Bird & Wildlife Photography: Getting Creative in Wakodahatchee Wetland

Dec 7

I recently spent some time at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida. This is a constructed 50 acre wetland that is located on the site of a previous wastewater treatment facility. A 3/4 mile long boardwalk provides access into the heart of this place, and brings you through open water and forested areas and everything in between. Each day, the Southern Region Water Reclamation Facility pumps approximately two million gallons of highly treated wastewater into the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, which in turn acts as a percolation pond, returning billions of gallons of fresh water back into the water table.

Flight Paths

The bird life was incredible, and I really enjoyed stepping into another genre of photography. I was able to experience the pre-dawn mass flight of the white ibis (Eudocimus albus) from their roost in the interior of the wetland out into other areas for the day. This was magical and awe-inspiring, and I was able to make some really interesting images showing the flight paths of these beautiful and elegant birds. I used a slow shutter (1/15sec) to render the birds in motion, with elegant, arcing shapes that capture their graceful movements. By setting my camera to very high shutter release speed, when the birds took flight I just pressed and held down the shutter release to shoot a sequence of many images. Each final image below is comprised of about 25-35 images. I used Photoshop to combine the images (Edit -> Auto Blend Layers), and Lightroom to make further adjustments to tone, brightness, etc. Below I show my first and second attempts at this technique.

Second attempt at capturing flight paths… I like this one best!

Birds Reflected

Though it wasn’t a conscious choice in the moment, I did find upon reviewing my images that I had an overall theme and quite a few successful images of birds reflected in the waters of the wetlands. I love this alternative approach to photographing the birds in their beautiful setting, with the distortions providing a dreamy, ethereal feel to the images. I did find that lots of people that walked past me followed my lens and wondered what on earth I was shooting down there in the water… Many folks just don’t even notice reflections, sadly, but with a trained eye and careful observation, this is a wonderful way to see and appreciate nature’s beauty.