Spring 2021 is getting here. Rain instead of snow. A warmer cold instead of a colder cold. For sure, I'll take anything at this point. Feels like a super long winter. Like all of 2020 was winter. Today was nice sunshine in mid-Michigan, very little wind. On the ground was a lot of standing water. The rainfall over the past 24 hours had no where to go. When walking, you can still feel the frozen ground layer less than an inch below the surface. No mono-pod work today. On the positive side, my boots from the last two weekend hikes were cleaned. Important stuff. The boots can come inside the house now, the banishment to the garage being lifted.
Along with the nice sunshine that greeted me at For-Mar, noise filled the air. Sure a lot of the noise was the Canadians (Geese), but others in the park were clearing their throats as well. I was expecting a good day. Something more than the Canadian Geese and squirrels. And with any luck, by the end of the day I'll have to look up the name of a new to me bird.
The primary unit today was the D850/70-200 , backed up by the D500/200-500. Over the winter I had purchased CPLs for the new lenses. I wanted to try them out and there was certainly enough sunlight to drive the CPL on the 70-200 today. Not sure if I will get one for the 200-500 as it is pretty expensive, but we'll see what the difference was to day between the two sets of photos. With that said. the best shots for the day were from the secondary unit. That big lens trumps just about everything when looking for small birds. Other 'improvements' for the day. Go with a slower shutter speed. I didn't need to be close to 1/2000. I should be shooting in that area for the 2X focal length rule, somewhere around 1/1500th. Trying to dial it back a bit so I don't have to rely on software as much to clean up the shot. My targets for the day were going to be pretty much stationary birds, not much speed needed there.
One of the new birds for me today was a pair of Hooded Mergansers. A male and female pair. You would be correct is stating that I couldn't describe this bird 24 hours ago. Truth is, I've seen other photos of these birds before. Still didn't know the name. And I've read that they are all over Michigan. So today when I was walking around one of the ponds, I saw something small on the water. When I focused in, it turned into the good news/bad news scenario. Good news, I see one of these birds on the water. Bad news - don't screw up the photos. No pressure.
Those colors are fantastic. Black, White, Gold eye with black dot. Copper/gray. Wow. Add a little water reflection.
Very cool to know where to find these. There was another pair on the pond at the same time. Something to look for next time out.
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