Heron Snack Time

Another sign spring is on the the way, or in progress.  A Heron on the ground.  There was a single Heron at the Reserve this weekend.  Just standing in the water.  For me, there was a lot going on at the pond.  No offense to the Heron, but I was looking at the Hooded Mergansers most of the time.  But every few minutes or so, I'd look back to see what the Heron was doing.

To be honest, I failed my pre-event checklist before heading out.  I skipped the step of checking my EV.  It was set from the past outing at +1.  Not a killer miss, but it certainly doesn't help.  But that's not the issue here, I caught the mistake earlier.  The shot is light, should have gone with -1 for the day, that is the miss that hurt.  And the angle of the Heron's head is a direct flat reflect from the sun to where I was standing.  Really messed with the camera.  What are the chances?  Reverse luck.  But the total subject works for me.  Yep, this took some time.

Although technically not the best photo ever taken, I try to balance the 'value' of a shot between the technical aspects and the aesthetics.  If it is interesting, it doesn't have to be perfect.  The fish may disagree, but this is interesting.  Not your everyday Heron shot.

Heron with a Snack

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

375 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size: DX

Not being able to fix the clarity issue with the yellow eye keeps this from being a really good shot.  Room for improvement.

I take this as a sign warmer weather is on the way and better times ahead.  But, maybe not for the fish, who did not make it to the next shot.

Tree Sparrow - In Flight shots

On my travels to the Shiawassee Nature Preserve, I would often see these small 'fluorescent' birds moving around very quickly.  Seems I missed every opportunity to get a good shot as no shots were attempted.  I do that a lot.  Part of the journey.  On Saturday's venture to For-Mar, I had a chance to miss more shots of these birds.  Fortunately, I tried a different approach.  Take a shot.  Or two.

I found two of these little birds at the beginning of my hike.  They are hard to miss, even at a distance.  The coloring is pretty unique.  Practicing my best slow approach, I was able to get within ten yards of the tree a pair were sitting in.  I took a number of shots of the pair.  Sometimes they would fly off, never going too far but always returning to the tree.  The short round trip efforts never lasted more than 30 seconds.  Because of these trips, I had multiple attempts at something other than a bird sitting on a branch.

And I needed multiple attempts for an inflight sequence.  I had narrowed my AF down quite a bit, because I was expecting to mostly target stationary subjects, not birds in flight.  For the most part that worked.  And again being a seasoned rookie at this, it never dawned on me to change one setting.  In the field.  One command dial motion.  Yet another lesson.  And the journey continues.  

But there was some success.  If I ever go professional in this field at any level, I'd consider the name Blind Squirrel Photography for my business.  Or the next blog.  Because sometimes you just get lucky.  True, you can increase your chances at a good shot, but for me often it is luck when I get one of these quick action shots.  With aircraft, you know they are coming and at what speed.  Small birds are an entirely different set of skills.  And I count luck right up there.

The first shot is of a stationary subject getting ready for flight.  I'm not kidding anyone here, the bird's movements are so fast none of this beyond the bird's placement was planned.  I hit the shutter release at the time the bird was going to change locations.  Luck.

Tree Swallow Pre-Flight

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

525 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 (AUTO)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

I was lucky enough to get a shot of one in flight with some great wing motion.

Tree Swallow In-Flight

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

465 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 180 (AUTO)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

This next shot is a pair of Tree Swallows in flight.  Again, very lucky to get the AF on one of the birds.  Also what gets to me is the bird on the right appears to be looking back at me.  Wonder what is going through that brain.

Tree Swallow Pair In-Flight

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

465 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 (AUTO)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

It is fun to see these photos turn out.  A lot more interesting in its own way.

Northern Flicker

Life was a lot easier when I didn't appreciate the smaller bird.  Something moves in the bushes, I have to find it.  Some sound comes from above, I have to investigate.  Prefect segue to my introduction to the Northern Flicker.  I was walking around For-Mar, heard some commotion in a tree ahead of me.  Followed the noise to the source.  There was some avian altercation going on that ended with two birds flying off in different directions.  And after the two ruckus participants had moved on, there was movement on the tree limb.  And I waited.  You have to work for it.  And I waited.  There was movement on the branch.  And the sun hit the bird and....

Northern Flicker

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED

200 mm, 1/800 sec, f/3.5, ISO 125 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

For me, there is a lot going on.  First, it has been some time since I used a polarizer.  usually, using a CPL will deepen my sky blues.  It is supposed to also help with contrasts.  Without a non-CPL shot to compare to it is tough to know what is or what isn't.  Under the category of what is, to me this is one of the technically better shots I've done.  The D850 and the 2.8 lens are turning out to be an awesome combo.  There is a pretty aggressive crop going on.  Still looks like full frame image.  The wood in the tree has a lot going on as well.  I did lighten the shadow of the perch a bit, trying to remember it is a shadow.  As to the subject, I've never seen anything like that pattern.  When I was looking on-line for what it was, one identifying mark was red on the back of the neck.  Tough to see from this angle, but if you look close enough the red is there.  I didn't see any of this until I looked at the photograph.

Hooded Merganser, Right?

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.

Hooded Merganser

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

750 mm, 1/1250 sec, F/5.6, ISO 500 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

Those colors are fantastic.  Black, White, Gold eye with black dot.  Copper/gray.  Wow.  Add a little water reflection.  

Pair of Hooded Mergansers

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

750 mm, 1/1250 sec, F/5.6, ISO 720 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

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.

Broadwing Hawk Re-Do

Call it Throw Back Thursday.  One of my favorite bird shots came up as a screen background last night on the home PC.  As I looked at it, I started to think I could re do this photo a bit better these days.  And an afternoon project was born.

I am far from a Hawk expert.  I scoured lots of web photos to come up with this is a 'Broadwing' Hawk.  And I looked for help from other websites such as the page that lists what birds were seen at the Refuge for the day, or recently, as reported by much more expert birders.  So if someone says this isn't a BWH, I counter with the photo is good enough that you can tell and I really did try to identify it correctly.

The photo comes from September of 2018.  I was hiking the Nature Refuge with the D7200 and 70-300 lens.  I came across a veteran birder at the Grefe Tower observation deck.  He instantly recognized me as a person who could only ruin his day if I was allowed to roam freely.  Thankfully he did not carry a stun gun that day.  But as a nice member of the birder community, he motioned me to be quiet, and to come up on the tower.  (The tower is about four feet off the ground.)  He motioned for me to look over the far end of the tower deck, look over past the road and in the trees.  Looking back at me like I was a freshly fried donut was this BWH.  It was relatively far away at probably 20 to 30 yards.  The original shot frame is this:

For me to get this shot I had to extend the lens to its full reach.  And shoot with a reduced sensor size.  It's a physics thing.  Anyway, this is an effective lens angle, or reach, of 600 mm.  If I remember right, I braced myself on one of the tower rails for the shot.  The BWH did its part by just sitting still, even when a car passed within six feet below it, it just sat still.  (I bet the car occupants didn't even see the bird.  Rookies.)  Other photo information, 1/800th sec, f/5.6, ISO 640.

When this showed as the background on the monitor last night, I thought with some improved processing techniques and newer software I might be able to improve on this result.  This is the image from the original post in January of 2019: Eyes on Eyes

This was from a time when I was framing the finished shots with a black and white border.  I have since gone borderless.  The eye in the shadow always bothered me as well.  I have since improved on my shadow work.   The 'improved' shot.

I didn't boost any of the colors as much in the re do shot.  I could be talked into maybe giving it more of a vibrant look, but I seem to be going in a more realistic look phase.  The improvement of shadowed eye is reason alone to delete the original photo.  The bird's feet and tail also improved with more definition.  The overall definition or sharpness improved a bit.  In the end, the dampening of the eye shadow is the difference until you get into the pixel peeping.  I did use Gigapixel to help out, I think it is worth the time.

Lazy Sparrow Shot

It's Friday.  It's after work.  Can't get more lazy than that.  The sun is out - and although not summer warm, it is coming out of winter warm.

We have a homemade birdhouse in front of the house, close to my office window.  The house is untreated wood and it shows.  It has been weathered by at least 10 Michigan outdoor years.  Wood grains and colors are awesome.  Can't buy it in a store.

Over the years, the house has been home to a new Sparrow family every spring.  From the house I can watch the cycle of the birds freshening up the nest with new organic material, starting the family and then moving out, all in the space of a few months.  I never got it as a kid how all this could be interesting.  But now, we'll always have a bird house or many around.

So I have the cameras out this afternoon, getting prepped for a small outing tomorrow.  I've been working a lot with the D850, now how to bring out the D500.  Tomorrow's nature hike in a county park that will be new to me will have the D500 and the 70-300 lens as the primary unit.  I'll take the D850 and monster lens in the car for backup or opportunity.  (Frankly, I'm learning that unit is heavy to lug around!)

Back to today, and the sunlight hitting a Sparrow on the birdhouse in front of the house.  It's not exotic.  It's not exciting.  But it is a sign, spring is on the way.  The term lazy in the title does not refer to the Sparrow.  It refers to me being lazy in the effort to obtain this shot.   Slightly more than mailing it in.

Lazy Sparrow Shot

NIKON D500 Ver.1.30/NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED)

300 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 160 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

Looking forward to tomorrow's hike.  Maybe a bit warmer, and just as many no clouds.

Today's Birds - Recovery from last Weekend

I've been looking forward to getting out and about this weekend.  I can't go too far as I'm wearing the work leash for this weekend and next.  But last weekend my efforts were far below where I need to be.  It's one thing to misfire on far off Eagles, but to miss aircraft on Final to FNT?  There was even an American Eagle flying into FNT - all the funny blog post headers will have to wait.  Root cause?  I think that even shooting at 1/2000th of a second was not enough to cure lens shake.  I also bought into the notion that Vibration Reduction could be turned off at high speeds.  I may have to re-think some of those moves.  And I may have to consider really working with the mono-pod.

So today arrives and I'm out the door, mono-pod in hand and lens VR On.  There will be a clear photo or something is going in the trash - including the one holding the camera.  I believe in technology, it's usually the human on the business end that has the issue.  That comes from years of tech support in some form or other.

And clear shots were had today.  As to the far off BIF, I saw a hawk of some breed that came in pretty clear but is so far off the contrast of the bird just isn't that good.  Can the sun offer too much light?  But great improvement over last weekend.  Confidence restored.

Lots of work with the mono-pod today.  Worked on important subjects such as how to carry the mono-pad and camera a long distance.  That's more important than one would think.  And once shooting is in progress, what hands go where?  Yes, there is bad news on this - I missed two shots that I might have had without the pod.  But in the end, what I did get was pretty good.

One of the fun parts of the day is researching the birds I have photographed.  I know not much about bird recognition in the field.  But in front of a PC - I'm starting to get the hang of it.  Today's bird of choice is a Whit-breasted Nuthatch.

White-breasted Nuthatch at the End of the Tree

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

460 mm, 1/2500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1400 (AUTO)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

I spent about fifteen minutes with this little birdie.  The bird would move around quite a bit looking for food.  We played a form of hide and seek.  With no counting.  The sunlight on the white feathering played havoc with some of the shots.  But it's all good.

In searching on the web for the identification for my new friend, the description was just about dead on.  Most notably the description said there was a lot of time in the bird's walking travels spent upside down.  And that is where I got this one.  I had a few shots with this pose, but I needed to get the side coloring with out the sunlight washing everything out,

White-breasted Nuthatch Looking Down

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

450 mm, 1/2500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1800 (AUTO)

EV +1, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

All in all a good day and good rebound from last weekend.  Certainly more critters out and about enjoying the improving weather.

The super batteries arrived - and other 3rd party thoughts

When I was researching the D850, for about two years, one of the things you find out is that it is advertised with regards to FPS (Frames Per Second) in two ways.  Either you will find 7 FPS or 9 FPS.  Both values come with an asterisk.  

Out of the box, the camera will do 7 FPS.  One may say that 7 FPS is not a lot by today's standards.  I would counter that the internals are pushing a 46 mg file across its innards.  That is approximately double what most other cameras push.  That's OK - it has its purposes.  If you need a higher FPS rate, step up to the D5 or D6.  Or in my case, pull out the D500.  But if you want to step up to 9 FPS on the D850, you need to add a bigger battery.

Without getting into battery electronic terms, the number of shots per charge is what matters most.  And in the murky mist that is numbers of shots per charge testing I found there are plenty of parameters involved, none of which I experience.  And looking in the back of the OEM (Original Manufacturer Equipment) User's Manual the information can be mind boggling as well.  But wait, there's more!  There are a double set of numbers based on shooting habits.  OK - in the end your mileage may vary.  But what you can tell is using the EN-EL18 battery, you get almost double the number of shots than you can with the EN-EL15 standard battery.  But wait, there's more!  Using the EN-EL18 battery will get you the boost from 7 FPS to 9 FPS.  Battery life is one thing, after-burner performance when needed is another.

According to some Nikon users on the web, the AF is also faster with the EN-EL18 battery.  Will it wash my truck as well?

I don't get it.  Is Nikon saying that for a few extra bucks you can 'legally' boost the camera performance?  I guess so.  Once you start down this road, in for a penny - in for a pound.  The few extra bucks is actually more than a few.  And this is where we get into 3rd party offerings.  To house the battery upgrade, the appropriate Nikon battery grip is required.  As a personal preference, I like Nikon's battery grip.  Feels better in the hand.  But Nikon's accessories are over expensive.  Their business model.  Necessary evil to deal with.  I tried a 3rd party grip on the D90.  I wasn't overly impressed.  So, it was OEM battery grips after that.  Just added to the total price.  The EN-EL18 batteries aren't cheap either.  They are designed for the D5 and D6 models, flagship level.  If you think if it that way, I get it.

But all this is nothing compared to the biggest insult by Nikon to it's users.  To charge the EN-EL18 is extremely expensive.  It is a deal breaker.  I'm usually reluctantly on board with Nikon's pricing.  I'm sure it is close to the other DSLR lines at the professional and flagship level.  But the battery charger for the EN-EL18 battery was $450 when I first started looking.  It is a normal battery charger - you get them for $20 at the hardware store.  OK, so the batteries may be more technical that the Energizer Bunny's brand, but $450?  Thus began the 3rd party conundrum.

I'm not going to put 3rd party accessory or lens on my camera.  That's just me.  But I won't lose sleep using a 3rd party charger.  So I did reviews on the 3rd party charger.  What did we do before YouTube? 

One of the nice things about matching up the D850 and the D500 is they are from the same generation.  I think the announcement dates for both models are about six months apart.   The design is the same in both units, the feel is the same, the menu is virtual identical.  The USB and the #1 data slots are the same.  Fortunately the battery grip design for both is pretty much the same.  And so the D500 will take the EN-EL18 battery as well.  As to performance differences, according to Nikon the EN-EL18 battery will more than double the number of shots per charge over the EN-EL-15.  Doesn't up the D500's 10 FPS.

So the two new batteries are here - and they are charging.  Fingers are crossed that the house doesn't burn down due to the battery charger.  (It will not be left charging unattended.)  

The Club's Covid Challenge

Almost a year ago to the day, the photo club which I participate had its last in person meeting.  At the time we didn't know that the meeting end would start a year before - well nothing yet.  There was a glimmer of hope as last night we tried a Zoom meeting.  There were a few brave souls in attendance.  It was good to see them all.

The bad news is we're not much closer to meeting in person again.  The location where we had meetings isn't open to the public yet.  Realistically, I don't see us meeting in person again until after our summer break is over in August.  Vaccinations will be had by all, and more importantly the post-meeting restaurant will be available again.

The good news.  Some of us will get together tomorrow to Eagle chase and chat.  The day is forecasted to be sunny, but brisk.  (Mid-20's but coming from a week in the low teens, brisk it is.)  We'll be outdoors so the ventilation will not be an issue.  And we'll observe the all important distance restrictions.  More than six feet, but closer than yelling distance.

And better news for me, this Eagle location will be new to me.  Intel says the Eagles are 'nesting'.  A good time is promised for all.  The location should be prime Eagle viewing area.  Flint City landfill close by and a pretty good creek in the area.  So just looked at the cameras.  Batteries are charged.  EV set to 0.  (You'd be surprised how many time I screw that up!  Or maybe not....)  I see a lot of walking in my Saturday future.

Another agenda item from the meeting was everyone 'send in' their five best Covid era  photos.  These don't have to be Covid related, thankfully, but show that at least for a few times we got out of the house.  Unless you have some bird shots from the inside.  Two months ago, I posted my best of 2020 shots.  Unless I had some better shots in 2021 - I have my pool of shots to choose from.  As it turns out, I do have a good shot already this year.  And I have more that five shots in the year end post.  And I want to spread out the interests.  So my five for the club challenge.

In May, after the initial lockdown release I made a few trips to the Shiawassee Nature Refuge.  In one of the trips I found an Eagle sitting on a dead tree overlooking the Shiawassee River.  Luckily, no one behind me.  Just stop - and enjoy the sight.  I was able to take a series of shots of the Eagle in the tree and in flight.  The Eagle flight path was almost eye level.  And because of Covid, I was still breaking in the 200-500 lens.

In May, I started going to the Michigan Barrel Racer's events.  Weather was heating up, nice to get out and about.  I made it out to three of the events.  I also made it out to some Hunter/Jumper events.  It was tough to pare down to only one photo in the horse photos.  I had some nice shots at the H/J events, but only nice to me.  I need to work on framing a better shot.  I had way too much non-subject junk in the shots.  Too much to clean up.  I did better at the Barrel events.  Again, getting to one shot was an exercise, but in the end I went with this one.  Background could be better, but that is what it is.  The subject fills the frame, by my standards anyway.  I like dirt flying, horse body defining and hair explosion in this shot.

I backed into a new subject to shoot during the summer, BMX bike racing.  Our local park has a pretty nice track.  The first time I went out, the place was alive and colorful.  Team colors and tents.  Racers all over the place.  And some were hitting the high jumps.  Close to home, I could spend an afternoon there when I was working on-call.  In November, after the published season was over, we had a nice Michigan weekend.  Plenty of sun - and a race was put together.  I had just picked up the D850, putting an end to the failed D780 experiment, and needed some shots.  At the same time, I picked up a 70-200 f/2.8 lens which also needed a test run.  It all came together.  This shot was a sleeper to me.  But I voted it the best shot of  2020.  Really looked good on the monitors.  That carries more weight than you'd think.

On New Year's Day, we had a wonderful early morning snowfall.  No wind.  Snow on the branches.  Lots of snow on the branches.  After clearing off the driveway, there had to be some photo ops somewhere.  I found my way to one of the county parks.  In the park is a bridge that crosses the Flint River.  I thought this would be an excellent view for the day.  As I was walking around, two kayakers came into view.  The shot is easily the front runner for Best of 2021.

The final entry on the Club Challenge is somewhat odd.  Again, in January the only game in town was "small" birding.  I found a nice area where small birds would congregate.  Or whatever it is called when birds of all demographics get together.  When I returned home to review the day's shots I had to look up a number of the subjects.  I am so small bird ignorant.  One I didn't have to look up was the Robin.  I was walking down the trail, having a stare down through the lens with this one when he/she/it took to the air.  Awesome effect.

Those are my five Covid Era shots to share with the club.  And maybe tomorrow - I might have to add another.

Southern Osprey - 2012

In the summer of 2012, I found myself in South Carolina.  Long time ago to be sure, and who really knows for sure.  Long enough that the statue of limitations for anything I may or may not have done have clearly expired.  What I do know for sure is I had gray hair then as I do now, and I had a D90 with 18-200 lens.  And just enough photo knowledge to be dangerous.

As part of that trip, we, C's family and I, hired a 'captain' to take us to through the deltas, or swamps or whatever that area is.  We found the guy in a triple A guide.  We called him.  He said he was out of business, for years.  We had a good laugh, but he said he could use some cash and needed to catch dinner for the next few days so we were on.  He said he didn't have the carter boat anymore, but had a smaller craft that would comfortably fit the four of us, plus him and the first mate.  When I heard that, thought of Gilligan and the three hour tour.  And three hours was just about the length of the cruise.  It was all coming together.

We met the captain at the appointed time and boat ramp.  The boat was large enough for 5.5 people.  The .5, first mate, was a full grown German Shepard.  This was going to be fun.  If we didn't wind up as alligator bait.

The captain was a great guy.  We hit the jackpot.  Great talker and story teller.  Our little adventure had more twists and turns.  As a child of the electronic GPS age, I was impressed on how we got back to the starting point before sundown.  But between the starting point and the ending point, we had a lot of fun.  We saw birds, gators and more birds.  I wasn't as savvy in the avian recognition talents as I am now.  Please hold the laughs.  And you could say, I wasn't as savvy in the photographic arts either.  Or as I will say now, building the blocks of experience.

I had the D90 and the 18-200 lens.  The lens is slightly better than a kit lens.  But good enough I still have it.  It's not going to EBAY.

I was re-visiting the photos this evening and I saw this one.  It is fair to say it was forgotten.  And it is fair to say at the time, I had no idea what I had photographed.  And I'm happy to see it was in RAW.  I can do this.

Even at 200 mm, the subject of the image was pretty small.  Perfect enlarging project for the evening.

Osprey with a Meal on a Dead Tree

NIKON D90/NIKKOR 18-200mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR II

200 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400

EV -0.67, APERTURE Priority, Size DX

Three years ago, I saw my first Osprey in Michigan.  I've been hooked on them since.  Along with the Eagles, my favorite targets when I go out.  In level flight, big and slow targets.  Once they go down vertical, the challenge begins.

This is as close as I can crop and keep everything pretty much in focus.  The fact the tree is interesting helps.  Looks good on the monitors.  No prizes, but good memories.

AI Gigapixel - Is it worth it?

I get a laugh from watching the internet photo gurus telling me in order to get the best possible shot, fill up the frame. Off hand, you go Duh! The guru will then pull out, I'm guessing from a back pocket, a 500 mm prime lens. The guru will then produce a fantastic shot of some colorful small subject. On one hand, if I had a 500 mm prime lens, it would be my walk around, cuz that would be my only lens.

With all due respect to the above mentioned internet guru, I support his site and have purchased some of his ebooks.

The rest of this post is for pixel peepers only. My philosophy is if it looks good at 400%, it'll look good everywhere. Software exists for a reason, to be used. And use it I will.

The rest of us have to use the poor man's 500 mm prime lens, the post processing crop tool.  For most small crops of a shot from a 20 to 25 megapixel format, there isn't a noticeable distortion.  But when the crops get more 'aggressive' the quality of the shot will suffer.  My final test is a 1920x1080 showing up crisp on a 27 inch monitor.  If I had to get a larger print, may need to do even more.  Enter Topaz's AI Gigapixel.

Piggy backing on an aggressive crop process, I will sometimes use some of the camera's image size options, of reducing the size of the active pixels by approximately 1.3%.  It is a way to turn the max reach of the 70-300 lens to 600 mm.  Fill that frame.  Problem is, you can't crop as much, if you still need to.  I tried Photoshop's enlarging processes and to be fair, they were OK.  Useable OK.  But I was up late one night and one thing led to another and the next thing you know, I have a license for AI Gigapixel.

I don't do a lot of printing anymore.  And as I pointed out, if it looks good on the monitor, it's OK by me.  Then I saw a photo I'd taken in August of 2019 (More 2019!) of a juvenile Eagle in flight.  Original post here.  Kinda far away.  And.  And I was using the D500's 1.3 frame size.  Those pixels growing out of control.  Takes a 20.9 pixel sensor to a 12.3 pixel sensor.  The D500 to a D90.  Great photo to test on.  Here we go.

The original shot.

This is the original shot, at 600 mm.  ISO was at 125 - so it's pretty clean.  And under the lucky category, it's pretty much in focus.  And the shot would be great, except I want less greenery and more bird.  Max reach of the camera, only software left to bail me out.

In the original post, I used aggressive cropping and Topaz's AI Clear.  I get lost in the math here, trying to figure out how close I am, but here is a close up of the posted shot.

Looks OK, eh?  Put that on a 27 inch monitor and you will see a lot of imperfections.  Mostly the edges between the upper edge of the bird and the greenery.  It ain't bad, but it's there.  Pixel Peeping.  I reprocessed the shot using AI Gigapixel and enlarging the shot 1.94%, then matching the same frame.  An came up with this.

If you know what to look for, you can see a much cleaner edge.  Also, looking at the leading edge of the eagle's wing, you can see definitions between the lines (?) in the wing - alternating brown and white.  And the tail had a bit more definition as well.  This is basically a 2x image growth.  I've done tests with small images on the net, blow them up to 400% - and they look OK.  Emergency use only, non subject.

I'm a big fan of Topaz's AI software.  I think the AI DeNoise does a real good job and is part of my workflow process.  I try to stay out of needing AI Gigapixel, but sometime you have to go where the situation leads.  Nice to have this in the toolbox.

#1225 - Mechanical Stuff

 One of the 2020 photographic casualties for me was not being able to chase the #1225.  Or ride the #1225.  In 2019 we rode the excursion from Mt Pleasant to Cadillac.  And the Polar Express Run.  I know, how exciting can a 35 mph train ride be?  Fun is in the eye of the beholder.  And for the times not riding, I didn't get to chase.  Train nerd.  But it is sort of fun.

One of my favorite #1225 shots can be found here.  What I like about the shot is if fills the screen.  Really fills the screen.  I can feel the vibrations, hear the familiar noise and smell the steam.  On the list of permanent screen savers, top three for sure.  Big, heavy metal.

Since the flow of new photographs has dried up, except for squirrels and small birds, I've retreated to 2019 for the most part to grab past memories.

And now for something a little different.  On my last #1225 chase, the day was crisp and clear.  Great light.  Too many people, but I need to learn patience.  The sun was directly behind me, if I remember correctly, so with great lighting comes shadows.  To remove the shadows, I had to take the photos at an angle.  No real big deal, but I think a straight shooting plane would have been better and a bit more sharper.  But looking ford to this as a screen saver.

#1225 Mechanical

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR II

35 mm, 1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 500 (AUTO)

EV -1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

With the great sunny lighting came the very uneven light off the metal.  Played all sorts of havoc with the metering.  Knocked it down to EV -1 and that seems to calm everything down a bit.  I bumped up the reds a bit in post, call it artistic license.

I like the diversity of the angles and the unevenness of the wires.  I sacrificed some of the black of the metal to get some light in the center of image.  In the original shot, that is a black hole.  I bet the EV -1 had something to do with it.  It's acceptable now, but I think with some (a lot of) either color manipulation or dual images and masking it could be much better.  And since the February forecast is still COLD and the weather gopher said six more weeks of winter I may be able to find some time to 'learn' something new.  I mean if it was a sky replacement, done tonight, right?

Laughing Gull - 2019

It's odd to calculate what missing 75% of 2020 did to me.  I'm having some fun speed living 2018 and 2019 air shows through my photos.  Some of those folders have literally hundreds of shots.  Many of them are burst sequences.  I don't save everything, but I do save more than I should.  It's OK - I can still remember the stories around them.  If I could only figure out how to get that burnt AV gas to spritz out of each shot - or get the noise.  I can neither confirm or deny that sometimes late at night there are Youtube video sounds of airshows or C5 T and Gs that can be heard coming from the office.

As I think of my upcoming annual trek to SC and getting warm again I go back to 2019.  Yep, my annual trek that I've been going on for 1 years now.  And a one year reset in 2020.  A couple of weeks now if the CDC doesn't put on a travel ban.  Or a new strain doesn't show up on the SC shoreline.

Speaking of Youtube, I started following a photographer out of Florida.  Phenomenal bird shots.  He does a lot of videos as well - he's out there.  He seems to focus on the big predatory water birds.  I'm trying to figure out how he makes a living doing this.  I looked up his web site and he takes people out to photograph birds.  I saw what he charges for four hours.  I need to move to the shore.  Retirement job.  But I'd pay his charges to get the lay of the land, and the bird shots.

So all this preamble leads up to this.  A water based bird in 2019, in a photograph.  So in 2019 I spent a day in Charleston, dockside.  To a rookie northerner, birds everywhere.  Now that I think about, they were the common scavengers, or beggars.  The birds I saw were working the tourists, not working nature.  Not that I'm complaining, you have to work you're way up.  So this year, I'll do better.

But back to 2019.  Charleston.  Walking the docks.  I had no idea what this bird was.  But he/she/it was on a piling.  Watching tourists passing by.  Scanning everyone for food.  Until I showed up.  This bird didn't flinch.  I was less than six feet away.  And stuck a camera lens even closer.

Photography-wise, this appears a bit soft to me.  Trying to figure out why.  The combo in use here is a D7200 and DX 18-200 lens.  It was a backup for the day.  This takes me back to where my first shots with the 70-300 full frame just blew me away and the difference from the DX lens.  I'm going with that.  The eye is sharp.  Maybe it is just a fuzzy bird.

Laughing Gull

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

200 mm, 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 180 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

Yea, how exciting is just standing around?  Not much.  But it is part of the journey - and in 2019 I thought this was pretty good.  Also in 2021 half the fun is trying to figure out what this was.  I am building a decent list of websites to help me with bird identifications.  And that is part of the learning journey as well.

B-2 Spirit Fly By - 2019

In June of 2019, there was an air show a few hours north of where I live.  The event was called Wings  over Northern Michigan.  I had a few posts for the event.  The event should be every two years.  Unfortunately the event will not happen this year.  I was cancelled prior to Covid.  Seems the event had grown too much for the airfield to handle.  So, it wasn't moved to handle the crowds.  Just cancelled.  Or maybe the growth wasn't the real reason.  I did have a good time.  To me it wasn't a particularly large show.  There were no national events.  There were no national sponsors, some local.  There were a lot of lawn chairs.  I'd certainly go again.

One of the unadvertised participants for the show was a B-2 Spirit fly by.  Stealth Bomber.  Many years prior to the modern version of this aircraft, I was fascinated by the original versions.  They were never totally successful.  The YB-35 and YB-45 models designed by Northrop in the 40's were passed over for other USAF projects.  The early models probably could have performed better with more powerful flight control computers.  

But the time is now for the flying wing.

The show followed a pretty good storm crossing the region.  When I arrived at the airfield, it was still raining.  I remember the vendors who were setting up their stalls were pretty well soaked.  But the weather forecasts for the day were correct and the storm passed as forecasted and the show went on as planned.  

However, the skies didn't clear up right away.  Interesting to re-visit the photos of show and see the weather improvement through the course of the day.  As there were mostly prop driven aircraft for the show, I was in total prop mode.  Slow shutter speed.  And I might have previously mentioned that the B-2 flyover was unadvertised.  So when the fly by started, there I was shooting at 1/200th of a second.  Rookie.  I did figure out my error at some point, but the fly by was about 75% done.  That being said, I did get some good shots but only from one perspective.  It could have been much worse.

As an early event, the sky was just plain AWFUL.  

B-2 Bank

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

232 mm, f/7.1, 1/1250 sec, ISO 100 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

Technically, it's in focus.  Not something you'd hang on a wall though.

Photographically it needs help.  I could replace the sky.  Nice clean lines, easy to mask.  But an unplanned sly replacement to me is usually option of last resort.  What the photo really needs is just some definition in the sky.  A tweak.  A little blue would be nice, but I'll settle for cloud definition.  What this needs is a touch of HDR.  Just a touch.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) has come a long way.  On my personal journey I've enjoyed every setting from full blow clown colors to helping save a photo.  The software has evolved as well.  Working with RAW files helps as well.  Not sure if this pulls with JPG.  In this case, the HDR is not too offensive.

With the HDR, the contrast of the sky was not to my liking.  A few years ago, would have been great.  And on the dark aircraft - the contrast doesn't show as much so who cares?  But the sky was a bit distracting with all the contrast noise.  A little (Actually, a lot!) Topaz DeNoise helped out.  There were a few small areas where the noise or HDR remnants remained so I tried a new trick in Photoshop.  New trick for me anyway.  I used the healing brush at 10% flow, instead of 100%.  I may never use 100% again.  It's all about the journey.

This takes me back to when I'd try to offer a question - is it a photograph or a drawing?  This HDR process offered up some unintended consequences.  And I like all of them.

First off, the cockpit window really stands out now.  It shows up a bit in the original. but here it is catching.  What also stands out, when the photo is viewed at 100% is the serial number and the AF logo behind the cockpit window.  All cool stuff.  The coolest thing is the subtle changes to the aircraft skin.  That is real aviation stuff.  Love what RAW files capture.  Once you know what to look for, you can see it in the original shot.  Low level flying interacts with the temperature of the fuel in the wings - and other areas.  High altitude flying is always cold, and when you bring warm air in contact with the cold skin this is what you get.  Condensation.  I can only guess that this is realistic on the special skin of the stealth aircraft as I only know what normal paint, camouflaged or flat, will do.  I'll go with this is pretty close.

It's a nice save of a good photo in a lousy environment.

MCAS Beaufort 2019 Memories

It is single digit cold outside today, no trip to the park for me.  Michigan gray sky.  No birds flying around the house, so guessing the same at the park.  Trying to get warm with a little trip down memory lane to the 2019 MCAS Beaufort Air Show.

Looking forward to the 2021 show in a few weeks.  Being in South Carolina, it is one of the early shows on the circuit.  Michigan needs to get its vaccination program in gear!

The day we were out at the show was prefect weather-wise.  I seem to remember some rookie sunburn mistakes were made, but that is another story.  We were able to get some good seats in the bleachers, which contributed to the sunburn.  No cover.  This year we have pavilion seats.  Covered and socially distanced.  But, back to 2019.  Love the military airshows.  Pure air power.  Noise.  Heat.

This air show I was really concentrating on shutter speeds.  With the shots posted today, shutter speed didn't matter much.  Jets.  But I was constantly adjusting speed depending on jet or prop or rotor driven aircraft was the subject.  Game within a game.  The camera lens combo for the air shots is the D500 and 70-300.  For the most of the shots that was plenty of lens as we were very close to show center.  Except for one shot at the end of the runway.  And we'll get to that later.

AV-8B Harrier Taxi

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

600 mm, 1/4000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 360 (AUTO)

EV -1, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3 DX

When looking at this shot, I'm recalling the following.  For a 1.3 DX shot, that is about as clean an image as I can get.  The trick is that the subject did fill the frame, there is very little cropping involved.  It usually doesn't work out that well for me.  Also that day, one environmental factor that showed up in most shots were the heat waves.  A number of my ground shots show this phenomenon at some point in the shot  (Yes, if you had the word phenomenon on your blog bingo card, you can finally mark it off.)  Most of the air shots did not suffer from this.  We shoot, we learn.

And speaking of learning, I was experimenting with spot metering on some shots.  And what I learned from the day was - stop experimenting with spot metering.  I won't make that mistake again.  Also looking back at the shots, the EV is almost always -1.  The sunshine would often create hot spots on airframes with a more shiny paint coat.  The -1 setting usually did the trick of better exposure.

F/A-18 Hornet Touchdown

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

600 mm, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 (AUTO)

EV -1, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3 DX

This is the older model Hornet, which is pretty much phased out of the inventory now.  That didn't keep it from putting on a great show.  I think everyone tries to get that exact moment of touchdown with the smoke from the tires.  And really looking forward to the Blue Angels show this year with the Super Hornets now that the SH is the team aircraft.  Back to 2019.  This was shot at the end of the runway.  All sorts of distortion due to the heat waves at that distance.  And this too was a 1.3 DX shot.  And because this was so far away - this required a pretty good crop.  Had to go into my bag of tricks and super software to get this to come out.

F-35 Lightning II Taxi Head On

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

600 mm, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 (AUTO)

EV -1, MANUAL Mode, Size 1.3 DX

When I see military aircraft from a head on profile, I think that air opponents who see this are not going to have a good day.  I first thought about that line when I saw an A-10 at a static display.  The F-35 may be missing the cannon, but can still deliver a punch.  This profile illustrates the benefit of being as close to show center as possible.

Blue Angel Low Pass

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/Nikon AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR

330 mm, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 (AUTO)

EV -1, MANUAL Mode, Size DX

This is a creeper shot to me.  It creeps up on me.  The more I see it the more I like it.  If I was going to put this in a contest or something, I'd remove the light posts  on the right side of the frame.  Just a bit on the distracting side.  Other than that - think about this.  I was standing on the top row of the bleacher seats.  The bleaches had maybe ten rows.  And you can see the top of the wing.  Eye level.  Awesome.

The day was fun.  Looking to getting there this year.  Especially when I look outside now and see snow.

Weekday Quick Visit to For-Mar

The days are getting longer!  Today was sub-freezing all day. but the sun was out and it felt like spring skiing.  There was two to four inches of fresh snow overnight.  I usually don't get out much on weekdays, especially work weekdays.  But there are sometimes you just have to get out.

When I got to the park, I headed out to my tree stand with hopes that the little birds would want to get out in the sun.  I arrived at the stand and .......  Silence.  Only the traffic noises.   But I still got out and walked around.

The tree stand is probably fifty yards long.  The first forty five yards can be best described as above.  But the last five yards had some bird chatter.  And some small birds.  And some color.  I thought I was taking photos of robins - but it looks like they were the Common Redpoll.  The photos aren't all that good.  Small birds at 30 yard morph into very small birds to photograph.  Those photos could be a rainy/snowy day project for AI Gigapixel.

But what I did get was this American Goldfinch.  Nice yellow and black.  Pittsburgh colors.  Give it a cap/helmet and a ball.  This was relatively at a distance and a pretty good crop.  In other words, I've done better.  And that's OK - room to improve.

American Goldfinch

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR

500 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

For the small bird shoots, I need to use the D500 to get the extra 250 mm of reach.  And maybe a chair.  With the monopod.  And more time.

So after my pass by the tree stand, I did a short loop through some of the trails.  I was out, not one to waste a good walk.  I had to watch my footing a bit on the trails.  What was icy last weekend was now covered with a couple of inches of snow which helped a lot.  But still had to be careful.  I'd walk a bit then stop to look and listen.  Never much noise.  But the best part of the day for me was to spy this small group of Mourning Doves in the trees.  No noise.  Just me looking around and seeing something that was different.  A birdwatcher moment?

Mourning Doves

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR

500 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

That's like a 360 degree view.  Front and both sides.  Fun 90 minutes to get out of the house.

It started as a bird chase

All week I'd been thinking of taking a suitable camera/lens combo to a bird stand I found during last week's nature hike.  I wanted sunny skies and 70 degrees - but would accept 50.  Maybe 40.  It's January.  I'd been looking at the Weather Channel website all week.  Sunny skies from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.  Wind around 5 MPH.  Whoo Hoo!  Temp - 18 at 8:00 AM.  24 at noon.  No one said this would be easy.

There were multiple objectives for today's outing.  First - birds.  I'll settle for birds at rest - or not in flight.  Second objective was to work with a monopod.  A late entry for the third objective was to say warm.

Woke up this morning to cloudy skies.  Dammit.  And 18 degrees.  Well, they got that part right.  Dammit.

Ten o'clock arrived, so did the sunny skies and 20 degrees.  Time to go.

I found a lot of robins in the bird stand.  I took multiple photos of the robins that would be later deleted.  Technically OK, but they could have been seagulls and been just as interesting.  Practice.  What I did find out was using the monopod was easy.  But getting it there and walking around with it ain't fun.  Logistics.

I took the monopod back to the truck, then took off for other parts of the park.  The park paths were covered with ice, but the sides were OK with a crusty snow or solid ground.  Still had to look down a lot to stay off the ice.  But I wanted to keep my eyes to the skies.  Looking for anything in the trees.  I wasn't expecting to find...

Squirrels.

The squirrels I saw must have been deaf.  I was crunching on lots of snow.  So I was off the walking path, walking in the snow, out of the ice, looking down.  I stopped at some point to scan the trees, and this one couldn't have been more than 20 feet away.  Sitting in a tree, doing its thing.  Eating.  And keeping one eye on me.

Nothing to see here

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR

500 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 (AUTO)

EV +.67, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

OK, its a squirrel, but....  That D850 takes a good shot when coupled with the 200-500 lens.  This was hand held.  Close enough to see the nose whiskers.  I'm good with that.

I tried to find a way around the squirrel without disturbing it.  No luck.  When I did get by, the squirrel moved from the tree, crossing the path above my head.  Not sure what the squirrel was thinking.  There were many possibilities.  Like, I got you pegged man.  Or real nature photographers use Canon.  Loser.

Eye in the Sky

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR

500 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 (AUTO)

EV +.67, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

Still lots of great detail.  Love it when the sun hits the area.

And another squirrel saw me coming.  I thought it was yelling at me, but just was carrying around lunch.

Keep Moving Pal

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR

500 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 900 (AUTO)

EV +.67, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

You can miss a lot when you have to keep your eyes on the path.  So stop and look up every once in a while.

I wanted to make one last pass through the bird stand before calling it a day.  This was a little past noon.  No activity at all.  Squirrels must have warned them.  But I didn't leave empty handed.  I saw a few deer in a clearing just off the path.  And then I saw this framed shot.

Framed Deer

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR

410 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 (AUTO)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

I didn't notice it at the time, but the front legs have something odd going on.  There are some knees not going in the right direction.  Do I need a Bernie in a chair in front of the deer?

Good time to get out of the house.  Turned out to be a nice day to walk around.  Close to noon probably isn't a good bird hour.  Needs to be in the 8 to 9 area.  My guess.  Thankfully there are more weekends coming up.