We had one of those spring snow storms at the office Friday. These kinds of days really make it hard for me to work, I just wanna play. But one big incentive to move is the snow concentrates all the birds at the feeders for non-stop activity. With all the Evening Grosbeaks in the yard right now and their killer spring yellow, I went looking for the more “atmospheric” portrait rather than a “snowing gobs” kind of shot. To me, this mean I need to find a perch where a narrow DoF throws much of the photo into a soft focus so the whites of the falling snow take over. At the same time, I wanted to shoot without flash so the soft, wrap around light from the storm was the light source. Shooting at ISO 100, my shutter speed was 1/15 at f/8 so I had to watch the blowing branches to find those not blowing. That left really just the aspens in the front meadow. Luckily, a flock of Grosbeaks came in and started to munch down the spring leaf buds. With the D4s / 800AFS, I was able to stay dry, have the image size I desired with the DoF I was looking for. Now I got zero work done, but watching the critters in the snow is always good for the soul.
