Month: February 2016

A Western Bluebird at her Toilette

Posted in Backyard Birding, Bird Photography, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , 24 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A few weeks ago I had a first time visitor to the little feeder which turned into a bird bath after the rainy week. I was thrilled to see the Western Bluebird in my yard!

Well, she like the temperature, and atmosphere so she decided to stay and have a bath. Luckily my camera was nearby.

Eyeing up the tub, and making sure the coast is clear overhead…

Bluebird Female

At her toilette

Western Bluebird Female bathing

“Do you mind! I’m bathing here!” That look really got me thinking…”man I’m a voyeur!” 🙂

Do you mind I'm bathing here!

All clean! She had a good shake and flew away after this image was taken. I hope she comes back!

Western Bluebird

I took these images through the window so they’re a bit soft. I used the dehaze feature to help that a bit. It’s a pretty neat feature!

 

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f4| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

Red-tail Hawk with Prey

Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Hawks, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , 22 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Warning!: Some may find these images too graphic!

While birding a couple of weeks ago in the Sacramento Valley we spotted this Red-tail Hawk having lunch on a levy about 25-30ft away from us.  It spotted us too.  It didn’t like the way we kept staring while it was trying to eat so…
Red tail Hawk with meal

…it picked up its meal…

Red-tailed Hawk with Prey in Flight

…and flew to a tree stump that offered a bit more privacy.

Red tail with prey on tree stump

We watched it eat for a couple of minutes then slowly drove away leaving it to enjoy its meal.

The second image with the Red-tail in flight has a bit of motion blur. I was hand-holding the lens and not used to its weight and think it was me being a wobbly rather than a slight pan.  The eye is pretty sharp, and the blur gives it a sense of movement I like enough to save, and share it.

I was also racked out to 500mm and I didn’t frame up the shot giving the bird enough room to fly out of the frame, so I extended the canvas a bit then added in some of the background to give the bird some room to fly out of the frame, and fix the composition.  There’s a learning curve to  all new lenses; getting used to the weight, and bulkiness -it’s a chubby lens, and framing with it will be what I strive to master in the coming years.

I liked the lens so much I bought one right after I returned the rental lens.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 200-500mm VR (rental lens)| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Thursday Door’s 5/52: Nº418

Posted in Architecture, Blue Doors, Brick Cottages, Photography, Thursday's DoorsTagged , , , , , , 18 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

While birding last Saturday I saw this door, and cottage and had to stop

to take a photo.  I really like the shape of this door, and the color. Next to red doors, blue is one of my all time favorite colors for doors.

Nº 418 Thursday Doors

I love this roof line and 3 gables.

Nº 418 Thursday Doors

This is part of Norm 2.0’s Thursday Door’s. Click here to see all the doors posted this week.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Monochrome Madness 2 43/52 Curves

Posted in Black and White Photography, Death Valley National Park, Monochrome Madness2, Photography, Shapes, US National ParksTagged , , , , , , 13 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It’s Theme week (Curve(s) )on Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness2.

It rained a lot during the week which kept me indoors, and my imagination and “sight” were MIA this past week when looking for curves everywhere I did go, and around the house. So, I went back to Death Valley National Park via my archives to find curves.

Monochrome Madness 2 43 of 52 Curves

I love the curves, and contours of the Sand Dunes so, I selected an image I made in 2011 for my entry to Monochrome Madness 2 this week.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35@35mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2016 & On1 Photo 10

Visit Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness2 to see this week’s entries here. Note- Leanne resides in Australia so post will be available on Wednesday’s in the U.S.

More to come…