This picture of a lesser gold finch, a bright morph female, is my favorite for this year. I like this picture, because I took it right in my backyard. It was munching on some lettuce seeds.
Shot at Mai Po Nature Reserve, a small protected wetland sandwiched between two cities with a total human population of more than 15million...wonder how much longer we could keep the birds coming...
Difficult to pick one but I think it will be this Redstart which is one of our migrant summer visitors to western oakwoods. This was one of my target birds for the year. It has been a good year for me with 143 bird species and 10 mammal species photographed so far!!!
I thought I'd throw this shot out for my contribution. Taken this past November near Churchill. It's pretty special to me because it was a wild caribou (not shot by hunters), and seeing these two polar bears devour that thing in a matter of hours was probably the highlight of the year for me photography wise.
Great thread idea Laura. It's really cool seeing everybody's personal pics and the story or reason why they chose it. Well here's my personal favorite.
This is a Mandarin Duck. I've only come across 1 in the wild so far here in southern california. It was taken at Huntington Central Park. I actually took this shot at the beginning of 2007. Back then I started out in wildlife photography with a used sigma 70-300mm apo dg macro lens that I bought off ebay for $145. It was my first introduction into the fascinating world of wildlife/nature photography. I've been hooked ever since and have now upgrade to a canon 400mm f5.6. I just recently started posting on fredmiranda.com and really enjoy the commraderie here. Happy holidays everyone and may 2008 bring more beautiful photos of the wild world all around us!
I spend 90% of my time taking photos of Free Ranging wildlife and my favorite photo for 2007 is of a 1920's Steam Engine.
This is a Steam Engine from the 1920's and is on its first trip after a new paint job. The reason I like it is cuz it looks so new and clean and Steam engines just are not clean and shinny.
Awhhh how well I remember this one. I remember the snow was falling and the red shoulder was roosting in my back yard watching the small birds feeding. I was able to get my 500 on it from a window and it is now in the process of being printed for the Delaware Valley Raptor Center's Christmas card for 2007. It is one of the pair that had hung with me for 5 yeas and I would hope they will continue to nest in the protected tree I made for them.
Lou
This is my favorite of the year but you an't see the reason why in the picture. I watched this Green Heron for about 10 minutes sit perfectly still waiting for this fish to come by. They say that the GH will actually drop things in the water as bait to attract fish.
Some great, great shots folks and I feel a bit reluctant to post my humble effort, but what the heck. No great story or philosophy behind this image, I just like that I got down on my belly in the snow and made sure I was at eye-level:
I don't get on FM much anymore, but always love this thread. I think this is my best of the year. It is a captive hawk who was screaming because he wanted to fly (used for falconry).
One of my favorites from (early) 2007. I had great lighting and a good opportunity. This photo won 1st Place in the Alaska State Fair, Color Wildlife, Professional Division.
This photo was taken a few weeks ago while my wife and I were on a Mediterranean cruise. I hired a local guide to take me to the Po Delta area about 50 miles south of Venice. The weather was atrocious, cold and windy, but we did manage to see Flamingos, which was my goal. The Po delta is the northern edge of the range of these birds more commonly associated with Africa. I did not do much birding after that, but took about 2500 photos of the beautiful scenery and cities of the Mediterranean.
This is such a great thread every year! As usual, I struggle to pick my favorite, but at least I know this is one of them That I got it in the middle of a great trip, with great friends and fabulous scenery made it really memorable. And in the end, that's what it's all about, anyway.
Humpback Whale off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.
Here's my contribution for 2007.
Not being able to travel much, I'm resigned to working off of a short list of birds that I can photograph "locally". Thanks to a couple of friendships (cbright & vmurayama) forged through FM, I have been lucky enough over the last couple of years to photograph some birds that I didn't think I would have access to in Southern California.The Tri-colored Heron was one such bird.
Last year's effort resulted in a less than ideal sunlight, shot from a great distance-heavily cropped, document shot. I had to wait a year to redeem myself. That's what makes this special for this year. He didn't allow too long of an opportunity at this spot (only a couple of shots), but I was given an opportunity where I had to back up in order to shoot this with the 600 mm and get him fully in the frame. He was less accessable the rest of the time.
