Month: February 2020

Friday’s Feathered Friends

Posted in birding, Birds of North America, Nevada, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , 61 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Last week was pretty full. I went to see Baby Girl, and the Grandson’s for a couple of days then got home and had friends from out of town over for the week-end.

We went birding. I shared with them the spot where the Chick-a-dees ate from my hand we were fortunate and saw them again and they ate from our hands. It was just as fun, exciting, and awesome as it was the first time.

Two Chick-a-dees landed on my hand to get seeds and one didn’t like the idea of sharing at. all. 😂

Mountain Chickadees

They were quite picky about the sunflowers seeds they would take often spitting several overboard before selecting one and flying off to the trees with it.

In this image, you can see the seed and its shadow in the air in my hand that the Chick-a-dee just discarded. They all did it. Perhaps they were saving some for later?

Chick a Dee feeding from my Hand

My friend Anna was wearing a beanie which was perfect to put some seeds on it and get the Chick-a-dees to land on her cap. They did!

Chickadee on Anna's Hat

This was our first birding stop for the day and it was so much fun.

I’ll share other birds and wild mustangs from the week-end in future posts.

I hope you all are having a great Friday, and your week-end is a good one!

Lumix FZ200| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

more to come…

 

 

Not a Wordless Wednesday- Birds

Posted in Birds, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , 65 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I have been struggling with the weight of the Nikkor 200-500mm plus my tripod for sometime-well since moving here actually. Birding here requires more walking or it seems that way to me, so I decided to go to a lighter system for birding and wildlife.

I switched from my long-loved system too. I bought a Fuji X-T3 and their 100-400mm lens. I’m gaining some on the wide end, but losing some distance which I hope I don’t feel too much since the Fuji is an APS-C cropped sensor camera.

A simplified definition of Full-Frame and cropped sensor cameras-  A Full-frame sensor has the same size dimensions of a 35mm film format. That’s long been the standard in film size. A cropped sensor is a cropped or smaller sensor size than 35mm film format.

Where you see the difference in an image is on a Full-Frame camera the area of view is wider than a cropped sensor, and the cropped sensor camera’s area of view is cropped in for a tighter view.  So, and 50mm lens on a full-frame camera’s area of view is 50mm, but on a cropped sensor camera with a 1.5x crop the area of view is about 75mm.  Wildlife and birders love APS-C or crop sensor cameras because of that added reach from the multiplier gain.  It’s from that gain I’m hoping I don’t miss the 500mm end of my heavy 200-500mm lens.  Clear as mud?  It makes my head spin sometimes!

On the weight side. I’ve shed half the weight of what I was carrying.  Nikon kit w/tripod = 11.01 pounds. Fuji kit= 4.22 pounds! Now, instead of needing the tripod to make the shot and improve my keeper rate and that added 4 pounds of weight I can leave it behind and shoot hand-held with the new kit, and be a lot quicker. That’s the plan anyway. 😀

It’s a whole new system that is going to take a while to get comfortable with after 12 years of shooting Nikon, but I am not ditching Nikon completely. I’m keeping my Full-frame cameras and several lenses as they have a place in my bag and photography needs.

I’ll stop talking, and show you an image I made with the new camera and one with my Panasonic Lumix FZ200 from a few weeks ago. FYI- When #1 Grandson heard I bought a new camera he asked for my Lumix FZ200. How cool is that! 😍

Fuji X-T3 w/Fujinon XF 100-400mm

House Finch

Panasonic Lumix FZ200 Mom and Dad American Bald Eagles.

American Bald Eagle Pair

Plus one more! iPhone 7 Plus- We’ve been painting birds for several weeks in my Watercolor class. Here’s the last one I finished.  M. Graham watercolor on Canson 140 lb. watercolor paper.

Rooster_198CC240-54E4-4CD1-9795-776A44B43BBA

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and the load you carry this week isn’t a heavy one!

more to come…

 

Whatever Weds. This and That

Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Photography, Portraits, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , 55 Comments

Copywrite ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

I have been out photographing things but didn’t post last week so I thought I’d share some of what’s going on and what I’ve been photographing.

There’s a BIG event here at the end of January called Eagles and Ag. Ag short for Agriculture.  The Ag is grass, Cows, and sheep that eat that grass. During Calving season which is now, Eagles and Hawks make an appearance to feast on the afterbirth.

Anyway, there are talks and tours on private ranches and lands.  This was the third year I tried to get in on some tours and I finally made it to not one, but three tours! YIPEE!

One of the tours was called the Owl Prowl.  I saw Great Horned owls… too far and behind lots of branches to make good images of, and two Barn owls…I was too slow and far away so didn’t get a good shot of them while they flew by. Sigh, but I did get one Great Horned owl shot, sadly, I clipped one wing.  I was still thrilled to see it. Birds SCORE! Deborah not so much.

Great Horned Owl

I saw two American Bald Eagles, but they were so far away for my lens. I got a good look through the guides spotting scope though- no photo sorry.

We toured the wetlands behind my house and I learned a lot. These wetlands are private property and the only time the public can get in there is on this tour or you’re a member of Incline Village Hunter’s club.  The wetlands are where Incline Village drains their effluent water which creates a wonderful habitat for shorebirds, and wildlife and they have treatment ponds out there to further clean the water where it eventually flows back into the Carson River, and some are reclaimed to water a golf course or two.

It wasn’t very birdy, but the reflections in the ponds were spectacular. That’s the Carson Range.

IVGID Wetlands Tour Reflections

A few days after Eagles and Ag a couple of girlfriends and I went snowshoeing and on the way home, we saw a family unit of American Bald Eagles in a tree not far off the highway! We stopped! Almost out of range for my little Lumix FZ200, but still a nice look I think.  That’s Dad on the bottom, Mom and Jr up at the top.

American Bald Eagle Family

Then I went to Baby Girl’s for our Littlest’s first birthday party and I did a Cake Smash Photoshoot.  Baby Girl and I collaborated on decorations and props. I think it came out alright.  I did a pre-cake smash session followed by a nap, and feeding then the cake smash.

Landon's 1st Birthday Photoshoot

He wasn’t quite sure what to do with the cake, but curiosity got the best of him and he dug right in as you can see!  I just LOVE his curls!!

Landon's Cake Smash Portrait Sitting

We had another dusting of snow, so my girlfriends and I are heading to mountains a bit north of here to snowshoe in a new place today. I’m hoping to see some Chick-a-dees. They’ve been known to eat right out of your hand. I hope that happens!

That’s about it. I hope your week is off to a great start and continues to be a good one!

Panasonic Lumix FZ200| iPhone 7 Plus| Nikon D810 w/ 50mm f/1.8G lens| Hoodman and Sandisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.2

more to come…