The last Ospreys / Spoonbills mix tour was quite a success! And there will be two Ospreys / Spoonbills mix tours in 2022: March 26-27 and April 23-24. Hurry to book your spot 🙂 This photography workshop turned out to be a powerful blend: one full day photographing eye-level Osprey nests in a natural Cypress trees lake and one morning creating images at an excellent Spoonbills rookery. The latter is one of the best spots for land-based shooting for this species with breeding colors.

ISO 1600 | f/5.6 | 1/4000 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focus
Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS II with the 1.4x extender and the Canon EOS 1DX mark II.
The image above is the classic type of environment you will encounter at the Cypress Lake: a green lush natural habitat! Lately, it has become very difficult finding nests that are not built on a metal saucer on top of a human made pole. Not only you get the natural habitat feel, but many of the nests are located at eye-level when shooting from the pontoon boat.

ISO 1250 | f/5.6 | 1/4000 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focus
Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS II with the 1.4x extender and the Canon EOS 1DX mark II.
Another Osprey taking off from a Cypress tree branch, with a green backdrop. There are more the 250 Osprey nests at the Vero Beach Cypress lake! You cannot beat that density level for Ospreys. Many of them will fly very close by, allowing for good results even with medium telephoto lenses, a rarity in bird photography.

ISO 6400 | f/4 | 1/2500 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focus
Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS II and the Canon EOS 1DX mark II.
The local Spoonbills rookery offers many opportunities for dramatic landing for the discerning eye. any of the birds fly from the very close rookery island to the shore to pick nesting material. This behavior creates predictable flying patterns and one of the best situation I know of for landing shots.
Ospreys / Spoonbills mix Photography Tour – $1,390
March 26th-27th 2022 / limit 5 people – 4 open
April 23rd-24th 2022 / limit 5 people – 1 open

3 shoots and 1 over-the-shoulder Photoshop tutoring => 2 boat-based Osprey shoots at the Vero Beach Cypress Lake + 1 land-based Spoonbills shoot at a local rookery. $250 deposit. Send me an email at steven@stevenbirdphotography.com .
Dave Gibson