old dogs new tricks – A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, brainstorms, bugs, dragonflies, facing facts, Florida wildlife, nature, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, technology

The Dunning-Kruger effect…

April 19, 2023April 18, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

Our fearless photo club leader has a name for the syndrome when you are such a novice at something that you don’t know what you don’t know. I hope I remember to ask him what it is so I can repeat it before I post this. He also isn’t a fan of Youtube videos, but I watched one yesterday anyhow. It was on setting my new camera to take stacked images in the camera. Yup, automatically. Plus when we got up this morning there was an upgrade to Lightroom that added a ‘denoise’ button to the editing panel. Be still my heart. So off I went, camera and tripod in hand, down to the little neighborhood park. I figured that the dragonflies stay still enough for the camera to shoot 20 or so images in a second or two, and I was right, I got tons of images. But I don’t think I got the effect that I was looking for. Operator error I’m sure. I over-estimated my abilities because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. At least denoise worked well though…

This tricolor heron was moving, so not the shot I had set out to take but I took the shot anyhow. I can’t resist posting it because he had a fish, and I had had no clue when I took the shot.

I don’t know what is so great about landing in the muck to pose for me, but that’s what they did.

I was attracting a crowd as I took my pictures.

I don’t feed them, but I guess they figure there is always a first time.

I had first gone to my usual spot that gives me my sunrise view from this park. But the sun was up high enough to be in my eyes, so I moved to the opposite side of the park to shoot these pictures. With the sun over my shoulder I was quite surprised to see that tri-color, I hadn’t noticed him before. Plus the shallow water revealed some bigger fish than I would have expected to be there. And it turned out that Google knew the term for not knowing what you don’t know. And now you do too!

'scene' along the way, a second look, attitude adjustments, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, Rise and shine, technology

Off to the races…

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

We were up early on Saturday to get to a black and white photography class, but we also had to race from there to the Tampa Bay Downs to host a photo op for the club. Both things on the same day was a lot, and we were late getting to the track, but so was the only other person to show up. We had extra time before the first race however, so we got some lunch, and after that I was more ready for a nap than anything. But I was armed with the new 1.4 extender for my r7 camera and the 100-400 lens, so when the first race began I raced up to the balcony to get my one and only shot with that lens.

From the balcony and with the extra reach from the extender this is my shot of the far turn. From there it’s right down the final stretch to the finish line.

Back downstairs again I decided to switch to the 18-150 lens because the camera is so light with that lens on, and I was tired and hot. 90 degrees in February? I amused myself between races by taking pictures of the pretty flowers around the winners circle.

Without as much reach with my smaller lens I found like liked the view that included some of the scene as well as the start of the next race. I like to try to get an out of the gates shot, And I’m glad I did this time. Look at where horse #8 is.

From the balcony you have time to go inside the grandstand and shoot a picture of the finish line from that upstairs angle. And look, the winner was #8!

This is another winner, and it was the #8 horse in this race too!

Here’s the big picture. You can people watch from the balcony vantage point. And you can see the paddock area where the horses are brought out and the jockeys mount them before they are led onto the track for their race.

The feature photo shows you how futile it would be for me to shoot from the rail. I’m too short and there are several layer of fencing that would wind up in my shot. But in this case I saw that I could see the finish line sign between the people so I took the shot. Possibly my favorite shot of the day.

attitude adjustments, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, hockey, Home Team, making memories, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, technology

USF hockey…

January 25, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

The nearby Advent Health Skating Rink is the home rink for the USF hockey club’s games. Between the USF games themselves, and the free skate rinks, there is a good crowd there on any night we’ve gone to a game. But Saturday night’s game was beyond anything we had seen before, as far as a standing room crowd goes. We found standing room in the upper level that allowed for three people at a time to have a great view of the ice. I was the fourth, so I only took shots for a couple of minutes myself, but I shot on burst mode and assumed that with all the fast action I’d get a shot or two that I might want to use here. That proved to be a little optimistic. As you can see by the feature photo, the night’s game was billed as the “War on I-4”, because of the rivalry between the USF Ice Bulls and the Knights of UCF. It definitely wasn’t UCF’s night as they lost 10-0.

They rolled out the red carpet for the Bulls mascot to drop the ceremonial first puck.

Then the Ice Bull’s mascot and the Advent Health Mascot got the crowd going to start the game.

This was the extent of the action shots I managed to get.

It’s fun to go to these games because most of our photo shoots are an hour or more away. But this rink is just a few miles from home. The next time we go it’ll probably be a smaller crowd to deal with, which won’t necessarily improve my photos, but I will try to take advantage of having a view of the ice, and maybe a seat too!

birds, nature, photography, old dogs new tricks, friends, fun, Ibis, adventure, Florida wildlife, perseverance, Circle B Bar Reserve, a second look, 'scene' along the way, attention to detail, Pedaling Along

Synchronicity….

January 24, 2023January 23, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

I saved this set of pictures from our trip to the B on the 7th. I was watching a glossy ibis in the shrubbery, a not so common site. And it was nearly at eye level, another uncommon reason to be paying attention. As I watched the white ibis flew in and landed in front of the glossy, which caused no alarm at all. They then proceeded to raise their wings in complete harmony with each other, and basically mirror each other’s movements as I watched in amazement. I stood there shooting bursts until I figured enough already, and as I turned my attention elsewhere they continued their dance in total harmony.

I watched in amazement, and thought how lucky I was for this series to land in my lap. So to speak.

They saw their audience, but didn’t seem to mind.

Maybe they thought this was their best side.

'scene' along the way, Amazing artwork, attention to detail, attitude adjustments, Circle B Bar Reserve, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, Just do it, learning, live and learn, making memories, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, road trip, Tricolored heron

Technology…

January 9, 2023January 8, 2023 naturecoastimagesblog

Yesterday I had a comment or two about the ability of the new camera, a Canon r7 mirrorless camera, to take a huge number of shots in a burst. I usually have it set to do just that if I’m photographing birds, or wildlife at all really. Just in case something exciting happens. So let me explain that I feel hardly any responsibility for these photos I’m posting today. The feature photo is the first in a sequence of 10 photos that the camera took in less than a second. My contribution was to see the lighting and reflections, and I anticipated the Tri-color Heron would take off. I wanted the tracking in the camera to follow the bird, and it did. these are the 10 consecutive frames that it took. Makes me happy to think that my investment in this camera has turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be. I used the r 100-400 lens, made for the mirrorless Canon cameras, and not expensive at all. Or as these things go.

The feature photo is the take off, this is frame #2.

Putting the brakes on with his wings in #6,

I thought/hoped he caught his prey, but apparently not. #8

And then he flew away, out of the nice light.

We spent the beginning of the walk looking into the morning sun. I didn’t bring my visor so it was tough. It was lucky that this sequence happened in such nice light. I will give lots of credit to luck, and that’s okay.

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, brainstorms, bucket list, friends, fun, making memories, nature, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, sunset, technology, weather

It’s that time again…

December 1, 2022November 30, 2022 naturecoastimagesblog

Well, almost that time again. The time when our drive to Clearwater for our Tuesday night photography club meeting coincides with the sunset. That means that as we make the long trip down Edgewater Drive I will be shooting photos out the car window with my iPhone. The last time I did that the sunset was fabulous, and I held the phone out the window a bit further and didn’t see myself in the side mirror, or I could crop myself out of the picture. This time we were a bit early for the really great color to have developed quite yet, and I was reluctant to hold my brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max far enough out the window to get myself out of the picture. Maybe I ought to sit in the back seat next time. Nice evening, fun meeting.