Where to go? - 5/20/19

The struggle continued to find new and interesting places to take pictures of birds. The next thought I had was being up at their level, bit difficult to do since I don’t climb trees. But the top of a building came to mind, and naturally I expected to not be able to find access to something like that. So the next best thing I could come up with was the top level of a parking deck at a mall.

It worked for about 20 minutes before security came to let me know they don’t allow people doing that and I got kicked out.

I did get a few pictures before that happened.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =1200mm equivalent - 1/2000 Sec - F13 - ISO 3200

I believe this little guy to be a house finch, the bird book I have mentions that a variant coloring of them has yellow to orange in the face. Like this one does.

There were also a couple crows making some noise and flying around. I managed to get a shot of them in the action.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =1200mm equivalent - 1/2500 Sec - F14 - ISO 5000

The biggest challenge I’ve ever faced is finding locations where I can go. I’m not going to risk trespassing, and I don’t know anyone with land ownership that would let me go watch for wildlife. So public property is all that’s left, and in the stupid busy metro Atlanta those places are always filled with people.

I did manage to find a little open field like thing by wandering off the trail at a park. I think it was some water collection type of structure. Not entirely sure to it’s intended purpose. But it had high concrete walls that were littered with spray paint from probably idiot teenagers. There was a large grassy area at the other end, and as I discovered it there happened to be several deer grazing. I was almost climbing uphill to get to the ridge when I saw them, so I didn’t have much time to grab the camera. What came out of it was a pretty cool picture of a deer mid prance.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @512 - 1/200 Sec - F11 - ISO 3200

Gimmie all your lens length - 5/11/19 and 5/13/19

This next post takes place over two days at the same location. First trip I went in the early early morning on a Saturday. Then again a few days later in the evening of a workday.

It was a place near me that I found on google maps looking for big open areas, fields, bodies of water. Etc. Next to a park trail was this large lot of marshland. Body of water running through the middle, big tall grass. But not a lot of trees, perfect to spot some birds in flight. And that’s what I started the day out with, the first picture I have in this folder is a group of mallards after they took off from the water.

Canon 5D Mark II w/ Tamron 150-600mm @450 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =900mm equivalent - 1/800 Sec - F13 - ISO 6400

My goal here was to try out the new teleconverter I had purchased. Even though I had read what people were saying about image quality degradation, I took a gamble on a cheap 2x. The results are less than thrilling. But a lesson learned for sure.

I settled in with my folding chair as far out as I could go, there was a good bit of water in front of me before the plants took over. I was positioned right next to what could have been part of a dam, with all the logs and rocks that were there. Then I noticed, practically in front of my nose, something that made me jump.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @364 - 1/800 Sec - F11 - ISO 6400

A deer skull.

What the fuck was this doing here? Obviously human involvement. But it was just so strange to see this in the rocks and tree branches. A bit unsettling for sure. As far as I could tell it was real, I didn’t mess with it. There was definitely deer in this area so I supposed it’s possible someone came across this in the woods and brought it out near the water, as I mentioned it was right next to the trail of a very busy park. People are weird.

Back to bird watching.

Canon 5D Mark II w/ Tamron 150-600mm @600 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =1200mm equivalent - 1/1000 Sec - F13 - ISO 6400

Although I didn’t identify this particular bird back in the day, having done my research now when writing this I can say for sure it’s a Common Grackle. A purple Grackle to be precise, which is native to the southeast.

I watched this guy flit back and forth around these reeds, digging for bugs I assume.

And that concluded the trip for Saturday. Several hours spent but not a lot to show for it. The other images I took were shakey, blurry out of focus, etc. The teleconverter had me manually focusing of course. As auto focus has no chance at that range. I did learn quite a bit about trying to get a fast moving subject like a bird in flight is extremely difficult with manual focus.

I tried again a few days later with a bit more success.

Canon 5D Mark II w/ Tamron 150-600 @300mm - 1/2000 Sec - F11 - ISO 2500

That evening I was out in a different spot, one that was off any sort of trail and through the woods into the marsh. While I set up the tripod and stood on top of logs and dead reeds I was in the middle of some waist high grass and weeds. Nervously jumping at each sound because quite frankly I had no idea what was in those weeds. And being this close to water I was expecting something slithering that would frighten the shit out of me.

Thankfully nothing like that happened, and in hour or two of sunlight I had left I did manage to watch a pair of Red Winged Blackbirds fly back and forth across this wide open area. There were several dead trees that had tall reaching branches or limbs that were perfect for the birds to land on for a bit. And excellent for me to be able to focus on preparing for a takeoff shot.

It took a while, I have quite a lot of picturing of a blurry bird just starting to move, or one of just a tree with no bird in the frame at all.

But eventually I managed to get what I wanted.

Canon 5D Mark II w/ Tamron 150-600mm @400 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =800mm equivalent - 1/2000 Sec - F13 - ISO 2000

In the midst of all the black of the bird that flash of reddish orange was like a light to a moth. I was absolutely thrilled to see it when I watched it flying around. I’d never seen one before, and out there to the naked eye and through my camera it looked awful orange to me. Orange is one of my favorite colors and I hope to find more orange birds in the future.

But I wanted more, more reach. Closer images of the birds. I still want that to this day, truly what I would like is full detailed close up images of birds. But that isn’t quite how it works. They don’t really take kindly to you getting close to them, so big long lenses are needed. And those cost a LOT.

I knew my old camera had a bit more reach, kind of, through the crop factor. So when a hawk appeared and was riding the thermals around I switched bodies so I could try and get as close as I could from the ground.

Canon Rebel T3i (1.6x crop factor) w/ Tamron 150-600mm @600 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =1920 equivalent - 1/3200 Sec - F13 - ISO 4000

Blech.

Maybe all that reach did come at a price. A pixelated blurry mess.

I did try one other thing with the T3i though, and that was a shot of the moon that had risen while I was out there. And although it also isn’t the clearest sharpest picture I’ve taken. The detail you can see is remarkable.

Canon Rebel T3i (1.6x crop factor) w/ Tamron 150-600mm @600 + Vivitar 2x Teleconverter =1920 equivalent - 1/1000 Sec - F13 - ISO 2000

Patience pays off - 5/6/19

A lot has happened since I wrote one of these. It’s been well over a month, and I mostly talk about the timeline that was taking place for the date of the photography. However I will make an exception for large scale events that have happened. As I did at the beginning of this year when my income situation took a major turn. Funny enough that’s what has happened again, but not just to a small company.

Covid-19, or the Coronavirus is in full effect here. Personally I’ve been home for over a month now. I started to feel ill and called out of work at the first sign. Was not taking any chances after all the reports I’d heard from China and other countries that were affected before the US. Plus my direct manager is immune-suppressed so this virus could literally kill her. While my girlfriend and I both had mild symptoms for a period of about two weeks, it’s hard to say if we actually contracted the virus. Doesn’t help that they are only testing those who symptoms are bad enough that they “can’t be controlled from home.” Means all the numbers they post on the tracking websites don’t mean shit.

But for my situation I am extremely lucky here. No major symptoms and I was able to use all of my vacation time before going into PTO debt for the few weeks that I was out but the rest of the company was working. Finally a month later through a lot of stress and uncertainty, I received money today from the government. Unemployment and a stimulus check. The unemployment has me scheduled through at least July currently. I do hope it gets extended as from the predictions I was reading are calculating that the virus in my area would peak in May, and be safer in July. However the amount of people I hear and even see within my own apartment complex that are not taking this seriously make me really doubt that timeline. That only works if we take serious measures. A shelter in place finally got put into effect and extended through the end of this month.

If I’m being honest, I’m going to try and stay on unemployment for as long as possible. For the greater concern that the virus is killing people. A lot of people. But also in a selfish way of thinking, with the unemployment and the relief bill adding on an extra $600 a week. I’m making considerably more by staying home than I would working. I didn’t think it would actually happen no matter what I was reading about the supposed money I would be getting until it actually hit my bank account. Which it did today.

So although I would really rather go outside and do wildlife photography. I stay put. So I don’t contract or spread this deadly virus. I have found that Red Dead Redemption 2 has a lot of wildlife and an excellent photo mode. It’s satisfying me for now. I hope to put some more effort into this blog over the coming months and try to get caught up to the present with the posting. Since at least for the next few months I won’t be working or going out and about. As horrible as this situation is and I most certainly wish that it is over quickly and with as few casualties as possible, for me this could be a turning point. I’m not getting my hopes up or counting chickens before they’ve hatched. But the additional income I’ll be getting should allow me enough to pay off my car and a considerable portion of my debt. It could allow me to not be forced into a full time job when I go back to work and might allow me more time to allot for photography. Since I only just received the first stipend today it’s definitely too early to tell. And who knows what will happen in the future. I didn’t foresee spending the last month playing video games and streaming shows. But that’s what happened.

So back to the usual stuff. Just a quick update while things are fresh in the present.

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These next few images are all in one folder with a certain date and location. But I know not all of them are accurate to that. Because I was dumping all the photos from the cards manually that was bound to happen. Go out for a few days in a row, then just do one big backup of everything you shot. So these all came out of different local parks I went to on different days.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/1250 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

The above shots of a Blue Jay came from an outing with my significant other at a local park. One night after work we went for a walk and I of course brought out the big boy. Not very inconspicuous as an older man came to start talking to me about it. But before that conversation we did sit for a bit and watch this Blue Jay fly down from the branch to right next to us and grab some food someone had dropped. Popcorn or something. Too close for me to be able to focus when he was on the ground, but I was happy with the shots from up in the tree.

They do look a bit overdone in the editing, the white of the bird was not purple. -_-

Still learning, little bit at a time.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/250 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

We also came across a butterfly on the walk. With the big lens there was no chance of autofocus getting it while I was this close. Also handholding while shooting and I was shooting at way slower of a shutter speed than I should have been to get it sharp.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @200- 1/5 Sec - F36- ISO 100

Another shot of the same water fountain from previous posts. This time more zoomed because of the longer lens.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @966??? - 1/200 Sec - F13 - ISO 3200 (My best guess is I was playing around with the teleconverter I had purchased. Explains the doubled F stop.

A lovely little mourning dove I came across on another day when I went to a different local park and wandered around. I do like the blue around the eye, very pretty.

And then we come to the main event. The actual date the post is referring to and the trip to yet another different local park. This one is a lot bigger with miles of bike trails through the woods and along a paved road. I started out going through the woods, turns out it was crowded as hell with people hiking and mountain biking. I also had gone after work since it was a Monday evening, not a lot of light coming through those trees. But I did manage to catch a Cardinal ahead of me flirting around from the ground and low branches. Later I would notice that the shot came at a great time, right after he snatched up a bug out of the air. I of course didn’t see this at the time because of just how fast these guys are.

With the lack of light I assume I was using aperture priority, as I did for most of my shooting back in the day. I knew it was hard enough to even try and find wildlife, did not want to miss a shot because I was fiddling with the settings. Over the years since I started this I can tell you people debate this back and forth that you aren’t a “pro” if you use automatic settings.

Fuck that. You do what it takes to get the shot. End of story. Now can you make the shot better with a deeper understanding of your camera and exactly which settings affects what? Yes of course. And I strive every time to make each shot better than the last.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/80 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

But in the case of this cardinal, on this day. It came out a little blurry because of the long lens being handheld with a low shutter speed.

That was almost it for this outing, very little wildlife and way too much human life for my tastes. But I kept going on the greenway, playing Pokemon Go and watching for wildlife. Along the road is a little wooden dock looking out over a small bend in the river. A pleasant place to stop and also a stop in Pokemon. So I was there taking pictures of a lizard and looking out over the water when a large black bird shaped object swooped down from overhead and into the trees ahead of me.

This was already at the end of the night, I was hungry and was already thinking about heading home. But that sight was enough to keep me there, scanning and searching the darkness of the tree cover for any sign of what bird had just come flying past. In retrospect I’m sure it was an owl. But this story isn’t about that bird. After probably 10 minutes or so I noticed movement off to the side along the water.

Out walks a Great Blue Heron, slowly stalking its way through the water.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/320 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

What are the odds that I happened to be in the right place at the right time for this Heron to come strolling along. Dinner could wait, I was set now.

All in all I was out there for another 45 minutes or an hour after he showed up. He had walked alone to the bushes you can see and froze. I knew he was waiting until a fish mistook his leg for just a tree branch and he would strike. And I wanted a shot of him getting the fish. Which I won’t keep you in suspense about, I didn’t get it. He turned away from me when he did the strike. I still got a shot of him walking away with the fish as he gulped in down.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/250 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

I was thrilled, even if I didn’t get the exact shot I wanted. Just being in the right place to witness such a stillness from the bird. I was fidgeting the whole time. I was worried he would go at any second and I would miss it. So I kept hand on the button and tried to blindly reach into my bag to get the remote shutter control and attach it blind. Thankfully as it turned out I had plenty of time, it was probably 20 minutes or so before he got the fish. And another 20 or 30 standing in another place a bit further down the river before he walked out of my sight and I went home.

Even though I was too far away to really get a good close up shot, and with him being turned away and me being antsy I missed the actual fishing part. It was an excellent trip out and a beauty of a thing to witness. I have a huge respect for something that can stay that still. I can’t manage it. Shit I’ll rub a hole through my clothing rubbing it between my fingers if I find myself being still for too long. I’m sure that’s some kind of hyper overactive something disorder. Ah well, as long as I do it small and silently it doesn’t scare away the wildlife when I’m waiting for a good shot.