You have to work for it.

I always think to myself that you have to work for it, if you want your images to look 'better' than a phone camera or a family vacation picture.
I went to the Refuge this morning in time to see the sunrise.  I left the house around 5:30 AM.  On a Saturday.  Working for it.
Although I didn't come back with the usual number of good photographs that I usually get, I saw some excellent sights.  Sometimes you just have to remove the camera from the line of sight.  And then you also get some good shots that would not be available 60, or 30, or even 15 minutes later.
Time moves fast, when the sun moves fast.  And I did get a few 'keepers'.
But as early as I was today, I have a long way to go.

That guy is working for it.  I have a long way to go.  And to be sure, I'm looking forward to the journey.

Morning Pelican Flight

A few months ago, I lamented that I had no Pelican bird images.  During my few days in South Carolina earlier this year, my host for the week made sure I had plenty of Pelican shots to take home.  Host of the Year stuff, that is.
As I read about Pelicans, there are only a few species in North America.  There is the Brown Pelican, which I saw plenty of in South Carolina, seen here.  There is the 9th MAS Pelican, which is more of a fraternity based in Delaware, but known to travel worldwide.

And there is the Great White Pelican, with a habitat area that includes Michigan.  And this a bird sighted in the Refuge.
I didn't see any of these birds at the Refuge last year.  I had seen them listed on the published bird sighted list, so I knew they were around.  And this year I can say they are plentiful.  
In the Refuge, the Pelicans don't have any photography friendly places close to a point I can use to take pictures that I've found yet.  I have some far off group photos, but nothing great.
Until today.  I went to the Refuge in time to see the sunrise.  I expected nothing great photo-wise, but wanted to see the sights.  It was beautiful.  I was trying to get to a specific point where the sun would be to my back, but didn't get there in time.  I saw this young juvenile Eagle in a small dead tree right next to the road.  Seriously, the tree was less than ten feet from the road, the the Eagle was about 10 feet up.  That's close.  As the truck crept by, the Eagle didn't move.  I passed the tree and went up the road about 20 feet, and then got out very, very slowly.  I have some good pictures of the Eagle.  Not quite in morning light, but close.
Back to the Pelicans.
As I was getting ready to move back to the truck, this flying Pelican formation came at me.  Usually this short notice opportunity is a recipe for disaster on my part in that because I shoot mostly in manual mode, something will go wrong.  But it didn't, I didn't miss this shot.
Originally, after doing some post processing, I thought I had messed up the pelican's wings.  Because it was mostly dark and I was shooting at a higher ISO, I thought I had flat black pixels under the bird's wings.  All the wings.  I thought, there was my disaster.
Turns out the Pelicans do have a black color component on the wings and this is normal.  I learned something today.
This is my lucky shot of the morning flight of a group of Great White Pelicans.

Morning Pelican Flight

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

450 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000 (AUTO)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

For me there's a log going on here past the Pelicans.  The mist off the water is pretty cool and the sunlight on the birds is fairly interesting.  I thought about cropping it closer, but I didn't want to lose too much of the greens, mist or sky.
Note:  I did warm up the image a bit, the camera had it on the cool side.  Cheating, I think not.

Thunderbirds and an Eagle - You're Never Alone

Time to get my Airshow on.
I'm not quite ready to get my full Airshow on, as there is a weekend coming up and I'm sure to find my way to the Refuge for a few hours.  But it is getting close.
So I started to think of something different.  What if.....
I've got the Eagle pictures.  I've got the aircraft pictures.  This should work.
The Eagle picture is from earlier this year.  It is quite small in the picture, but in reality it doesn't need to be perfect.  The background sky is close to the cloudless sky of the Thunderbirds, so should be close anyway.  
The Thunderbird picture is from this post.
The rest is just Photoshop.
The hard part was the decision on how large the Eagle and the opacity.  And what would you call this?
This was clearly a departure for me.  A little growth.  A little fun.  

And then I thought - how would the paint look?

I'm going with the non=painted version for the screen saver collection.  Until I change my mind.

Blue Heron and Purple Flower

Seem to me that last year, my images of the Blue Herons were kinda dull?  The bird was blue.  I'd look on line and see lots of colors that these birds were supposed to have.  Was the color lost in Michigan?  So far this year, I am happy to report, the colors are on the birds.  We can chalk it up to I didn't have a clue how to work the device between me and the bird.  I'm OK with that.
This year, seems I'm capturing more definition and color of the birds.  The one image of a Heron standing in the post Great Blue Herons got me going this year.  I started seeing colors.  So very cool.
In this image, the colors are so - there.  No post processing saturation needed.  Pretty much out of the camera.  OK - there are a few PP steps, but not much with the color.
The colors got me with this.  First, I'm usually not this lucky with the water.  Water I find is usually grey, due to overcast.  Of it if is clear, there is some shade of funky blue cause by the sun's reflection.  Not so here,   Great shade of blue.  The green in the sunlight is a different shade than when I get direct overhead light.  And I don't see much of the purple(?) colors in the Refuge.
So all together, this works for me.

Blue Heron and Purple Flower

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 220 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3

Eagle on the Dike (And the rest of the story)

This year's opening of the auto drive around the perimeter of the Refuge was delayed by a few weeks due to a 'project' that was in weather delay.  From what I can tell, there is an effort to increase the wetlands all around.  This means adding more dikes to keep the water in.  And to be sure, there is more water in the area this year.
One of the new dikes parallels the auto drive.  I saw this Eagle landing from a distance and 'crawled' the truck into position.  This image was taken from the truck.  When I got out, very slowly, the Eagle took off.  Not shown close by is a dead fish, I assumed it was for the Eagle's lunch.  I hung around for a while, but the bird did not return.  On my second lap, probably 90 minutes later, there were three juveniles at the dead fish.  My uneducated guess is that there was some dinner training going on.  Ain't nature grand?

Eagle Standing on the Dike

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 280 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3

This is cropped fairly aggressively.  To me, the story behind it makes up for whatever it lacks technically.  Looks good on the small screens.

Juvenile Eagle Banking

When I go out to the Refuge, I plan on spending three to four hours there.  The earlier the better.  Anyway, just doing one loop of the auto tour just isn't enough.  It seems to alternate on which loop generates the best 'scenery'.  I've also been going out there enough that time starts to slow down a bit in that I can take in more options.  My first few trips out there I'd come home with 300+ images.  Now, less than 50.  But those 50 are much better or more interesting.  I still miss on the focus on a few, but my hit rate is OK.  The first sets of shots were all pretty easy.  Bird standing still.  Now, I'm looking for the flight action.  And I miss on the focus a bit more.
I'm also getting more comfortable with the 1.3 size option - which essentially cuts down the visual angle to the same as 600 mm.  It's the math.  But there is a price paid in that the pixel count is decreased.  But that's OK - there's software.  However, the margin of error in focus is a lot less when using the 1.3 size.  But if I get it right, I can work with it.
And when it all comes together, you get this.
Side note: The titling of images is not easy.  To a lot of people, the title of Eagle Banking might conjure up an image of an Eagle in line at their bank.  To aviators, you'd get the image of an Eagle in flight, making a slight turn.  This is the aviator take.

Juvenile Eagle Banking

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 125 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3

That will be a good screen saver.

Genesee County Fair

The Genesee County Fair is ending this weekend.  I've been living here over twenty years, maybe I should go?
The big deal on Friday night was a demolition derby.  How much fun could that be?  Certainly enough to get me to go.
The short story is I never made it to the derby.  The reasons are many and not worth re-living.  But I was going to make lemonade.
I did walk around the 'farm' stuff.  That is so interesting, and the pre-adult involvement is just awesome.
But where I did spend my time, unless you know my past, could be seen as quite odd.  I was watching the 'pro' wrestling.  Fantastic.
I have a long history with pro wresting.  I've been to many events.  Big and not so big.  As a kid, I thought Superstar Billy Graham was the largest thing I'd ever seen.  When I was stationed in Lubbock, TX, in the 80's one of the off shoots of the TV shows would show up on the third Thursday of the month.  I was there all the time.  I shot pool with/against some of the Von Erich boys.  Not that I was special, they invited everyone.  Ha.  We had a small group that went all the time and all I'll say is I was not the designated driver.  Never.  Once, I hit one of the wrestlers with a flash from a SunPak.  His story line was he didn't like flashs.  He chased me through the stands (about 10 steps).  We were howling.
But in the end, I learned all I needed to know about wresting from those adventures.  I watched Ric Flair and the Great Kabuki go at it for an hour.  Solid.  No long counts.  No long holds.  No resting.  Say what you want about the entertainment, but the people are real.
So here I am at the county fair.  These guys have a long way to go, but their hearts are in it.  And it was fun to watch them work the crowd.
And work the crowd they did.  This man is Father Time.  I think I heard his persona states he is blind?  That's new.  But he gets the crowd worked up.  And there were many chants for TIC TOC.  His mic skills were better than I thought they'd be.  If I go back before they close out on Sunday, it will be primarily to see this guy in action.
As a general rule, I don't photograph people as the main subject.  I will make an exception in this case.  He's in a public place working the crowd.  He's on a hundred cell phones now.  (Not as good as mine, but it's not for lack of trying.)
Here is Father Time working the crowd.

Father Time

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/8.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

135 mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 360 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

This was very close to when the sun was going to get behind the building and start setting a shadow.  Pretty effective here.
But in the last match I saw, it was dark.  And here's where the photo learning comes in.  To set the EV (Exposure Compensation) I know how to handle this when the image is too light.  It's simple to think, well if the image is too dark - just go the other way.  It's why I have issues in school and tests, until I do this, my head is a void.  Ha.
So this image, a flying leap, is the culmination of a lot of learning is shooting a dark scene in a very short time.

The Leap

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

44 mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 900 (Auto)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

So the wresting note:  That flyn' stuff ain't fake.
The photographic note:  I learned a new trick that I should have known a long time ago.  And now I'll be able to use it.

Blue Heron Head On

Today's trip to the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge started about an hour earlier than previous trips.  When I arrived, the skies were full of activity.  And the light was different.  Golden hour.
I had stepped out of the truck for a while, and I saw this bird coming in.  I was working with the image size of 1.3 which sometimes works - and sometimes not so much.  This was 50-50 ish.  
But I'll look at it as half full.  Took me a while to find the bird's head.  Ha.
The golden morning light is different for me and tossed me for a minute.  But the bird is coming straight on.  Pretty cool.

Blue Heron Head On

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 250 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3

The bird was eventually going to 'land' on a tree not far from where I was standing and that's how the flight path worked out.
At some point the bird has to transition from flight to landing mode.  And in this case I was there just off the glide path.  The golden light here is just awesome to me.

Blue Heron Gear Down

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 280 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3

Early morning is the time to get out and see environment in action.

Blue Angels: Fortus Maneuver

Bet you didn't see that coming.  What in the wide world of sports is a Fortus maneuver?  It's two solo aircraft in a carrier landing configuration flying in a mirror image.  Very cool.
With Reno only a few weeks away, getting back into aircraft mode.  I may get a brief detour of a rodeo and demolition derby, complements of the county fair later this week.  I think the rodeo would be awesome.
Back to the aircraft.  This shot was from the MCAS Beaufort Air Show in April.  It is not lost on me that I've seen both the Blue Angles and the Thunderbirds in the same year.  Its been a good year.

Blue Angels Fortus Maneuver

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

450 mm, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 140 (Auto)

EV -1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

I have a shot of this maneuver where both aircraft really are nose to nose.  But wouldn't you know, the sun played havoc with the image.  The more you shoot, the more chance to get a keeper.

(My walk at) Nub's Nob

One of the very nice walks last week was at a local ski resort, not named Boyne.  Nub's Nob is just outside of Harbor Springs.  It sits on just about 250 acres with a 430 foot vertical drop.  It has 53 runs serviced by 10 lifts of various capacities.  For what would probably be my speed these days, it looks like fun.
I'd be kidding myself if I didn't see myself returning to skiing there.  Runs are short, not that steep and there is a bar at the bottom.  If we could only solve that cold weather thing.  Three out of four ain't bad.
My walk last week was in excellent weather.  We made it from the bottom to the top without too much issue using what I'm told was cross country trails.  Didn't see myself doing the cross country thing.
Didn't take the Nikons on the trip, these are phone shots.  
The walk was fun, the sights were awesome.

Any walk up and down a ski slope that doesn't end with an ambulance ride is a good one.

Mature Eagle in the Trees

One of the lessons I've learned at the Shiawassee Nature Refuge is to look in the trees.  I get caught up looking to the ground or water most of the time.  Some of the best action is eye level or above - in the trees.
I was cruising (< 5 MPH) by an area of trees where I usually see some action at the base of the trees, some 20 feet or so below the road.  I saw a very dark area just across from me when I was almost past and I had to back up.  This was my reward.  This was less than 15 yards away.  Probably closer to 10 yards.
This was a pretty dark shot.  I had to move around, in the truck, to get some form of light.   The first set of shots are very dark.

Mature Eagle in the Trees

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 (Auto)

EV 0, Manual Mode. Size 1.3, Highlight Metering

Photographically there is a lot going on here.  First, this is a culmination of many, many mistakes and missed shots.  I am a big fan on shooting in manual mode with the ISO in AUTO.  I have the camera set up that it won't have an ISO setting of greater than 1000.  (Set to max ISO 800 on the D7200.)  More importantly, I know where it is in the menu system to increase the value if needed, but for walk around these values work for me.  I know the argument that some don't like ISO surprises, but I can deal with these values.  The cameras handle them well.  And software will clean up the rest.
One of the other things I was working on was the 1.3 size.  With my FF lens, I can get an effective angle equivalent to 600 mm.  Another reason for the 1/1000 sec speed.  Manual Mode.  Starting to connect some dots?
The highlight metering is new to me.  I am looking forward to using it on the aircraft shots at Reno in a few weeks.  I think it will help with the dark images I get sometimes when shooting a dark aircraft against a really bright sky.  In these shots, that setting was spot on.
Environmentally speaking, the Eagle didn't seem to mind the truck.  As I mentioned before, I had to stop and back up to get this shot.  So there was some moving around.  And I had to lower the window.  All noise to me, but not enough to startle the bird.  And if I remember right, Aqualung was playing.  Nothing seemed to rattle this one.  But I bet if I went for the door.......  The door was not necessary.
I spent about 5 minutes with this one and during that time it never turned around.  Always had it's back to me.  But it made a few moves, and I swear, it was gong to play peek-a-boo with me.

Eagle Playing Peek-a-Boo

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 (Auto)

EV 0, Manual Mode. Size 1.3, Highlight Metering

The Starship (Cont)

More Starship pictures:  (Never got to see it fly, maybe some other time.)

For the rest of the story:  Click here

Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge Osprey

Just over a year ago, I 'discovered' the Nature Refuge.  Well, at least discovered the auto route.  Couldn't be happier.  What I have found out is that hiking through the area seems to alert the residents.  In the car, no issues.  Just don't get out.
The other thing I have to get better at is looking in the trees or anyplace off the ground.  More on that in another post.  
And one more - just because you haven't seen activity on one area, doesn't mean the next time the same can be said.
And that segue goes to this.  I was in an area where I had seen little activity in the past.  Off in the distance, I see what I thought was a hawk.  Again, my avian recognition leaves a lot to be desired.  The flight path was coming my way, so i stopped the vehicle and waited.
When it got closer, and close enough through the lens, I could see it wasn't a hawk, but the Osprey.  And it was looking for food.  There was a moment where I thought it was going to go in for the dive and food but it was not to be.  But I did get to watch this creature for a long time (minute or two anyway).  It's a good day.

Osprey Ready to Dive

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 180 (Auto)

EV 0, Manual Mode, Size 1.3

Osprey Soaring

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

600 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 160 (Auto)

EV 0, Manual Mode, Size 1.3

So, a year ago I was thinking all I had around me was sea gulls.  Not so much any more.

Harbor Springs Summer Morning

Last day of my visit to Harbor Springs.  Took a walk this morning on the bluff above the city.  Rewind to earlier in the morning, the weather channel had a dense fog advisory for the area.  Seriously, less than an hour later, this.........  Clear as can be.  Beautiful.
Harbor Springs is one of the those places you visit, and after a day, one of great weather, you start looking at the real estate office photos.  How can I get here?  What shack can I afford?
On of of the days, you take a walk at the local ski resort.  Then you realize - I bet it gets really cold here.  Flashback to way too many years ago, but isn't that why you gave up skiing?
And the boats on the water.  And more boats.  And some really big boats.  First thought, this is how the other half lives.  If it is not the 1% life, it is close.  If you have to ask the price, you're in the wrong neighborhood.  Back to the boats.  I just don't have the water life in my blood.  I like to look at them.  I'd really like to see the electronics in some of those things.
So I enjoyed my week there.  Lots of stuff to see.  Very nice area of the state.  Couldn't have picked a better week weather-wise.

Harbor Springs Summer Morning

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04 /18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

48 mm, 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO 250 (Auto)

EV -1, Manual, Matrix Metering

The great weather was part of the problem.  I wanted to see some weather.  Something on the other end of the spectrum.  I wanted a great lake weather front to roll through.  Well, maybe some other time.

Spark Plug Chandelier

The hardest part of this post will be spelling chandelier correctly.

In Petoskey, there is a neat eatery named Duffy's Garage and Grille.  C had a olive burger and I had a steak and cheese.  Both were totally awesome.  I will go back.  

The decor is somewhat 'old garage'.  And it is unique.

One of really interesting pieces there was a chandelier made of park plugs. It took me a while to get what it was.  But very interesting.

Photographically this wasn't easy.  I had to find one of the chandeliers that had enough light in the front that didn't mess with the interior lights.  For this, I used matrix metering.  That worked,as the overall effect was to black out the background.  And that really works out.  I thought I might have to blur out some background, but my mistake and not understanding of metering saved me.  Great when a plan comes together.

Spark Plug Chandelier

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

75 mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 280

EV -1, Aperture Priority

Beechcraft Starcraft 2000A

We're taking a week off from the paying work in the upper part of lower Michigan.  It's been great so far with some travel pictures.
But....
Last night, some of the locals were over after dinner, and I mentioned I was interested in aircraft photography.  And one local tells me there is a Beechcraft Starcraft at the airport.  And my answer was "Well,OK".
But I was excited enough to get up early and head to the airport to see this thing.  And do a little research.
The Starship was built between 1983 - 1995, with a total of 53 being built.  The price tag, a cool $4 million.  The Starship is noteworthy for its carbon fiber composite airframe, canard design, lack of centrally located vertical tail, and pusher engine/propeller configuration.
The aircraft was designed to be the successor to the Beech King line.  Call it bad timing, and a host of other influences, but sales of the aircraft were not good.  There were other aircraft in the space that were faster and cheaper.  And there was the economic downturn.
At some point, Beechcraft replaced the existing sold aircraft with other Beechcraft airframes.  Depending on who you read, there are between 2 and 5 still flying today.
And I saw this one today.

Beechcraft Starship 2000A 

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

32 mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec, ISO 200

EV -0.67, Aperture Priority

I'm asking around to see when this is aircraft will taking flight.  Would be very cool to see it take off and in flight.