Jan 18, 2019 | Wildlife Photography
Steller’s Jay
captured by Z7 / 800mm
I don’t know if the storm blew him in or he just returned, but man was I happy to see him! At the height of our storm Thursday on my constant vigil of looking, I spotted this Steller’s Jay perched. Now why it wasn’t taking cover I don’t know but truth be told, I didn’t care. I had a bird to photograph!!!! Now, to make a photograph.
Steller’s Jay
captured by Z7 / 800mm
Shooting from the warmth of our office out an open window, I pointed the Z7 / 800mm and watched the blowing snow. And I mean blowing snow! There were a couple of tasks at hand, show the blowing snow, show off the blue and get a “clear” shot of it all. That translated into a fast shutter speed, 1/50, and shooting on Continuous High Extended and ripping off about 100 frames in a heartbeat. I took that many because as the snow blew by, at times it would create a fog and then there would be a clear window between the lens and the Jay. At the same time, I wanted the right pose. So when I saw the pose, I ripped the shutter until the pose disappeared. I came away with a number of frames I liked. These two just reminded me of, “Look right, now look left”. It was a glorious ten minutes, and then he was gone. As I tell my students when out shooting birds thought, it just takes one!
Jan 15, 2019 | Wildlife Photography
Douglas Tree Squirrel
captured by Z6 / 300PF
My neighbors probably think I’ve gone nuts; I probably have! With no birds and with my addiction to taking photographs every day, I’ve gone to playing cat and mouse around our property for the only game in town right now. Douglas Tree Squirrels! We have three that have decided that now’s the time to make new squirrels. To those ends, they are redefining, “squirrelly!” So having a severe case of cabin fever, I decided to race around the property in the hopes of making a click or two of their antics. And in the process, I found a brilliant combo I’m lovin for the chase!
Douglas Tree Squirrel
captured by Z6 / 300PF
One thing about these squirrels, they don’t hold still jumping from tree to tree so I needed a non-tripod, quick moving rig. I went with the Z6 / 300PF and so glad I did! This small rig permits me to just push the lens out the window or around the corner and get them squirrels in the viewfinder before they skedaddle. And at f/4, that narrow DoF at 300mm blurs out nicely the background. Then it’s just looking for the right light and moment when it all lines up for a click. In this case, that silly gesture squirrels are so good at and then when the environment provides an atmosphere like snowing. They are at least keeping me from going 100% squirrelly!
Jan 10, 2019 | Wildlife Photography
Dark-eyed Junco
captured by Z7 / 800mm
It’s that time of year when our bird baths (heated of course) and feeders are stuffed with a dozen or more species of birds. Normally I’m somewhere else in the country and not able to photograph at my favorite local, my backyard. Well, this year I changed my schedule up so I would be home to photograph all the great birds in the snow. For the last 50 days, ever since the first real snow of the season, we’ve had NO birds! Now I say no, we’ve had 3 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Flicker and a couple of doves. Last winter there was no way of counting all the birds and getting just one bird in the viewfinder was near impossible as there were so many. So what’s a frustrated wildlife photographer to do?
Dark-eyed Junco
captured by Z7 / 800mm
I started by talking with my neighbor, the forest biologist to see if our property was experiencing some fluke or if it was the norm. He relayed to me that there are no birds anywhere right now. Species like our Clark’s Nutcrackers which are nesting now are not even here. Our resident Chickadees that don’t migrate, that have been here every day since we moved here, aren’t to be found! With three Juncos my only subjects, I’ve been working just them right now. I have the Z7 / 800mm set up and when the light and weather is inviting, Sharon & I pace the house looking for one of the three Juncos. In all seriousness, I’ve shot only 78 photos this year on our property of birds! In a normal year, I would shoot that much in minutes. Sharon says I have a real bad case of cabin fever as I pace back and forth mumbling about no birds. All I seem to keep saying is, where they’d go?
Jan 7, 2019 | Wildlife Photography
Red-shafted Flicker
captured by Z7 / 800mm @1/5
It’s been a snowy weekend and that always has me looking out for photographic opportunities. My first thought is always the birds and they’re coping with the falling snow. So with that in mind, I grabbed the Z7 / 800mm and pointed it at a Red-shafted Flicker perched on tree four. Now to say it’s snowing in a photograph, you gotta see the snow. To see the snow falling, you need a slow shutter speed. How slow? The all depends on the size of the snow and how fast it’s falling. Birds in big snows tend to take to cover which means they are out of the snow and wind. This means slow snow and slow snow means a slow shutter speed. Trying to get the limited snow to streak required 1/5 shutter speed which often scares most. Using proper long lens technique and in this case, the Z7 with its gimbal made it simple. The variable in the sharp photo was the Flicker holding still. With that in play, I shot off thirty or so frames trying to get just one with snow streaking. Sadly, never got the shot I wanted but what I captured was sharp so the next snowy day, I’m ready to try again.
Dec 27, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Gray Wolves
captured by D5 / 800mm
With the new snows of the season, I thought I’d answer a common question that floods in this time of year. “How do you (Moose) expose for snow?” Of course, living in snow, I have a number of off the cuff answers, but I’ll move past those and get to the heart of the question as I look at it. What color is snow? Unless a Moose (4 legged) or dog has passed by, it’s white, right? The common belief that if there is snow in the scene, automatically dial in +1 exposure compensation. A recommendation that comes from the meters of the 1960s. We’re not in the ’60s. I honestly don’t think there are viewers of your snow photograph who wouldn’t recognize the white stuff on the ground as snow. With that being true, then seeing detail in every crystal of the snow (what +1 might do for you) is not mission critical to tell the viewer the white stuff they are looking at is indeed, snow. With that storytelling in place then, how do I expose for snow? Exposure is YOUR greatest tool to express the feeling, mood, and life in your photograph. Just because you see something white, don’t automatically do anything.
Bobcat
captured by D5/ 800mm
The key to exposure for both images is the SUBJECT and the RANGE of light in the entire scene and not the fact there is snow in the scene. I exposed for the subject and not the white stuff. Like with most of my photography, I try to keep the light range within 3 stops. When that’s the case, then I just have to click, the Z6/Z7, D5, D850, D500 or D7500 meter will do the rest. When it’s outside the 5 stop range, to deal with the greater range of light I shoot with the Z6/Z7, D5 or D850 and overexpose. This is totally ass-backwards from what I did for thirty years but it brings into play the 6 stop range of those cameras. Look at the light between the photos in that post and this. Can YOU see the difference in the light falling on the scene? It is exacerbated by the snow with shadows filled in by reflected light but not determined in whole by the presence of snow.
SO how does Moose expose for snow? Just like any other scene, it depends on the subject, the light on the subject, the light on the rest of the stage and then the story I want to tell within the confines of my viewfinder. The wolves, I overexposed the scene and the Bobcat, underexposed. Exposure is way too powerful a tool to just dial in some value of exposure compensation automatically. The world doesn’t need another technically perfect photograph. The world needs another photograph with the passion to move the viewer!
Dec 11, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Sandhill Cranes
captured by Z6 / 500PF
There’s one place that always rejuvenates the soul, and that’s Bosque del Apache. The birds, cold air, the silence broken by their calls, the skies filled with their flights and so much more bring life and awe to all that witness it. I’m down at Bosque with my dear friends for a few days of R&R. I’m shooting with the Z6 / 500PF and having a great time not carrying all that weight around. While I’m still getting used to the EVF for action, as you can see it does an excellent job. I’m shooting in Auto-Area AF and Continuous-High Extended. The other thing I’m having to get used to is not using my ears to determine how much I’m shooting. I came back from the morning shoot think I’d not shot much to find I have over 1500 images! Thank goodness, I like them or I’d be really bummed.
