Christmas Morning.
2019.
7:30 AM.
It begins.
Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200mm - 1/3200 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200mm - 1/4000 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
Sunrise on the beach.
Went out with my significant other for a walk on the beach. All my camera gear.
Oh and my girlfriend came too. ;)
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 160
Although the sun was towards where I was heading, still managed to get some great shots. Like this silhouette of a gull.
Something that was different to me, from all the beach trips I’ve gone on, was the sand in Destin. White sand was not something I’d seen before. It was pretty nice, although compared to say much further down in the gulf it was only nice to look at. I mean it was also nice to walk on, kind of soft. But what I mean is that where I always went to the beach was a lot dirtier sand. And there you find a lot more life. Sharks teeth or shells washing up along the beach, little fish coming right up on the surf. That’s not what is there in Destin, it’s too clean. Makes it easy to see into the water, which is cool. But easy for a predator to spot little fish prey.
Don’t get me wrong, there was still plenty of wildlife for me to photograph. Just a noticeable difference from my own experiences.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 500
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 500
Plenty of Laughing Gulls out getting some breakfast. I am especially proud of capturing this moment of a Gull in mid catch of some kind of nut.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 640
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 640
Others had spied his treat and came over.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 640
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 640
This went on for a bit, capturing images of the Gulls.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
Here I manged to get a bit further insight in to why I caught the Gull above in mid beak catching food. The smart little guys rinse off whatever they catch before they eat it.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 640
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 640
Perfect. Exactly what I had been wanting. Nice profile shot, sharp as a tack. Nice detail. Yes, very happy with my choices so far.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4.5 - ISO 640
Spotted out in the water was something I had never heard of at this point. A waterfowl that would dive, not just stick their head under like a duck or goose. But completely submerge for many seconds, maybe half a minute at a time.
A loon of some kind, very hard to identify because of the light source being behind them.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 125
As I mentioned in the last post, the sky really was that color. I really like the way it contrast it provides for the silhouette of this Pelican.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 400
A different kind of gull this time. The Ring-Billed Gull would be my next subject, and amazingly I managed to witness this one enjoying a seafood breakfast.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 400
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 400
A Sanderling would catch my eye next. Cute little bird running across the sand.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 320
The next thing that happened I couldn’t believe. I had absolutely no idea that worms were under the sand.
Simply amazing that I manged to be aiming at the right moment ready to take a picture.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 250
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 125
We moved further along down the beach to a little park in the dunes. More scrub here and hopefully more birds.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 500
Bit hard to identify this one honestly. Because the golden sun was putting so much yellow onto things I honestly don’t know just how much yellow is the bird or not. I think this is a Chipping Sparrow. As it most closely resembles what the bird book I use shows.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 200
This one has me a bit stumped. The eye suggests a thrasher, the coloring doesn’t quite match a few different variations I’ve seen in the book. Possibly a Sage’s Thrasher as it specifically mentions the FL panhandle in winter. Which is exactly where I was when I took this. However it very closely matches one that I currently have identified as a Long Billed Thrasher that I spotted just down the road in metro Atlanta.
Anyway, soon it was back along the beach to where we parked. Shot a couple more birds along the way.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 100
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 100
I did take one last image before leaving for the day. Back before the walk along the beach I swapped to the full frame and regular telephoto and took a picture of the resorts. A bit different, but I was happy with how it came out.
Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200 - 1/4000 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
Easily one of the best Christmas’ I’ve ever had.