This photograph of a Tawny Frogmouth was taken on 3 July 2024 at Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore. Tawny Frogmouths can be spotted frequently at the park. I spotted this one 2 days before and it was still at the same perch when the picture was taken. The Frogmouth had a couple of other perches prior this this one.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/6.3 ISO1000.
This picture of a Crested Tern as it was landing was taken at the Nobbies at Philip Island on 4 December 2023. There was a huge Crested Tern colony that was new formed in that part of the Island that wasn’t there previously. This photograph was taken at sunset. I like how the Tern is backlite and there is a bit of glow on the edge of its wing and beak. Noise reduction was applied to remove the noise in the shadows.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/3200s f/6.3 ISO900
The 2 images above are the same photograph of a White-plumed Honeyeater in Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore taken on 30 December 2023.
The one of the right has been manipulated by having the tree trunk on the edge removed. At some point in time, every photographer will be tempted to manipulate their photograph for ecstatic reasons. In this case the tree trunk might be seen to be distracting. I experimented using Adobe Photoshop’s generative fill to remove the tree trunk. I was surprise how well it has done. It has even generate rain drops in the area where the tree trunk was.
Personally, I feel that it is my job as a photograph to document the moment and tell a story about where the bird might be. While this is only an experiment, I don’t feel good about publishing a manipulated image.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/9 ISO450
Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore is quite famous for its population of Spotted Pardalotes. This picture of a female Spotted Pardalote was taken on 24 May 2024. On occasions, these Spotted Pardalotes may be joined by Striated Pardalotes. I don’t have photograph of the Striated Pardalotes that I considered decent. I will post one when I do.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/6.3 ISO2500
This is a photograph of a resident of Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore. It was taken on 1 July 2024. We don’t see or hear it every time we were here but it does appear regularly enough.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/6.3 ISO640
This portrait of a female Golden Whistler, a resident of Royal Park Trin Warren Tam-boore, was taken on 21 May 2024. It is a fairly friendly bird that will usually call out to me when I am there.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/6.3 ISO1100
Another photograph taken in Chiltern on 9 May 2024 at the waterhold. This picture is of a Dusky Woodswallow. I would have prefer more distance between the Woodswallow and the background though but I still think the background is not exactly distracting.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z TC-1.4X @ 1120mm 1/800s f/9 ISO720
The photograph is of a New Holland Honeyeater taken on 31 May 2024 at the Western Remnant of Royal Park.
This bird is one of the most common birds in Melbourne. They feed on insects and nectar. As the photograph depicts, the face of the bird has quite a bit of pollen which suggests that they act as pollinators as well.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/800s f/6.3 ISO1100
We visited Newstead Cemetery on 28 December 2023 for the first time. Newstead Cemetery is famous for its Rainbow Bee-eater. When we got there, we immediately understood its infamy. It is ridiculously easy to photograph birds with an extremely clean and featureless background.
Nikon Z 9, Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S @ 1/500s f/6.3 ISO200
These photographs of a Striated Heron was taken on 1 November 2023 in Taman Tasik Shah Alam – a park in Malaysia. We wasn’t expecting to be taking photographs as the sunlight was rather harsh during the middle of the day. When this Striated Heron showed itself, I could resist and start snapping. To my surprise, the particular spot the heron was at had fairly decent soft filtered light.
The heron was on a path that is elevated. I was in a gully and pointed the camera at the bird while in a standing position. This provided a low camera position to capture these delightful images.
Nikon Z 9, AF-S NIKKOR 500MM F/5.6E PF ED VR, AF-S TC-14E III, FTZ II @ 700mm 1/640s f/8 ISO280