Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

Around here we don't have much in the way of nature to photograph - or do we? As far as I am concerned it is always around and you can find fun things to photograph if you put your mind to it.

I went out to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve to photograph some birds this morning. I knew there would be a group of photographers already there shooting and chatting. I made sure to walk right up to them and start shooting. I am always impressed at what equipment the guys bring. one guy had a sweet 600mm and most were using tripods. I was shooting at ISO 400 at f8-f11 most times and I was on manual. I should have set it to shutter priority, but I wasn't thinking. I was happy to be out in the open ocean air and it went right to my head.

There were these terns dive-bombing fish when I crossed the wooden bridge. One was especially noisy and kept letting all of the other birds know he was boss. They didn't care though and they would dive right under him and snag his breakfast. It was funny to watch. Here are some images from today's shoot.



I had to take this one and call it "Beware of the Crocs Lurking"




One of my favorites today was of a gull with polka dots and he was beautiful.


But my favorite image came on my very last shot... I got up less than 2 feet from this gull before he took off.