Rainy day Thrasher

Curve-billed Thrasher in the rain

Here’s another random image from my files – a Curve-billed Thrasher enjoying a bit of rain in our back yard.

As relocated easterners we really miss rain here in the desert of central Arizona. So any time we get some rain, however light it might be, we enjoy it. And apparently, so do the birds in our back yard.

It was a dark afternoon in January, 2005, that brought periods of rain. I’d only had my first digital camera, a Nikon D70, for a couple months, so I wasn’t very sure of what to expect from higher ISO settings. Coming from the world of film photography I didn’t have much hope for an ISO value of 640 – shooting film at ISO 400 generally meant marginal results so I seldom went above ISO 200.

But the darkness on this day forced me to try this setting, and even with this high ISO value I could only get 1/60th second at f/4.5 for my exposure. I’d taken the 2x converter off my 300/2.8 lens and replaced it with my 1.4x – that reduced the effective focal length but also gave me a brighter image and a faster shutter speed than I’d have been able to get using the 2x converter.

I was (and am still) thrilled with the results. There’s no issue with noise in the image. I was able to get the thrasher stationary. I had enough depth of field to show off my wife’s plants. I even got a few streaks from the falling rain.

I’d love to do some more similar images – all I need is some rain!

Simple Observation

Ropes and Posts

A recent discussion under the title Why Push It? at naturephotographers.net raised some questions about personal goals in photography. From reading the initial question and the replies I got a feeling that some photographers work hard at making images, and it made me think a bit more about why I am still involved with photography after almost 40 years.

I quickly decided that I’m not at all motivated by the goals that drive some others. I’m not out to make grand statements. I’m not trying to capture large landscapes in majestic light. I’m not trying to redirect the course of humankind.

What motivates me is discovery. I enjoy looking everywhere I go at everything around me. I want to observe what already exists rather than engineer an image to make some sort of statement. I want to look at nature rather than to control nature.

I tend to take photos of simple things; things that appeal to me for some reason. Often that is texture. Sometimes it is form. With birds it is primarily the interaction with habitat.

This shot of ropes and posts is a typical example. It is a film image, taken in the 70’s or 80’s somewhere in New Jersey, where there were many opportunities along the shore to see such things. It has no deep meaning. I simply enjoy the textures of the ropes against the wood, the forms of the coils, the contrast between the understated colors of rope and wood, and the distribution of dark and light tones.

This scene could be almost anywhere, at any time. There must be countless similar scenes now. But how many people actually notice them and take the time to look more closely?

First Rule of Rarities – Don’t Wait

Wood Stork juvenile, Gilbert, AZ

In the United States Wood Stork is mostly limited to the southeastern states. Corkscrew Swamp in Florida has been a good place to see them, and there’s been some range change so they are now seen regularly in Georgia. In late summer there is often movement by birds of the year from Mexico that disperse into southern California at the Salton Sea and along coastal Texas. But usually they don’t show up in Arizona.

This bird was discovered at the Water Ranch in Gilbert, AZ, a bit after 7:00 AM on Monday, August 17. I got email from a friend on his way to see it – he’d ben alerted by the guy who had just found it. Unfortunately I was already committed and couldn’t go to see the bird immediately as I wanted, instead spending the entire morning in a waiting room a few miles away from the bird.

I wasn’t able to go for this rarity until 1:30 PM, and even though the temperature was already around 105 degrees I didn’t want to risk missing this bird for my AZ state list. I still remembered the disappointment of not being able to find a previous stork in AZ – a bird at Painted Rock Dam near Gila Bend about 120 miles away. I’d tried for it, but didn’t get there soon enough and couldn’t find it when I finally got there.

So, I ended up hiking with my 20 pounds of camera gear in 105 degree weather between 2:00 and 3:00 PM at the Water Ranch. The stork was still there, and I was relieved to make it #466 on my AZ state list. But it stayed far away and partially obscured in a pond side shrub, and the photos I took weren’t what I’d want to share with anyone.

So I went back this morning, finding the Wood Stork still at the Water Ranch. And at 6:20 AM I had temps under 90 degrees and much nicer light.

This is a full frame image, taken with my Nikon D200, 300/2.8 AF-S Nikkor lens, and TC20E 2x converter. ISO 200, 1/200th  second at f/11 at 6:40 AM. It is tighter than I normally compose, but there was only one viewing spot once I pushed through some shrubs and I didn’t want to spook the bird trying to swap the 2x for my 1.4x.

This image shows another “first rule;” this one of photography. Wait for the Light.

It’s not what you think

Mushroom Pair

I know some viewers won’t like this image. In fact one regular viewer here saw this shot many years ago and stated it was my worst photo ever, or something to that effect. But going through my files I find I am still attracted to this image.

This pair of mushrooms was photographed many years ago. somewhere in New Jersey. I’m not sure now exactly where: it could have been at Allaire State Park, or Telegraph Hill park in Holmdel, or maybe even my yard in Freehold.

So, why do I like it? It is an understated shot like a lot of my work, with little color. It relies mostly on strong graphics. It is a “found” object encountered at random, rather than an a controlled subject in an engineered setting. It shows signs of entropy.

But what really appeals to me is the why it can be seen as something other than what it is. It makes me think of gardener’s knees, dirty from kneeling in the wet soil. I have a few other images that can be interpreted as other things, and I might post them later. But probably none that work as well as this one.

So, let me know what you think of this. Is it my worst photo? What does it look like to you?

A Simple Sunset

Sandy Hook Sunset

I’ve been enjoying my mini retrospective of places I’ve been and things I’ve seen as I’ve poked about among my slides from the days before digital. Here’s another – a simple Sunset, taken at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, sometime in the 1970’s or 1980’s.

I spent a lot of time at the Hook. Once a state park it got incorporated into Gateway National Recreational Area, along with Floyd Bennett Field on Long Island and various bits of coast on Staten Island. Sandy Hook has always been a very popular location for the summer beach crowds, but like most other birders I avoided it at that time of year. My visits were primarily to see migrating birds in spring and fall, and to search for winter rarities among the gulls and sea ducks, always hoping for something really rare like an alcid. In good winters there was often a Snowy Owl along the dunes, and one memorable winter we were treated to a Gyrfalcon.

But there was also a lot to photograph there as well even if the birds weren’t being cooperative.

There’s something elemental about sunsets, and I don’t know a photographer who can pass up a chance at a pretty sunset sky. Sometimes we want a sweeping landscape in the bottom of the frame, and a sky full of clouds to bring out a variety of colors and textures.

With this image I went for simplicity. There’s only one real color here, although it does occur in various shades. The black of the dune grass provides a foreground and a base to the image, and helps emphasize the color of the sky.

I’ve kept the sun rather small in the frame with a 105mm lens, rather than going for a long telephoto to make the ball larger. I’m more interested in balance between the grasses and the sun than in creating something artificial. I’ve placed the sun in a classical 1/3rd point both horizontally and vertically, and added some dynamics with the curve of the dune that shows in the left-to-right upward slant.

The only tricky part of this image was finding a spot to take a sunset in the first place. Sandy Hook is on the eastern edge of NJ, and the sun sets over all the developed towns to the west. So its not a given that a photographer can find a clean view back to the west.