The Beginning of Something

Why keep a blog?  Well, to share what one is passionate about.  There are countless ways we share and this, I've decided, might be fun or interesting or something worth doing. Hello and welcome.  My name is Daniel and I'm all about getting pictures of birds that show how they live.  Well, here we go. On to the birds!  

House Sparrow in Forsythia

I took this shot soon after I got my Nikon D700 (2008 camera) in 2022.  Just down the block from the house, Oliver and I were walking when I saw this simple house sparrow in the forsythia.  You can tell this is early spring by the color.  So what, a simple bird. Who cares?  I do, clearly, care about taking a photograph of it as it lives.  I enjoy seeing birds do what they do, how they do it, when and where, and maybe even why they do what they do. Photos of birds can be fascinating in that they capture what is often just a fleeting second or two before the bird is gone. I learned early on that to shoot birds, I must capture the eye in focus. That is a tough thing to do. Always a challenge.  

Oliver after our walk

AF-S lenses with Extra Low Dispersion glass and Vibration Reduction are a miracle when it comes to crisply capturing details. The picture above was shot with a rather simple Nikkor AF 35-105 f 3.5-4.5 macro-zoom. Great lens for close work. Responsive and reliable. Not a super fast auto focus, but that's not what I use it for.  It has it's purpose.  More from that lens later.  

Nikkor lens mounted to the D700

I think it will be fun to kind of walk through the photos I have taken since moving to digital from fully manual/electronic which all my work is prior to 2022 when I got the D700 (less than 25K clicks) for a great price. Thanks, B&H. What I discovered about going digital was that the learning curve is much faster because I immediately see what I have shot. Instant feedback.  

Self-portrait holding D700 with battery grip

So, the picture of the sparrow above the was the beginning of something new and very exciting even though the tech is outdated and only a camera geek would be interested in any of it. I'm sharing because it's fun and birds are really cool. I enjoy the bokeh in each photo (soft distorted background). I love the cocoa at the rear of the head and the attentive black eye set back behind the perfectly proportioned beak all framed in black.  The wispy chest feathers. The posture. The way the sparrow 'pops' out from the rest of the photo, despite so much yellow. See what I see? This blog is a brand new venture for me. Here I am world. I intend to add a post once a week. See you all in the next one. Until then, let's enjoy our feathered friends. :)  Thanks. Be well, Daniel.