For our second newsletter, we’ll travel into the New Jersey Pine Barrens to photograph Tundra Swans. These visitors from the Arctic are exciting to observe and an even bigger challenge to photograph. The Swans can weigh up to 23 pounds and can have a wingspan of 5 ½ feet. They feed on the aquatic red root plant that grows in the cranberry bogs and the late Bill Haines felt the clean waters of the pine barrens is what attracts them each winter. They can be spotted in the numerous cranberry bogs and ponds in the pine barrens but its at Whitesbog where they are most numerous with populations as high as 400 in some winters. They generally arrive in November and can stay as late as early March.
The Tundras are good swimmers and very shy and that presents the challenge for the photographer. When approached by automobile or especially on foot, the swans swim away from the approaching photographer to the safety of the middle of the pond or bog. To get a quality frame filling image of the swans requires a little luck, a lot of planning and a long lens.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that on and off for over 20 years the swans foiled every attempt I made to photograph them. I kept telling myself, as I do on many of my photo projects, “if it was easy, anyone could do it”. My first plan was to camouflage a 10 foot john boat and anchor it in the middle of one of the ponds at Whitesbog at 4:00am before the birds started stirring at sunrise. This didn’t fool them at all so it was off to plan number two. I built a photo blind on the far bank of one of the ponds and placed 6 goose decoys that I had painted white in front of the blind, again to no avail. Did I mention they are also very smart in addition to being wary.
Success only came with a little luck. Late one winter afternoon I decided to drive through Whitesbog to see if the Tundras were still around. The bogs were covered by skim ice except for a 50x100’ opening not 30 yards from a dike, and at least 50 swans were feeding and swimming in this opening. I drove an hour home to get my Len Rue Photo Blind and drove back to the bog and put the blind up in the dark. I parked my truck a couple of hundred yards from the dike, was careful not to make too much noise putting up the blind and didn’t use a flashlight. I placed the blind where I knew I could get close up shots of the birds in the morning. I was concerned I would be shooting into the morning sun but had no choice.
The temperature at 4:30am when I got into the blind was 6 degrees so I brought along a couple of sterno cans to keep me (and my camera batteries) warm in the blind, they are a life saver for situations like this. Just before dawn I could hear the birds stirring and an occasional bird would take off. My fear was the entire flock would leave before there was enough light to shoot, but they didn’t. The Tundras are so large it takes a lot of runway for them to get airborne, and the flapping of their feet as they run on the water sounds like someone trying to start an outboard motor.
In the early light of dawn I metered directly off of the white birds with a Nikon 500mm f4 lens and opened up 1 stop. Because of the low morning light I upped the ISO to 400 to insure I had enough speed to freeze motion and to get up to 7 frames per second out of my motor drive. I got some shots of individual birds taking off and then it happened., the moment I’ve been waiting for 20 years! The entire flock started moving around and calling excitedly, the noise was deafening. Around 25 birds started taking off at the same time, all running on the water trying to get aloft. I focused on the lead bird/birds and kept my finger on the shutter listening to the motor drive humming. Pretty exciting stuff! One of those moments that keep us nature photographers up at 4:00am and sitting for hours in a photo blind in 6 degree weather.
The photo I liked best I put into a panorama format just to portray the scope of the event and the effort the swans exert to get off of the water. As you can see shooting into the sun wasn’t a problem and the backlight through the birds wings added a nice effect (again, a little luck). Also, even with the high ISO there is still some movement in the wings, but that adds to the pandemonium of the whole scene.
I read once there is generally one best place to photograph a particular species of wildlife. This is particularly true of the Tundra Swans and Whitesbog, all you need is a little knowledge of your subject, some preparation, patience and yes, luck. The great football coach Vince Lombardi once said “the more we prepare the luckier we get”, the same with nature photography, the more time I spend in the field the luckier I get.
