Monthly Archives: March 2015
Feather from afar
Goose Feather caught in Beach Rose at our local beach.
The other day at the beach, there were many goose feathers caught in the Beach Rose on the dunes and along the road in. I later found the goose on the beach. There was something elegant about the forms of the white feathers hanging from thorns. This shot was an experiment. It was taken at 4000mm equivalent from about 16 feet. It uses the Nikon’s Dynamic Fine Zoom feature…and the extreme distance effectively separates the feather from its otherwise busy background. DFZ preserves a satisfying (if not critical) amount of detail.
Nikon P900. 1/1250th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Fluffed Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
We may still have 3 feet of snow in the yard, but the Goldfinches are coming into summer color, so spring must be creeping up on Southern Maine. This Goldfinch was at the feeder, and then popped up to a branch overhead. It is “fluffed” or “puffed”…with its breast feathers standing out from the body. Birds fluff for several reasons. On particularly cold mornings you will see them perched and fluffed before the sun comes up or just after. The additional air trapped in the fluffed feathers acts as insulation to keep them warm through the night. They might also fluff in the first sun of the day…sitting directly in sun…in which case the spread features allow the sun to get in closer to their bodes and warm them faster. Occasionally on a particularly hot day they might fluff for exactly the opposite reasons. Finally, they fluff to allow the sun in were it can kill feather mites when they reach troublesome levels, as they might after a long cold Maine winter. It was not particularly cold when this images was taken, so I suspect the mite cause for this bird.
The image was cropped slightly for composition, but it shows the incredible detail possible at 2000mm equivalent field of view with the new Nikon P900 superzoom bridge camera…at least in good light. You should view it a full screen. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Denoise (it did not really need it, but Topaz is a new toy today) and Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Back Creek. Happy Sunday!
Back Creek, Kennebunk ME
We have had occasional moments this week when I could believe in Spring in Southern Maine. Yesterday, after a day of off-and-on snow, heavy at times, the sun crept out through thinning clouds and for an hour and it actually felt like spring might happen. I went to the beach 🙂 Today we are back in the teens, though there is no denying the growing strength of the sun.
This is Back Creek about two miles from our house, where it comes into the Mousam River behind the dunes at our closest beach. I have photographed this hundreds of times. The sky, of course, is never the same twice, and yesterday’s was irresistible.
Nikon P900 at 24mm equivalent field of view. f2.8 @ 1/1600th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
The Nikon is a new camera for me. I have not had it a week yet, and I am still in the learning and exploring mode…trying to determine how to get the best out if…and indeed, what its best might be. It is a process I have been through many times before of course. Cameras are complex machines, these days driven by complex programming, and no camera ever made was perfect…especially not perfect for the particular kind of photography I do…for the vision I am trying to catch and share. It always comes down to working with the strengths of the machine, and working around its weaknesses. Every so often you decide there is a new feature, or a combination of features, whether hardware or software, that your current camera does not have…or a job it is just not up to…and you begin to look at what has come out since. Or occasionally, a maker will leap out in front of the pack with a new feature or new programming that just has to be tried. That is what keeps camera companies in business, and photographers always saving up for the next purchase 🙂 For many photographers, the vision inside them wants out…and will work its way out…no matter what camera they have in their hands…but we are always looking for the camera that makes that easiest…and always aware of the limitations of our current tools. It is a perfect metaphor (well, “perfect” is always a stretch) for the way the spirit in us wants out…and is always working its way out through this machine we call our body and the programming that is our personality. God has a vision to express in each of us…a job or series of jobs to do. I have a feeling that God works with our strengths and around our weaknesses to get the job done, every day. The spirit will out. My will is that I would be a good enough tool so that the vision is clearly expressed…the job done…every day. Happy Sunday.
Loon in murky light
Common Loon. Back Creek, Kennebunk ME
It never fails that my first few days with a camera are in murky, dark, damp weather. It does not help that is the dregs of winter here in Southern Maine either. This Common Loon was at the mouth of Back Creek where it enters the Mousam River behind the dunes. Despite the flat light, the reach of the 2000mm equivalent zoom on the new Nikon brings the bird in well.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwing, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk ME
I am testing a new camera…the Nikon P900 with an 83x zoom reaching 2000mm equivalent, and up to 4000mm with Nikon’s Dynamic Fine Zoom feature. After shooting some “feather birds” I bought for the purpose of testing (models), I decided to go to Roger’s Pond where the Robins have been active all winter to see if I could find some real birds 🙂 There was a flock of what I assumed were Cedar Waxwings in the very tops of the trees by the Mousam River and, though they were at the limits of even a 2000mm equivalent lens, I took some images. When I got home and started processing, I quickly suspected that the flock had not been entirely Cedars…at least half were Bohemian Waxwings…a much rarer visitor some winters to Southern Maine…so rare that I have only seen them once before in Kennebunk in 20 years (though they are reported somewhere in the state, mostly north of here, most winters). Surprise! I have many shots, but this one shows all the field-marks very well…including the yellow wingtips.
And the camera? This shot is at 2400mm equivalent, hand-held, and cropped from 16mp to 8mp for scale. While it is not the best shot in the world (I would have had to be much closer to the bird for a truly great shot), it captures the bird well, and would have simply been impossible to get at that distance with any other camera. I am impressed. I love the Sony HX400V I have been shooting with for more than a year, but the Nikon reaches further, focuses faster, and has all the “creature comforts” (in-camera HDR, Wifi, GPS, and sweep panorama) that I have come to enjoy on the Sony. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Close Quarters
Ring-billed Gull, A beach in KennebunkÂ
The other day I went down to the beach to see if there were any birds…I had seen an immature Bald Eagle soaring over the house on my way out and hoped to see the adults along the river. There was noting much to see at the beach. High tide. A few Golden Eyes in the river. And someone had been feeding the gulls. I spent a few moments playing with flight shots as the gulls came in to the bread still in the road. (There are lots of better things to feed gulls than bread…bits of cut up fruits and vegetables work well, and are certainly better for the birds.) The gulls were cooperative of course, and so close this shot was taken at just over 500mm equivalent field of view.
Sony HX400V in Sports Mode. 1/2000th @ ISO 160 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Flight Check
Breeding plumage Brown Pelican, La Jolla CA
The sun is shining in Southern Maine this morning, but it is only 18 degrees out, and we still have 3 feet of compacted snow in our yard…so you will forgive me if I drop back a few weeks to early March and Southern California for this pelican flexing wings shot. Warm memories on a cold day!
Sony HX400V at about 400mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Bandelier
Carol and Anna at Bandelier National Monumnet
My wife Carol and my daughter Anna posing at the largest of the cavates (improved rock caves used for living and storage) at Bandelier National Monument. The Ancestral Pueblo peoples lived in Frijoles Canyon for hundreds of years, growing beans and corn, and improving many of the small caves in the cliffs, then building along the base of the cliff, and finally building a free-standing 400 room circular complex on the floor of the canyon. It is possible that a combination of drought and the exhaustion of the firewood supply for a day’s travel in any direction forced them to resettle closer to the Rio Grande river…either to build or to join one the pueblos that still exist. At its height, the Ancestral Pueblo culture supported a substantial population, and maintained trade routes that brought in goods from deep into Mexico and Guatemala, and across the plains to eastern North America. The ruins are testimony to the people who became the Pueblos that remain.
Sony HX400V in-camera HDR. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Comma in New Mexico
Comma Butterfly, Randell Davies Audubon Sanctuary, Santa Fe NM
I know, there is no comma in New Mexico, but I mentioned in the Mourning Cloak post a few days ago that we had also seen a Comma / Question Mark butterfly up Bear Canyon at the Randell Davies Audubon Sanctuary, but I was not sure which one. The distinguishing feature is a small mark on the back of the wing, and it certainly takes some imagination even then (or it does for me). However, in researching a bit last week I found that you can reliably distinguish Comma form Question Mark from above. This is definitely a Comma. It has the heavily fringed wings and the correct pattern of dots and dashes on the fore-wing. I think, actually, that makes it my first Comma, and certainly an unexpected butterfly for canyon high above Santa Fe, New Mexico in March.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
The Land of Enchantment. Happy Sunday!
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, NM
We are back in Maine, “The Pine Tree State”, from New Mexico, “The Land Of Enchantment.” On the whole I have to say that whoever came up with the New Mexico nickname did a better job of capturing the essence of the state than whoever came up with Maine’s. I mean, you can market “enchantment”…”pine trees” just does not have the same effect. Don’t get me wrong, Maine is home and I am happy to be home…but New Mexico was home for 12 years, and I can still appreciate the enchantment of the landscape, the culture, and the history. This is certainly an enchanted landscape from an enchanted place. We are back at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and here we see two of the three land forms that meet at the Monument. The eroded tuff cliffs in the foreground, and ancient volcanic mountains in the back. The third would be the open valley of the Rio Grande River which is out of the frame well to the left. And storm clouds…life-givers…moving in over all. Enchantment!
Sony WX220 at 25mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f8. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Of course, enchantment is a state of mind. All around you in New Mexico is the evidence of how fragile and wonderful life can be. For thousands of years…from pit dwellers to pueblos, to Navajo and Apache hunters, to the Spanish invaders, to the hunters turned shepherds and silversmiths, to the trading post merchants, cowboys, miners, farmers, and outlaws, to the atom chasers at Los Alamos and the artists of Santa Fe…humans have tried to make a life in this fantastic, wonderfully weathered, landscape…always poised on the edge…boom followed by bust…never quite waking from the dream. And the landscape weathers on, patient, ever changing and yet unchanged, rolling over and engulfing every change made by man. It is much the same everywhere, if you look behind the current facade, but some landscapes have almost been tamed. New Mexico, despite every effort of humanity, has not. The struggle and delicate balance…and the beauty of life on the edge…of the waking dream…is still very evident. Enchantment.
My spiritual forefathers lived in just such a landscape. The tribes of Israel herded sheep between the farming towns along the rivers. Jesus was born and lived his life among us in a place that shares this particular enchantment. For me, part of the magic of New Mexico is that I can feel something of the mindset that shaped the scriptures, that gave the words and images in which my spiritual reality was first expressed. Being there, in places like Tent Rocks, puts me into a spiritual perspective, and makes it easier to believe. This is good. Happy Sunday!