Nikon V3 – Page 34 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Camouflage

Today I went up to the Botanical Gardens, one thought on my mind: to take images of birds with my 70-300mm lens on the Nikon V3. As the V3 has a 2.7 crop factor, this makes the 70-300 the equivalent of 189-810mm.

I’ve never used this lens to specifically capture birds, but it did a pretty good job. My technique was shutter priority, with the shutter set to 1/1000 to keep blur to the least possible amount; I also set the iso to 3200 down (priority based) and the f/stop to about 5.6 to 8.

I have absolutely no idea what these birds are, nor was I really aware of birds until I was determined to find them. I had hoped to see a road runner – they are up there! – but I did see four distinctively different ones, which I caught. Looking in Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of Western North America, this looks like a wren, but what kind???

The 1 Nikon 70-300mm lens does a pretty good job overall. It has the advantage of being lightweight with image stabilization. Coupled with the V3, I could catch multiple images in a row, clicking away as the birds moved around, and then choosing the best of what I got.

More to follow!

Note: A fellow on flickr says these little guys are White Crowned Sparrows!

Another Morning

Another image from last week’s morning hike through one of my favorite trails. The light was wonderful, brightening spots here and there, filtering colors above into greens and golds.

Seeds

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

–Stephen Jay Gould

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

–Abraham Lincoln

Through

Morning glare – what lies ahead? I’ve walked down this trail so many times, I know what tree is where, but each time there is something new to see, something new to hear, something new to smell.

Autumn Morning

The other morning – the first of the time change – I headed out with my Nikon V3 (which took this picture), my 6×9 Voigtlander Bessa, and Olympus XA4. I used the Nikon to consider exposure, as well as to catch a few for here. The film will go in to the lab for processing later this week.

It was an incredible morning. The Chumash Trail is a trail along a corridor of native oak trees, which overarch the entire trail, spots and splotches of sunshine breaking through. The trees are hundreds of years old. In some trees, small flocks of black and white birds would land, and all of a sudden it was as if it were raining acorns. It was quite odd, but restful, like rain pattering on leaves.