As I mentioned two blog posts ago, the first morning of the February 2019 Florida Spoonbill tour was quite exceptional! See a few more images from the shoot. There is still one open spot for the April 2019 Spoonbill tour! Send me an email to reserve your spot before it is too late. 🙂

Roseate Spoonbill preening – Tampa Bay Spoonbill Rookery, Florida
ISO 1250 | f/8 | 1/3200 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II coupled with the 2.0x extender and the Canon EOS 1DX mark II.
There were many birds calmly preening in the shallow mangrove waters. 95% of them had stunning breeding colors. I created the image above with the intent of having a second group far behind as a nice blurred backdrop. The key to this is to find a subject that is standing ahead of the rest of the group, then to work on a pleasing composition.

Florida Spoonbill portrait – Tampa Bay Spoonbill Rookery, Florida
ISO 1000 | f/8 | 1/3200 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II coupled with the 2.0x extender and the Canon EOS 1DX mark II.
The same idea than the first image with a bit of a twist. It is always a good idea to vary compositions from wide to tight and from horizontal to vertical, so to bring more diversity to your photographic portfolio. The intent here was to have some blurred pink surrounding the head of the foreground subject for a pink on pink effect.

Roseate Spoonbills in action – Tampa Bay Spoonbill Rookery, Florida
ISO 1250 | f/8 | 1/3200 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II coupled with the 2.0x extender and the Canon EOS 1DX mark II.
Now this type of image is a lot harder to come by! Not only you need to have multiple subjects in a good pose, but you also need to have the two forefront birds exactly parallel to you so they are both in focus. This can be quite challenging to accomplish when working with very long telephoto lenses. You may increase the aperture or step back to help widen the depth of field and increase your chances of success.
Florida Spoonbills Photography Tour – $1,290
March 30th-31st 2019 / limit 6 people – Full
April 27th-28th 2019 / limit 6 people – 1 opening

2 working lunches and 3 boat rides to the absolute best rookery to photograph spoonbills with breeding colors. $250 deposit. Send me an email at steven@stevenbirdphotography.com
Florida Ospreys Photography Tour – $1,490
March 28th-29th 2020 / limit 4 people – 3 openings

3 boat rides on a pristine cypress trees lake and 2 working lunch sessions with lunch included. $300 deposit. Send me an email at steven@stevenbirdphotography.com