Why hello Wandering Tattler, it's nice to finally crush you! What a stride you have! What fine and wonderful facial streaking! Taken with the new camera, the photo is shrunken and a bit cropped, but otherwise unedited. Nerds will be interested to know that the nasal groove length is just about half the length of the bill. Ventura Harbor, Ventura, CA.
I've come to the realization that it's going to be a very, very long time before I can afford the lens I want, so I did the next best thing...I bought a new camera body! I'm still getting a hang of the thing, but have gotten solid results with it so far.
In the last few years, I've gone from using a Nikon D70 to a D90 to my newest armament, a D7000. Although I've heard complaints of how non-intuitive the D7000 is to operate, I haven't had to suffer through much confusion so far. The sensor did completely misinterpret the lighting the other day on a Turkey Vulture I was shooting (which was dipping it's head in to a sea lion carcass at the time...maybe the sensor is squeamish?), but other than that the camera seems to be a lot "smarter" with many images noticeably crisper than the D90. So far, it's looked like a wise purchase, especially considering that I bought it used (as is almost all my camera gear and optics). My one general complaint is that the white balance setting for cloudy conditions is frequently a bit too heavy on the reds, but overall the "auto" setting for the white balance is a definite improvement over the D90.
I recently had such a solid crush session on a big flock of shorebirds that I really emotionally bonded with the camera that day...the shorebirds, of course, already knew about my feelings for them.
I hope you all had a positive weekend, bird-filled or not. Check back soon for unblinking shorebird coverage, and an exclusive interview with The Bird Police!
I recently had such a solid crush session on a big flock of shorebirds that I really emotionally bonded with the camera that day...the shorebirds, of course, already knew about my feelings for them.
I hope you all had a positive weekend, bird-filled or not. Check back soon for unblinking shorebird coverage, and an exclusive interview with The Bird Police!
hey i have that camera. but what lens do you use? your pics rock mine
ReplyDeleteIt's the Nikkor 80-400mm VR. Old, slow, but otherwise rewarding.
DeleteSeagull, sorry I haven't been around much to comment, some computer gremilins ate up about 10 sites on my RSS feed and I didn't realize it for awhile, your feed was one that went missing.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new camera! Congrats on crushing those shorebirds too. Shorebirds will always have a special place in my heart, they were my spark birds for me becoming a bird photographer.
Not many birds for me this weekend but I did see some Bison being horny!
Cyber gremlins are a bitch. I have done ok with shorebirds the last few days, but bison humping would be something else.
DeleteThere were even Bison cows trying to hump other Bison cows, must be something in the water
DeleteI bet it's hard to pull off adorably frisky if you're 700 lbs, but I bet they did a close approximation. =)
DeleteCheers to the new camera! I too just picked up a D7000 last week. I'm coming from a (very) old Minolta setup so it's quite the learning curve, but I'm loving it so far.
ReplyDeleteWow, talk about stepping up! Hope you enjoy it. I need to get in the habit of using the presets.
DeleteCongrats on the new camera! Great debut shot! I used a D90 for a long time. Looking forward to your shorebird shots!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tammy. The D90 has been good to me and I'm definitely going to keep it as a backup. Shorebirds will arrive online soon.
Deleteomg, cameras can automatically deal with white balance issues? Is there really a Santa Clause??
ReplyDeleteWe all benefit from your fancy camera upgrades, so thanks AND congrats. Does it make you feel more manly?
Judging by the patches of hair currently sprouting from strange parts of my body, my testosterone levels seem to have been affected.
Delete