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Showing posts with the label bird

Another Old Image From The Archives

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The other night went scrolling through an old hard drive of image files.  I came across a folder of bird photos from when I was testing my new little Sony a6000 camera three or four years ago.  I scrolled through the entire folder before realizing it was difficult to choose just one photo so I simply went back to the first photo in the folder.  There are a few things to point out about this particular photo: 1.  Song birds...  in this case, a Dark Eyed Junko...  flit around quickly, unexpectedly jumping from branch to branch so they are difficult to capture even when seemingly statically perched on a branch.  These birds are never static even if they appear that way in a still photo. 2.  Getting a camera to focus on something jumping around quickly and taking flight unexpectedly every couple of seconds is difficult enough but having to focus on this bird when it is hiding behind twigs, leaves and branches is even more difficult.  The camera often will focus only on the neare

Tripod Test

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In addition to using a tripod for these shots, I also used a small flash which can be seen reflecting in the eyes of this tiny birds. I've been wanting to try using a tripod when shooting birds over the past couple of days but the birds around the house disappeared for a few days while we had a hawk in the area. My tripod and camera sat in front of the kitchen window waiting for some birds to return so I could attempt to shoot while using a tripod. This afternoon we had a few very skittish birds out there so today was my first chance at giving this a quick whirl. I only spent about ten minutes testing what it is like to shoot with a tripod but I came away from this short practice session feeling that using a tripod for bird photography is the way to go! The tripod allowed me to shed the weight of the camera which is a tremendous help for my spinal injuries. The tripod also kept the camera rock steady. I should also point out that my spinal injuries are so severe that hand

Snow and Sleet

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This morning we awoke to some snow on the ground which is highly unusual this winter. There was only an inch or two of snow out there but it was nice seeing everything covered in fresh snow for a change. Other than quite a few patches of very slick ice, our landscape has been far from winter white! By 8am, the snow had turned to sleet and, unfortunately, it is raining out there now. Actually, it is pouring rain out there now... 32 degrees and pouring rain... fun.  While everything was clean and white outside, I decided to grab a camera and shoot some photos out our living room window. I limited myself to using my longest lens (just like yesterday while I attempted to get my first bird photo of this year) but I used a different camera body than yesterday. I chose another old, cheap camera (freebies because they are so old) just like yesterday but this one is so tiny it is difficult to hold steadily. I managed to capture a few decent photos though. I think it is supposed to cont

Still Practicing Photo Development

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My health crashed again last night due to some typical Systemic Mastocytosis issues affecting my blood pressure and gastrointestinal tract so I had to take some emergency medications to help stabilize my body.  Today I am recovering. One of the emergency medications I had to take makes me extremely drowsy so I must recover from this drowsiness and avoid all potentially dangerous activities such as using power tools and driving because this drowsiness also affects my cognitive abilities (of course, my mast cell issues also affect my cognitive abilites). I also need some time for the medication to balance out my body allowing my health to recover. On days such as today (and I have far too many of them which is why you are seeing a flurry of blog entries lately) , I try to indulge in some art therapy by working on photos... sometimes painting... sometimes working on model railroading models. Today, I chose to work on some photos. As I mentioned yesterday in a blog post, I am trying

Lost Photo

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Sometimes...  hmmm...  actually, quite often...  I forget about some photos I shot and they get lost on one of my many hard drives full of photos.  Then, on nights like tonight when I find myself scrolling through photos on my drives, I come across a really nice photo. Tonight I came across this photo, above, which I shot during the summer of 2012.  I shot this photo through our open kitchen window.  Our neighbors have a few bird feeders in their yard so we usually have birds feeding outside our windows facing our neighbor's home.  The problem is opening the window slowly enough and quietly enough so that I don't scare away the birds. Capturing good photographs of birds is tough.  It is especially tough with smaller birds like this one.  Even larger birds such as swans, geese and ducks can be difficult to capture.  Smaller birds can be extremely difficult. Getting close to these birds is almost impossible so that means you must arm yourself with a big, long lens.