Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Acorn Woodpecker-Male
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 lens at f/8| 1/1250s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held
Category: Birds
Northern Flicker-Male
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I’m so excited-this is the best Male-Northern Flickr image I’ve made to date! It is also the closest I’ve ever been to a Northern Flicker.
My friend Rainey and I had been shooting wildflowers up in the mountains when we were descending we spotted him pecking at the road. He flew up to this perch and stayed just long enough to capture two frames. Both were a bit over exposed, and not as sharp as I would have liked as I was shooting on the fly from the passenger side of the car through the window. Thankfully Adobe Camera Raw, and a bit of sharpening in Photoshop saved the image.
I am not happy about cutting off his tail though. So, while I’m happy to have made this image there is a better one still to be made. The chase continues. 🙂
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm @ f4| 1/200s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Matrix Met| Hand-held| San Benito County, California, USA
Ruffled Feathers
Ruffled Feathers, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.
Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Another Allen’s Hummingbird image I made last week-end. He has a little smudge on his breast that I’m tempted to clone out, but I also like him the way he is in his natural environment. What would you do clone it out, or leave it?
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 @ f8| 1/400s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Matrix Met| Tripod| Santa Cruz, CA| Fine weather
Prairie Falcon
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Saturday last I had the pleasure of Dali, and Rainey’s company for a few hours of birding.
We headed south about an hour from home hoping to spot Golden Eagles. We hadn’t gone too far down a country road when I spied a falcon on top of a telephone pole. I quickly pulled over and turned off the car so we could take photos without the vibration of the engine.
None of us was positive about the bird’s ID at the time, but we were excited because we knew it was a bird we hadn’t seen before. Here’s how it looked when I first saw it.
With both Rainey and I clicking away we spooked it and he planned to flee the scene.
Ready for Take Off!
Take off!
In Flight—
I was thrilled when I uploaded the images to find I had captured the whole sequence of flight on film. Upon closer look I thought this might have been a juvenile Kestrel, but Rainey confirmed it is a Prairie Falcon. A first for the 3 of us.
We also saw two Golden Eagles, which were flying away from us too fast to capture a photo. Later we saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree. Dali got the POD (Picture of the Day) as he got a good image of it. I wish I could show you, but at the time of this writing he hadn’t posted it yet. I was too slow to get the car parked, and out so, I missed the shot. When it got spooked and took flight another Bald Eagle took off with it. We hadn’t seen that one due to tree cover.
We saw this Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a wire. We hoped it would spot something good to eat and dive for it, alas it never did.
We also saw this pretty little Savannah Sparrow—X Marks the Spot:
Savannah Sparrow: Closer Look–
Other birds of note that we saw were: A Red-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-billed Magpie; (see Rainey’s image here) White Crown Sparrows, Acorn Woodpeckers, and Red-tail Hawks.
It was good birding. I hope to get out there again this week-end. With luck I’ll see the Eagles again.
All photos were taken with a Nikon D300s and AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 lens
Golden Crowned Sparrow-Winter
Golden Crowned Sparrow-Winter, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.
Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I have to double-check, but I think this is my first Golden Crowned Sparrow!
So, far this has been a fantastic birding year for me, and it’s still early in the season.
If I see Eagles this winter it will be icing on the cake. 🙂
Photographing birds in Manual Focusing mode is tough. My finger is always on the focusing ring and I’m adjusting all the time since the birds are so fast and moving all the time. It’s a miracle I got this in focus at all. My friend Dali shoots with a Legacy Nikon lens the 400mm f/3.5 which is a manual focus lens and he gets the most beautiful bird and wildlife photographs. I want to be as good as that if I have to manual focus.
See his work here.
Nikon D700| Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4 @ f/5.6 + 14E II TC= 420mm| 1/400s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Cnt Metering| Monopod
Bushtit
Bushtit, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.
Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Testing the Nikkor 14E II Teleconverter that I purchased. It isn’t Auto-focusing on either the D700 or D300s with my AF-S 300mm f/4 lens. Once in awhile when manual focusing the AF would work, but not consistently like it should have. This was manually focused. It looks like this unit is a lemon. I’m sending it back for an exchange. I’m very disappointed.
I’m not good at manually focusing on birds. I don’t have many keepers from the hour and half I was out testing this TC today. In the meantime my Tamron TC will have to do.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f5.6 w/Nikkor 14E II TC =420mm| 1/1000s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Center Weighted| Monopod
Willow Flycatcher
copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
While out birding for Sandhill Cranes and other birds that are migrating to Central California for the winter I got a quick glimpse of this little Flycatcher. I got three rapid bursts off before a Black Phoebe came flying in to chase this bird off the post.
This is a first sighting of this bird for me. I think it’s a Willow Flycatcher. Please correct me if I’m wrong. If it is a Willow Flycatcher it too is wintering here from the Northeast, Mountain, and Northwest states.
I saw him at 3:30pm when the shadows were getting long, and cloudy, diffused light was getting more golden by the minute. I was shooting at f8 to get as much in focus as I could which resulted in this photo being a bit under-exposed, noisy, and a bit soft. I like the painterly effect it’s given the image.
I boosted the contrast,opened up the exposure value, sharpened, and did a little noise clean up when I developed this image.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f/4 @ f/8| 1/1250s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held shot through an open window of the car.
An image I took of the Phoebe taking control of the post. I wasn’t quite fast enough to get the whole Flycatcher in the frame.
Yesterday was Veteran’s Day in the States and while at lunch we were lucky enough to see the last few passes of an Air Show in honor of our Veterans. Here are some photos I snapped before our lunch arrived.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4
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