Today found us at Wilde Lake again. Gee, there’s a surprise, huh? While there, we ran into friends Michael, Lisa and Bob, and Warren and his wife. We had a great time, taking pictures and talking about the wildlife surrounding the lake.

We got all the usual (and some unusual) shots of the Great Blue Herons and ducks. But, what was really exciting was photographing this pair of Baltimore Orioles. First, these are little birds, and I’ve actually managed reasonably clear pictures of them. But, even more exciting is that is appears that their little babies hatched today! We weren’t entirely sure while we were there, but, upon inspection of the photos, there was definitely feeding action going on! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any good shots of the feeding itself — there’re too many leaves between the nest and the ground.

The more time we spend around Wilde Lake, the more we’re convinced that’s where we want to move, but not just for the lake and its wildlife. The people who visit the area, be they residents or folks just dropping by from other areas, are far more friendly than at the other area lakes. Moving there certainly won’t be cheap, and we’ll have to make many sacrifices to do it, but it sure will be worthwhile.

As usual, more images can be found at flickr.

Headed out today with the intention of shooting some comparative shots with regards to my continuing 70-200mm f/2.8L IS sharpness issue. Today, comparisons between a 40D body and a Rebel XTi body. I tried to shoot images that were as close to identical as possible.

 
This image was made with the 40D, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS zoomed to 200mm. I’m shooting at ISO800, 1/1250 sec @ f/8, handheld.

This image was made with the XTi, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS zoomed to 200mm. Again, I’m shooting at ISO800, 1/1250 sec @ f/8, handheld. 

If you look closely, you might just barely tell a difference. At any rate, it’s not significant. Since I’ve previously tried two identical lenses on a single body, again shooting images as close to identical as possible, I’ve pretty much reached the conclusion that the "issue" is more with me and my expectations than with the lens/camera.

More of this morning’s pictures are up on my flickr photo stream.

Okay, here’s the "more later" I promised.

This photograph was made in what might be considered an unusual manner. But, I’ve stumbled on to something that really seems to work well — using a telephoto zoom in conjunction with an extension tube to allow it to focus super-close. In this case, the lens is my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, and the extension tube is a Promaster 36mm tube.

Working with this combination is a little touchy. Unlike a normal macro lens, which is usually a fixed focal length (prime) lens, a multi-step focusing technique is required. First, you sorta frame and really-rough-focus by moving the camera in relation to the subject. Then, you rough-focus with the zoom ring. Finally, you fine focus with the focus ring (or autofocus). If your subject hasn’t moved on you, then you’re ready for setting the exposure and tripping the shutter.

This procedure wouldn’t be to hateful on a tripod with focusing rails. However, when shooting at the Flights of Fancy butterfly live exhibit at Brookside Gardens, tripods aren’t allowed. So, this was done hand-held. I made 307 exposures this way over a two-and-one-half hour period, of which I "finished" 34. You can see those images at the new Orchard Studios gallery pages. You’ll find them in the featured galleries section for a limited time, along with pictures from our recent trip to western Montana.

It is very, very, very good!

I took this photograph today using the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS that I’ve been off-and-on complaining about. We were at the annual Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy event, and I was experimenting. More on that in a later posting, but I was so taken with this image that I wanted to get it up on the site right away!

For this shot, the camera’s set at ISO800, and the exposure is f/8 at 1/160. The pop-up flash is on, fired through a Gary Fong Puffer. The lens is zoomed all the way to 200mm, and, since Brookside doesn’t allow tripods in the butterfly house, I’m handheld. There is nothing to complain about here. Sure, I maybe should have been at f/11 or so to gain a little more depth of field, but frankly, I’ll take this kind of performance any day.

We took a walk around Wilde Lake tonight. Unfortunately, we got there a little late for photographs, although I did manage to snag a couple of good ones of this Great Blue Heron. He posed fairly well for us for a while, and then got tired of us and went off to find some dinner.

Even if it wasn’t a great night for photography, we did get to see a few neat things — a pair of Baltimore Orioles, a mama duck with some really tiny ducklings, a couple of sand pipers and a few duck squabbles — and talked to some really nice folks as we walked.

It’s interesting to me that the Wilde Lake area really seems more like a community than other parts of Columbia. It’s as if James Rouse’s dream is still alive and well there.

Once upon a time, before the Interstate Highway System, our nation’s roadways were dotted with something called "motor courts" — the forerunner of our modern hotels and motels. Most were family-owned and operated, and the layout was pretty much the same — a U-shaped, single-story building with the rooms (which consisted of a single bedroom and a bathroom), and a separate building with an office and restaurant. Some motor courts had separate buildings for each room.

With the advent of the interstates, motor courts have been largely by-passed, and many, like the one shown here, have gone out of business, replaced by multi-floor chain hotels with fancy meeting rooms and glitzy bars. The motor courts that still survive often now have full time residents living in their rooms, or, the motel portion is closed in favor of the more lucrative restaurant portion of the business.

Guys, you know how it goes. You work your butt off, and bring home your best offering to your bride, only to be flatly rejected. Well, it’s no different in the animal kingdom. Take, for instance, this Osprey pair we saw this past Sunday at Blackwater …

Our hero has literally brought home the bacon, in the form of a freshly caught fish …

He presents the morsel to his mate …

  Her response to his hard work? "You expect to bring that into this house? Get that thing out of here!"

Our hero is obviously taken aback — shocked even! Why would she reject his gift — reject him?!?

Dejected, he flies off to find a sympathetic friend to offer him some consolation.

He spies his friend, Mr. Bald Eagle.

After a brief conversation, they both agree that he’s screwed, and maybe Mr. Bald Eagle will have better luck. The osprey drops the fish, and the eagle dives to pick it up.

Still bewildered, the osprey flies home to his mate.

Typically, even though the situation is now long over, the female just can’t drop the topic, and she continues to berate the hapless male.

After a time, she finally calms down, and the male settles in to see what other "trouble" he can get into.

The images above are from a series of about 60 images, and are presented in chronological order. I apologize that some of the images in this sequence are soft or blurred. I was firing fast, using a very long lens. Even so, the birds were at quite a distance, and I was forced to severely crop the images. An example of one of the full-frame shots is below:

All images in this sequence are copyright © Geren W. Mortensen, Jr., All Rights Reserved.

While some of our friends in the CMPG were out shooting pictures at the kinetic race this weekend, we were on the eastern shore, at Assateague Island, and the inaugural Jazz and Blues Bash in Berlin.

For whatever reason, the 70-200 decided it was going to make really sharp pictures. I don’t know what to think about the thing, as I’ve been getting much better results the last couple of times I’ve used it. Anyway a few of my pictures from yesterday are up on Flickr, with more to follow.

Donna and I had a great walk around Wilde Lake this afternoon. In addition to the usual Herons, ducks and geese, we encountered a group of Bluebirds, and this hungry Red Shouldered Hawk.

The rest of my pictures from today’s outing are posted here, on my flickr stream.

 
We trundled back down to the southern end of Assateague today to take more pictures at the wildlife refuge. Yesterday, I had been frustrated by all of my images appearing fuzzy on the LCD display on the 40D. I had been shooting RAW only, which has a JPEG thumbnail embedded for preview purposes. However, it seems that the in-camera settings are not applied to this thumbnail image, so, no sharpening (or anything else, for that matter). Today, I shot RAW+JPEG, and the difference was must gratifying — images on the LCD display were nice and crisp!

It was an overcast day, so I also decided that we should shoot with flash, if for no other reason than to get a little catch-light in the eyes. We set up for high-speed-sync, which allows our flash units to sync with the camera shutter at higher than the standard 1/250th of a second. I set my camera to shutter priority automation, the ISO to 800 and the shutter speed to 1/1000th. I let the camera and flash figure out the rest. Most of the results were either outstanding or correctable to outstanding. The lighting looks natural, motion is frozen, focus is sharp (when the autofocus wasn’t fooled by something). It all makes me look as if I know what I’m doing.

All of the images I’ve posted today are from the JPEG versions, not the RAW files. I’ve done very, very little to them — just a little minor exposure adjustment and cropping.

Really, when all the technology works well, as it did today, it frees me up to make photographs, which is what’s important. I can concentrate on what I’m looking at, and let the camera do the math — under my control, of course. This is when I really enjoy photography!

Pictures from today have been added to my flickr set from our long weekend visit to Assateague.