The Everglades National Park from where I live can be approached going west on Highway 41 (Tamiami Trail) or via Florida City toward the southwest of the town of Homestead. The northeastern part of the park, the easiest for me to reach is called Shark Valley and that was where I spent a brief visit yesterday morning due to the miserable weather conditions.

The weather did not cooperate. We had intermittent rain most of the morning and to make it worse the water levels are still high so if planning a visit better wait till mid January or better yet February when the birds are plentiful and it is the dry season for South Florida. I met a gentleman who also lives in Miami and he told me that he visited the other part of the park and that birds were nowhere to be seeing. Indeed it is still early for bird photography, at least in this part of the Everglades. Considering the weather conditions and the low concentration of birds I did the best I could. I spent more time caring for my gear than photographing since I was not prepared for the rain.

All of these images were made using my Nikon D7000 with the old, screw driven 80-400 f4-5.6 VR Nikon lens. I varied my ISO settings between 400 and 800 depending on subjects and I was shooting at f8 most of the time. All images were original RAW data edited with Nikon View NX2 and Affinity Photo. All images hand held. A couple of images were enhanced with Topaz Adjust AI.

The rainbow shot had some weird colors in the sky. Those were not banding since I was working with 16 bits so I believe it could be the characteristics of the digital sensor. In spite of the mostly cloudy skies I was shooting with the lens shade on and occasionally I had to remove it to clean the small amount of water it collected inside. I do not know if the D7000 has sealing against the elements but neither the camera nor the lens failed to work. Back at home it was working like a champ so I cleaned lens and camera and when dried out I placed both in a container with a desiccant, which is my routine here in South Florida due to the high humidly in summer.

1- Green heron.
2- Blue heron.
3- Anhinga also known as Snake bird.
4- Great blue heron.
5- Blue heron fishing.
6- The rainbow.

The Everglades National Park from where I live can be approached going west on Highway 41 (Tamiami Trail) or via Florida City toward the southwest of the town of Homestead. The northeastern part of the park, the easiest for me to reach is called Shark Valley and that was where I spent a brief visit yesterday morning due to the miserable weather conditions.

The weather did not cooperate. We had intermittent rain most of the morning and to make it worse the water levels are still high so if planning a visit better wait till mid January or better yet February when the birds are plentiful and it is the dry season for South Florida. I met a gentleman who also lives in Miami and he told me that he visited the other part of the park and that birds were nowhere to be seeing. Indeed it is still early for bird photography, at least in this part of the Everglades. Considering the weather conditions and the low concentration of birds I did the best I could. I spent more time caring for my gear than photographing since I was not prepared for the rain.

All of these images were made using my Nikon D7000 with the old, screw driven 80-400 f4-5.6 VR Nikon lens. I varied my ISO settings between 400 and 800 depending on subjects and I was shooting at f8 most of the time. All images were original RAW data edited with Nikon View NX2 and Affinity Photo. All images hand held. A couple of images were enhanced with Topaz Adjust AI.

The rainbow shot had some weird colors in the sky. Those were not banding since I was working with 16 bits so I believe it could be the characteristics of the digital sensor. In spite of the mostly cloudy skies I was shooting with the lens shade on and occasionally I had to remove it to clean the small amount of water it collected inside. I do not know if the D7000 has sealing against the elements but neither the camera nor the lens failed to work. Back at home it was working like a champ so I cleaned lens and camera and when dried out I placed both in a container with a desiccant, which is my routine here in South Florida due to the high humidly in summer.

1- Green heron.
2- Blue heron.
3- Anhinga also known as Snake bird.
4- Great blue heron.
5- Blue heron fishing.
6- The rainbow.