Sometimes You Forget and It's Okay

Doing well.  Post #003.  

It was the very early digital days.  I had gotten the D700 in October, so the first six months or so were cold and grey.  Sometimes you just go for a walk with a camera.  And, what happens is good and healthy and maybe even involves birds.  Fresh air.  Movement.  Wait, what's that.  Oh, upside down in the tree up ahead.  People will think you're strange for standing in the middle of the road pointing a camera up at the bare tree limbs.  However, what is to be found there is wonderful...in monochrome.

Downy Woodpecker shot hand-held with 'H' 300mm F4.5 on D700

I forgot that the camera was set to monochrome.  Classic error.  Fortunately, the Downy Woodpecker in this photo happens to look fantastic in monochrome.  How its body is sandwiched between the branch and the right wing. Once I realized the setting I thought, 'hey, I kind of like that right now.'   

- a quick aside here: what it was like for me to go from shooting manual and waiting for results - which is fine, film is unbeatable - to looking down at the screen to see what I had gotten was a 'quantum' leap.  I was truly speechless when I first started using digital.  The change was beyond words. 

So there we are; in the middle of the road shooting almost directly overhead with five pounds of hand-held camera and lens. What I enjoy here is simply getting a shot.  Any shot.  Now, just a fun shot of upside down bird searching for food inside a dark branch.  Look closely at the talons and the tail feathers. See how they work together to balance the bird and give it sure footing as it leans back then stretches forward and pokes its head in?  Notice how the wings are gathered and focused like a right-to-left tear drop against the tail feathers allowing it to 'press in' and grip to stay in the gravity-defying position?  We'll see this same approach later when we look at the Pileated Woodpecker with it's very impressive size and tail feathers.  You know the perspective is correct because the branches in the background and foreground are growing bottom-to-top.  This photo is not turned on its side.  

Same as above - different branch

Same bird in this photo on a different branch.  The entire body braces against the tree with the tail feathers slightly fanning out in a bit of a 'shoe horn' shape to maximize support for the rapid head movement.  Many feathers together pressed against the tree creates a real firmness to counter the pounding when the woodpecker gets going.  Along the left side of the photo, I enjoy the way the talon is clear against the bark, and the way the beak is sharp against the sky.  It's easy to see the eye.

If I am in an art class, then my eye enters the frame lower-right and climbs the tree to the bird and straight up its tail and back to a hair-pin turn following the black along the back of the skull to the eye and then down to where we are practically shot like a projectile from the sharp beak and into the tree feeling the swift sensation of being the bird knocking against the limb.  My gaze exits the frame along the branch to the top left. 

Viewing 101.  We ask why we like certain photos.  It's because of how the subject is framed.  If the framing isn't pleasing to the eye, the response is repulsion not acceptance.  Why this now?  Because a photo is more than a click that grabs an image.  A photo is a chance to stop time and look closely at a piece of life, of what is going on with the world from a certain perspective.  In my case, birds.  Why the photo?  Beauty. Intrigue. Behavior.  All of the above. 

House Sparrows in bare forsythia just because

This photo is the same day.  Around the corner from the woodpecker.  Just walking and these two stole my heart.  Tell me they are not in conversation.  The 'listening' posture of the bird at top and the 'pleading' almost yearning of the lower bird with the light reflecting in its eye.  Perhaps a kiss in the sunlight?  I dare not be an interloper.  The frame.  By placing them to the right side of the rule of thirds, I allow the left side of the photo to open and breathe to counter the darkness of the birds and branches.  Also, the lower bird extends lower right to upper left and the frame should allow that line to elongate.  And so it does as the lower bird's beak takes us directly to the upper bird's beak, then across the bird's head, and then following both bird and branch, off the tree and out of the frame.  

Downy Woodpecker same as above

In this final shot, I enjoy the way half the bird is cast in shadow; particularly across the face and down along the chest.Also, the staring off into space.  Not at the ground.  I can relate.  The urge to fly?  Simple.  Delicate.  Romantic?  Just a moment in life.  

Something to forget.  It's okay.  

I'm forgetting more these days.  

Be well.  

We'll talk soon.  

It's Good To Be in Your Fifties /

Welcome back.  Post #002.

I took another photo early in the digital days just out in front of the house.  The mocking bird seen below was in the tree of the neighbor's front yard.  Mocking birds got my attention very early on in life when I realized one day that all the songs I was hearing were coming from a single bird.  To watch and listen to a mockingbird sing its way through its mature catalogue of songs is nothing short of astounding.  We've all heard it.  You should witness it.  It's most likely a warm October or early November day.  The trees are all bare. 

Northern Mockingbird in Winter King Green Hawthorn

This portrait (I imagine them posing at times) reveals the compact body and head while the tail extends behind the berries to almost double its length.  The mocking bird has great contrasting striping across the wings.  The small beak aligned perfectly with the eye.  It's grey coloring practically 'feels' soft.  We see the talons wrapping tightly around the smaller branch with the front and rear portions interlocking to ensure a solid grip.  The photo was taken with an authentic 1969 Nikkor H 300mm F4.5.  What a lens!  A gorgeous piece of Japanese-made glass.  A fine example of Japanese artistry and mastery of craft.  Dare I say a bit 'softer' in its focus than today's lenses (or is it aging eyes?). However, I love that. What it has provided are some of my all time favorite shots.  It's just rich, almost creamy, and delicate in its presentation.  

The 1969 Nikkor H 300mm F4.5 mounted to the D700

According to Edward Dozier - https://www.photoartfromscience.co:  

It has a rotating, locking, non-removable lens collar that is excellent for balancing on a tripod. It has a wonderful permanent telescoping lens shade, which I sorely miss on today’s lenses. This lens looks, feels, and acts like its brand-new; I expect it to last well beyond my own lifetime.

I can’t sufficiently describe how excellent this lens is for manual focusing. It has precisely the right dampening, rotation range, and smoothness. The ‘feel’ of the focusing hasn’t changed any whatsoever over the life of the lens. Nikon built this metal lens to the highest possible mechanical standards.

I could not have written it any better.  I fully agree.  The lens is really something one has to feel in his hands to immediately appreciate the craftsmanship.  Thank you, Tadashi Takahashi at Nikon.  I inherited the lens 30 years ago.  More on that at a later date.  

Northern Cardinal shot with the Nikkor H 300mm F4.5 on the D700

The shot above was taken from the deck in the backyard looking out into the river birch trees.  There is an afternoon winter sun and he is perched perfectly to capture those photons streaming in and warm up a bit.  The majestic Cardinal - always a spectacular example of nature doing what it does.  The contrasting black of the eye against the 'matte' feathers to the right and the 'high-gloss' beak to the left is just so dramatic.  The bit of flaring from the uppermost feathers.  The transition from the fire engine red of the head and shoulders to the more ruddy burgundy along the back and outer wing feathers.  The long and elegant 'gown-like' tail feathers.  See what I mean about birds?  There's so much to know and capture and share.  Whew!  

Is it indulgent to celebrate this lens with one more from its illustrious past?  Ah, it's a classic. Onward to the birds!  

The Great Blue Heron shot with the 1969 Nikkor H 300mm F4.5 on the D700

This shot of a Great Blue Heron was taken tripod-mounted while sitting on the ground pond-side.  It is early June and the world is a blaze of glorious, verdant, lusciousness!  The countryside drips in green..., and there is this suddenly walking through my lens out in the water.  Look at the color gradations from the orange beak, to the yellow eye and blue head feathers, along the white cheek to the long and winding tan neck and there the iconic blue feathers of the Great Blue Heron. The chartreuse leg against the ripple in the water.  See what I mean about birds?   I am grateful for those moments.  

Okay.  Enough.  Thank you for having fun with me.  Until next time, be safe and enjoy our feathered friends.  - Daniel