Immediately upon leaving their winter hibernation sites (in the uplands that surround wetlands) , American Toad males head directly to the water to begin calling the females. It may take several days, but the females come down to the water and join the males.
Female American Toads are larger than males and can be much larger. Here are what I believe to be two males that are excited by the tennis ball that is much larger than they are. Surely, they must know that this is not a toad, but apparently in their sexual ardor, they do not care.
American Toad males (apparently) attempting to mate with a tennis ball.
Unit Nikon introduces an mirrorless body that can focus as fast and accurately as the D500, it will continue to be my go to camera for the type of wildlife photography I enjoy...
Note, some of these pictures were also shared in the Nature Forum... apologies for the redundancy.
D500 here with the 400mm f/2.8 G in heavy rain. Single point AF worked like a charm, tracking this rapidly subject at 10fps with about 80% keeper rate, all through a curtain of back lit rain drops. The Camera didn't care about the rain, unlike the operator who almost suffocated when his cloth face mask got soaked. One benefit of wet masks is that you don't steam up your viewfinder when you can't breathe.
I have been shooting some unofficial events in our local NYC, Queens, Kissena Velodrome...nonpaying and promotional work. Thought is a good way to network with the local track racing scene while keeping my work out there and being visible during the pandemic....most of the local togs either disappeared or they aren't shooting any races anymore because there are no more officially sanctioned races....
From the last Sunday's off road tri race...is amazing my friend managed to secure the permit to run this race in a privately owned camp site. He was supposed to run the USA National Off Road Tri Championship this past May 18....
Shooting swimmers isn't easy since you don't have a lot of body area to focus on....
These aren't hardcore MTBers and so I don't normally see them doing jumps or big drops..the trail system is somewhat not so technical but fast....
Fire road and reaching speed up to 30 mph...could have used some off camera strobe work but decided to go against it...
Sigma 50-100 at f2 or f2.2..my magic lens with off camera strobe...
Trying out some open running shots since I used to shoot the runners inside the trail system, single track...you don't often see the environment...
