Blur

I have been exploring abstract blurs lately using flocks of birds in flight. Depending on the shutter speed and how much the camera itself also moves, some can be very abstract (like the one below).

The above image was shot at 1/15s (the top one at 1/25s) but this one is a lot more abstract because I was swinging the camera around very quickly.

In this image, the shutter speed was once again set to 1/25 but I was moving the camera at approximately the same speed as the birds which results in a less abstract image.

Elkhorn Slough Boat Ride

Yesterday, I went on a boat "safari" at Elkhorn Slough with several photographers from work. This was my third such trip with Elkhorn Slough Safari (I highly recommend them).


I had the chance to photograph a variety of birds and wildlife, including 2 types of cormorants. These first two images are of Brandt's Cormorants. I was very happy to see these images turn out well since I didn't manage to get any Brandt's Cormorant images from my trip to La Jolla earlier this year.


I wish the background on this image was cleaner, but your background choices tend to be limited when shooting from a boat.


I was also happy to see that I had been able to capture a Pelagic Cormorant in flight.


I've been looking for a great "head throw" image of a California Brown Pelican. Sadly, still not there with this image. The Pelican was heavily back-lit, but that did have the side effect of some nice translucency in the bill pouch. I had to do some work in Lightroom to get this image to what you see here. I wish we could have spent more time with just the Pelicans to capture more throws.


There were a lot of marbled godwits out as well, though getting close enough to get an image with sufficient resolution can be challenging.

Technical Specs: Taken with a combination of 1Ds3, 1D4, D3s with the 800 and 200-400.

Moon

Its been a while since I posted an image of the moon and tonight was a good night to photograph it (right phase & right location in the sky).

Technical Specs: Canon 1D4, 800 f/5.6 IS + 2x TC + 1.4x TC, f/18, 1/60s, ISO 640.

Peacock in Full Display

I've seen many Peacocks but usually not in full display. The male Peacock uses the 'trains' in his courtship dance (along with calls) to attract the female. This was very cool to watch.

Technical Specs: Canon 1D4, 200 f/2 IS, f/2, 1/400s, ISO 100.

Siberian Tiger

Another image from the zoo. This Siberian Tiger was resting in an area where it was easy to capture without going through glass or a wire fence. During a yawn sequence I let it rip at 10 FPS, capturing the full sequence. Didn't feel like posting 30 images here, so here's 3 from the burst.





Technical Specs: Canon 1D4, 200 f/2 IS, f/2, 1/640s, ISO 100.

Gorilla at the Zoo

On Saturday we took a family trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Some people don't like zoo photography, maybe they don't feel its much of a challenge if the subject is caged and easily accessible. I look at it as an opportunity to practice things like composition and lighting.

This is probably one of my best images from the day. I knew when I pressed the shutter button, it would be getting a black & white treatment. I'll post more images in the coming days as I process them.

Technical Specs: Canon 1D4, 200 f/2 IS, f/2, 1/250s, ISO 200.

Red

This is am image that I made during my trip to La Jolla earlier this year. I have almost finished processing all the images from that trip and this is one of my favorites.

Technical Specs: Canon 7D, 800 f/5.6 IS, f/5.6, 1/800s, ISO 200.

Canon 100-400 vs. 400 f/5.6

I have written a review which compares these two lenses. You read the review here. Apart from my own curiosity, my other motivation for doing this was because its a question that seems to come up all the time on various internet fora.

The above image was taken earlier this week as I walked around with the 7D and 400 f/5.6, photographing various subjects to get a feel for the lens. The red-winged blackbird decided to leave its perch and started flying towards me the instant just before I gotten a focus lock, but I still managed to lock on and get a decent image.

Technical Specs: Canon 7D, 400 f/5.6, f/6.3, 1/1250s, ISO 1600.

The Book is Ready!

For most of last year, I was spent much of my free time working on a book with Gladimir. Though we had a bunch of it written beforehand, it still ended up being a lot of work. I also ended up visiting Waterloo 3 times last year to work on the book. The book is the final step in a journey that started just before I began graduate studies in 2002. It is very gratifying to see it done and in particular to hold the final printed version in my hands. The quality of the print is excellent and has exceeded our expectations. It should be in store (and virtual) shelves by the end of the May. Its available for pre-order on Amazon.

Berry Creek Falls Redux

I wasn't completely happy with my last set of images of Berry Creek Falls, so I hiked back there this week and made a few more.



This time I have chosen black & white conversions (though there are color versions too).

Santa Cruz Mountains

This past week, its been raining here on and off. We didn't get that much rain in the valley, but the Santa Cruz mountains to the west got a lot more. Early Thursday morning this was view from one of the roads through the mountains.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 24-105 @ 32mm, f/8, 1.3s, ISO 100.