High Humidity Haunts

I relish the photos I have been able to capture of different landscapes and creatures since moving to Colorado. The prairie dogs, pronghorns, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and longspur birds found in high altitudes with low humidity were not my normal subjects when based in Pensacola FL. But when I returned to my car with a sweat-soaked shirt after a hike along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, it seemed as if I had done more to earn a good shot than I do after a comparable walk in low humidity. The humidity does seem to usurp all available ergs from the body in a short time period.

I have just returned from a trip to Pensacola to visit friends there. I stopped at some of my high humidity haunts in Louisiana on the drive to FL and at some of my high humidity haunts on the Bolivar Peninsula in TX on the drive back to Colorado. The photos of Purple Gallinule found below were taken at Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana.


Nikon D500 with 500mm f/4 lens
1/2500 sec at f/5, ISO 1100


Nikon D500 with 500mm f/4 lens
1/1250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 3200


Nikon D500 with 500mm f/4 lens
1/1250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 500


Nikon D500 with 500mm f/4 lens
1/1250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1000


Nikon D500 with 500mm f/4 lens
1/1250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1000


Nikon D500 with 500mm f/4 lens
1/1250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1000

David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.