Last weekend Gabi and I drove down to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge (map) to explore this beautiful conservation area along the coast of Texas. It’s a little far from Houston, however, it seems to be a perfect place for bird photography. There are many dirt roads in the reserve so you can be very close to wildlife without disturbing them, since animals are usually not skittish with cars. If you drive slowly in an area like this refuge, your vehicle makes a perfect photo blind. I took that opportunity on this trip and shot lots of bird photos from my car window, mainly of white ibises. The results are not bad and it was really fun, but to be honest this is not my favorite type of photography. The problem of photographing from a car window is usually the too high point of view. It’s not a big deal if you are photographing large birds from a decent distance, but it’s impossible to get close to eye level with small birds. That’s why I decided to get out of my car when I spotted this willet (Tringa semipalmata) on the shore of Salt Lake. It was late afternoon, in the middle of the “golden hour period” and the light was beautiful. I carefully crawled as close to the bird as I could and chose to take this close portrait shot from ground level to get blurry fore- and background.

Gear: Canon EOS 7D, Canon 300mm F/4 lens + Canon 1.4x extender, handheld