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Photo Essay – Wintering Raptors in Indiana

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Photo by Vic Berardi
Photo by Vic Berardi

A chill in the breeze, a beautiful prairie grassland, a retreating bank of dark clouds and a loneliness that’s hard to describe. Winter in the Dakotas? No, Indiana. Specifically southwestern Indiana where re-claimed surface mines are in abundance. And with them an array of wintering raptors that live virtually unnoticed.

Nestled between the small towns of Dugger and Pleasantville in Sullivan County, Indiana lies Hawthorne Mine. At first, one might suspect that this is an unlikely spot for wintering raptors but upon closer examination the careful eye of a hawk watcher will reveal a sizable wintering population of Rough-legged Hawks and Northern Harriers as well as Short-eared Owls. Also present to a lesser degree are Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, Red-shouldered Hawks and Merlin.

This was our destination for New Years 2009, to explore and hopefully photograph the surroundings as well as any raptors that were present. [Read more…] about Photo Essay – Wintering Raptors in Indiana

How to get sharper flower photographs

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi

This weekend I read an article by Wendy L. Turner in Nature Photographer Magazine, and learned a new tip on how to get sharper flower photographs: position your camera so the sensor is parallel to the most important plane of the flower.

When photographing flowers, you will most likely use a telephoto or macro lens with a wide aperture (to get that great blurry background), so proper focus is very subtle and extremely difficult to achieve.

Positioning your camera so the sensor is parallel to the most important plane of the flower will help put all important parts of the flower at the same distance from your sensor, so all those parts will be in sharp focus. [Read more…] about How to get sharper flower photographs

How to get this photo – Oregon Coast

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi

This photo is from the Oregon coast, at a state park about an hour north of Bandon.

Oregon has some really hard sand, so there’s always a thin layer of ocean water residing on top of it. This creates some really amazing reflections of the sunset, as pictured in this photo. The blue you see on the top of the photo is an ocean wave coming in.

There were two keys to getting this photo:
[Read more…] about How to get this photo – Oregon Coast

What is a natural photograph?

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Photo by Vic Berardi
Photo by Vic Berardi

Sometimes as nature photographers, our minds focus too much on getting a good photograph, instead of just enjoying nature and being there to capture some of the light we come across.

It’s important to keep nature natural, and I’ll tell you a story to help illustrate what I mean. It’s about the ethics of attracting animals by “baiting” them–feeding them in an effort to get them to come closer to you, so you can get a photograph. [Read more…] about What is a natural photograph?

How to get this photo from the Mojave Desert

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi

This photo was taken at Joshua Tree National Park, which is in the Mojave Desert of the Southwestern United States.

I think the photo is unique for a couple reasons:

  • Color saturation (those rocks look brown most of the time)
  • It’s a single exposure (I didn’t capture the moon in a separate exposure)

And, here are a couple of tips on how to get this kind of photo: [Read more…] about How to get this photo from the Mojave Desert