Hark 2020

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Here is another image from this morning. When this combo nails focus in low light, it is absolutely amazing with its sharpness. Unfortunately wide open with a TC, my aperture is f/6.7. It's another image at ISO 5000.

While the squirrel was waiting for me to go back inside, it grabbed a seed or a leaf from the Japanese Red Maple tree to eat.

 

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It's priceless having two dogs inside a fenced in yard that obey and leave wildlife alone - well at least when I'm out there watching them. Yesterday our little Jack Russell spotted a young bunny and gave chase before I saw it. As soon as I said NO, she pulled up and headed in a different direction. Even our Australian Shepherd - and highly agile with quick responses - is very good with them (again, as long as I'm out there with her).

This bunny was out in the open when I let the dogs out. Both dogs left it alone. It ran to this area for cover. I wish I could have gotten a different vantage point, but there was another holly bush to the left (would have blocked part of the view). And if I had moved much more to my right, this holly bush would have partially obstructed the view. I took 3 photos when moving side to side but couldn't get rid of the blade of grass.

The squirrel was looking for food when I went out early. It's rare I am able to photograph it while it's just sitting on the grass. Usually it runs to a tree.

 

[Woodyg3]

Some great squirrel shots, Cindy!

 

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Some great squirrel shots, Cindy!

Thanks, Woody! :cheerful: Some of the amazing wildlife subjects such as eagles and hawks are hard to come by now. They seem to be more prominent during January thru March around here. However, there have been reports of bear sightings in suburban areas. Even coyotes and foxes have been visible in or near residential sections. Hoping to photograph some of them!

 

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This Green Heron took off before I expected, and obviously I wasn't ready with my shutter speed. Even with Shake Reduction, it simply isn't quite enough. It's also a big crop. If this laptop could support Topaz, I'd definitely get it.

Last year I photographed one several times without issue. My guess is with all the people visiting the park, the heron isn't willing to have anyone be remotely close. Today was the first time I've seen it this year. Since the virus, there are so many people fishing that there's hardly any wildlife around.

 

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I had another go at the green heron image. Since it was positioned much higher in my frame than I wanted, I wound up extending the top of the canvas and filling with content aware fill. That allowed me to make the bird smaller in the image. No matter what, my shutter speed was too slow. But the heron was flying towards the other side of a stand of trees so if I had taken a couple seconds to adjust my shutter speed, I would have missed the shot altogether.

 

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This vulture was the only wildlife to photograph today. It even flew above me and circled a few times before flying off. At least it gave me a little BIF practice. It seems my lens/TC combo just isn't ideal to AF sharply with dark subjects.

 

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So hot today that there wasn't much of any wildlife anywhere except for some geese.

 

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I removed my 1.7x TC since it's been intermittent with its ability and just used the 300mm lens. Osprey nest on a Delaware River channel marker. The personal watercraft was simply a bonus.

 

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Admittedly these aren't great photos. My sole purpose was to check the sharpness and details available with just the lens after removing the 1.7x TC. That refurbished TC was incredibly sharp when I first got it. But after the 30 day store warranty was over, its sharpness went downhill. For most images, I had to compensate with PCC's Shake Reduction because most images had a soft blur to them. I did purchase a 4-year warranty thru a third party which I plan to use when the economy gets a little better. Most likely many places aren't fully staffed yet so I'd rather wait.

These were taken with just the lens - and both are cropped close to 50%. Unfortunately it's been difficult to find much wildlife lately especially in mid-afternoon. The temps have been up in the 90's with high humidity. Most creatures try to find a shady spot to relax to stay cool.

Will be pulling out my 1.4x TC which has been stellar.

 

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I wasn't happy to see these helium balloons released locally. After posting in a Facebook group, someone even said they asked the local parks department about balloons. Sadly there aren't any ordinances against them. :sorrow: Wildlife will ingest the mylar as well as eat or get caught up in the strings.

And I see @Marcel beat me to posting a bird in a puddle. :beguiled: This little guy/gal was having a blast cooling off. Our temps are up in the 90's. Yesterday's tropical storm Fay brought steady, much needed rain to our area all day.

 

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My 1.7x TC still struggles. I shot quite a few frames of the Great Blue Heron yesterday. Most images had to be deleted for either being too soft or simply blurred (as if no VR). Took a few images in Live View (thanks for the heads-up to try that, Jake). :encouragement: It wasn't too easy to see the rear screen clearly but need to remember to use the flip screen. That would have helped. :beguiled:

It watched me for a bit before turning and walking towards me. Maybe it thought my lens was a fish.

Then it decided to go back to what it was doing. It was still there when I left.

 

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Cross posted from the ID this Bird thread. I'm trying to identify these two ducks.

I really like the sensor of the D500 and notice an improved difference compared with the D7200. This sensor reminds me more of the D610 sensor rather than any DX sensor I've used so far (D7200, D7100, and D90). But I haven't yet done a heavy crop on any D500 image - and that is something I do once in a while. The differences may be subtle, but there's definitely something I prefer about the images I've taken so far with this D500 vs. any other DX body images.

 

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Came across the first wind turbine I've seen in our area. Some people have solar panels on their roofs, and even Waste Management (trash company) has a field of solar panels. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of these cropping up. From what I've read, one wind turbine can harness more energy than a number of solar panels.

 

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Finding wildlife right now is difficult so I decided to go out with my D750 and 70-200mm lens. A thunderstorm rolled through here moments before, but I missed any lightning. This was taken through my SUV's window between wiper blade sweeps.

It's been a while since I used my D750. In fact, when I looked though the viewfinder, I had to turn the camera around to be sure I had the correct body. Those focus points don't stretch all the way across the viewfinder like they do in DX bodies. For a moment, I thought I might have grabbed my D610 by mistake. :shame: But nope - I had the right body.

One of the memorial benches at the park.

 

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I haven't had much luck lately finding wildlife to photograph so was surprised when this young bunny showed up in our yard tonight. Unfortunately I hit my ISO cap of 4000 even though I set my aperture to f/6.7. That is wide open considering the TC I was using. Plus this lens doesn't have any VR so I was quite surprised with the sharpness while hand holding a shutter speed of 1/640" (effective focal length with a 300mm lens, 1.7x TC on a DX body is 750mm). Even with the aperture and shutter speed, the image came out underexposed.

Capturing it while sticking its tongue out was pure luck. Only used Camera RAW for editing. There simply isn't any comparison to my 300mm f/4 PF which doesn't AF well for long distances. I haven't yet done any AF tuning with that lens but will when I have time.

 

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Yesterday someone mentioned there was a local car show, but by the time I heard about it, the show had already started. I got there about 15-20 minutes before it ended. In total, I'm pretty sure I photographed no more 15 cars but wouldn't have planned to do too many anyway. These are a few of the images I've edited so far.

 

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More car photos from the Car Show on Labor Day.

This next one required me to merge 2 images together. When I focused, somehow the emblem missed focus and was soft. Fortunately I took a second photo of the emblem alone. So I was able to reduce the emblem's size in a new layer to fit over the emblem in the original photo. I don't know why there is a cutout in the hood, but it allowed a prime photo op getting the car owner sitting behind it.

This next one is my favorite.

The next one had part of my head in the chrome's reflection - which I Photoshopped out.

And this was the third time I've photographed the Excalibur at a car show. The owner won some kind of award. They gave out a number of awards, but I didn't pay attention to who won what.

 

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Nikonites only allows a maximum of 10 images per post. This is the last of the photos I took at the Car Show.

 

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I believe these are two different geese. The first image is cross-posted in the Birds thread. In the second pic, I don't recall seeing geese floating with their wings somewhat extended. My guess is the one feather might soon fall off.

Both shot with my non-VR Nikon 300mm f/4 coupled with my refurbished Nikon 1.7x TC. Both only had default Camera RAW sharpening with Clarity at +7. Both had Nik Efex Tonal Contrast applied as well as a little Dynamic Contrast. Some slight other adjustments were done - but the sharpness of my refurbished TC is amazing.