No winter over here, no snow to speak of. The temperature only became subzero the new year night, but all we got was ice on the sidewalks. Nothing to show even if I had had the opportunity to shoot outdoors.
It's really weird as the weather is swinging between the two extremes: snowless warm winters like in 2007/8 and now, and the disastrous amount of precipitation that grinds the city to a standstill like in 2009/10 and 2010/11. A couple in recent memory (2005/06 and 2009/10) were also bitingly cold, to boot (though I guess the members of Canadian chapter might still call that balmy ).
Well Happy New Year to all of you! A few from today (using the FD 400mm f4.5 M.F.) with a "ginned-up" combination of a fresnel lens from an old junk overhead projector in front of a 35 year-old Sunpak 611 mallet-style flash unit, running manual power settings. I triggered it with a 270EX Mk1, using a Wein photo-slave wired to the 611. I figured that I would get enough carry of light into the hemlocks, with the sun strongly back-lighting the subjects. It worked pretty well, so I probably will fabricate an aluminum pan/swivel frame to take it out of the crude-crap stage. The last two photos were taken from the Blizzard of 2011 (Jan 12th), when we got hit with over 2-1/2 feet of snow in about 12 hours. Still haven't seen any here since the October surprise storm...
Happy new year everyone! Wonderful photos posted so far. I have been away, so I can't comment in more detail right now, but will try and find the time soon.
A couple of shots from Sweden. taken with 5D + 17-40L:
Will, when I wanna shoot pijuns point blank I use black oily sunflower seed.
Not only that stuff is good for them and they love it, it also does not attract other intrusive species such as seagulls.
Indeed, pijuns are pretty smart as birds go and they are formidable flyers.
They can see me with a bag of seed from 200 yards, and then they fly towards me like bats out of hell.
There is also a Cooper's hawk in the area, and he keeps harassing the pijuns. Once in a while there are aerial chases taking place......that action is usually so fast that I have a problem following it with a naked eye, let alone taking pictures of it.
Another great page of winter(y) shots. Congrats to all. To single out a couple:
Jerry - I really like the barbed wire (you have a small dust bunny in the top left, btw )
Adrian - Really great dog shot. And a very photogenic dog.
Helena - the sunset. Super colours. That'll be around 15:30 this time of year
Edd - What amazing colour that little feathery critter has. That last can be next year's christmas card for you.
A few more from me, from the rather disappointing english winter from which i have just returned. Probably i should resurrect the autumn thread for these....
Just one "weird" one from today. I decided to use some of my EF lenses today in place of the FD glass, and got caught with AF mis-lock (operator) issues on this shot. I saw a pair of Great Blue Herons out on our lake late this afternoon. The AF locked perfectly on a branch 75-100 feet in front of the herons in flight. I should have had my MF glass out here....
The real weird part is we have never had heron here after mid to late October; things are changing, and not in a direction that I think is positive. Just my thoughts...
Jools and Ernie: Thanks for the kind words; I will keep those shots in mind for my home-grown greeting cards.
Jerry: Now that is a Blue Bird ...and Happy New Year!
I went to go feed the Geese bread but apparently they hate me and bread so this guy briefly showed up. I took this from basically right underneath the tree. He watched my every move. Red Tail Hawk - I think?
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