08-25-12 Gold Finch

I was photographing a butterfly and lost sight of it.  As I was scanning the area to find it I noticed this gold finch deep in the cover.  I stood as still as possible and he flew up to this perch where I could get a clear shot of him.  "Clear" with the exception of the one out of focus stick running through his body.

A gust of wind came up and ruffled his feather.  A different crop, but the same out of focus stick.

Here's that butterfly ... or is it a moth? I'm not sure.

The above were all from Rockwood State Park.  Later I took a cruise out to Lock and Dam 13.  Not too much going on there.  Here's a heavily cropped photo of a pied-billed grebe.

And finally a turtle with a dragonfly on it's nose.  

08-11-12

I don't know what to say about this one so I'll let you write your own caption.

Every lens has a minimum focusing distance, if you are too close you won't be able to focus.  I set up my camera just outside that minimum distance from the perch to make the birds as large as they can be. I still end up cropping a bit on the sparrows and finches but when this robin landed on the perch I was too close.

Boring old female house sparrow but I like it because she has a seed in her mouth.

I like these house finches but I still haven't been able to get a good "pose" from a male.

Mourning Doves clean up the spilled seed on the ground.

08-09-12 Better Background

I got some pointers over at BirdPhotographers.net on what to do with the background.  I like this much better.  I have also posted the original background below for a comparison.

08-08-12 A Better Look at the Bald Cardinal

I rearranged my setup a little.  I'm not pleased with the background but I think I can fix that for future sessions.  Tonight I got a better shot of the bald cardinal.  His body is looking better than it did on Saturday but he's still bald.

08-05-12 Black-Capped Chickadee

I struggle with my perch set-ups trying to find good light and a good background.  I have solved some of the background problems by setting up lower perches and shooting down on them so the background is the actual ground behind the perch instead of a far off tree.  My current set-up gets about an hour of direct sun starting at about 7:15am.  Today I caught this cardinal during that time but I think the direct sun is actually a bit harsh.

After the direct light goes away, I have to lower my shutter speed which isn't the best idea because these little birds never stop moving.  I don't mind the soft light of open shade but it lacks the pop of direct sun.  Here is a black-capped chickadee taken only a few minutes after the cardinal above, but in totally different light.

08-04-12 Goldfinch and a Bald Cardinal

I've had a finch feeder with niger seed in it since March and haven't seen any goldfinches on it.  (Nicole saw one and managed to snap an iPhone picture of it or I'm not sure I would have believed her)  I've seen them out at Rockwood Park but not in the yard.  Today I finally saw one on my hanging feeder, eating sunflower seeds.  This was shot out my back window.

Here's another back window shot.  When I first saw this bird, I thought I might have a new species in my yard.  It flew off before I could see what it was.  It came back later and I realized it's a cardinal with no head feathers.  I did some searching around the internet and found several reports of this condition.  There is some debate about the cause of this, some believe parasite or disease but others claim it is just unusual molting.  Molting is the process all birds go through of shedding feathers and re-growing them. They normally don't loose enough feathers at a time to look this bad but apparently some individuals do.  Anyway, it's a sad looking specimen of such a beautiful bird.

It's been awhile

I have other hobbies in addition to photography and one of them is running, but I haven't been able to run much this year. I had knee surgery in February and about the time I was recovered from that, I developed sciatica.  The recent dry spell in posts to this site is because I have shifted my focus to running again.

A couple things caused that.  First, I was in downtown Chicago with my wife and another couple on the 21st and 22nd.  I got up before everyone else on Sunday and went to get some coffee only to find that the Chicago Rock and Roll half marathon was going on.  Seeing thousands of people run down Michigan Avenue made me miss being in shape to participate in an event like this.  The following weekend was the Bix7, and event I had planned to run until the sciatica hit.  Watching the Bix on TV was another big push for me.

So I'm back to running which cuts into photography time but I haven't given up on the birds.  I'll find a way to make time.