First outing with the Canon 7d mark II

I am so late to this party.

Great egret reflections

Snowy egret

I've been using a Canon 7D since around 2010 and it's been a great camera for me as an wildlife-photography enthusiast. I mean, the low-light performance was never great, and the autofocus had a tendency to lose the subject and hunt if the light was flat or your subject was moving too fast to track easily (and the settings only helped so much), but it was a great camera that took far more great photos than it missed and it was more than able to  put up with the years of abuse I treated it to. ...And I treated it pretty badly. That camera has more scrapes, dents, mud and fish scales embedded into it than any electronic device should have, but it still works great. In fact the only repair it ever needed was a screen replacement after I left it on the floor on a fishing boat and accidentally kicked it into a bolt. ...Yeah.

A great grey heron being fluffy

A blue heron in flight

Then I picked up a refurbished Canon 7D mark II in the sales (which is a four-year old model now) and was rapidly brought up to speed on what everyone's been talking about this whole time when they say this is an incredible upgrade. It really is. I've only had this camera out a couple of times so far, so I've not got anything of particular artistic merit to share, but I've managed more than a few photos that simply wouldn't be possible with the original 7D. The 100% viewfinder is a surprisingly helpful improvement over the old 95% which makes it much easier to get everything you want in-frame, the extra focus points are great, and the camera itself feels solid and extremely comfortable to hold. So far though, the story for me is all about the autofocus because once this thing locks onto a target, it just won't let go.

The AF holds on despite distractions in the foreground

This was shot through tall grass from a moving car. The AF locked on and didn't let go, and produced more than enough detail for an record and ID. It's a tri-coloured 

This was shot handheld.

I've had a quick run through the various autofocus settings, but it seems like the facial recognition plus "tennis mode" suit my needs pretty much perfectly. It is waaaaay easier to track birds in flight with the mark II, especially at a distance or when they're hiding out against a busy background, or when your non-birding, unenthisiastic driver doesn't quite stop the car while you're hanging out the window looking for wildlife. I mean, I know that none of those things are likely to combine to produce award-winning photographs any time soon compared to frame-filling portraits with beautifully-blurred backgrounds, but sometimes you just want a cool record shot!

A wood stork in the tall grass

So that's what I've got with it so far! Hopefully I'll have some time to get out a bit more soon and play around with it again, but my work schedule is kind of exploding around my ears so we'll see what happens! 

Florida Alligators

If there's one thing that Florida is famous for (besides oranges and Florida man), it's alligators! You can find them pretty much everywhere in the Everglades, and can be found in city drainage ditches, canals, golf courses and swimming pools, setting up basically anywhere they wherever there's fresh water and food. Fortunately, while American alligators are large, apex predators, they pose no real threat to adult humans, prefering to avoid us and feed on smaller prey like birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians or smaller mammals.

A female alligator, watching us pass.

One of our favourite ways to see alligators is to take an airboat ride out in the Everglades. There are a ton of different operators to choose from, but we tend to go out from the Everglades Safari Park because they offer a good tour and it's relatively close to where we live. They're obviously geared mostly towards alligator sightings, but there are usually plenty of birds to see as well (though that's for another blog!), and you can get some beautiful evening light if you head over there for the late afternoon trips (~ 4pm).

My what shiny teeth you have!

Anyway, without further ado, here are a few of my favourite 'gator photos so far! You can see all of these images (and more) in my website gallery. As usual, you can click on each image to see a larger image.

A one-eyed alligator relaxing on a muddy rise in the Everglades

Reflections

Alligator portrait

Floating and watching

A small female alligator swimming towards us in the evening light

Big Cypress in the Rain

We get a lot of rain in Florida. Usually, it's the type of rain that just dumps out of the sky for a few minutes and then passes, but occassionally we get a day that's just grey and wet for hours and refuses to let up. Kind of like Scotland except, you know, warm.

Little blue heron (adult)

Juvenile little blue heron

A woodpecker

A murder log (American alligator)

 
Still, I've always really liked rainy days for taking wildlife photos. The colours are richer, the days aren't so dazzlingly bright, and the animals all just look that bit more scunnered about everything!

Killdeer crossing

A black vulture

A mockingbird

Possibly a small warbler

These photos are from all the way back in January, and mark the first in a series of batches I'll be posting now I've had some free time to clear a bit of my backlog! I hope you enjoy them. As always, you can click on each image to see a larger version.

A juvenile blue heron.