File Download Speeds

In my research to improve the look of my blog and speed up the time it takes to view full size images I have come across a really great resource that will make it easy for me to resize my images:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/downloadspeed.htm

Book List

I have recently had a couple of requests for book recommendations, so I decided I would make a post that I could update whenever I come across a book that I particularly enjoy. Then I thought: Why not do the same thing for pieces of equipment, photography clothing etc? So here is the first installment - my favourite books. I have linked each book to amazon.com.

This entry has now been incorporated into Alex's Store - please stop by to browse. The link is at the top of the page on the right hand side.
birds bird birds bird birds bird birds bird birds bird birds bird birds bird

Arlington and Buckeye 4.14.10

Had a very odd day today - I could not seem to get anywhere near a bird, but somehow managed to end up with 10 photographs that I was happy with. Of course because of the lack of proximity the birds come out a little small in some of the pics, but it was not the fruitless endeavour that I had first expected. Today's birds included the usual Egrets and Tree Swallows - my Buckeye locals! The Yellow Headed Blackbirds were out again, as was a lone Osprey. The new additions to my collection were a Common Yellowthroat and a Cinnamon Teal.

Yellow-headed Blackbird (click to enlarge).




















Tree Swallow (click to enlarge).




















Common Yellowthroat (click to enlarge).












Cinnamon Teal (click to enlarge).












Great Egret (click to enlarge).




















Osprey (click to enlarge).

More resizing...

I could not get used to clicking on my thumbnails and looking at small images, so I have (hopefully) resized the images so that they are large and open quickly. If anyone notices that the images load slowly please let me know.

Arlington 4.7.10

I managed to get out to Arlington this morning. It was very windy and I had trouble keeping the camo netting around myself and the tripod. Lots of birds of prey were up in the air, but none were close enough to be photographed... I did see (and hear) lots of Yellow Headed Blackbirds hiding amongst the reeds. Occasionally one would pop out allowing me to take a couple of frames. This one was a from a group of 5 shots taken as the wind blew the front reeds out of the way. 2 seconds later the reeds were obscuring my view of the bird again.

Buckeye 6.4.10

Had a lovely day in Buckeye today. Spent about 3 hours walking the irrigation streams and saw a lot of birdlife. I used some of Arthur Morris' field techniques for getting close and was very pleased with the results.
This first picture was taken not long after first light - the ducks hadn't noticed me as they came in to land and I was able to frame this shot:

I spent about 30 minutes with this Great Egret - Arthur Morris' techniques allowed me to creep from about 400ft up to about 30ft away from him without him showing any signs of alarm or concern. It is a shame that the background is as cluttered, but c'est la vie and as I discussed in my previous post today - satisfaction doesn't always come from the perfect picture.

What was interesting about these shots was that the 30 minute time span caused some very noticeable changes in the blue of the sky. For this second shot I also used a little fill flash to try and bring out some of the detail. I am not sure whether I like the results yet, but will definately adjust the flash output next time.

So-called Professional

Up at 4am this morning - I love this first day when I am not working. I sleep all day Monday and then try and sleep as much as I can Monday night, which last night was from 10.30 pm till 4 am. So now at 5.30 am I have showered, fed the dogs, started the laundry, made breakfast and have started my second cup of coffee. This is the time I love because I can sit and catch up on my favorite photography blogs and forums before I leave the house at 7am(ish) to catch some of the waterbirds that arrive in Buckeye and settle in the streams.
Today, I have read a very interesting blog entry by David DuChemin - which made me smile (Confessions of a So-Called Pro) - because it made me realise that it is ok to occasionally ignore the "tech stuff" - to forget to clean your sensor is not a life or death issue, to mismanage your exposure can sometimes be a positive experience and only using 1% of photoshop is ok... because sometimes a shiny piece of equipment distracts you, or because you become engrossed in your subject or because you would rather be on the porcelain throne reading about tripod heads than actually learning about histogram curves (as important as they are). So, let's raise a glass for those of us that do not count ourselves as professionals and never really expect to be classified as such, for those of us that get up at 4.30am full of enthusiasm because "I just want to make images, man". For the others, the people that get paid to do this, you can sleep easy knowing that I am thoroughly enjoying my hobby without stressing that my bokeh is not as attractive at f5.6 as it is at f4.