Camera Labs

OK.. came up with a crazy idea... buy a dry suite and have a weight belt on so you can walk upright with just your head above water... and your camera of course... would make for some cool waterfowl shots taken at water level if you can work your way close enough... With that small of a profile maybe the ducks wont pay much attention to you... if they do it would be easy enough to rig up some kind of camo for your headéshoulders... sounds crazy but I might give it a shot. You could even rig up a small tube ot raft of some kind to float in front of you disguised like a shrub or something that you can use to support your camera and use as camo as well. LOL... if it works great.. if not I`ll look like a crazy man ... or I may just have found another way to loose another camera

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
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not so crazy, I got a sit-on kayak and birds seem to get spooked easy as you paddle closer. Sitting still and sneaking up slowly is more successful, but then you still need to paddle at some point. Any movement upsets them. Its a tarpon 160i, so wide, long and very stable, also surpisingly fast for such a big heavy boat.

Maybe just better to jump in the water and use the kayak as a hide and floatation device, then rig something up over the top to disguise your shape. Seems to make sense to use a sit on kayak as a base as you can paddle a bit, then jump off put a hide/cover up and then climb back on it after. Certainly more seaworthy and most have waterproof compartments to store the camera gear. Even just a half cut plastic barrel put across the kayak with small hole for lens at front and back cut out just enough to hide you head and camera.

Rigging up some homemade floatation might be ok if you don`t need to go far and its shallow and not windy. But I would be concerned about water and camera gear.

Have you looked at sit-on kayak`s, there is a big range of them around?

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 6D,7D, 24-70 2.8 Tamron VC, Canon 15-85, Canon 85 1.8, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L Macro, Canon 70-300L +Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic

Wolf...Google up "Float Tubes" alot cheaper than any half decent dry suit.
I can tell you from my diving days a drysuit will take abuse but walking around a marsh or staying in it for hours isn't going to be comfortable/easy and fixing holes won't be cheap.
Flyfishers have the light coverall type pants/waders that go chest high,set of fins and you're on your way.
A Floatube would be very easy to conceal with natural grass/reeds as well.
Hope ya don't have too many Snapping turtles out there and ZackD given you have Gators maybe this may not be suited for you

Great shots guys!!!
Hope you get the waterwalking Wolf...thats cool!!

The white Goose has returned again this year...



First Shovellers have returned...






I waited and waited and waited some more and just as everything was coming together...it clouded right over

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I've got a float tube guys and it works great... the Goose shots I just posted yesterday were taken from it. But I want to take shots with the camera litterally 6 inches or so above the water surface for water level shots. That means just my head above the surface of the water if I can make it work. The only reason I was contemplating a dry suit is cause the water is still freezing at this time of year... if I wait another month or so I could do it in shorts but I still need a wieght belt or something similar to keep my entire body under water.

The Grebes have moved on kpr... gonna need to find another pair.

Yesterday was also the first day I never went to see my Grouse buddy since I first found him... kinda miss the little guy LOL

Someone in the local birding club posted he sighted a female woodie about 30 minutes south of here. They usually dont come into this area... gonna need to see if I can find her.

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Spending alot of time wuth that grouse...kinda worrying me a bit...lmao!!!
I would too...know right where you're coming from on that.
A decent drysuit is gonna run you over $1100 + $100 or so more for wieght belt plus $100 or so for ankle wieghts.
After that you will be into taking a diving course and buying underwater camera gear and the rest of the scuba gear.
If you're moving to a coast..........WHY NOT?
Just wait to take the course on the coast, that way you'll be learning about oceans not lakes.

B.C. company...great gear...

http://brooksdivegear.com/drysuits.html

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Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-55mm,Pentax 50-200mm,Sigma 17-70mm,Sigma 70-300mm, Sigma 50-500mm

Nice Woodies KPR

Wolf, when you do the dry suit you need to bring someone along to take pictures of YOU....ha ha!

2 first time shots for me Cinnamon Teal are pretty hard to find around here



I believe these are Horned Grebes? I have never seen them around here, unfortunately it was snowing pretty hard.

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LMAO I'll do that Kev for sure ... Love the cinnamon teal... never seen one before. Those are eared grebes... I've been trying to get close to 2 that last 2 days with no luck.... today was actually my first day that I came home without a single image. I was missing everything until it flushed... just wasnt focused today at all. Still a great day out though.. Seen a massive flock of sandhill cranes flying over and a really cool goose fight.

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Went for a long drive today (380 km) and on my way home, in the distance, I noticed a massive flock of Snow Geese so I turned to find them. They were at least 5km off. I would guees there were easily 7000+ birds in this flock. I drove over a small hill and there they were right in front of me in a flooded field. Naturally they took off and not even having stopped the car picked up the camera and got a few shots before I had to drop the camera to stop from going in the ditch .

This is the best I could do... it gives no perspective to the massive size of the flock though as my second body with the 24-105 on it still had the lens cap on it and the only thing I had ready was the 100-400.

Not a great pic at all as the sun was in the 5 o'clock position and I was going about 30km per hour but I was pleasently surprised with the content when I downloaded it. In it you see Mallards in the bottom right, Pintails in the top right... both Snow Geese as well as 1 Blue Morph Snow Goose and in the bottom center are 2 Tundra Swans. There is a 3rd exciting the pic far right.

If you look closely along the far shore in the water.. Those are all Snow Geese. They packed the entire shorline right up to where these were taking off and also on the other side of the road to the left of the pic. This was by far the largest flock I have ever seen... just wish I could have got a perspective shot. They ended up settling down along the far shore but there was no access to get into a shooting position. I drove a complete square around them hoping to get close but no roads did. I thought about walking it but the fields were too flooded.

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Ducklings!!! These were 2 of 18(!) swarming around one female mallard.


Cygnets!!! Two barely visible here. I didn't actually notice them at the time and only saw them when looking through the photos at home. I'll have to try again tomorrow.


While here, have another big coot, little coot too.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
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Awesome Popo! I've been looking for babies for the past week with no luck, my mom called and told me she spotted some last night so I know it's time.

I've never seen a baby coot......only a face a mother could love? lol

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Broke out the big guns today. Think everything here was taken at 600mm, no cropping.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

absolutely love the first one popo.

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This is by far the closest I have ever managed to get to Tundra Swans... lucked out... there were about 25 in this flock. When I was up in the Arctic we couldn't get within 700 meters of these guys.

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Got out to Last Mountain Lake today... the national wildlife area on the north end where I go was the first bird sanctuary set up in north america.





it was really windy out there today... thought this was kinda cool... goose feather caught on a thistle.

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Last Tuesday I drove out to Last Mountain Lake and when I got there 1 road was closed due to flooding and another section of the reserve was closed cause they were doing controled burns of the grasslands... drove 300+ kilometers not knowing it was all but closed down... it was supposed to be sunny today so I decided to drive out to the Wadena wetlands but it was cloudy the entire day... not to mention when I got there the access road was closed due to flooding... this was a 600+ kilometer outing.... 1000+ kilometers within 5 days to 2 areas which had no access

Did manage a few shots though....

Coot...



Greater White-fronted Geese mixed in with some Canada Geese... when I first moved here I never seen any of these... seeing more and more these days...



This was really cool... seen this flock on the way out but it was raining so didnt bother... they were still there on the way home so I stopped... was about a 1 km walk to get close and when I approached I noticed 2 researchers watching them so I stopped for a chat.... they had been following this flock since it crossed into Canada. They said it consisted of 40,000+ birds You usually only see flocks this size in the fall... Any 1 of the pics below shows about 1/6 of the entire flock... impressive to say the least and I actually had the right lens this time but still couldnt capture the entire flock.

This is how I found them...



The researchers said they had been spooked several times throughout the day and returned so told me to go for it as they would be bedding there for the night anyways due to the time of day and the feed available....







I need to go back to this area as soon as it is nice out as there should be some amazing shots... its beautiful prairie country.

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

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