Clovis' 2025 images

[daytime dave]

Amazing camera performance. I'm so glad you own one!!!

That is a wonderful statement. I heartily agree.

[Hatchdog]

Love the shots of the nests, both hatched and pending.

[clovishound]

Got back over to Beidler this morning. Here are a few:

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[clovishound]

The Pup and I entered some images in the North Charleston Arts Festival this week. They announced the winners last night. The Pup got an honorable mention with one of her macro images, and I snagged a second place with the egret picture I posted a little while back.

This is the slightly different edit of it that I entered.

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I'll ask the Pup later today if she minds me posting her image.

[Vaquero]

Nice! and Congrats.

RP

[CT_Shooter]

The Pup and I entered some images in the North Charleston Arts Festival this week. They announced the winners last night. The Pup got an honorable mention with one of her macro images, and I snagged a second place with the egret picture I posted a little while back.

This is the slightly different edit of it that I entered.

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I'll ask the Pup later today if she minds me posting her image.

Congratulations, CH! That photo is stunning. I'm so glad you share your work with us. Thanks again for the previews and for describing your process(es) so clearly.

[clovishound]

Here are some more from another trip this weekend to the Beidler Forest.

One of the features of my new camera is called "pre-release capture". This is allows you to focus on a subject by pressing and holding the shutter button halfway down, then watch the action through the viewfinder, or backscreen. When action happens, you press the shutter completely down and take a series of pictures. The amazing thing is that it will give you up to a second of images BEFORE you pressed the shutter. I still have a lot to learn in how to effectively use this, but my results this last weekend have me wanting to try more. I'm definitely not where I need to be with it, so don't look at the images too harshly. Here are a few using this technique.

The reason it is helpful is that it is extremely difficult to anticipate when these small birds are going to fly. They are extremely fast, and by the time your brain reacts and pushes the shutter, they are already out of the frame. Even at 30 fps I found there were only two or three shots of them in the air, from time of jumping off the branch to being out of frame.

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This is the the preferred presentation of the bird in flight. Unfortunately, the background is rather busy, and I didn't have enough depth of field to get both wings in focus. Overall, sharpness is just barely acceptable, if that. Focus is a real problem with these situations as the camera simply cannot track these quick little birds fast enough. The good news is that the warblers are usually flying from branch to branch a lot, and sometimes you can get several series in just a few minutes, if they don't move too far away.

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I got everything right in this shot except the presentation of the bird. He flew almost directly away from me, rather than parallel. Usually a bird butt shot is not what you really want, but in this case, the outstretched wings in flight make it almost acceptable.

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This little guy is a common bird in our area, and doesn't have a lot of color. I have a number of decent shots of them from my backyard, but it's nice to get a decent shot with a really nice wild background.

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This was a first for me. It's a summer tanager. I have only caught one brief glimpse of one on the wing, and wasn't really sure if it was one of these, or just a cardinal. This one stopped and posed for me. They breed here in the summer and winter in Central and South America.

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[markiver54]

Outstanding!!

[clovishound]

As promised, here is the Pup's entry:

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[CT_Shooter]

Great photograph. Perfect combination of colors and shapes. Such a cool composition and action. The little fellow appears to be smiling among the giant berries. I'm glad she let you share it here. The fruit doesn't fall very far from the tree... so to speak.

[clovishound]

Great photograph. Perfect combination of colors and shapes. Such a cool composition and action. The little fellow appears to be smiling among the giant berries. I'm glad she let you share it here. The fruit doesn't fall very far from the tree... so to speak.

The Pup says, "Thank You.". She said she was just walking along the path at Cypress Gardens and saw the little guy. She happened to have her camera set up for macro, and the lizard didn't seem to mind having his picture taken.

BTW, she's good with a Henry too!

[clovishound]

Got up early and headed out to Magnolia.

Managed to grab this guy in flight. After looking at it again, I think I need to rework it. Looks over-processed.

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Yes, that is a duck in a tree. Checking out the crazy guy with a camera.

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Another pre-capture attempt.

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This guy didn't seem too worried about me being close. I was only about 7 feet away.

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Not sure whether this was a slow motion fight over territory, a love dance, or just two turtles checking each other out.

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[CT_Shooter]

Excellent all. I especially like the Piliated Woody in flight and the two turtles wearing those pond scum cloaks that are so popular now, just trying to make an impression. The duck is fabulous because its so out of place and seemingly curious. I didn't know (or don't remember) that ducks ever perch in trees. Cool photo.

[clovishound]

I didn't know (or don't remember) that ducks ever perch in trees. Cool photo.

There is a class of ducks called perching ducks. Wood ducks are another duck that falls into that category.

[clovishound]

Another morning at Magnolia. Took the tripod and hiked to the north 40 to get some birds in flight shots. Unfortunately, shortly after I got there, the clouds moved in. Made for some high ISOs, and degraded the auto focus capability. Still managed to grab a few shots.

Had a good few moments for the little ones. One set of parents were off trying to gather more food for hungry mouths, and I was able to get some shots. The overcast was a benefit here, giving some nice soft light and tamping down the highlights on the white feathers, while increasing the color saturation.

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The snowys and anhingas weren't the only ones to have their little ones on display. Mama wood duck was keeping a watchful eye on her brood.

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My latest attempt at pre-capture. Higher shutter speeds helped. Higher ISOs didn't. Not much to be done about the high ISOs, other than go back when the sun is out.

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This red wing blackbird looks like he's in pain. I know I would be in that position.

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[markiver54]

As always, great pictures and thanks again for sharing!
Yes, it's almost painful looking at the red wing.

[Hatchdog]

That’s an incredible capture of the redwing clinging to the separate rushes.

[clovishound]

I was walking along the dike between two large retention ponds, looking for likely subjects when this redwing flew up and perched on the reeds very close to me. I grabbed a quick shot and then he turned around, paused for a few seconds and flew off.

The following may be too much info for most of you, just skip down to the photos if you don't want to slog through the technicals.

Here he is when he first perched. I instinctively hit the shutter, and then realized he was facing the wrong direction for a decent shot. Of course, with digital, you take any likely shot and sort them out later. I can save several thousand RAW images on the 128 GB card in my camera. If I run out of space on that, I have another 128 GB card in the secondary slot. I normally set it to backup all images with a slightly lower quality JPG file, but if I run out of space on the primary card, I can quickly erase the secondary and switch to it. I don't normally carry a spare primary card, since the primary takes a CF express card, they are very fast, and also expensive. I've never run out, and can use the cheap SD card in the secondary slot for an emergency backup. I probably should pick up a spare CF express card just in case.

When I do the pre-release shots it gives me around 45 images for one brief half second press on the shutter button. If I were to set it at it's highest frame rate, I would looking at nearly 200 images for a half second press. I could ratchet down to a 1/2 second's worth of pre-release, and cut the number by about 1/3, but I have found that I normally get fly off at about 10 frames in. That means I would normally miss the first few shots of them launching, and probably several in air shots. My reaction time is undoubtedly less than when I was 20, but I'm still pretty quick on the button. They are so fast that it's just not good enough without the buffered images.

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Here was his buddy a few minutes before. Not sure if he was calling for a mate, or saying, "Mine Mine Mine".

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[JEBar]

beautiful .... well done

[Hatchdog]

beautiful .... well done

Agreed!