I spent a lot of time over the course of several years photographing in the “Secret Bird Pond” in the Great Trinity Forest. It is a wondrous little ephemeral pond that attracts all kinds of birds and other wildlife.

Much of the time I have photographed there in a floating blind I made many years ago. It is nothing more than a modified fly fishing float tube with a platform to support a camera and a top to keep anything from seeing you. The beauty of it is that you can move around with few birds or animals even noticing you are there. I have gotten mere feet from all kinds of birds, snakes, alligators and more.

Here is an image of my view from inside the floating blind.

Canon camera in floating blind, "Secret Bird Pond" near Trinity River Audubon Center, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas, USA.

Canon camera in floating blind, “Secret Bird Pond” near Trinity River Audubon Center, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas, USA.

And the image I just shot while in the blind of an Eastern Phoebe, spotlit in bright light next with a shadowed background.

Eastern phoebe, "Secret Bird Pond" near Trinity River Audubon Center, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas, USA.

Eastern phoebe, “Secret Bird Pond” near Trinity River Audubon Center, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas, USA. Canon 1D III. 1000mm. ISO 800. F16 @250 second.

The bright light and great distance from the bird to the background allowed me to even shoot the image at f/16 to try and get all the feathers sharp. It worked!

In my next few posts, I will tell some  more floating blind stories.