Nikon D300S – Page 2 – Circadianreflections Blog

Northern Harrier on the Hunt

December 14, 2012December 14, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birding, Nature, Nikkor, Nikon D300S, Northern Harrier, Pacific-Flyway, Photography, Snow Goose, Wildlife1 Comment

This Harrier was just one of many great birds I saw when I got out for a day of birding recently. The Harriers were flying low over the ponds, and marshes all day long. Whenever they were near, or overhead the Snow Geese, White-Fronted Geese, Ibis, and Coots would take to the sky. The noise was amazing to hear.
Late in the afternoon we saw a Harrier chasing a Snow Goose, the goose dived into the marsh grass with the Harrier in hot pursuit! We waited with anticipation to see if the Harrier would come up with the Goose. He did not! That was one lucky goose.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @ 200 + Tamron 1.4x TC| f8| 1/800 sec| ISO 500| Hand-held and shot from the car window

There must have been a Harrier nearby to create this stir-up

Snow geese in retreat…

a couple of Greater White-fronted Geese enjoying the pond,

Snow Geese Make Middle Creek Sparkle Every Spring (gloucestercitynews.net)
Snow geese make comeback (poststar.com)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20139314@N05/6828314045/in/photostream (flickr.com)

Catch of the Day

November 10, 2012December 26, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Ducks, Nature, Nikkor lenses, Nikon D300S, Photography, Water fowl, Wildlife, wood duckLeave a comment

Catch of the Day, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This photograph of a female Wood Duck has been marinating in my archives for sometime. I find if I come back to photos months later I find more keepers.
I want to give a huge Shout Out to my friend Rainey for showing me this spot. THANK YOU Rainey!
It was a fun afternoon.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @ 185mm| f5.6| 1/800 sec| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Hand-held

Peregrine Falcon

November 2, 2012November 2, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birding, Nature, Nikkor, Nikon D300S, Peregrine Falcon, Photography, Wildlife1 Comment

I’m not sure if this is a juvenile or not. Anyone know? It was thrilling to see him. I knew he was in the area and went out last week with my photography friend Dali, but it didn’t come around that afternoon, but we did see the White Tailed Kite then. This morning Dali emailed me early and asked if I wanted to go out to look for the Peregrine again and I said, “Yes!”. We spotted it perched straight-away. We had the pleasure of observing and photographing it for a couple of hours. This is only the second time I’ve seen and photographed a Peregrine Falcon.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@200 + Tamron 1.4x TC|f5.6| 1/600sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority|hand-held

Peregrine Falcon (mentalhealthed.com)
Nesting falcons may force shift in PennDOT work (triblive.com)
Peregrine Falcon, Ramble (starrtrips.wordpress.com)

Transit of Venus June 5, 2012

June 6, 2012June 6, 2012Posted in Astrophotograhpy, California, Nikon, PhotographyTagged Astrophotography, Nikon, Nikon D300S, Photography, Sun, Transit of Venus, Venus, Venus Transit4 Comments

This Transit was a rare event. A once in a Lifetime event for those of us on the West Coast, USA. The next Transit of Venus happens in 2117. I doubt anyone alive today will see it. I didn’t want to miss this special day. I had work on Tues. the afternoon of the Transit. I knew I’d be missing First contact and the first 2.5 hours. No time-lapse for me since I wouldn’t be satisfied not having it from start to finish, but I wanted to see it and if the sky was clear get a photo or two.

The sky around my hometown was full of fluffy clouds all day. The forecast had called for clear skies, but kept changing as the weather kept proving them wrong each hour. Monday, a friend invited me to join him at NASA Ames. Tues. he emailed me updates about the sky condition. Just after 2PM he emailed, “the sky is “mostly clear”. I called my friend Dali and invited him to meet me at NASA Ames then quickly gathered my gear after work, and drove the 12+ miles to get there. I was thrilled to discover commute traffic was light heading north allowing me to drive 65mph the whole way up.

I met my friend Dali in the parking lot and together we found my friend John who stands 6’4″ a good head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd that gathered there to view the Transit.

I set up my tripod and camera/lens/solar filter and started taking photos of the Sun with Venus making its way across the Sun. On my photo above the large black spot is Venus, and the smaller black dots are Sunspots.

John and many other amateur astronomers had set up their telescopes and were allowing people to get a closer view of the Transit. He’s also a Nikon user like me. He kindly let me hook my camera up to his telescope to get a bigger photograph of Venus transiting the Sun. I’ll post that soon.

Thank you John for sharing your scope, and space with me yesterday it was fun, and send my thanks again to your daughter for the goodies. The coffee cake I sampled was delicious!

Dali’s photos of the Transit are here and here.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm @ 200mm + Tamron 1.4x extender= effective focal length 420mm| f11| 1/200s| ISO 400| Manual Priority| Tripod

In honor of the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th Birthday

May 27, 2012May 28, 2012Posted in California, Nikon, Photography, TravelTagged California, Golden Gate Bridge 75th Birthday, Nikon D300S, Photography, San Francisco, Travel and Tourism2 Comments

Today is the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday. There’s going to be a party with fireworks shot right from the bridge tonight. The crowd is going to be BIG! I decided to stay away from the city, and not fight the traffic in and out of the city.

So instead of posting a historic photo or two shot tonight of the Golden Gate Bridge with Fireworks I’ve decided to honor the birthday by sharing a few photographs of the GGB that I’ve taken the last few years.

2010 Golden Gate Bridge through the fog.

2011

Golden Gate Bridge North Tower

Golden Gate Bridge South Tower from Fort Point, San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge when the lights just came on.

Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands

2012- Panorama from Slacker Hill in the morning

It’s a beautiful bridge to shoot day or night, and one I’ll never tire of photographing. I hope to photograph it many more times before its 100th birthday!

Good Fences make Good Neighbors

April 20, 2012April 20, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Breeding Season, California, Cattle Egret, Great Heron, Nature Photography, Nikkor, Nikon, Nikon D300S2 Comments

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

Être en plein Soleil

March 19, 2012March 19, 2012Posted in California, Nikon, PhotographyTagged Astrophotography, Nikon D300S, SunLeave a comment

My first shot of the sun! I’m making baby steps further into Astrophotography with the addition of a Solar Filter. The filter came in last week, but we’ve had nothing but rain and overcast skies since then so I’ve not been able to try it out.
Today we have partly cloudy skies and no rain. I was so excited to finally have sun that I set up and started shooting and thought I was fully extended to 200mm. Sigh, I wasn’t even close!
There are clouds moving over the sun at the moment. I’ll set up again and take another shot this afternoon.
I’m so blond all too often.

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