Birding at Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Spit

 

Drayton Harbor with Semiahmoo Spit at its head is the best place I know to look for marine birds near WWU. On this trip with my Environmental Photography class, the conditions were nearly perfect. A high tide pushed the birds up close to the beaches and calm sunny conditions gave relatively good reflections with plenty of light.

A few of the students were able to borrow long lenses from the ATUS on campus.

Here are some of my favorite shots:

Greater Yellowlegs


Flight of the Dunlin

Killdeer

Flock of Brant
Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Environmental Photography

Image
 Nature is all around us! A camera is an incredible tool that not only captures what we see, but helps us to see more. When we pick up a camera we find ourselves on the spectrum between art and science. While our cameras objectively capture light, we decide where to point them and why. If a picture is worth a thousand words then an image can make valuable contribute to our understanding of an organism, inspire people to action, or make  someone smile. This blog will be a place for us to share our photos and our reflections about them.
Read more

Nature in My Neighborhood - Aubyana

Image
  There exists a stark contrast between the neighborhood I live in now, tucked along the edge of Garden Street, and the impoverished, subjugated area I once called home in Tacoma. My old neighborhood was a place where wildlife struggled to survive, and even if it had thrived, it would have still been inaccessible. The streets were more often filled with the remnants of human activity than the signs of nature. An occasional dog would wander the alleys. Sometimes, the aftermath of raccoons would leave a trail—scraps of trash scattered across the concrete, a testament to their nocturnal scavenging. Living in a place like this taught me how to hold immense gratitude for nature, unders tanding that the wealthy and middle classes tend to have more access, snow sports and family vacations that I would never experience myself. This motivated me to carve out time and seek out natural beauty, waterfronts and forest days that I prioritized. I feel immense privilege in having transitioned t...
Read more

Landscapes - Jordan

Image
I went up to the Mt. Baker Ski Area for my pictures. I love the snow and the mountains, so I figured it would be the perfect spot. (I might also include more than two photos. I have a lot of landscape shots from other places, and no where else to show them off, lol.) This first photo is shot at F/5.0 1/2000 and ISO 64. I don't remember the focal length of the lens. But it was in the 20s, I think. F6.3, 1/2000 ISO 64 and this was shot at 50mm. So, the biggest critique that I have with my photos, and that I will always have with my photos, is that I can never tell if they are too dark. What looks fine to me, might actually be too dark. Especially when I just yank it straight from my camera and don't run it through Lightroom or something like that. Also, and maybe you'd be able to help answer this question for me, Professor; but how do you take photos with sunglasses? I had to wear them up on Mt. Baker because otherwise it would have been obscenely bright, but I felt ...
Read more