3D WEDDING PHOTO ALBUM

Today, May 21st, marks my 6th Anniversary on Flickr. Now, I can’t even remember how I first learned of Flickr. However, it opened up a whole new magical world. The first photo I uploaded was just a tree taken with a Canon PowerShot S1 IS. I was a few months away from a full recovery from a broken arm (right arm, of course) suffered the previous summer in a bicycle accident. Rehab was thankfully winding down and my fingers were beginning to look and act normally. I had no idea what to shoot, except that I wanted to do some kind of Nature photography. The World Expo was being held in a nearby city and I went there several times and took lots of photos. I went for hikes and took photos of flowers and trees. I tried sunrises and chasing (literally) sunsets. I was the weird foreigner running from one levee along one river to another levee along another river just trying to get a decent sunset shot. Alas, downtown Okazaki levees are not beaches on a tropical island. Next up were scarecrows. I combed the fields of Aichi looking for scarecrows (and a place to park my car). Yet, there was something missing ... I kept waiting for one to come to life and start to dance. Then I began to catch glimpses of what would soon become my passion ... birds.
I still remember seeing these larger white birds with some reddish colors that looked so beautiful in the rice fields. It was challenging trying to get close enough for a decent shot. Later I found out that they were Cattle Egrets. I began to see (notice?) birds more often. I was so close to a large Gray Heron in a river on one hike. Then I found Little and Great Egrets in some ponds. For about 3 1/2 years I shot mostly egrets and herons. About two years ago I started to challenge smaller birds. Along the way I upgraded to a Canon EOS Kiss N, then the Kiss X and a short time ago to the 60D.

I feel such a deep gratitude to all of my friends on Flickr, all who have ever looked at or commented on my images. I’m very grateful as well to all who have offered advice and encouragement and responded to my requests for help over the years. I wish that I could thank each of you individually, but there are too many of you! I’d also like to thank the Japanese bird photographers who have taught me the names (Japanese names) of so many birds and shared their favorite spots with me. These guys and ladies are the real pros. I can only dream of getting images as good as their work!

Flickr is such a humbling place for me. I am always blown away by the AWE-MAZING images of so many photographers here, whatever the theme of their own passions. I have so much to learn from all of you. Thank you!

It’s nearly 1 a.m. here now and I need a few hours sleep before I head out for what may be my last full day of shooting for several weeks.

Have a great weekend!

Mike
aka: jcowboy

Aichi, Japan
Black Paradise Flycatcher

I had planned to shoot kingfishers today. However a birding friend told me a place to go to take photos of a pair of Black Paradise Flycatchers and their three babies. I was very excited as I had never seen them before. For about two hours I was able to get a few photos of the babies with their heads popping up and a few times when the male and female showed up to feed them. It was difficult shooting through the distance, leaves, twigs and branches and I ended up with a lot of blurry images after about 1 hr. and 45 minutes. I wasn't worried as I thought I still had another 3 hours of shooting time left to try and get some better shots. However at that point the male started flying about crazily as it was very agitated. We figured that there must be a snake about. I finally spotted the snake about 15 minutes later and within a minute or two it was in the nest. The whole time the male was trying to attack the snake and stay out of its reach. I was surprised to find that I had gotten the shot below with the snake as the male only touched down on the branch for a second or two. A bitter-sweet day for my lifer shots.

Severe crop.