Posts in Category: Ohio
9/23/2011: Great Blue Portraits
There is nothing so photogenic as a great blue heron…or at least no bird that poses so well! For a digiscoper, trying to capture images through the eyepiece of a spotting scope, that is half the battle. These shots are from a dull, overcast morning in Ohio, a few hundred yards back from the shore of Lake Erie, in the ponds at East Harbor State Park near Port Clinton. I am still learning to use the Nikon Coolpix P300 in this application, and I had a new adapter for the scope as well…so I needed a bird that would sit. I took maybe 35 images of this bird, slowly working my way closer, before the demands of the day pulled me away. It was still sitting where I found it when I left.
Nikon Coolpix P300 behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. 1) about 4500mm equivalent field of view, 1/30th @ ISO 400, f12 effective (limited by the scope), 2) 1050mm equivalent, 1/80th @ ISO 400, f4.5 effective (limited by the camera).
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/22/2011: Everybody’s got one, this is mine. (sunflower)
Take one giant sunflower, add camera toting human being, give it about a minute, and you will have one pic of a sunflower. Everybody’s got one. This is mine.
I like the way the backlight on this allows the full play of the various textures and more subtitle colors. And I like it that, even in its own shade, it just looks so cheerful! That’s sunflowers for you.
Meadowbrook Marsh Sanctuary between Port Clinton and Marblehead OH.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode. 32mm equivalent field of view (CU default), f3.7 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/21/2011: Face to face with a Dragon
For Wings on Wednesday, lets go with dragonflies. There were a lot of dragonflies in Ohio, but they would not sit for me. I saw Common Green Darners in great numbers, and a couple of Black Saddlebags. No pics! I think this is a worn and weary Ruby Meadowhawk sitting on the rail of the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. Worn because its color is dull and the face plate is dingy rather than white. Weary because it sat for its portrait at 32mm equivalent field of view and with the camera inches from its tail (second shot).
And I was so close here I had to crop out the shadow of the camera behind the bug.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close UP mode: 1) 60mm equivalent field of view. f4.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 2) 32mm equivalent (the auto setting for Close UP mode), f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/20/2011: Summer’s Gone :(
This is a case where the built in HDR on the Nikon Coolpix actually worked! I took the shot without, and of course, in this lighting, the tree went black and the clouds went featureless white. The built in HDR produced a result that was a bit flat, but toning up in Lightroom produced a good rendering of the range of the scene.
The racks of resting boats at the Lakeside Sailing Club and School testify to the lateness of the season, and the tree and building provide a compositional frame.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 22mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 (nominal) @ 1/1000th (nominal…this is the sum of several exposures), @ ISO 160. Backlight HDR mode.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness, with special attention to the intensity of the scene.
9/19/2011: Lakeside Tree of Vines
And the wonder of it is that this tree itself seems healthy and well despite its burden of vines. It provides a name (and shade) for the Bed and Breakfast behind it. I looked for an angle that would show the texture of the twisted vine cover and the vigor of the leaves, contrasting with the yellow siding of the house. The exposure needed to maintain the blue of the sky.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at about 50mm equivalent field of view, f4.2 @ 1/200 @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/17/2011: Marblehead Light
A couple of classic postcard views of Marblehead Light in Marblehead Ohio. What can I say? The Light is there. The Light is way picturesque. You shoot the Light. It is photographed so often that all that angles are taken, but still you just have to do it. (I think they might actually keep the arch of tree brancbes in the first shot trimmed just for this shot 🙂
Nikon Coolpix P500. 1) 36mm equivalent field of view. f4 @1/1250th @ ISO 160. 2) 36mm, f8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting. -.7 EV exposure compensation for the white of the light.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
6/1/2011: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, wings on wednesday
As a birder, I will admit that I think almost all birds are beautiful…as in the eye of the beholder if nothing else…but I find the Rose-breasted Grosbeak particularly striking. This Grosbeak, incidentally, shows exactly what Magee Marsh is all about. Magee is a major stop-over for birds waiting for favorable winds to cross Lake Erie in Ohio. They stop there to fuel up, and the rich habitat of the mid-west spring provides the fuel. Every bird you see there is actively feeding (note the seeds on that massive beak)…even those who are not moving on in the morning…since the residents are busy at nest building and also need their energy.
I like this shot, even-though the bird is mostly obscured. It is pretty much what most birders get to see of most birds they encounter in a woodland setting. However I did manage a few full frontal portraits of Rose-breasted Grosbeak while at Magee as well.
Nikon Coolpix P500. 1) 810mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. 2) f5.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. User selected Flight and Action program.
User Flight and Action mode:
full size (12mp)
fine image quality
8 fps for 5 frames
center and continuous focus
center metering
auto ISO and a minimum shutter speed of 1/125 second
hybrid Vibration Reduction
LCD off
zoom fully extended (810mm equivalent)
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/25/2011: Catbird!
Catbirds at Magee Marsh during The Biggest Week in American Birding were almost too easy. They were everywhere, they were close, and they were totally unconcerned with the human traffic on the boardwalk.
I like this sequence because of the light and shadow contrast.
This individual was a bit grubby from digging for grubs.
And finally, this is the very first bird I shot at Magee Marsh.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 600 and 668mm equivalent fields of view, #1 at 810mm. ISO 160 to ISO 500 (#5), 1/100th and 1/125th. f5.7.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
5/18/2011: Prothonotary Song, Wings on Wednesday
As I have mentioned, the Magee Marsh boardwalk on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie is a wonderful place to see Prothonotary Warblers. They are building nests this time of year, and the males are singing lustily. I don’t think there is another bird on the planet that puts more behind its song than the Prothonotary…witness the gape on this one.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 810mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. User Flight and Action program.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Cropped slightly from full frame.
5/16/2011: Prothonotary takes a dive…
There were Prothonotary Warblers aplenty at Magee Marsh on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie during The Biggest Week in American Birding. Prothonotarys singing. Prothonotarys nest building. Prothonotarys simply decorating the mid-level branches. I make it sound dull, but, of course, every Prothonotary was a amazing, wonderful, eye and ear filling wonder…a little bomb of awesomeness that exploded within sight and sound of the boardwalk. Prothonotarys were a welcome break from photographing real warblers…because everyone knows real warblers do not sit still and pose for the photographer. This bird, I am thinking a female from the greenish tinge on the back, sat only so long, before deciding to move on, and I happened to catch the moment of decision at 8 frames per second.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 668mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. User Flight and Action mode.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.