My trip on the Skimmer --Salt Marsh Safari

As EdMac already posted, we had a fun time this past weekend on the Skimmer salt-marsh cruise out of Cape May, NJ. The captain had talked me into taking the evening cruise because the tides would be best; but as we found, the light was rapidly sinking and for photography, a morning trip would have been better. Still, we got some great looks at nesting terns and gulls and of course the ubiquitous ospreys. As Ed indicated, taking photos on a bouncing boat with fading light is a challenge, even for a VR lens!

I only got a few shots worth noting. Here are a couple of a Laughing Gull with their cute babies. The gulls are used to people here (they take handouts at the beach!) so let you get quite close.

These two with D100, 80-400VR handheld with fill flash--ISO 500





I'm almost embarrased to post the ospreys after the great shots we've seen here from those Florida folks--but what the heck. I like the look on their faces.



This last one isn't a bird (although there is a bird in it.) I made the BIG mistake of trying out Ed's 70-200VR lens. Wow! He was lucky I gave it back to him. Its a lot lighter and smaller than I'd thought it would be. This is just a grab shot, but I liked it (sky color enhanced in post). 1/1000, F5.6, ISO 200



All in all a good time was had!