Autumn Color

I got out in the autumn colors today, from a vantage point at Bear's Den overlooking the Shenandoah Valley, less than an hour from home.  Here's the overall scene (don't forget that it's interactive - you can zoom and scroll around in the 360 degree panorama image if you click on image):

Post from RICOH THETA. #theta360 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

And here are my favorite shots from the day, all shot with my Nikon D810.  The first two with the Nikkor 200-500mm, the rest with the Zeiss Milvus 50mm f1.4 (amazing lens!).

Back to Color, Digital, Lumix? Well, Maybe a Little

I've been offline, mostly, working with black and white film in the darkroom. And, enjoying it immensely.

 

But, I decided to give Micro 4/3 a go again, after never being able to quite fall in love with the DMC-GX7 body. The image quality is fine, quite fine, in fact, but the camera feels weird in my hand, and I don't like the electronic viewfinder (EVF) on that particular camera. So, I decided to jump on a Black Friday deal and get the similar but somewhat less full-featured DMC-G7. Much better, for me. I gave up in-body image stabilization (which the GX7 has), but gained a camera that feels right in my hand, with what I feel is a better EVF.

 

Here's a shot I made with the new G7 today, using the Lumix 100-300mm f4-5.6 zoom lens, at 800 iso:

Mockingbird in Winter

 

I'm still really having a blast in the darkroom, but this was SO easy, and shooting color again is also fun...

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Getting Out and About With the 4x5 Speed Graphic

I have a beautiful early Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 camera. Because it's not so convenient to use, I haven't spent much time with it. I decided to change that over the three day 4th of July weekend. I made a total of ten exposures (on Arista EDU film), and found that five of them are worth sharing. That's a pretty good hit rate compared to smaller formats, where I shoot a lot more images per scene.

 

Here are my five favorites from the weekend:

 

 

I usually set the camera on a tripod, using the ground glass back to frame and focus. I did that for the last three images above. For the first two, I used the rangefinder and shot handheld. Getting the focus right is a challenge, and I missed on some other shots. But, when you get it right, it's pretty nice.

 

In the picture of the house (Thornton House at Manassas National Battlefield), I used the front rise movement of the camera to allow me to keep the camera level to avoid distortion, yet still capture the roof and chimney. Pretty cool.

 

In the shot of the lotus flowers, I threw all concern for distortion to the wind, shooting with the camera nearly on the ground, pointing up at a steep angle.

 

I'm very happy that the Speed Graphic is not my only camera, or even my main one. But, it's instructive and fun to use.

 

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Northern Water Snake Triptych

From my morning paddle in the kayak on Saturday...

Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon sipedon, by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 Lens

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Two More From the Fuji GW690II

Adding to my last post, with two more 6x9 medium format images from Jones Gap State Park in South Carolina.

This is a detail shot of the water at my feet . To give an idea of the scale, I'd say the rock at top was about six feet away. I love the deep darkness and blue cast in the water

 

 

This image didn't appeal to me at first, but I've grown to appreciate it.

 

Both were shot on Kodak Portra 400. No filters were used.

 

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Kind of Blue - Heron, That Is

 

Kind of Blue, by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR G Lens

iso 160, f5, 1/2000 sec.

 

 

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Today's Eagle Shot - Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR Lens

I got out kayaking on the Potomac River again this morning. I saw quite a lot of wildlife, including a muskrat that swam to within a few feet of my kayak, and a giant snapping turtle that nearly touched it. Both were too close for me to focus with the big lens. I also watched a herd of deer grab their morning drink at the river's edge.

 

Here's the best shot I got today, of an immature bald eagle.

Immature Bald Eagle, by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR Lens

iso 220, f5.6, 1/1250 sec.

 

You can click on this image to see it larger on flickr.

 

Man, am I lucky to have access to such a beautiful place to paddle on weekend mornings at sunrise.

 

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A Glass Menagerie - Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5

I carry a camera with me every day. Today, it happened to be my little waterproof Lumix TS5, which I was bringing in to work to loan to a friend. The camera has accompanied her to Central America, and is now on its way to Tibet.

 

Anyway, the building where I work represents one of the world's largest installations of structural glass. Walking to my office, I noticed these apparently random tracks on the condensed water droplets on the outside surface. Obviously not guided by gravity, these tracks twist and turn, intersecting themselves and wandering both up and down. After looking at a few of them closely, I determined the source.

 

Slug, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5

 

At about 1 1/2" in length, these guys cover some territory.

 

Further down the hall, I found this predator:

 

Praying Mantis, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5

 

I'm not sure if a mantis will eat slugs, but I have a suspicion they will. Quite an interesting little world in operation just on the other side of the glass...

 

The TS5's macro capability came in handy here. The wifi did as well, allowing me to quickly transfer the images to my iPad so I could include them in this morning's post.

 

Then, I look up from the table where I'm writing and see this:

 

 

I grabbed this shot with the iPad's onboard camera. Okay, digital imaging can be pretty cool.

 

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Great Egret - Nikon D810 and Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

And here's my best bird-in-flight shot from Sunday's paddle trip.

Great Egret (Ardea alba), by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

iso 200, f5, 1/1250 sec.

 

I watched this beauty, and his/her nearly-identical partner, approach me from far way, flying downriver toward my kayak. I was lucky enough to get the focus just right on this shot, and capture the wings spread wide. This camera / lens combination is just astounding. It's what I've been working toward for years in gear for nature photography.

 

I find myself tempted to try the new Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 (Click Here), a much lower cost and lower weight solution, but it's not going to provide image quality like this. And, that extra stop of light gathering (f4) in my lens really matters.

 

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Back Home, on the River

My long vacation over, I'm back out on the river in my kayak, with my Nikon D810 and 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR lens. Here's a shot from last Sunday on the Potomac.

Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

iso 1800, f5.6, 1/1250 sec.

 

On this particular outing, I focused on wildlife photography, leaving my fishing rod untouched. Rather than "running and gunning" down the river as I fished, I pulled the kayak quietly to shore in a few places, and was rewarded with more time to observe each creature that I came across, including several bird species, as well as a red fox.

 

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Wood - Shot With the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100

A series of photos of trees, close up, from my trip to The Desolation Wilderness in Northern California. All shot with the LX100.

 

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lions, tigers, and... BEARS! Oh, My.

Okay, no lions or tigers, but on the drive in to my local kayaking spot here in Northern Virginia this weekend, I did see foxes (4), deer (dozens), and a black bear!

 

Black Bear (Ursus americanus) in Suburbia, by Reed A. George

Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR Lens

iso 3200, f4, 1/125 sec.

 

Keep in mind, this is in Northern Virginia, where the townhouses and strip malls are rapidly gaining on the trees in number. It was a pleasant surprise to see this beautiful animal here. Also a little troubling. I'm concerned for his (her?) future.

 

It was just after 6:00 AM, and the light was low there in the early morning shade. I didn't have time to make adjustments, other than to crank the iso up as far as I felt comfortable with. Luckily, that got me to a shutter speed where one or two exposures came out sharp, even though I was handholding the big 200-400mm lens, zoomed to 400mm.

 

The approximate focus distance is 29.9'. That bear could cover that distance in less than one second. Thankfully, he didn't.

 

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Well, I'm Going For It - Nikon D810

Image Source: http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/dslr-cameras/D810.html

 

I have long said that my Nikon D700 is the single best-performing camera I've ever owned. Not the highest fun-factor (as I love my rangefinders and old film cameras), but best at getting the shot, and in the most high quality way. So, I have not upgraded it, even after several years. I did add the Nikon Df, which is just a different beast, and brings the fun factor up considerably with its retro design, ability to take non-AI lenses, and smaller size.

 

What I did upgrade was my telephoto lens choice. Selling the spectacular 500mm f4 AiP manual focus lens, I invested in the first version AF-S 200-400mm f4 VR lens. Having fast autofocus significantly improves my chances of capturing great nature photographs. On the D700, the 200-400 really sings.

 

So why upgrade to the D810? Well, really for one reason, and one reason only - resolution. I will be able to shoot the D810 in DX crop mode and still produce 15.4 megapixel images. That is higher than the D700 at full frame, and turns my 200-400 telephoto into the equivalent of 300-600mm, without the 1.4X tele-extender! That's powerful. Or, I can shoot in full-frame (36 megapixel) mode, and crop in post-processing. That's really going to increase the number of bird-in-flight images that will be useful and printable at large sizes.

 

Resolution is the only reason that I know now. I have a feeling I'll find other reasons to love the D810.

 

I bought mine refurbished by Nikon. The cost savings was significant - I paid $2,550 at Adorama, including a third party "drops and spills" 3 year extended warranty. The camera lists for almost $3,300.

 

I don't expect the D810 to become my most-used camera; I love the Df and know the D810 won't replace it. I do expect the D810 to be my go-to nature and wildlife camera.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Here's Something I've Been Thinking About - the Nikon D810 in Crop Modes

 

I am now the proud (half) owner of a Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR G lens. Half, because I co-own it with a good friend of mine.

 

I always laugh when someone asks me what gear to buy to do a little nature photography, especially bird photography. Now that I have the 200-400, typically attached to my D700, I find myself thinking about what I could do with a D800 or D810 - so many more pixels that would allow me to use the crop modes (1.2 or 1.5) that are built into the camera, and still end up with images with sufficient resolution to print big.

 

At 1.2 crop, the D810 produces 25 megapixel images, and at 1.5 crop (same as DX sensors), the images are 16 megapixels. That's a serious advantage over the D700, with its 12 megapixels at full frame.

 

I love my D700, but a D810 may just be the perfect match for the 200-400 lens for nature photography.

 

(Click Here) to read a post by Kirk Tuck on the Visual Science Lab about this very subject.

 

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Great Blue Heron (GBH)

My birding friends refer to the great blue heron as a GBH. Very common in this region, they are really interesting birds. It's great fun to watch them feed. In the first shot below, you can see a fish scale hanging from this guy's beak; he had just dropped a big fish.

GBH Sitting, by Reed A. George

GBH Flying, by Reed A. George

 

I shot both of these images on a recent kayaking trip to Mason Neck State Park in Virginia, with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR G lens.

 

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Summer Leaves

There's something about trees. They have this incredible range of dimension, from the microscopic detail of leaf structure, to the sometimes impressively large structure of the trunk and root system. There's a lot going on inside this one living organism, and even more just outside.

 

Photographers, including me, love to shoot the autumn leaves. I found this tree, which happens to be at its peak summer health, equally interesting

 

Summer Leaves, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 28mm f1.8 AF-S G Lens

iso 3200, f5.6, 1/125 sec.

 

I spot metered a point on the gray tree bark to get this exposure. Of course, that meant blowing out the highlights in the white sky around the leaves, but that's okay.

 

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More of a Story in Wildlife - Nikon D700 and 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR Lens

I wrote recently about a personal challenge to myself, to move my wildlife photography from mere "find the animal and shoot it" to telling at least part of a story. In photography, the story doesn't have to be complete. In fact, sometimes, if the story presents more questions than answers, that can be a good thing. That's kind of the case here.

 

At the end of a kayaking trip, as I shoved my boat up to the shore, I saw a clump of feathers bouncing around on the bank. Not sure what I was looking at, maybe an injured bird?, I decided to look closer, and shoot. Here's what I saw.

 

 

Now, the camera saw it much more clearly than I did at the time. What you're looking at is two birds (Carolina wrens?), fighting it out. And I don't mean play fighting. These two were not only using their sharp beaks against each other, they were actually clawing at each other's eyes! As they continued, and even ended up in the water, here's how it looked.

 

Crazy, right? And here's the final, and crowning shot. Bird rage!

 

Bird Rage, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR Lens

 

As they finally split up and ended the fight, with one bird chasing the other off into the bushes, I just couldn't keep up with the big lens. I missed a couple of other interesting shots, but do feel that these show the event pretty well.

 

Does anyone know if I have the species correct, or what these vicious little birds were doing to each other?

 

I'm happy to have caught some very interesting behavior in this sequence.

 

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Nature Photography - It's More Than Just Finding the Animals

 

I've been working on my nature photography this spring, and have been enjoying my new Nikkor 200-400mm f4 VR lens in the process. While I'm now quite comfortable with the lens, and very impressed with the image quality it produces, I haven't really nailed any nature shots that make me super proud yet.

Here's an example of what the lens can do:

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AFS VR Lens

This is a perfectly acceptable photo of a bald eagle, in a technical sense, but it sure doesn't tell much of a story. Really, I just found the animal, and got a decent shot of him. Then it was over.

 

Here's a shot below that I made some time back, of a much less exotic animal, with less exotic optics, but with more of a story. I love how the toad's singing, exhibited by the extended throat, and more importantly, by the standing waves in the water surrounding it, tell you more than "This is a toad." I aspire to finding more stories like this.

 

Eastern American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus), by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, 14-140mm Zoom Lens

The reason I'm thinking about this is that I read an interesting story about Frans Lanting, famed National Geographic nature photographer, on the Smithsonian website. (Click Here) to read that post. Lanting is a very interesting person, and the TED talk video embedded in the story tells a lot about how he feels about his work.

 

I've seen a lot of his night photography, where he sets up remote camera traps for elusive species. I see these as mainly challenges to find the animal and document it. However, he has other images, some of which he describes in the blog piece, that really tell much bigger stories. Read about the hunters reflected in the zebra's eye, and the African bullfrog, with approaching clouds above. Interesting stuff.

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Nikon 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens for Birds - The Warbler

My friend and I have just invested together in a very expensive lens - the Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR (version 1). Last weekend, I took it out in my kayak along with my super-sturdy Gitzo tripod and gimbal head.

 

While I was waiting for large birds to fly by where I'd set up the tripod, this colorful little guy showed up.

Prothonotary Warbler, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

iso 720, f5, 1/1000 sec.

 

I had the D700 set to auto-ISO, so that I could set a fast (1/1000) shutter speed and the f-stop I wanted, letting the camera adjust ISO. As you can see, the warbler has an insect in his beak, a nice additional feature for the image.

 

Here's another shot of the same warbler.

 

Prothonotary Warbler, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

iso 1600, f5, 1/1000 sec.

 

We also purchased the Nikon TCIIE 1.4X teleconverter with our lens. I could have used it here. Both of these shots are cropped from larger compositions (hey, he's a pretty small bird!). I did get a chance to try the lens and converter together. I'll post some of those shots in the coming days.

 

This is one amazing lens.

 

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Northern Water Snake - Nikkor 300-400mm f4 AF-S VR G Lens

I went kayaking today, for the third weekend in a row. Get it, in a row? Sorry about that. I think I'm a little punchy after so much exercise.

 

Today, I had the distinct pleasure of testing out a new telephoto lens, the amazing Nikkor 200-400mm f4. This is not an easy lens to handle, but mounted firmly on a gimbal head and super-heavy tripod, I was able to get it to shine, including with the Nikon TC14EII teleconverter. The focus is super-fast and accurate.

 

 

Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 200-400mm f4 AF-S G VR Lens

Nikkor TC1.4EII Teleconverter (final focal length 360mm)

iso 2200, f8, 1/1250 sec.

I got some really nice bird shots today as well, including some really sharp shots of birds in flight. But, I'm too tired to process them tonight. So, you'll have to live with this teaser shot of a northern water snake until I get some sleep.

 

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