California Dreaming

Winter in the Midwest has been brutal to say the least.  To the point where you almost have to laugh!  We took a quick trip out to San Jose on my birthday weekend to see my beloved Blackhawks, see some birds, and feel the warmth.  Below are some of the birds I was able to photograph via my digiscoping system.  The California Thrasher was a life bird for us so we were very excited to see two right by the road in the park south of Monterey.  The kite was a photo taken in low light at a little over 100 yards away….hence the poor image quality.  Hopefully the weather will break and I will be able to get out more.  And I have a trip to South Texas schedule for April so I will be digiscoping like a mad man at that time.

Out and About

I took a drive last week to see if there was anything 'special' to be found around here.  besides snowy owls…..not much.  so I took a few images of the Tree Sparrows and Cedar Waxwings.  It is one of the few sunny days where it is not brutally cold here in Minnesota in January.

Eastern Screech Owl.

I was lucky to be able to photograph an Eastern Screech Owl in the middle of the city a few weeks ago.  It is in a public park and pretty close to the street actually.  So it is a ten minute visit and the pictures are done and off I go!  He was tolerant because of all the kids sledding by him in the park.  So human disturbance is not so much of an issue.

Bird/Nature Photography or Staged Photography??

Weather on my days off has not been good recently.  Sunny during the week….rainy on the weekends.  So it has slowed the digiscoping down a bit.  In this down time I wanted to focus on something that is a discussion point among my birding and photography friends.  what is nature photography?

When I bought my first camera I had some crazy ideas apparently regarding what nature photography is.  I mean, I had looked at all these images and imagined what the photographer had done to get the image.  I assumed he has spent many hours studying his subject and was bale to put himself in position for a good shot should it have arose.  I had many frustrations but started to learn my way around with the big 600mm and all that gear.  I was much younger then….at least 15 years ago.

As I met more and more bird/nature photographers.  What I started learning were the 'tricks' of the trade.  Those being:

1.  Placing a perch by feeders to get those clean backgrounds.
2.  Using a call to lure the birds in to get the picture they wanted and the background they wanted.
3.  Going to and owl rehabilitation place, paying $ to photograph tame/captive birds and passing them off as wild.
4.  Going to a caged enclosure and taking photos of wolves, bears, fox, etc. and passing them off as wild.
5.  The ever famous use of bait to lure in owls/raptors/shrike for flight shots and pretty perches.
6.  Paying someone to find the bird then photographing it without any knowledge of the subject.

What I had to ask myself was……is THAT bird or nature photography?  To me….no.  And I have done the top two.  I had to look at myself in the mirror and ask myself if bird photography is worth that?  Is it worth sacrificing my morals, integrity, and the welfare of my subject just for a photograph?  No it is not!  That is why I took up digiscoping.

And the most alarming things that is happening is the paying of a 'pro' to take you to a location, 'show' you how to take pictures, and then you have a group of people with all the same pictures and no originality.   That is where photography has gone as the 'pros' cannot make barely a dime on stock due to the saturation of good photographers with the same images as the pro basically.  So they have you pay to shoot with them (or rather to be their friend for a few days so you can say you shot with xxxxx photographer) with a little bit of instruction going on because often, the 'pro' is right next to you shooting.  You have done nothing more than overpay for something you could have done on your own and also developed your own artistic style rather than copying another's.  In the age of having to have everything right now….this is where bird and nature photography has come.  It is sad and pathetic in my book.

I would like to ask a question.  Do you see anything wrong with the above listed items?  Are they something you would do with no guilt?

All I have to say is digiscoping has really advanced to the point where the big glass is not really needed except for occasions such as super slow shutters, owls at night.  That type of photography.  And my back thanks me every day!  It has brought the joy back to the process of taking an image.

Wigeons in Pamela Park.

In the pond behind our house we will often feed the ducks cracked corn.  It is a very small pond but we have about 70 mallards and 30 wood ducks on it.  Yesterday we were lucky to have a pair of American Wigeons on the pond.  These are new park birds for us.  It is a little strange seeing such a duck on a tiny pond surrounded by woods but there they are.  Last year we had Green Winged Teal as well.  As I walked Pamela Park I heard two Soras on the lake which was awfully late for them.  They were on the south entrance by where I found the Winter Wren Friday.

Still have White Throated Sparrows around.  It was a really slow year for Fox Sparrow compared to last year.  And a couple Ruby Crowned Kinglets yesterday.

The below photos are of the male and female Wigeon.  I used my Swarovski ATX95 and Sony RX100II attached via DCBII.  I have not really tried the V1 lately and it is tough to do when you compare the files with the RX100II.  If I ever need more reach I will use it most likely.  But the ATOS connector sucks a lot of light away while the DCB/w RX100 does not.

Next post will be on bird photography musings from my days of doing that as a hobby.

Little time for birding…..

With work being what it is (budget time) I have a limited time to bird.  And often it is just in the back yard or park out back.  In Pamela Park yesterday I was fortunate to find a Winter Wren which is the first one I have been able to find there.  Really nothing else of note other than the usual Hermit Thrushes, Juncos, White Throated Sparrows, and one Harris Sparrow (which is also a first for the park).  Woodpeckers a plenty as well!  Below are pictures from out back that I digiscoped in the past week.

I was able to bird Grey Cloud Dunes last weekend for a couple hours and the sparrows were numerous.  Le Contes was the highlight of the birding there as well as a lone Snow Goose flyover.  This Song Sparrow was the only sparrow to cooperate.

Lastly, we went to Lake Harriet yesterday evening to attempt to find the Lesser Black Backed Gull.  After some scanning and waiting for the gulls to file in we were able to spot it.  You need a scope and I needed 50x to really ID it.  Just scan and have some patience because it blends in quite well with all the Ring Billed Gulls when facing you.  The bright yellow bill will help when facing you but the profile shot sure made it easy.  I did not attempt to digiscope due to the very low light as well as the zoom.  It would have been a very poor picture but useful for ID purposes.

As it look like rain all week here I may have post some photography ramblings.  Especially since winter is on the way, there are already Northern Hawk Owl and Great Grey Owl sightings up north, and I am sure the mouse inventory at the pet stores will be on the decline…..if you get my drift.

Getting Used To The V1

I have gotten the necessary adapter and connectors for the V1 on the Swarovski ATX95.  Suffice it to say, after a little playing around, that is a lot of reach!  I am still learning the camera a bit and I do like the use of a viewfinder.  But the viewfinder is not what I would call top notch on the V1.  It does not really help with focus like the focus assist on the Sony RX100II does.  So.....I am going to buy the viewfinder for the hotshoe on the RX100II and see how it works out.  The difference in focal length between the two is substantial and it is sometimes a hindrance n tight quarters having so much.  And so far the RX100 has a better image to my eye.  Still need some decent sunlight to really put the Vi through it's paces.  But here are some starter shots.

This juvenile Sharp Shinned was over a football field away when I took this picture.  I had to crop for composition and you can see the noise in the shadows which is what you will get with a micro 4/3 most of the time when underexposed and cropped.

This was an adult Coopers Hawk that I just took a picture of.  It is very gloomy and the shutter speed was 1/15th.  So there is a little blur.  Hoping for some light net time it stops by.  I will also need the RX100II for it as I had to back up into the side yard to get a half a shot of the hawk.

You can see the V1 does well in the light.  From my preliminary shots the RX100II is better in darker/cloudy conditions in regards to noise than the V1.  They each have their use and I will use both for different situations.  And I will probably upgrade to the GX7 perhaps as it has an electronic shutter and a viewfinder that is better than the V1.  As well as focus assist.