I’ve found and have made a new friend this winter.
“Spot”
A very young Hawk at FBWR that allows me capture a lot of his/her antics. At this point I am not sure of the sex. Doesn’t matter. Gave it the name Spot because on the back of it’s head is an obvious black spot. It’s been a blast as I wait pre sunrise for this little charmer to appear at the same spot. MTC…..
I always say that photography is a game of numbers.
If you shoot enough pics eventually good pics will be the result. I have been attempting for some time to get a full spectrum shot of the American Coot diving for a meal. The coot sits on the water then without warning it dives. Takes less than 2 seconds. The difficult part is the first movement of the Coot just as it starts the dive. Today I got it!!!!!
Nikon announced their new professional camera to replace the D3s!
I shoot with D3s’s!
What to do???????
Can it get any better than the D3s? I have reading reviews, blogs, news releases almost all night. It was like reading The Hunt for Red October for the first time. Couldn’t stop reading about the new Nikon D4. Replacing the D3s? It is an incredible camera (the D3s). I have enjoyed the benefits of this incredible camera. Just last week I was up most the night so I left sub-morning light and went out to the FBWR for some quiet time. With just very little day light I captured this shot….
I remind you that this shot of the hawk was taken before sunrise. I was the only photographer out that morning. Canon shooters arrive a little later. Kinda kidding. The duck hunters were out in kill mode. I was in take home a pic mode. The photo is surely soft and has considerable noise. In this case it adds to the surreal nature of the pre-sunrise shot. The ISO was at 6400. Yikes. And with only this much noise? INCREDIBLE.
The D4 looks to be even better. Hard to believe. Nikon has thought this one over. Full HD video, EXPEED 3 sensor, 91,000 color pixel sensor, 10 frames a second shooting, ISO to 203,000, mike input and earphones output, 16 MP and on and on!!!!!!
Guess I will be heading to Pictureline this morning to put my name on the list.
I am selling one of my D3s’s. Only one though…….
With all the duck hunters at FBWR the ducks have ben looking for safe places to hang.
I have been watching a large group of male and female Mallards. This morning I noticed a much smaller duck that I have not seen before. A Green-Winged Teal. Cute fella.
Much smaller than the florescent green headed Mallard. This is the smallest North American dabbling duck. The breeding male has grey flanks and back, with a yellow rear end and a white-edged green speculum ( apart of the wing), obvious in flight or at rest. It has a chestnut head with a green eye patch. It is distinguished from drake Common Teals by a vertical white stripe on side of breast, the lack of both a horizontal white scapular stripe and the lack of thin buff lines on its head. The only one at this pond today. No mate. Not even sure how many total may be passing through. Just real glad to capture this one………
I love this little hunter. Saw him perched in a residential tree driving back from a project this morning…
I love watching and photographing Kestrels “Falco sparverius‘. Just as the “Falco” denotes he is a falcon. This one being a male…
I have a new goal.
To try and catch an America Coot “Fulica Americana” in the full act of diving. Tried for an hour yesterday. They are fast. Diving for grass on the bottom of the pond. Not too bad. Sounds Easy huh? Well it’s not. They give no real indication of when the dive starts. So all I have been getting is a partially submerged Coot with his webbed feet looking up. Give me a little bit….I will get this one! For sure.
For hating Las Vegas so much I am sure posting a lot about it.
At the the corner of Las Vegas Blvd and where the MGM Grand is is a Huge Gold lion. Huge! Las Vegas style statue of a lion. Behind and surrounding the lion statue are several Atlas’s hold up big objects. Saucers, the world or something. The lion was much harder to photograph than Atlas. Th gold finish had a lot of specular highlights. Hand held a 9 shot HDR combo, Silver EFEX Pro2 and her is the finish photo…..
It’s turning out to be a weird winter thus far.
No snow in the valley. Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees.
And there is a White Faced Ibis still hanging out at the FBWR. Saw him a few days ago and was surprised. I am not an Ibis expert. But it is the only one seen for a while. Just like the White Egret recently photographed, (which is gone now) I wonder why the Ibis is hanging around. They seen to fly and stay in groups. I have posted several times photographs of these beautiful birds. They never disappoint my camera and screen when I get back.
The hunters where out and some would pass the small pond the Ibis was fishing in. He would quickly get out and move away onto the ice closer the safety of the brush. Made for a strange site for me personally.
He is a very proficient fisher…..
Photographers are not photographing subjects.
We are photographing LIGHT.
While in hell….I mean Las Vegas, I saw this particular statue of Atlas holding up the world. It was a “Kodak” moment. The angle of the light to the statue was perfect. The shapes and texture of the statue were enhanced by the angle of light. It’s one of those times when a photographer is stopped in his/her tracks. Getting the exposure was incredibly easy. No specular reflections. The whole statue was made of the same material. The only question came when deciding on the composition. That turned out to be easy. Any composition other than what I shot had distracting objects in the photograph. So as simple as the shot is, it is one of my favorites. Not a big game shot. Or a diving eagle. But it surely is an incredible example of what a camera can capture. White to black with the light gradations between. Made my desktop pic…….
This lastWednesday I spent the day in Las Vegas.
I really hate Las Vegas!
Too Hot!
Impossible to get permitting!
And FREAKS everywhere……..
Right on the sidewalks of Las Vegas is a freak show! Cotton Candy is this ones name. Weirdo maybe more appropriate. As tourists of Las Vegas walked by he would jump at them and make provocative gestures. Some saw humor in his(?) antics.
Not sure who this person was impersonating. I will tell you this though. Whom ever he was trying to emulate did not smoke like this guy. We never saw him without a cigarette. At least I thought it was cigarettes……
Looks like the Grinch? He would not let me photograph him. He expected a tip before he would let me take photo. A beggar of sorts. It’s hard to hide from my camera. Especially when firing away at eleven frames per second. Just like the grinch, he is hoarding others cash. See it in his left hand?
This “golden” cowboy was the exception to freakdom. A blast to watch. He held very still until you dropped money in his box. After the money was dropped he would scream and dance. Raised a few eyebrows. And scared a few passerby’s.
His pose was very good. Held real still. Waiting for more income to drop.
The prize for best look alike went to this fake Captain Jack Sparrow. Wasn’t positive this wasn’t the real Johnny Depp. He was that good!
