Andy, that is gorgeous. Recently I voted for New Zealand's Pūteketeke for "bird of the century", but the Crested Grebe was one of the choices. Another beautiful bird.
cadman342001 wrote:
I'll throw this in now as I haven't processed more of from Ferrymead yet and I'm having to limit PC time as I'm recharging on the road until I begin work in the Queenstown Branch on Thursday.
I left Christchurch last Friday having completed my 8 weeks of "helping out" and made the drive down to Queenstown. I actually took the afternoon as annual leave so it would be a bit less rushed and because I wanted to visit Mt Cook and the Crested Grebes breeding site I stumbled upon near Lake Tekapo last year (AF only this time )
The turn off to Mt Cook NP is not long after the viewpoint I always stop at (and yes I stopped this time for some panos with the 200/2 !), and consists of a 55kms road along the lakeshore with numerous stopping places along the way.
Isn't there a bird of the year vote every year. Now I am forgetting, is that in New Zealand or Australia. Those of us in the northern hemisphere tend to conflate happenings in the two countries
Is it too early to have a bird of the century, its only 2023 so far. I need to go check out what's going on with that vote.
HCE HCE wrote:
Saph - Those straight lines are from the 24mm PC-E, There's actually a bit of barrel distortion that should be corrected to make it truly rectilinear.
Love those lines from the 24. Some day I need to get hold of the 19 PC-E.
GroWeb wrote:
Here are a few monochromes from Olympic Park to keep things rolling along. They were taken with my Fuji X-T4, Lens Turbo II and, respectively, the 135 f/2.8 QC, 24 f/2.8 NC, and 50 f/1.2 Ai-s (x2).
I was practicing 3D manual assist for focusing on a plastic and cloth Santa. The Zf subject detection focus point seemed to find the flowing beard more than his eyes. But then I suppose Santa's beard is more interesting than the eyes.
Samy, It usually is the bird of the year contest - except when John Oliver gets involved. This years winner had some help, but is an endangered species. In the past there have been shenigans in this New Zealand cpntest. (a bat won once) - so Oliver picked a Crest Grebe by its Maori name. He loved the name so much devoted a big segment of his show to it. I hope Andy got some shots. Linkage below
saph wrote:
Isn't there a bird of the year vote every year. Now I am forgetting, is that in New Zealand or Australia. Those of us in the northern hemisphere tend to conflate happenings in the two countries
Is it too early to have a bird of the century, its only 2023 so far. I need to go check out what's going on with that vote.
James Markus wrote:
Andy, that is gorgeous. Recently I voted for New Zealand's Pūteketeke for "bird of the century", but the Crested Grebe was one of the choices. Another beautiful bird.
Yes, that's the Maori name for it Jim
Just checked, I got about 450 shots that I have yet to go through. Lots of bursts using the D850 + grip with the EN-EL18n battery for the extra 2 fps making 9 fps. Lots of mating displays going on.
Fortunately they don't seem to be disturbed by the noise of the D850 at full speed (which seemed very loud to my ears !)
Thanks all for your Likes and kind comments on my recent monochrome set!
I have been fiddling around a bit with some of my infrared images in Photolab 7, and I am very pleased with it so far. I think I might prefer what I can do with it to what I can do in Lightroom and Photoshop, with the added benefit that I need only one piece of software at a time (plus Nik plugins), rather than three programs at a time (plus Nik plugins). I chose photos that I have not previously processed or posted (they were second stringers for various reasons, including some softness of focus), of which the first two are from my 590 nM Fuji X-T2 with the 135 f/3.5 QC (at Bald Mountain last April) and the 50 f/1.4 SC (at Forbidden Plateau in October 2022), and the third is from my 720 nM D7200 with 20 f/2.8 Ai-s (at Forbidden Plateau in September 2023). My intention is to show something of the range of possibilities that I have discovered in this new-to-me software.
Last year, George took a photo of an ornament on a tree outdoors that I really like. It has stuck with me throughout the year and I thought that I would try a similar photo and put my own spin on it. I still like George's photo better, but I'm fairly pleased with mine. Please see George's photo here. (This link is posted with George's permission.)
Inspired by Scott (or George ) I tried something the same with our Christmas tree.
Nikkor-SC Auto 1:1.2 f=55mm AI-ed and Chipped.
@ versions of each, 1 wide open and 1 closed down.
The "sunstars" are not as clear as I would like.
NIKON Z 6_255mm f/1.2G lens55mmf/1.21/8s100 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON Z 6_255mm f/1.2G lens55mmf/16.013s100 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON Z 6_255mm f/1.2G lens55mmf/1.21/8s100 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON Z 6_255mm f/1.2G lens55mmf/16.013s100 ISO0.0 EV
)
) I tried something the same with our Christmas tree.
