Picture of the week

Beaver pair

A pair of beaver along the bank of Lake Natoma. 

Photographed from my kayak in the early morning hours last week.  Photography from the kayak can be quite fruitful for wildlife photography, especially between dawn and about an hour after sunrise.  The environment tends to be more serene without the activities of other people about that may tend to scare away such wildlife.   I can typically get fairly close by just drifting in after a few paddle strokes early on, and then just get my shots while the kayak glides by or gets stopped by reeds or the like.  Most wildlife does not tend to view you as a threat when in a kayak, especially if you remain quiet and not make any sudden movements.

Other images captured include bald eagles including an adult and one of the two juveniles.  After noticing the eagles up in the nest high up on the bluff to the northwest side of the lake, I patrolled the shoreline further down the lake looking for them after observing that the eagles had left their nest.  During my paddle I happened upon one the juveniles perched in a tree fairly close to the water and was able to drift in next to some blackberry vines and just observe and photograph the eagle from a more camera friendly angle for about 30 minutes.  On another occasion I have witnessed an ospery harass the eagles in their nest by circling around them multiple times before eventually flying off. 

Other images captured during the last few morning out include a pair of northern river otters eating some crawdads they just hunted from the bottom and then popped up near my kayak.  Other photographs of interest include a canada goose coming in for a water landing, a deer swimming across one of the local lagoons, some carp skrimishing with each other (mating?), a dead woodpecker half way out of its nest, some other birds including a green heron, great blue heron, double crested cormorant, and a juvenile american robin.

My gear setup of choice for this type of photography is the Canon EOS 90D cropped sensor body with the EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L mk2 lens.  This lens offers good reach while also collapsing fairly tight for storage in an on-the-deck dry bag.