I have had my D4 for some time now.  Had a real blast shooting with it.  The only problem…..very little shooting.  My time has been limited.  I did put the time lapse feature to work last week and it worked flawlessly.  As far as exposures go I haven’t really been in conditions to stretch the D4 a little.  Until today.  FBWR and a white Egret midday.  No expeosure compensation.  Straight on… let the camera do the work.  Also threw in a Heron for good measure.  Two of the exposures were run through Color EFX pro4.

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In Las Vegas tonight.  Thinking about my last trip to Antelope Island. The Island is an area with a wide array of wildlife.   Tonight my time was looking back at some of the new travelers coming through our beautiful state of Utah.

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Can’t wait to get back.  Hopefully this weekend.

It’s getting real WILD at the FBWR!

The male geese are being really protective of their females right now.  And boy is it fun to capture!

All photo’s shot with Nikon D4, 600mm lens w/2x teleconverter, Gitzo tripod, and Gimbal head.  All captures on new Sony XQD card.

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A lot of people live with pain!

A lot of people live with disabilities.

Yesterday while photographing a beautiful Egret at the Great Salt Lake I was very touched.  I know of an individual that lives with a considerable amount of pain.  He may have to endure it for some time.  Maybe a good Doctor can get to the bottom of the pain.  Maybe.  Life goes on.  People have expectations.  Employers and superiors want production….regardless.  No excuses. Some days it affects his self esteem.   As humans we are consumed by our self esteem.   And not as concerned about our self worth.  Our self worth is what we bring to this earth with us.  Even in pain an individual should know his or her self worth.  Our self esteem seems to be dependent on what others think of us.   Friday I was reminded of a very good friend of my Daughters.  Becka.  She has been in a wheel chair since she was just a little tike.  Paralyzed.  Becka is beautiful.  Really Beautiful.  She has never let her disability slow her down.  A succesful violinist, a wheel chair athlete and a wife.  She knows of her self worth and incredible self esteem.  What an example.

Meet my friend I found by the Great Salt Lake on Friday…..

They just don’t get any more beautiful than the Egret.  A beautiful bird in it’s own right.  This one in particular made me cry.  A little.

Though he was having great success at fishing.  Something was out of sorts.  I watched and studied this one.  He seemed to be off balance when moving.  The photo above shows how one wing is extended more than the other.  He did this often when moving.  Not just while fishing.  He was great at getting his fish…..

What first caught my eye was like in the photo above he seemed to be off balance.  Leaning more to one side.  Notice in the photo above how much lower in the water his left leg is.  This great fisher was either born deformed or lost part of his left leg during his life.

No left foot.  Was he attacked and lost his foot but got away?  Was he born this way?  There is no question this disability was getting to me a lot more than it was getting to this beautiful Egret!  In short order he was catching fish left and right.  Like Beka he did not even acknowledge his disability.  He is a survivor.  I am not a biologist but this guy looks healthy.  Is he in pain?  Is he depressed about his condition?    Birds don’t get depressed.  I think.  He didn’t stay long.  I was blessed to run across this special bird.  He reminded me that I need to focus more on what I need to do to survive.  What started as another day wanting to maximize my new camera turned into a lesson of self examination.  Maybe with some effort I can be as good at my specialty as he is at fishing!!!!!!

All – Nikon D4, 600mm lens, 1.7 teleconverter used in two photos.

Friday I got “the” call.

My Nikon D4 was in!

As you would guess Friday was turning into the day from heck.  More than anything I wanted to get out and start testing all the new features of the D4.  But NO!!!!!!  At 5:40 I dashed out to FBBR.  At the very least I had to test the advertised increased focus in low light, i.e. shooting through a 2x teleconverter.  When placed on the 600mm lens (f/4) the aperture then becomes f/8.  Somewhat of a nightmare for focusing.  Then add low light.  Shooting after sunset, etc.  When I finally made it to FBBR they had been closed for nearly an hour.  Dang it!   My only option was to go to the end of the road where there is a very large pond.  I have shot there many times.  The sun was just going behind the clouds and very soon would be set for the day.  As I turned at the end of the road my eyes about came out of my head.  Way out on the pond was a Great Blue Heron fishing.  Not a typical place for them to fish.  To much car and foot traffic.  I think I set a new record for getting out my window mount, the 600mm lens, the 2x teleconverter and of course my brand new unused Nikon D4.

Heron’s are shy.

I was still in my car and stopped well short of the pond when I saw the Heron.   With everything mounted I creeped slowly in my car to the pond edge.  Still about 60 to 70 yards away the Heron was getting nervous.  I stopped.  Put the Heron in the D4 cross hairs and watched.  And waited.  Had a few minutes to set the ISO and check the settings.  At least the ones I knew.  A new camera you know!  And right on que the Heron stabbed a huge fish.  I was amazed at how fast the camera focused.  At about 11 frames a second not much of the Heron fishing didn’t get captured.  With the 2x converter the net optical length was 1200mm.  The wind was shaking the camera.  But to my surprise at about 70 yards, f/8, and a high ISO I got this beautiful capture…….

CLICK ON THE PHOTOGRAPH TO ENLARGE

The geese are back in full force at the refuge.  The goal this year?  To get geese flying right at the camera.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Geese can see you coming from a great distance.  And will avoid humans even when in flight.

In addition the Great Blue Herons are nest building and fishing.  I love trying to catch the Great Blue’s fishing.

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The first photo I ran through Topaz to get the art look to it.  The second with the geese is strictly a saturation off, dodge and burn single level post production,,,,

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Had to capture this one….

I have viewed this particular photo many, many times through my viewfinder.  For years.  It’s a favorite resting perch for Bald Eagles, Hawks and other birds of prey.   A wonderful spot to see all around and “hunt”.  There are a very large number of pixels on my hard drives of this shot with multiple views of many birds.  Even posted a couple of shots.  This week I found myself stopping and shooting here again.  A little different this time.  First the bird is unusual.  It’s not a young Bald Eagle rather it’s a Golden Eagle.  How do I know?  They are larger and dominant to the Bald Eagle.  Just before I took this photograph there was three Bald Eagles perched there.  Then this giant Golden flew in and decided he liked the perch.  The Bald’s ditched it quickly and flew away in different directions.  Rarely do I center a subject in a photograph. Consciencely or sub-consciencely centering a subject doesn’t feel right to me when composing a photograph.  In this case it seemed to work for me.

Another unique thing about this photo is the clouds and snow on the mountains.  It screamed black and white!   The placement of the clouds, their texture and the dynamic range was appealing to me.

Captured the pixels, ran them through Silver Efex pro2.  Did some slight dodging and burning also.

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Nikon D3s, 200-400mm VR, 1.7 teleconverter,  f.4 at 1/4500 second, ISO 200.

This week we had one morning that was snowing and foggy.

A good day to shoot.

Right after the gate found this Great Blue Heron.  Fishing and wanting to be captured on my camera.  Proof that he was out in the cold and snow………