More Raptors…

We got an early start to shoot the raptors as Photo Day started about 7AM and we could shoot until 11AM. Though I don’t particularly like getting up and out that early, I do like getting done in time for lunch! There was a slight threat of rain and the skies were overcast but otherwise quite pleasant. Tess and Donna wore their boots thinking they might ward off the chiggers and I guess it was a good thing as some of the areas were muddy from a previous rain.

I do hope more of you will join us at the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center next year to shoot the raptors. It is a great opportunity to get close to these birds! So let me share a few of my favorite photos with you.

Eastern Screech Owl
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Great Horned Owl
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Great Horned Owl
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Common Barn Owl
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Red Tailed Hawk
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Red Tailed Hawk with a Spritz of Water
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

And not only did we get to shoot raptors but there were also some wildflowers in bloom!

Tess and Donna Shooting the Wildflowers
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Following our photo shoot my friend Mary from Capture Dallas joined us for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Mary belongs to the Heard Nature Photography Club and primarily shoots nature photos that are absolutely beautiful. To see some of her photos go to:

http://www.capturedallas.com/users/mbbin2

The Crazies Meet Another Crazy Woman (Donna, Tess, and Mary)
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

Tess… Chiggers… and Raptors…

Last year Tess joined me to shoot the raptors. Little did we know that we would be eaten alive by chiggers. E-mails flew back and forth about these strange bites that were popping up all over our bodies two days after the shoot, and I do believe we even took a few photos of them to compare. Yep… chiggers for sure! So when this year’s raptor shoot was announced, I asked her if she was interested in going and in spite of our chigger experience she immediately said yes but we did spray ourselves with “Off” in hopes that it would prevent further problems.

Tess has a 100-400mm lens and after letting me try hers, I was lusting for the lens as it has good zoom range. The only drawback is the weight. I had a weak moment after using hers and got the same lense and I must say, I think our bird photography has improved as a result. We’ve had some practice shooting the birds at White Rock Lake which is always fun but we could never get as close to birds in the wild as we do at the Blackland Raptor Center, and I think that is why she immediately said she wanted to return. It is a great opportunity for close-up bird shots regardless of the lense you are shooting with.

So let me share with you some of Tess’s favorite shots from Photo Day…

Red Tailed Hawk
(Photo by Tess)

Red Tailed Hawk
(Photo by Tess)

American Kestrel
(Photo by Tess)

Great Horned Owl
(Photo by Tess)

Great Horned Owl
(Photo by Tess)

American Kestrel
(Photo by Tess)

Donna “shoots” the birdies…

This was Donna’s first time shooting the raptors at the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center. Let me share some of Donna’s favorite photos…

Eastern Screech Owl
(Photo by Donna)

Red Tailed Hawk
(Photo by Donna)

Watching You!
(Photo by Donna)

Common Barn Owl
(Photo by Donna)

Attempting to take flight…
(Photo by Donna)

Blackland Prairie Raptor Center

On May 25th, Tess, Donna and I went to the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center in Lucas for Photo Day. Once a year they have a photo day. The cost is $20/person for a morning to shoot their raptors. They limit the number of photographers so it makes it a fun day out to be able to get up close to these beautiful birds. They go out of their way to present their birds in a natural setting. If the birds show any sign of stress they immediately remove them from the situation. So many people in North Texas have learned about raptors through their efforts.

This is the third year I have gone to shoot the raptors. Last year Tess joined me and we were eaten alive by chiggers! I personally counted 200 bites and at that point I stopped counting as there were more than that. Needless to say, this year we sprayed ourselves in hopes of avoiding more bites.

We met Mary, a friend from Capture Dallas at the shoot and then we all went to the Cheesecake Factory in Allen for lunch. It was a delightful day out and we took way too many photos. I took over 900! Yikes… my computer is groaning! Obviously not all of them are keepers but you never know when shooting birds if you got the shot or not.

Tess, Fay/Lala, Donna
(Photo by Mary from Capture Dallas)

Hope some of you can go next year. It is a fun day out and an opportunity to shoot birds close up. To obtain shots like this of birds in the wild would be extremely difficult and we thank the employees and volunteers for making this possible.

Thank you!

Just wanted to thank all you “crazies” for your photo entries in the flower challenge! We had 12 entries and lots of conversations and laughs and I think there was something to learn through it all! And for those of you sitting on the sidelines, we would love to have you join us and share your photos for the challenges or to join us on our outings when possible. I think it is virtually impossible to learn photography without actually getting out there and doing it! It makes no difference what you are shooting with… the basics of photography are the same.

I think one of the entries that stimulated a lot of conversation as well as learning was Vickie’s photo of her orchid and being a true Crazy Woman, she has sent me a couple more photos taken with her 50mm lens and I think you will agree they are great! I will post both of them and I know Vickie will be interested in seeing your comments!

I am always a bit hesitant to use your photos as a learning tool but then again that is what we are here for and mind you, I may be totally wrong in my assessments and suggestions, and you are always welcome to give your point of view. The exchange I think is important. I guess certain things have been drilled in my head through the years and this is what I draw from but then there is always the exception to the rule. We hear about composition and the rule of thirds but sometimes an image with the subject directly in the center works! There is so much subjectivity in photography. So if you think I am off base, I would appreciate hearing that.

When I started this club, it was to give you some basic guidance as you enter into the magical world of photography and also to give you a passion that hopefully will carry through the rest of your life. From there… it is up to you to learn, grow and find what you like to shoot. We will all follow a different path and will learn from each other. Once you develop a love for photography, you will never look at the world the same again! Suddenly you will start to notice light and shadows, pattern, lines, color play and will mentally take a photo in your brain even when you do not have a camera in your hands and those may be the times you wished you had brought your camera along.

Vickie’s orchid reshoot is amazing. Look back to her other image and then look at these shots and ask yourself which is better. All the entries are shot with her 50mm lens. The camera settings are nearly identical but on her original entry, the f-stop was set at 1.8… extremely shallow depth of field requiring great care to focus on one small area of the image. I will include her camera settings with each of the following photos.

I think both are excellent with good focus, and have been accentuated with a simple background that does not distract from the subject. Those flowers really pop now! Your eye is focused on the flowers and nothing else. Shooting a white flower on a light background can be difficult but she has managed to do this so well and shooting a light colored subject on a black background is equally difficult as the camera may want to expose , or should I say overexpose, your subject as it is metering for the dark background but she has handled this so well! There is no loss of detail in the highlights which can many times be blown out if we are not careful. And I assume she shot these in natural light which is so flattering and diffused as opposed to a bright sunny location.

I think that 50mm lens is a keeper!

Vickie… I thank you so much for the reshoot and giving us these beautiful images to learn by.

F 2.5 at 1/60sec, ISO 200

Simply Beautiful
(Photo by Vickie)

F 2 at 1/60 sec, ISO640

Orchid Love
(Photo by Vickie)

May Challenge: April Showers Bring May Flowers… Entry #12 A Rose for You

Lastly, I am posting my flower photo. It was a bit of a decision as to what to enter as there were several that I was considering, but I thought I might post something just a little different. It was a rainy afternoon and I hadn’t shot anything in about a day-and-a-half and felt like I was going through withdrawal. I looked outside and saw a couple roses partially opened with a few raindrops on them and that was when I decided to shoot a rose. The only problem was… it was still raining outside so rather than standing in the rain to shoot, I made a mad dash outside with scissors in hand and snipped what I thought was the best blossom… and yes, it probably was the best of the lot.

Now… what to do with it? It was a pink rose and I wanted it to have a soft feminine feel so I pulled out an old lace robe from many years ago and laid it on the table in the dining room as I like the way the light comes in that window. It rather acts as a large soft box giving diffused light. So, I figured I would just lay the rose on there and bingo… done!

But the rose was not at an angle that I liked and I couldn’t quite contort my body to shoot it. That was when I decided to support it with a cereal bowl beneath the lace but it was still not at a good angle but when I placed a knife on the stem, the position was better but I had to camouflage the knife with some greenery which was actually a plus, I think. I was finally ready to shoot! So I took a bunch of shots, put them on the computer and was shocked to find a brown area on one of the upper petals. This was not what I had anticipated and why didn’t I see it when I was shooting (or when I cut the rose)? So… back downstairs to pluck off that petal and reshoot the flower for the final time.

A Rose for You
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

And then another thought came to mind. Maybe I could turn this into a Mother’s Day greeting for my daughters, and why not try desaturating the image? This was the final result of the experiment.

Happy Mother’s Day
(Photo by Fay/Lala)

May Challenge: April Showers Bring May Flowers… Entry #11 Orchid

Vickie sent me a shot of her favorite orchid.
Years ago I had some orchids and they are certainly fun to shoot.

And this is what she said…
“This is my favorite orchid! Playing around with my 50mm lens. First time I have used it.”

I think Donna has shown us the value of a 50mm lens and as with all lenses, each has different attributes. The 50mm lens is small, lightweight, sharp focus and quite versatile. It is a prime lens (as in not a zoom lens) and capable of getting some very shallow depth of field which can be a plus or a minus depending on what you are looking for and is good in low light situations due to the possibility of using a wide aperture. Because it is not a zoom lens, you will have to let your feet do the zooming! I have personally used it for doing food photography to obtain shallow depth of field but it is necessary to experiment with it to choose what you do and do not want in focus.

As with any photo… take lots of shots and vary your f-stop (depth of field) to see what works best. Look at your photos on the computer rather than the back of your camera before deciding on which might be the best. Many times I have looked at a shot on the back of the camera and thought it to be in good focus yet when visualized on the computer screen, I find it is not as I had envisioned it.

Now let’s go back to Vickie’s photo. I was curious as to her settings and with all digital images, we can right click on the image and then click on “properties” and then click on “details” to get this information. This makes learning photography easier than years ago when we did not have this information at our fingertips when shooting film. I see that Vickie’s F-stop was 1.8 which is extremely shallow requiring great care in focusing. The shutter speed was 1/60 second which is acceptable for hand held at this focal length and an ISO 800. Keep in mind, if you are physically too close to your subject, your lens will not be able to focus.

My concern with this image is not the beauty of the flower… as it is a perfect specimen, but I am having a difficult time finding anything in sharp focus. Our eyes want to find something in focus for the most part. I am also a bit bothered by the white area to the bottom right of the image as my eye wants to go there without good reason. Quite frankly, I think this is worth reshooting paying attention to background and angle of view to eliminate the white/bright area from the photo and by adjusting your distance to the flower and shooting at different f-stops for comparison. As with all photography, there is a learning curve and with each lens we use, there is yet more to learn.

Thanks Vickie for your submission and allowing us to learn from this image!

To read more about this, check out this link:

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/hardware/the-benefits-of-wide-aperture-and-choosing-a-lens-for-under-500/

Orchid
(Photo by Vickie)