I went back to Nickerson Beach to enjoy the Oystercatcher Mating Season. They are the first of our summer birds to arrive each year here on Long Island, NY and I love being on the beach when it's just me and the birds. I was up on my tripod taking flight photos when I saw her signel him and chose to compose immediately rather than hit the quick release for a nice low angle as I did not want to miss there mating. I did not and later in the day, captured them from nice low angles as I witnessed them mating 4 times in the 3 hours I was there. I have lots more American Oystercatcher behaviour to share.
Morris
1) The invite
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/7000s800 ISO-0.3 EV
2) He reacted quickly
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/7000s800 ISO-0.3 EV
3)
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/7000s800 ISO-0.3 EV
4)
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/7000s800 ISO-0.3 EV
5) 11 seconds later and almost over
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/7000s800 ISO-0.3 EV
As part of Carnival in Sitges, they host two major parades (Debauchery and Extermination) with 40+ floats and thousands of revelers. I was fortunate to catch it on my last day in Spain.
As the night photography season is getting really late over here in Finland, I headed out yesterday to try out my new XF 70-300mm lens on my X-T30II. I'm only learning how to take astrophotography images and these are my first attempts with a proper lens. But as the moon is almost in full brightness and the sky is getting too bright on these latitudes it's pretty hard to get proper images. But still, it has been wonderful experience. Last tuesday night I spent couple hours in the middle of the night, completely alone by the lake and listening to owls, storks and other birds as spring is coming. Enjoying myself for sure.
I took total of 600 shots with one second exposure of the andromeda (you can faintly see Andromeda in my wide angle shot over the lake, in the bottom left). Also took 50 of dark frames, bias frames and flat frames for calibration that I used with Andromeda and Pleiades shots. Then I took 250 one second exposure shots of the Pleiades star cluster and finally the moon as a single exposure and twenty 15 second shots of the wide angle view over the lake with the Sigma 15mm f/1.4. Andromeda, pleiades and the wide angle landscapes I stacked in Sequator and edited in Lightroom & Photoshop.
(The last image of my equipment is taken with my Nikon Zf & Voigtländer 40mm f/1.2.)
I'm usually so reticent when taking vertical pictures, but this one I'm quite fond of. Part of my daily routine of going for a walk, I stumbled upon a sprinkler and this nice light. I got sprayed on and it was worth it. Paging RickPerry who sold me on the 35mm. I enjoy that lens a lot. .
Few snaps with the same setup, around sunset at the end of a long day:
f5.6
f4
Dropped one of the folks off at the airport, the other wants to stay a little longer. There are some very nice scenes on the way and back in the mountain roads but the drivers here like to really drive close and take over in bendy roads ... should get another chance.
Contrast is nice, the colours are good. Not much editing needed... Want to try it stopped down a bit more at closer distance with people to see how it affects the background blur.
Details are enough for me I think. I'm happy with it as a walkaround 50 tbh. But I need to give the other ones I got not too long ago a fair chance in a nice place too.
jm10_former wrote:
I have spent a few days in Utah Badlands last October. Here are a few images I took. Your comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.
Jacob
