Blog
JULY
EYE SEE YOU
Nikon D810 f8 1/1000 ISO 6400 Nikon 300mm 2.8
This month “Peter Rabbit” and I will take a sneak peek at birds bathing. Many birds and squirrels come for a drink, but blue birds and robins are regular bathers at the birdbath, and a house finch comes by periodically - my observations.
The robin flies in and immediately jumps into the water. Other birds will come at the same time and wait for their turn to bathe.
Robin Taking A Bath Nikon D810 f8 1/1000 ISO 6400 Nikon 300mm 2.8
House Finch Challenging A Blue Bird Nikon D810 f11 1/1000 ISO 6400 Nikon 200-500mm 5.6 at 500mm
Sometime the birds spend a lot of time washing and cleaning their face while waiting birds grow impatient.
How Long Will You Take? Nikon D5 f5.6 1/1250 ISO 8000 Nikon 300 mm f2.8 1.4 Extender (410MM)
BlueBird Taking His Turn Nikon D5 f10 1/1000 ISO 8000 8000 Nikon 300M mm f2.8 1.4 Extender (410 mm)
What I find most exciting is the way each bird left the bath to dry off. Some flew into the trees while others fluffed their feathers on the fence. As you can see some birds move to the side before flying off while others made a direct flight out of the water.
Robin Drying Off Nikon D810 f8 1/1000 ISO 6400 Nikon 200-500 mm 5.6
Robin Drying Off Nikon D810 f8 1/1000 ISO6400 Nikon 200-500 mm 5.6
Blue Bird Leaving Bath Nikon D5 f10 1/1250 ISO 8000 Nikon 300 mm f2.8 1.4 Extender (410MM)
A Fancy Blue Bird Exit Nikon D5 f10 1/1250 ISO 8000 Nikon 300 mm f2.8 1.4 Extender (410 mm)
JUNE BLOG
It seems that we had April showers in May this year. After a week of dodging the rain indoors I decided to take another view of my backyard with a different lens and chose the Tokina 2.8 100mm macro/micro lens. All photographs are items that fell on my deck after the strong winds and rain. In addition to the Tokina lens a Nikon D810 was used handheld. I will include exposure settings under each photograph.
Resting f8 1/60 sec ISO 200
In this fallen leaf branch I see an abstract of a feathered animal resting on its side.
2 Petals f8 1/125 sec ISO 900
These two tree flower petals were on a glass top table with the sunlight reflecting from below. The image below resulted from processing the petals in Topaz Studio oil preset to produce a painted effect with saturated colors.
Challenge f11 1/100 sec ISO 800
An ant came by and saw a pod that might be a source of food to take home. The challenge was too great so he decided to leave without it.
Petal f8 1/125 sec ISO 360
This single petal was on a glass top table with a partial sun coming from one side and was sitting in water on the right side. This created a white reflected rim at the top right edge of the petal. I like the variety of lines that move from the left center and spread over the entire petal.
Decomposition f32 1/20 sec ISO 800
Another glass top table with sunlight reflecting from above and directly below with a little water remaining on top produced this image of a decomposing leaf. The bird like look of the leaf is framed by the rope like supports under the glass.
Several people who responded to the May Blog asked that I include information about how the images were taken. All of the images in the last Blog were taken with a Nikon D810, Nikon 300mm 2.8 at f8 1/2000 sec with automatic ISO.
All comments are welcome. bill@williamcsmiley.com