Ospreys

These are a few more shots that I took in Oklahoma back in September. I was using the Nikon 600mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.

Country Cousins and City Slickers

Wary!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Seems hard to believe that another year has rolled by and it is Turkey Day again. Looking back at old photos of Turkeys gave me a chuckle. In the photo above we have a Rio Grande wild turkey cautiously feeding in the undergrowth. Country Cousin didn't get that ground dragging beard and large body size being careless! 

Early Morning Forage!

Fresh off the roost from the branches of a tree where they spent the night, these big old Toms are ready for breakfast!

Urbanites!

And then we have the City Dwellers! Seems to me caution and being wary was thrown to the wind! Just happened to glance over the the back fence and across the street. Here's a whole herd of wild turkeys casually strutting across the neighbors yard! They need to remember where they came from and take a lesson from their country cousins. Be wary or risk being the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving Meal! 

Copy dogs

Couldn't decide what to call this post... Copy dogs or Doggy see, doggy do!

I'm not sure just who was copying who but it was sure funny to see these two chawing away on their sticks!

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Shooting above the clouds

I'm back to digging through the old files once again. It's too cold to go outside and take photos here, at least for me anyway.

 

These were taken in 2005 with a Sony 5mp point and shoot at the top of Haleakala Volcano on Maui, elevation 10,023 feet. It's the only place you can go on Maui and see snow.

 

 In retrospect, the little point and shoot automatic didn't do too bad of a job, especially since I was in shorts and a t-shirt, freezing my rear end off and barely able to hold the camera still since I was shaking so much from the cold.

 

I am going to go back though. Next time I will have a pair of long pants and a jacket!

Wintery sky

An interesting sky hanging over the North end of Vancouver Island this morning...


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Been A Little Preoccupied

       Well I haven't been on here much and there is a good reason for it. I would like to introduce the newest member of my family.

 Emery Lee Thompson    Born 10-30-13

All of these photos where taken in our home, using a white sheet as a back drop and a single hand held light with a collapsible soft box attached to cast the shadows.

Twilight at Hardy Bay

Took several pictures of Hardy Bay a few minutes after sunset, it was surprisingly calm at the time. The reflective tide pools on the beach made for an interesting foreground.

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One more sunset

 

For now anyway!

 

This is an HDR image made from five shots taken at a nearby lake. For the one or two of you that might be interested, this was taken with the Nikon D800 and after stacking the five images the file size was 1.24 GB!

Using one silver reflector with 50mm f/1.4.

Candle light exposure.

Window light.

Window light.

One silver reflector.

Eyes on the Prize

Out on a Limb!

Caught this squirrel by surprise. It and another one were having a big time chasing each other around the trees. Only had time for one pic before it dodged to the other side of the cottonwood it was on.

The Prize!

Close by was a pecan tree whose fruits were starting to open with a few nuts already on the ground. The squirrels will be busy gathering and burying the pecans for winter food. They better stay busy! They will have human competition in gathering these Prize morsels!

Shooting the moon...

... at 300mm straight out of the camera with the Nikon 28-300mm lens.

At 1200mm straight out of the camera with the Nikon 600mm F4 lens and 2x teleconverter.

 

Yes, I took Aaron's suggestion and bought a 2x for the 600mm lens. It seems to work pretty well as long as your subject is "contrasty" against the background. The autofocus seems to be about 10-20% slower than normal but well within working speed for shooting whales or a slow moving subject.

Aaron has been teaching me some astrophotography tricks for a project I have planned. We spent about an hour the other night shooting across a neighbors pond when the full moon was coming up. I was even lucky enough to catch a shooting star just above the moon.

Somewhere out there a little gray man is wondering why I am laying on the ground in the cold taking pictures of the sky. Seeing the stars on a full moon proved difficult but we wanted to see how the FX sensor compared to a DX sensor on night time shots.

"Painting by Moon Light"

 

This is actually the moon, can't you tell?

 

While walking back to the house the other night Aaron accidentally hit his shutter release and decided since it was set on a long exposure he would move around a little and see what happened. I couldn't let him have all of the fun so like a couple of goobers, we were both swinging our expensive cameras around in the air and laughing our heads off.

 

My wife said we were acting like a couple of three year olds. That's a good thing, right?

Another Kansas Sunset

 

 

Almost looks like Hawaii, huh?

Foggy morning

Scenes from a foggy morning on the Coal Harbour waterfront.



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Headed to roost

Nighttime on the prairie comes early now-a-days.

What's that you say Paul?

A sunset in Hawaii?

 

I might have one of those in my files.

Fall Sunset

My view from the porch last night.

All is good for the sunset wizard!

Salvaging a mediocre picture... Before and after view.

I know what I saw when I took the picture but where did it go? Typical results for a bland overcast day, at least for me anyway... Thank goodness for post processing software!

This is a view of Cape Mudge lighthouse at the south end of Quadra Island near Campbell River.



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Sun Touches-two

South Crossing of Turtle Creek

One of my favorite places to walk in the park is along the wooded path of Turtle Creek. This is the trail of sun touched wonders!

Alligator Bark

On this days walk, the sun pointed my lens to the rough bark of a tree that reminded me of  the hide of an alligator!

   

Tangled View

The banks of Turtle Creek are steep as well as deep. Tree lined along with a heavy undergrowth of tangled brush, a rare view of the creek itself. A touch from the sun highlights the glimpses!

Layers

Any tree that has peeling bark surely makes me wonder. Winter is coming on and here you are shedding your protective coat? A sun touched mystery!

North Crossing

Just before coming upon Mulveys Pond, one can either cross over to the west side of the creek or continue on to where you will be touched by full sunlight. Today I choose the high road. In these cooler months the warmth of the full sun becomes a wonder in itself!

Sun Touches

fin

The take off

I was driving down the road the other day and saw this red tail hawk sitting in the tree. It was my intentions to get a couple of shots of him sitting there looking regal but he had other plans.

 

Just as I got out with the camera he gave me the look and I knew he was going to take off. I didn't have time to set up the  tripod so these were taken hand held at 840mm. Four shots is all I got because I couldn't track him and hold the lens up at the same time. Excuse me while I go do some push ups.