rghurst99

Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 8-24-2023 29-Shot Frame Animation Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-1250, Handheld

Green Herons are some of the most "stealthy" birds I have observed, but I always struggle with what is the best verb (gerund) to describe their activity ... stalking, prowling, skulking? Whatever it is, this bird was pretty good at it. This 156-shot frame animation plays twice ... once wide, once tight. Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 8-22-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-1000, Handheld

A smallish Green Heron prowled the drought-induced sandbar and shallow waters at the south end of Long Pond. I could see hundreds of catfish fingerlings schooling about, and I was sure the Green Heron could see them, too! It was just a matter of time. Then, as if the heron could hear my thoughts, it struck at the water, expertly extracting one of the tiny fish. There could be little doubt that the fingerling was experiencing the final seconds of its fishy little existence. But, inexplicably, either the fish wiggled free or the heron simply dropped it. It's impossible to say. Whichever, the escapee repeatedly leapt into the air as it hurried away, and you could almost hear it exclaim, "I'm free! I'm free!" Or at least, that's the way it seemed to me ;-) 8-22-2023 114-Shot Frame Animation Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-1250, Handheld

Colleyville Nature Center 8-20-2023 40-Shot Frame Animation Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-1600, Handheld

55-Shot Frame Animation Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 8-20-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-1600, Handheld

This frame animation was made from still photo bursts totaling 240 shots. It goes through the shots twice ... first wide crop, then tighter crop. Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 8-18-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO-2500-4000, Handheld

The 160-shot frame animation shows a Painted Lady Butterfly feeding on a Buttonbush flower. Bittern Marsh LLELA (Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area) 8-17-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/10, 1/1000, ISO-800, Handheld

The video is a frame animation made from 238 still images. It shows a juvenile Little Blue Heron (they are white at birth) moving around a marsh as it hunts. Bittern Marsh LLELA (Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area) Lewisville, Texas 8-17-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC

This video is a collection of frame animations (videos made from long bursts of still pictures) from the morning I spent at Blue Cypress Lake in Vero Beach, Florida. The lake is known for its numerous Cypress Trees filled with Osprey nests ... more than 600 nests catalogued by the local Audubon Society. The trees make me think of a bayou (even though it's a lake) ... hence the "bayou music." All of these shots were taken with my 70-200mm lens, so you can imagine it was an intimate experience with just me, the birds, and my guide from Blue Cypress Lake Tours. I have other frame animations made from shots with my 600mm ... more to come. 3-23-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 70-200GMII

There were several different individual hummingbirds in this video. I usually assume Black-Chinned in our area, but at least one of these was a young Ruby-Throated male because it had a definite, single, ruby gorget feather on its throat. Bob Jones Nature Center 8-5-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 1/250, f/10, Auto-ISO Shot at 4k/120p UHD, 4:2:0 10-Bit Edited/Rendered at 4k/30p UHD (4x Slo-Mo)

Katmai National Park, Alaska 7-1-2023 In June/July, the bears spend most of their time grazing (or sleeping). Sometimes, we would watch a bear lumber along for 100s of yards along the shore with no apparent destination in mind. I am sure they were going somewhere, it just wasn't clear to me where or why. Sony A1 + Sony 70-200GMII + Sony 2.0x TC Shot and Edited in 4k/60p

As you would expect, Great Crested Flycatchers catch flies ... among other things. In this 159-shot frame animation, the GCFL already had a fly. It plays with it a bit, gobbles it down, and takes off. Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 8-3-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/640, ISO-2000, Handheld

This video is a frame animation comprising 62 still shots. The video goes through the shots twice ... first cropped to 6000x3375, then cropped to 3840x2160. The second pass is equivalent to 1-to-1 zoom when viewed at 4k. Kukak Bay, Alaska 6-30-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 559mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, Handheld

This video is a frame animation comprising 142 still shots. The video goes through the shots twice ... first cropped to 6600x3713, then cropped to 3840x2160. The second pass is equivalent to 1-to-1 zoom when viewed at 4k. Kukak Bay, Alaska 6-30-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 289mm, f/6.3, 1/1600, ISO-2000, Handheld

This frame animation is made from 101-still images. The video goes through the images twice ... first cropped to 6000x3375, then, cropped to 3840x2160. The second pass is effectively a 1-to-1 zoom of the original images. Kukak Bay, Alaska 6-28-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-2000, Handheld

Kukak Bay, Alaska 6-28-2023 154-Shot Frame Animation Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-2000, Handheld

Village Creek Drying Beds Arlington, Texas 7-26-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM + Sony 1.4x TC 840mm, f/5.6, 1/2500, ISO-1000, Handheld

There is an area on the northwest shore of Kukak Bay that our guides called "The River." Perhaps there are times when it flows as a unified river, but when we were there, it was a delta full of small streams that waxed and waned with the tides. We had to be careful because if we stayed too long during a rising tide, we might be trapped by water too deep to wade through, and if we stayed too long during a falling tide, our boat might get beached on dry land. In any case, there were usually Bald Eagle there ... hunting, fishing, or taking a bath (which I had never seen before).

Kukak Bay, Alaska 6-29-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-2000, Handheld

This video is a frame animation comprising about 600 still images ... mostly Tufted Puffins with a few Horned Puffins. Hallo Bay, Alaska 6-29-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G

Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 7-21-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM 600mm, f/4, 1/2500, ISO-1250, Handheld

Bob Jones Nature Center Southlake, Texas 7-18-2023 31-Shot Loop Sony A1 + Sony 600GM 600mm, f/4, 1/5000, ISO-800, Handheld

Kodiak Island, Alaska 6-26-2023 141-Shot Frame Animation Sony A1 + Sony 200-600G 600mm, f/6.3, 1/1600, ISO-1250, Handheld

Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 7-16-2023 109-Shot Frame Animation Sony A1 + Sony 600GM 600mm, f/4, 1/1250, ISO-1600, Handheld

Colleyville Nature Center Colleyville, Texas 7-16-2023 Sony A1 + Sony 600GM 600mm, f/4, 1/2000, ISO-2000, Handheld