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At the end of every year, I always enjoy going through my photos and picking some of my favorites. It’s a fun exercise. And I inevitably end up finding some photos that I may not have thought much of at the time, but I really like now. Or sometimes, photos that I just plain missed on the first pass through. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to try it. I think you’ll really enjoy the process.

A New Online Gallery

I realize a blog isn’t the best place for photos. So I have a gallery (hosted on Slickpic) where you can view them, as well as all of their settings if you’d like (click the little i icon in the top right and look for “photo details”). Plus, I shared a bunch of other photos that didn’t make the blog in there too.

Here’s the link to the gallery.

Also, Slickpic has given me a link to share in case you want to use them for your portfolio. It’s a lifetime 40% off discount on their most popular plan (and they’ll even design it for you). Click here for more info.

No Landscapes?… Really!… None!

This may be the first year that I didn’t take one landscape photo. Not one! Can you believe it? It’s so weird for me to say that. But I looked through my Lightroom library and in the “Filter” area you can see what lenses you’ve used. I selected all of my 2021 folders and not one of them had a wide angle lens. Every photo was taken with the zoom lenses I mention below. Crazy huh?

I can’t say that I’m doing it on purpose. I know the current times have kept many people at home and I totally understand that decision or requirement for some. But for me, I’ll travel where ever at this point, so I can’t blame anything for me not taking landscape photos, other than I simply haven’t had the desire.

Plus, I live within 1-2 hours of world famous amazing bird photography locations. I’ve always loved living in Florida for many reasons. But as a landscape photographer it meant I had to travel a lot. Now living here is paying off big time in my photography 🙂

But in general I don’t travel like I used to back in my Kelby-employment days so getting to landscape locations means I need to go out of my way. And that’s okay… I’m home much more. And while I really enjoy photography, I love running my training and educational online business and that keeps me busy 110% of the time. All in all, I’m a much happier person than I was back in the early 2010’s when I was chasing the next photo all of the time and trying to compete with everyone around me.

The Gear and Settings

Most photos were taken with the following equipment, so I’m not going to mention it for each shot. I’m a Sony Artisan of Imagery (it’s Sony’s ambassador program), so I use all Sony equipment (I have since 2014). You can always see more on my Gear page as well.

Camera Bodies: Almost all photos were taken with my Sony Alpha 1 which arrived in late February 2021. It is by far the most amazing wildlife camera I’ve ever held in my hands. I feel like I’m cheating and have a smile on my face every time I use it.

Lenses: The Sony 200-600mm is what was on my camera 75% of the time. I also shot with the Sony 100-400mm and 600mm prime at times.

While I shoot mostly hand held, I do use a monopod at times with a FlexShooter Pro gimbal-like ballhead. I love it when I use it but again, I do shoot handheld at least 90% of the time.

Post Processing

All photos were edited in Lightroom, and some in Photoshop where needed. Just about every bird photo you see also makes a quick visit to Topaz DeNoise if the ISO was high. If not, I generally run them through Topaz Sharpen AI. But that’s a very small percentage of them so just assume that each was edited in Lightroom / Photoshop and had DeNoise applied to it.

Also, I think Topaz still has some holiday sales going on. Please use my link if you decide to purchase and you can also use the code “Mattk15” to save an extra 15% on their prices.

And Now…My Favorite Photos of 2021

Okay, here goes. Here’s my favorite photos of 2021. Captions and descriptions are BELOW each photo if you’d like to read more.

Also, I realize a blog isn’t the best place for photos. So I have a gallery (hosted on Slickpic) where you can view them, as well as all of their settings if you’d like (click the little “i” icon in the top right and look for “photo details”). Here’s the link for the gallery. Plus, I shared a bunch of other photos, that didn’t make the this blog post, in there too.

I love takeoff shots. This is a juvenile bald eagle. I’m always looking and waiting for birds to take off because it shows some really interesting action and often more dynamic positions than just flying or sitting on a perch.
Location: Seabeck in Washington State
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 5000 | 1/3200th sec.

This one keeps sticking with me as one of my favorites. I love the soft light, the pastel colors and muted color pallet of this photo. Plus that blurry background really helps the bird stand out.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1250 | 1/1600th sec.

Another top favorite of mine. These Reddish Egrets aren’t hard to find around here, but getting them moving around in great light and in a good place with a nice clean background, isn’t always easy. I have thousands of photos of them from 2021, but most are with busy backgrounds or an hour later, where the light is harsh. But the light here is perfect to show off their colors!
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/4000th sec.

This one wins a special place for me since it was the first time I’d ever photographed an owl in flight.
Location: Gainesville, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

Ospreys are such amazing birds. I’m lucky because there are plenty of them around here so I get to photograph them often. I really like the first warm light of the day on this one.
Location: Tampa, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

Looks like a mean bird, but I liked the motion of the ruffled feathers in this shot.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 100-400mm | f/6.3 | ISO 2500 | 1/2500 sec.

Looks like the Osprey is holding out his wings as in “I give up… you got me!”
Location: Blue Cypress Lake, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

This was a year of firsts for me. I hate snakes… hate ’em. I’ve been teaching workshops in Costa Rica for 6 years and one of our stops is to photograph them and I politely make an excuse that I have to sew a hole in my sock or something, to leave the group, and go somewhere else (some fearless workshop leader huh?). But this year, I took the plunge and photographed it. Don’t ask me what kind it is because I’m still trying to get past answering it with “Hopefully the dead kind”, but baby steps right? 😉
PS: I am currently not planning any new workshops right now.
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/800 sec.

Got lucky on this one with two eagles battling it out in the air. You can see part of the fish in the bottom eagle’s talon on the left.
Location: Seabeck, WA
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 600mm | f/5.6 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

I’ve really been working on “bird-scapes” lately. You know when you include the bird with some landscape around it. I got down on the ground, positioned myself behind the grass here, and waited for this one to take off so I could include some action as well as foreground.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

I waiting for this in the scorching heat for about 30 minutes but I knew the takeoff shot would be fantastic. Click here to see the full story on my “Bird” blog.
Location: Clearwater, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 500 | 1/4000th sec.

The natural framing elements in this photo are what drew me to include it.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 600mm | f/4 | ISO 2000 | 1/3200th sec.

I love the colorful Macaws and the angles that this photo captured.
Location: Costa Rica
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 600mm | f/4 | ISO 2000 | 1/3200th sec.

The warm light on this duck with the action and motion of the out stretched wings make this one a keeper for me.
Location: Blue Cypress Lake, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

How do you not include a beautiful, razor sharp, outstretched winged, with perfect blue sky Eagle shot as a favorite? I know it’s just a bird in the air, but I still love these shots and still point my camera at them every time it happens even though I have about 1000 photos of it 🙂
Location: Gainesville, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 2500 | 1/2500th sec.

Shots like this are very lucky in many ways. Sure, I had to be in the right spot with the right settings to capture the action. But after you get your camera setup correctly, that part isn’t that hard. The luck comes in with focus. All of those water drops usually throw the camera off. There’s absolutely NOTHING you can do to stop this because it happens so fast it’s impossible to react. So whenever there’s a splash of sorts in the photo, and the bird’s eyes are razor sharp, I know that luck had a bit to do with it as well.
Location: Tampa, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

This was a photo I took while at Carl Ackerman’s “The Nut House”. It’s a wonderful blind that Carl built in his backyard in South Carolina.
Location: Carl Ackerman’s “The Nut House”
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

One of my favorite squirrel monkey captures from my trip to Costa Rica in June.
PS: For those that have asked, I’m currently not planning any workshops in the coming year.
Location: Costa Rica
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 600mm | f/4 | ISO 2000 | 1/3200th sec.

I took this one from my kayak in the bay waters of Tampa. I just loved the bokeh and the position of the bird with the splash.
Location: Tampa, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 640 | 1/3200th sec.

I know it’s just an eagle sitting there, but the color, foreground / background and position of the eagle made this a keeper for me. Another top favorite of mine. The Reddish Egrets are not hard to find, but getting them moving around in good light and in a good place with a clean background isn’t always easy. I have thousands of photos of them from 2021, but it’s usually an hour later where the light is more harsh. But the light here is perfect!
Location: Seabeck, WA
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

I love action shots of Osprey pulling out fish from the water. The splashes and motion always make for a great photo.
Location: Tampa, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

This is a photo of a laughing falcon while I was in Costa Rica. It was so far off, through the trees, that I’m not sure how our guide even saw it but I’m glad he did. I had never seen one before and without a long lens I probably never would have.
Location: Costa Rica
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 600mm | f/4 | ISO 4000 | 1/1250th sec.

Again… how do you not include a shot of an eagle grabbing a fish from the water. Enough said! 😉
Location: Gainesville, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

I’m always trying to get down low so that the backgrounds get smoother and you really draw attention to the bird.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

I really liked the water droplet and golden color on the water in this photo. Plus the edge light around the top right of the bird while in front of the dark background helped set it apart.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 200-600mm | f/6.3 | ISO 1600 | 1/3200th sec.

A Wimbral getting ready to take off.
Location: Ft. Desoto Park, FL
Settings: Sony Alpha 1 with 600mm | f/5.6 | ISO 800 | 1/3200th sec.

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