Livli Productions

Y’all voted and these are the top three photos I captured during February 2023! The first one is a composite of the waxing crescent moon and Neptune. The second photo is of a Barred Owl I stumbled upon while driving around on base and the third is of a wild pony along the Assateague National Seashore. Thanks for voting!

Let’s talk for a moment about the patience and planning it takes to get a photograph like this one. The planning that takes place looks something like this; figuring out time of year and location of the Milky Way, knowing the moon phases, knowing areas with the least light pollution and if there are any meteor showers taking place. These are just a few things. Obviously, the resulting exposure for this photograph resulted in light visibility of the Milky Way, can you spot it? The full moon made it hard to capture the night sky and the Perseids Meteor Shower, but it illuminated the foreground beautifully for it being nearly midnight. Because of the moons intensity and a failure to plan out my composition it took me over 300 shots and 2.5 hours to finally capture a shooting star. I did see 8 in that time frame, but they always decided to “show up” in the middle of me changing compositions. This is by no means a perfect shot. In my opinion though is tells a lot about that night and time of year up on top of Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park.

Humming birds are one of the hardest animals I’ve ever attempted to photograph. Luckily, this past weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to be surrounded by them.

This is a female Rufous Hummingbird. How can we tell? Her rufous-washed flanks, green tail with rufous-patches and you can’t see it in this photo, but she has an orange dot on her neck.

These .1-.2 ounce birds are incredibly uncommon in Maryland, but can be found at higher elevations. They’re often found in fall and winter and arrive from West of the Mississippi. Don’t try to go after it’s food because these tiny birds will fight other hummingbirds up to twice their size.

I spent 4 hours photographing this owl and one other barred owl. The name of the game with wildlife photography is patience. Patiently watching and learning an animals mannerisms, expressions, how comfortable they are with you, chasing them every time they move, composing the shot, sitting their with your eye on the viewfinder until you get the shot and more.

There’s a lot that goes into documenting these moments I bring to you all. If you’re looking to get into wildlife Photography the best advice I can give you is to build your patience and go into the wilderness with a curious mind.

It was a short trip this past weekend in Shenandoah, but it was worth it for this double rainbow and those golden hour colors.

Camera: Canon 1DXMKii
Lens: Sigma 150-600mm Sport