after sunset, the last of that light fades away. The red wavelengths of light are the most rugged, if you will — they aren't as easily blocked by particles floating in the air — which is why the clouds appear red a second time.

The process is exactly backward for the sunrise. The red wavelengths are the first to appear.

For the exact times of the bonus sunrises and sunsets, look up the civil twilight times for your area. The bonus sunrise is right after civil twilight ends; the bonus sunset is just before it begins.

This effect is particularly dramatic with mountains. Because they reach higher into the atmosphere, they will actually seem to glow at about the same time the clouds turn red again.

To photograph this phenomenon, you will definitely need a tripod. The image at the top of this post is of the first sunrise at the Haleakala Crater on Maui. This image was captured 35 minutes before the sun touched the horizon. The light level was so low that I needed a 70-second exposure at 400 ISO to capture it.

The light level may be low, but as you can see, the colors are dramatic. And on that morning, they were even better than the colors during the actual sunrise.

It's not often you get second chances in life, but nature gives them to you every sunrise and sunset.

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Photographing the elusive northern lights

For the next couple years, you'll have a better-than-average chance of seeing and photographing the northern lights. Just this week, a large solar storm resulted in a northern lights display visible as far south as Georgia.

The northern lights appear when electrically-charged particles from the sun crash into Earth's magnetic field. The sun is just entering the active phase of its cycle, which will peak in 2013.

The activity is always strongest at the poles, which is why most of the northern lights images you see are taken from places like Alaska or Iceland. But if the conditions are just right, you can capture them a bit farther south. And there are a couple of prediction websites so that seeing them isn't purely by chance.

Still, there are no guarantees. I had been trying to photograph the aurora borealis for a couple years — getting up in the middle of the night, driving to a peak far from city lights and waiting in the cold — but repeatedly returned home with nothing. It took one of the largest solar flares ever recorded to produce this northern lights display over Washington's Central Cascades.

Washington typically gets a few light shows a year. The catch is knowing when the light shows will develop — and being lucky enough to have them develop on a clear night when little of the moon is showing. I use a couple of web sites to track the aurora activity and make sure I'm position to capture the lights any time the conditions appear ideal.

A website called Today's Space Weather gives three-day solar forecasts, similar to the weather forecasts you see on TV. If there's a big solar storm, it will tell you what day and time it will reach Earth.

When the sun is stormy, I frequently check a site from NOAA's Space Environmental Center. The site rates the aurora activity at both poles on a scale of 1 to 10++. To see the northern lights from the peaks in Snohomish County, Washington, where my images were taken, you need a northern pass reading of 10 or more. There's a chart that gives you the necessary level for cities throughout North America.

The problem is that the aurora levels can bounce around a lot. I've seen the levels jump from 7 to 10 in under an hour and vice versa. Generally, I head out any time the aurora levels have consistently reached 9 and 10 over a period of several hours, even if the level has since dropped to 7 or 8. That's probably why I had been met with so little success.

That wasn't the case, though, in late October 2003 when I was lucky enough to witness the northern lights two nights in a row.

It all started with word of a near-record solar storm. A mass of particles thirteen times the size of the earth erupted from the sun and began racing our way at 5 million miles per hour. At that speed, it took just 19 hours to travel from the sun to Earth. The particle storm was rated G5 — the most severe category. There have been just five solar storms of that magnitude over the past 15 years, and most of them did not collide with Earth.

Such storms are bad for satellite operators and for the electrical grid, but can potentially result in an aurora borealis display as far south as Texas. Sure enough, the NOAA site showed aurora readings of 10 for several consecutive hours. I took a nap that evening and planned to be halfway up Mount Pilchuck by midnight when the northern lights display tends to be most intense. The effort paid off.

The vertical composition you see above was the image I captured the first night. To your eyes, the aurora borealis is fairly dim. All I could make out was the green bands. I could see that the bands moved around a fair amount, but the color was not anywhere near as intense as it was in the resulting image. I couldn't see any of the red at all.

Because of my long exposure, the camera was capable of recording parts of the aurora that I couldn't see. I set my digital camera to simulate ISO 400 film and I used shutter speeds of between 20 and 30 seconds. If I used slower film and longer shutter speeds, the bands would blur and appear out of focus in the final image. They really do move around quite a bit. Putting up with a little grain was a fine trade off for capturing the bands of light. Even though I couldn't make out all the colors with my own eyes, the shifting bands were truly impressive.

The aurora borealis show didn't last very long. The peak activity lasted less than five minutes, but I was sure I had a picture that would work out. And given the severity of the storm, I decided to try to photograph the northern lights the following night from a different location. The image to your right was captured that second night from a road off the Mountain Loop Highway, east of Mt. Pilchuck. It's tough to see in the compressed Internet version of the image, but the big dipper is visible starting at the horizon in the middle of the image and stretching up and to the right.

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iPad photography (business) apps

Judging by the number of articles written about the iPad over the past few months, you wouldn't think we would need another. But I think we do.

Most of the articles I've seen are obsessed with using it as a camera. They go on and on about all the creative effects you can buy and use. But my camera is my camera; my iPad is a tool for getting my photography business work done when I'm away from the office.

With that, here's my list of useful apps. Some are directly related to photography; others are applicable to any small business. One word of caution: developers seem to change their prices all the time, so the prices that are listed here are the prices that were posted the last time I checked.

Wi-Fi Finder (Free)

I mostly use my iPad to get online, check email, etc., and you need an internet connection for that. If you don't have the 3G cellular version or if you travel overseas, the Wi-Fi Finder app can help you find Wi-Fi access. Pick a location, and it will display a map with the nearest access points. It will also tell you if they're free or not. And you don't need internet access to use it; you can download the entire world database before you leave home.

It's not perfect. It doesn't seem to be updated very often. It still shows there's free Wi-Fi at the Border's bookstore near my house, which went out of business six months ago. And coverage in some countries, like Iceland, is really spotty. For example, I know there's free Wi-Fi in the café at the top of the Eymundsson bookstore in downtown Reykjavik, but the app doesn't have any access points listed at all for Iceland's largest city.

That flaw aside, when it works, it's much better than wandering around aimlessly trying to find a Wi-Fi signal on your own.

Voice Memos for iPad (listed as 99 cents, but effectively $1.98)

When I'm on the road, I often need to jot down quick notes with details about subjects I've photographed, things I need to do, or ideas. Voice Memos turns the iPad into a voice recorder. You can record quick notes and play them back and transcribe them later when you have time.

It works well, but the pricing scheme is a bit bizarre. The basic app costs 99 cents and it only lets you record and listen to your notes on the iPad. It you want to email your notes to yourself so that you can play them back on a computer or share them with someone else, that will cost you another 99 cents.

Penultimate ($1.99)

For taking notes in your own handwriting, you have a lot of options. I've tried several, but Penultimate is my favorite. It does a great job of capturing handwriting; its pages look stunning. It doesn't translate your handwriting into text, but that's not an issue for me. And it gives you lots of options for sharing or sending a single page or an entire notebook.

Notability (99 cents)

For note taking, Notability is also an amazing app. In addition to taking typed and written notes, it has a voice recorder feature that works incredibly well. I often use it when I'm interviewing someone. It records the conversation so I can go back and pull quotes later while still allowing me to jot down some notes during the interview.

Whichever note taking app you use, I think you need a stylus. I know Apple founder Steve Jobs hates them, but it just isn't natural or comfortable to write notes of much length with your finger. I absolutely hate the Pogo Sketch, which is available behind the counter at some Apple stores. The foam tip is really cheaply made and becomes seriously deformed after only a few uses. It's also incredibly tiny, so if you have larger hands, it can feel like you're trying to write with a toothpick. Models from Targus and Griffin feel like fine pens in your hand and come with a nice, durable rubber tip that glides across the iPad screen.

iWork suite: Pages, Numbers, Keynote ($9.99 each)

These three apps are the iPad equivalents of the word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications you may use on your computer. They're all custom designed for the iPad, so they work well, are intuitive, and have a full feature set. With Numbers, for example, I can easily put together a great looking invoice without having to do any of the math myself. With Keynote, you can put together an attractive photo slide show, although it would be even more useful if you could program the presentation to loop continuously.

The weak part of the iWork suite is that the apps don't share data well with others. It's probably easy if your computer is a Mac, but with Windows the options seem unnecessarily limited. I don't want to have to install iTunes on every PC I may use just to transfer files back and forth.

To get around this limitation, I use Box.net, a service that lets you store files online and access them from any device that's connected to the internet. Once you've created a Box.net account, create a folder, such as Documents, where you want your iPad to store your files. Then in each of iWorks apps, when you want to save a file, select the Copy to WebDAV option. The first time you do this, you'll have to fill in your Box.net account information.

For server, type https://www.box.net/dav//Documents (replace Documents with the actual name of your folder). The double slash is critical. Also fill in your user name and password.

Next, it will ask you how you want to save the file. If you just want a read-only copy, you can select PDF. If you want to edit the file on your PC, you'll have to save documents as a .DOC, spreadsheets as an .XLS, and presentations as a .PPT.

With a tap, the iPad will copy the file you're currently working on to your online Box.net account, which you can then access from any computer. Download the file on a PC, make your changes, and save the revised file back to your Box.net account. You can then open that file on your iPad by going into the appropriate app, tapping the + button from the My Documents screen, and selecting Copy from WebDAV.

Documents To Go Premium ($16.99) is much better at sharing your files with other machines – it can even sync with Google Docs – but I still like working with the iWorks apps better.

GoodReader ($4.99)

For viewing PDF files, GoodReader is an incredible app. PDFs render beautifully and the app makes it easy to take notes directly in the file. You can place sticky notes throughout the document or even draw arrows toward important information. When I travel, I'll often send my trip research to my iPad in a PDF file.

LightTrac ($4.99). Also available for Android ($1.99)

Like a lot of photographers, I like to know where the sun and moon will rise and set before I arrive on a location to maximize my chances of making a great image. LightTrac, a screen shot is at the top of this post, not only gives you the time and angles, it draws them over a satellite view of your chosen location. It really helps you visualize the conditions ahead of time. It beats using an angle finder and astronomical charts. This app works so well, I actually pull out my iPad even when I'm working in the office to use it.

Weather Radar HD Lite (Free)

The weather can make or break a photo, so I use a couple of tools to help me predict what the conditions will be like. I like Weather Radar HD Lite is best for its radar and cloud cover maps, although they can be very slow to load. For hour-by-hour and daily forecasts, I just open weather.com or the National Weather Service in a web browser. The other apps seem to be more trouble than what they're worth.

MultiTide (Free)

Tides can also affect your photo opportunities. MultiTide is a free app that shows predicted tides for many locations along the coasts. The interface is awkward. You essentially have to add a particular tide station as a favorite before you can view the predicted tides there. But it's free and it offers a huge list of prediction locations.

Pad Folio ($9.99)

While the iPad comes with an app to display your photos, I find it cumbersome. There are several photography portfolio apps, but I like Pad Folio the best. It can pull photos from your DropBox account; you have to work through iTunes to add images to many of the others. Re-arranging the order of the images in your slideshow is as easy as drag-and-drop. If you're looking for extensive branding customization, the similarly named PadFolios may be a better choice for you.

Easy Release ($9.99)

Do you need to collect model or property releases while you're out in the field? Easy Release can let you complete those releases on location. The app comes with completed releases, but you're free to customize them. On location, you can fill them out and collect signatures from your subjects. The completed releases are then emailed to you in either the JPEG or PDF format.

Nightstand Central (Free)

Lots of times when I travel, the time on the alarm clock in the hotel room is never right. Or the alarm is overly complicated to set. Nightstand Central turns your iPad into an alarm clock. The interface looks a lot like the home screen on an Android phone and can be dimmed for the night. You have a number of alarm options, including the ability to gradually fade in the alarm sound so that you're not jolted awake.

iBird (Free — $19.99)

While I often photograph birds, I don't always know what they are. I have traveled with guidebooks, but iBird has replaced them. The most advanced version, iBird Explorer Pro, includes 924 species of birds with lots of illustrations, photos and descriptive information. What I like about it, however, is that it's easy to search. The search feature allows you to narrow the catalog down by more than a dozen different traits, including size, wing shape, color, location, and on and on. It makes it easy to quickly identify the bird that you photographed.

There are lots of other options, however. Many of the Audubon guides have been ported over to the iPad, including guides for trees, butterflies, mammals, insects and wildflowers. I think the Audubon guides provide better images and species information, but I find the search features lacking.

So those are some of my favorite iPad photography (business) apps. What are yours? Feel free to share your favorites in the comments section. You can also share them on my Facebook or Google+ pages.

A tripod with sea legs

People often ask me what they can do to improve their images. Often, I reply, "Get a tripod."

I'm a firm believer in tripods, so to speak. They allow you to capture sharp images that could be impossible to capture with shaky hands. They also slow you down. In the time it takes to set up your equipment, you can also think about whether your first idea for a composition is really the best it can be. Nearly all of my images were captured from a tripod.

This one wasn't. And it wouldn't be anywhere near as good if it had been.

My inspiration to become a nature photographer came not from seeing the great work of the pros before me; it came during a canoe trip through the Seattle Arboretum. As I rowed through the wetlands, I was absolutely amazed that wildlife that wouldn't let me approach within a 100 yards on land would completely ignore me on the water.

Great blue herons would fish barely a dozen feet from the boat. Baby ducklings would swim up and try to eat my oar. I got a camera and took up photography to show others the wonder of the wetlands. And as often as I can, I take to the water to capture images that would be difficult, if not impossible, to capture on land.

This image of a familiar bluet damselfly casting its shadow on a water lily is such an image. During mating season, these insects spend nearly all of their time on the water.

This one is a male who hasn't found his mate yet. All around me, dozens of other males had. Once the males find a mate, they grab her neck; the end of their tails works like a claw. Once joined, they fly in tandem from water lily to water lily, depositing eggs just below the surface of the water.

It's an absolutely amazing to watch. I was able to photograph this once from shore, but most of the time, they're farther out in the wetlands. A boat is the best place to capture the action.

To capture this guy, however, I still needed a fairly powerful lens. This was captured using my 100-400 lens at full power with a 1.4x extender added. The final focal length is 560mm. With that much zoom power, I needed to find a way to keep the camera very steady or I ran the risk of getting only blurry images. Basically, I needed a tripod on the water.

Over the years, I've come up with a steady camera system that works for me and the key part is to get an inflatable kayak. I have a two-person Sevylor inflatable kayak, which actually looks a little more like a canoe. I rarely take a second person, using the second seat to store my gear or to stretch out so that I can lie down in the boat.

I use the boat's soft, squishy sides as the tripod replacement. I lie down in the boat and rest the lens barrel on the side of the boat. It has a little give and it acts as a stabilizer. With some practice, you can stabilize the lens as well with the boat's side as you can with a camera bean bag.

An inflatable kayak, however, does pose another challenge. Because it's filled with air, it's relatively light. If there's much wind at all, the kayak acts like a kite.

There are two ways to deal with this challenge.

First, paddle at a moderate speed and then stop paddling when you're 15 feet or so from where you want to be to take the picture. As the momentum carries the boat forward, get into shooting position. You will need to use a fast shutter speed to compensate for the movement of the boat, but at least the boat will be going the direction you want (hopefully).

Whenever possible, however, I try to get my kayak tangled in lily pads. If there are enough lily pads under the boat, friction should keep your boat in place.

As for keeping your equipment dry, I bought a dry bag at a sporting goods store. You can also find them at a boating supply store. These bags are made of a waterproof material and the opening has several rubber strips. When closed properly, the bag is completely watertight. Some dry bags also float if they end up in the water, providing a little extra protection.

I also carry with me an absorbent cloth to dry up any water droplets my camera may catch.

I've been doing this for well over a decade now and I've yet to lose or damage a piece of equipment, but that's no guarantee. Make sure all your equipment is insured and don't take anything out on the water that you can't afford to lose.

The full resolution file of the image at the top of this post is so sharp that you can see each individual hair neatly on his head. It does the bluet justice; after all, he's trying to look nice for his date.

(Follow Kevin Ebi's photography on his Facebook page or on Google+.)