“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved
More photos of the Great Heron, and Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage, and nesting.
The Cattle Egret doesn’t look impressed by the Great Heron’s nest-building.
Yin and Yang
A Graceful landing
All photos taken with a Nikon D300s mounted with a Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens| Hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Here’s another creation from my Smoke Photographs. Do you think this one looks like a Cylon holding a heart? Or the keeper of the Holy Grail?
Nikon D700| Nikkor 35mm f2 @ f11| 0.3 sec| ISO 800| Manual Mode & focus| Hand-held| Flash SB600w/Snoot
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Thanks Dali and Andy for reminding me about this astronomical event. Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon lined up in a triangle to form a special conjunction on Feb. 25, 2012. We spent a lot of time online emailing each other about places we liked to shoot this. I kept looking at this area of the city and I asked the guys to look at it too. After the guys looked at it on TPE (The Photographer’s Ephemeris) they too liked it and we decided to shoot it here. Andy didn’t join us he decided to make some progress on his computer project so it was Dali, Phil, and I who shot here. It was fun, but cold!
The forecast called for a clear sky, but what we had were intermittent clouds, and a low fog bank. As soon as Venus dropped into the fog we called it a night. The Crescent Moon is in those clouds, but Jupiter and Venus are clearly visible.
To see what Dali shot go here
To see Phil’s photo go here
Nikon D700| Nikkor 18mm| f5.6| 15 seconds| ISO 800| Manual Mode| Tripod| Self Timer
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday afternoon I spent with Rainey and Dali photographing birds and waterfowl. Late in the day we saw a Bittern and an Eurasian Wigeon. The lighting and weather weren’t ideal; the sky was getting darker both due to time, and it had been stormy the night before so the sky was still overcast and flat. Monday the sky was blue, and the sun was shining so we decided to go back in the afternoon to take advantage of the better light. The Bittern was there in the same place we’d seen it before tucked in the reeds under an overpass with the late afternoon sun warming his back. This shot was taken from the overpass looking down on him/her.
I uploaded Lightroom Beta 4 to try it out. I’m a bit lost since this is the first time I’ve ever tried LR, but I have to say the highlights and shadow recovery sliders are pretty good. The white feathers around his neck were pretty blown out due to the late afternoon sun beating right down on him. LR did a great job of bringing back the detail in his feathers on his shoulder, and neck. I’m going to be using LR4 for the next several weeks. I’ll be sharing my thoughts and feelings about it as I learn it.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 80-200 @200mm+ Tamron 1.4x TC| f8| 1/50sec| ISO 500| Manual Mode|hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
…”but you never know, traveling, around what bend;
The dreams will curve to an end,
And what will happen then.”
I hope you have some time today to slip away to dream, to hope, and plan.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 80-200mm + 1.4x TC| f8| 1/1250 sec| ISO 500| Manual Mode| Hand-held| texture by Delany Dean
California country-side a day after a storm
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
When in range the 70-300mm VR really is a good lens! (click photo to view it large. It looks awful compressed to this size!) We had an overcast sky yesterday, but for a few brief moments the sun peeked through the clouds and lit him nicely just as if I ordered it.
This is my best Black-crowned Night-Heron to date. I wish all the birds I chase were within range of my lens.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 70-300mm @ 300mm| f7.1| 1/500 sec| ISO 500| Manual Mode| Hand-held
Joe McNally has his hands on the just announced Nikon D4 for some months testing it out. One of the newest improvements is the video capability of this camera. Joe and his crew utilized the new feature while interviewing Little Freddie King. Watch it here.
Read the back story here.
Circadianreflections Blog 
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