My Week, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Sunday

For a change of pace, I slept in until my normal time this morning, as I’m in no hurry to go out into the ice and snow. The freezing rain that began in the evening yesterday is about over, we may get some snow on top of the ice later today, what fun!

The weather forecast for the rest of this week is for about average winter conditions, no bitter cold or any warm ups in sight, just occasional lake effect snow. And of course, almost constant cloud cover.

I should have spent some quality time with the manual for my camera yesterday, learning how to better control the flash, but instead, I filled out the forms for my mom’s Medicaid, so that project is almost out of the way. I just need to have some copies of documents made, then I can mail the package in.

My right leg, which I injured in a slip in the parking lot at work Friday is feeling much better today, I can bend my knee again, although I still have to be careful with it.

I feel like such a slacker the past two weeks, I haven’t done a walk of over three miles. Last Sunday I used the excuse of the snowstorm to wimp out, yesterday, it was my gimpy leg that I used as an excuse. I have a feeling that I’ll do the same today, it will depend on the conditions of the trails. Once it turns colder later today, what’s left of the snow pack will re-freeze to a solid mass, which may or may not hold my weight as I walk. If it does, walking will be easy, if not, it could be very slow going.

I have two days off from work this week due to the Christmas Holiday, but the way that the weather forecast looks right now, I doubt if I will do anything special either of those days.

It was another slow go today for my walk because the slush that remained on the ground was just starting to freeze. It was easier walking on the bare ice when I could find it, thanks to my Yak Trax.

To my surprise, it had just begun snowing when I stepped outside, and boy howdy, did it ever come down hard for about an hour! The new snow stuck to all the ice-covered everythings outside, it was sight to behold.

Ice and snow weighing down a tree

I’m only going to post a few photos today here, then as I have time, I’ll do an entire post with the photos from the last two days.

American crow in flight

There was a bumper crop of berries and seeds this year, but with all this ice, I’m afraid that the birds and other critters will have a difficult time getting to them. That probably applies to many insects covered in ice for the insect-eating birds as well.

Berries covered with ice then snow

I doubt if I will do any chasing of birds for a while because everything is encrusted in a thick layer of ice, no need to stress the poor little birdies anymore than necessary!

I wasn’t the only person in the park taking photos today.

Another photographer

There were plenty of subjects for photos.

Flying fox squirrel

Pine cones

Ice covered lichens

As I got back to my apartment, there was a flock of geese just outside, checking to see if I was home I guess. 😉

Canada geese window peeping at my apartment window

That’s it for today, sorry it’s so short, but I have other things that I have to get done this weekend.

Monday

Well, back to normal around here, the freezing rain is a thing of the past for me, although there are thousands of people in the area who have lost their electrical service due to the weather. I feel so bad for them, with this happening just before Christmas. Some of those without power may not have it restored until well after Christmas.

As long as it has taken me to complete my routine daily walk the past two days, I had better get moving quickly this morning, and I may not be able to do the entire thing. I’ll have to keep an eye on the time today. It’s much colder today, so hopefully the slush has frozen solid, but with new snow falling on top of the ice, it could be tricky going, so I’m on my way.

Well, getting around was no problem today, I was able to finish my normal three miles in about the same amount of time as it usually takes me. I am a little bummed out though, twice, the clouds thinned out, and there were a few short moments of sunshine and blue sky each time. I was hoping that all the ice left from the freezing rain would make it look as if the world had been covered with diamonds. That wasn’t the case though, the snow that fell after the freezing rain prevented the ice from sparkling in the sun except for a few trees. Here’s the best photos that I could get.

Almost sparkly ice

Almost sparkly ice

Almost sparkly ice

Almost sparkly ice

Almost sparkly ice

A repeat from yesterday, but with sunshine today

Almost sparkly ice

It didn’t help in that it never stopped snowing either, as you may be able to see in a couple of the photos. I’m sure that the snow flakes in the air blocked a good deal of the possible sunshine.

I did shoot a few photos of Bertha the large red-tailed hawk, but she was really too far away for the L series lens, so there’s no need to post those photos. It’s the same with a couple of photos of a Cooper’s Hawk being harassed by a crow, as a small bird flew to better cover.

I am also a little disappointed with the way that my photos look in my blog, I guess size does matter after all. I could change things around to get the photos to display larger, but I have visited blogs that have the photos displaying larger than I can see on my computer screen all at once, I have to scroll around the photo to see it all. I think that having to scroll to see the entire photo often diminishes the impact of the photo. Since I have no idea what the people who read my blog have as far as computer screens, I really don’t want to go any larger with the way that the photos display. If any one cares to see them full size, they can click on them for the larger view.

That’s it for today, time to shower, then visit my mo in the nursing home.

Tuesday

It’s Christmas Eve, and I have the day off from work! It’s very cold and cloudy as I start this, but the forecast is for sunshine today, and I can see that the clouds are thinning as I’ve been working on another post for the My Photo Life List project. I posted a day early to avoid posting anything on Christmas Day.

I think that I’ll do my regular walk this morning, even though I have the day off, and there will be sunshine. I could go to Muskegon, but nothing out of the ordinary as far as birds that have been seen there lately. It may be warmer with sun on Saturday, that would be a better day to go there. Instead, I’m thinking that this afternoon, I’ll go for a drive and see if I can get some really good photos of the ice and snow covering everything. There’s more ice and less snow to the east of here, so I think that I’ll drive along the Grand River and see what I can see.

I really don’t want to chase birds right now anyway, as with the ice coating everything, from seeds, to berries, to nuts, and even insects, the birds, and all critters are going to have a rough go of it for a while.

I’m back, I did a shortened version of my extended daily walk, if that makes any sense. I did about 4.5 miles, rather than the 6 miles that I do on most weekends, but it’s still more than the 3 miles I do during the week.

I took both bodies, the L series lens on the wildlife body just in case, and the landscape body with the 15-85 mm lens for the snow scenes. I shot almost 250 photos with the landscape set-up, and got some spectacular shots if I do say so myself. But, that said, I may have messed up. With sunshine and some clouds, I attached the polarizing filter to the lens, and didn’t try any shots without it. I think that the filter “killed” most of the sparkles coming off from the ice and freshly fallen snow from overnight.

Stopping to shoot that many photos made even the in between version of my walk take much longer than if I had done the full 6 miles, and I also waited in places for the light to change as the sun would hide behind clouds for a few minutes at a time. I also talked to several other people out taking photos. So, there will be no drive in the afternoon, as it is already getting dark after I sorted through the 250 shots from my walk.

Sorting hasn’t been easy. Some of the scenes will be familiar to you, as it is impossible to create new landscapes, even if the ice and snow does make them look somewhat different. On top of that, I shot several scenes from slightly different angles, and at different focal lengths, and it’s darned hard for me to choose which one I like the best.

For example, I have posted a photo that includes the playground equipment in the park, and the earlier one was already a repeat. But, here are three very similar ones from today.

Playground #1

Playground #2

Playground #3

Inserted into this post, number three looks like the clear winner, but seen full size, number two is my favorite.

Anyway, here’s a sampling of my photos from the day, I’ll do another post with some of the rest, once I manage to trim them down a lot more.

Peaceful

Pushy

Frozen

Blue

Entwined

Hanging on

Bad light, good ice

Good light, so-so ice

Tall, notice the person in the lower right corner

Spruced spruce

As it’s Christmas Eve, I just splurged and had a cup of very good Earl Grey tea, and a cigarette. My supper will be just a club sandwich, I do live high on the hog, do I not?

I have a bottle of white wine in the fridge for later, after I unpack my wine glasses. I’ve lived in this apartment for just over a year, and I still haven’t unpacked everything. Since I had planned to continue looking for a condo to buy, I didn’t want to unpack, then have to turn around and pack everything back up again. But, then the Nikon died, and I used the money I had saved for a down payment on a condo to purchase the new Canon and lenses, and so I sit down to a supper of a club sandwich. I think that the trade-off was worth it though.

And of course if I weren’t lusting after a true macro lens and an L series prime telephoto lens, then I wouldn’t have to scrimp so much now, either. 😉 But, I’d rather have a true macro lens than a fancy dinner any day!

The 15-85 mm lens did a very respectable job with the close-ups that I shot today, much better than the L series lens does. That only makes me want a true macro lens even more.

Wednesday Christmas

What a way to wake up on Christmas morning, finding out that my automatic coffee maker had bitten the big one and no longer works. No problem, I got out the percolator coffee pot that I use while camping, the coffee it brews is better than what comes from the coffee maker, even if it takes a little longer.

It definitely looks like Christmas outside, with light snow falling on top of the ice and fluffy snow that fell earlier this week.

I should go somewhere today, even if it were only to Palmer or Aman Park, just for a change of pace. But, I really don’t feel like driving even a short distance in the snow, I get enough of that at work. So, I guess that I’ll do my thing around here again today. It’s rather pointless for me to travel anywhere, anyway. I’m not going to chase birds or any other wildlife until conditions for them improve significantly.

The long range weather forecast is looking mighty grim, with colder than average temperatures all the way through the month of January. I’m afraid that it’s going to be a tough winter for all wildlife, despite the large food supply that there was at the beginning of this winter.

One of the people out taking photos yesterday told me that her bird feeders have been busier than she can ever remember them being in the past. I suppose that the birds are luckier than some of the other wildlife, people do feed the birds, the deer and other mammals have to rely on what nature provides.

OK, I’m back from my walk, and it was a different world out there today. The thermometer may read ten degrees warmer, but it felt at least that much colder than yesterday in the sunshine. The sunshine itself helped it feel warmer, but there was no wind to speak of yesterday. Not so today.

Just for the record, I did about 4.5 miles again today, I could see no reason to walk down past the trailer park where I normally do on weekends.

I did shoot more photos than what I thought that I would before I left, though none can compare to yesterday’s lot.

Not only are stores pushing the limit for how soon they put out their holiday displays before a holiday, nature seems to be following suit.

The Easter Bunny? on Christmas?

With the snow and wind, I took just the L series lens with me, and shot a few close ups of ice covered things.

Ice coated maple buds

Ice on oak leaves

Ice on oak leaves

I also spotted this fox squirrel about 150 yards away. Normally I wouldn’t post this photo, but it serves two purposes. One is that it shows what the weather was like. The other is that I couldn’t figure out why the squirrel would be out in the open the way that it was. If I could spot it as far away as I did, it seems like a hawk would have even less of a problem, since their eyesight is better than mine.

Fox squirrel on a dreary day

Here’s a cropped version, showing that the blob is really a fox squirrel.

Fox squirrel

Well, that’s about it for the day. I’m foaming at the mouth to go and pick up a macro lens. I know that I have mentioned the Tokina 100 mm macro lens as the one that I will purchase, but it has two drawbacks. One is that it has the old-fashioned drive for auto-focus, the other is that it has slightly above average chromatic aberration.

The auto-focus being slow doesn’t bother me that much, and in truth, neither does the chromatic aberration. Since you focus manually most of the time for macro photos, how quick the auto-focus functions is somewhat meaningless. The chromatic aberration is slightly more troubling, but the lens still rates as one of the very best macro lenses.

However, Canon is offering a rebate on their non L series 100 mm macro lens, which brings that lens down in price to where I should do a little more research on it, and more comparison between it and the Tokina. At first glance the Canon lens is $150 more than the Tokina, which is enough more that I would go with the Tokina hands down. But, if the prices are closer after rebates, and the specs of the Canon are in line with the Tokina, I may go with the Canon.

Anyway, that’s my project for the evening, make a decision between the two. I’m going to have to pick up a new coffee maker to replace the one that died this morning, so I plan to stop at the camera store as well and pick up the macro lens that I decide on, as it will be my Christmas present to myself this year.

Thursday

Well, I finished my comparison shopping yesterday, the Tokina is still the winner. The Canon 100 mm macro lens is a much newer design, with a lot of things going for it, other than price. Even after the rebate, it is $75 more than the Tokina, and that’s without the extremely overpriced lens hood, which costs another $50. The lens hood is a must according to reviewers, as the Canon lens is prone to flare without it. So, that puts the Canon lens at $125 more than the Tokina.

The Tokina is a tad sharper than the Canon, or the Tamron 90 mm macro lens, which I checked out at my brother’s suggestion. If I intended to use any of the lenses I was checking out for other than just macro work, I may be tempted to hold off and go with the Canon, but that isn’t the case. I’m sure that I would use any of the 100 mm lenses for other than macro photos on rare occasions, but 95% of the time, it would be for macros, since I have both the 15-85 mm and 70-200 mm lenses already. I’ll live with slow auto-focus, a lens that changes length as it focuses, and the possibility of a little chromatic aberration to save $125.

So, it’s time for food, and then a walk.

Well, I’m back from my walk, and a trip to the camera store.

My walk was rather uneventful, as it was snowing at a good clip for the entire time I was out there. It really wasn’t snowing as hard as it looked, the snowflakes were quite large, and were often stuck together as they fell. I shot a grand total of four photos. One was of a blue jay that flew past me just as I was turning the camera on as I stepped out the door, which didn’t turn out well. I really should have the camera turned on and set to go as often as that has happened lately.

Here’s the one photo that I saved, and the only reason for posting it is so that I have at least one photo from this day.

Another yucky day

Just as I was worried about, it has become the same old same old around here the past few weeks, made even worse by the ice storm. I did see a few birds, but didn’t chase any to attempt a photo.

OK, for my trip to the camera store, that was quite enlightening. I did a little bit of playing with a Tokina lens on a 60 D body, and instantly fell in love! The way that the body and lens functioned together was even better than I had hoped.  It was if they had been designed to go together specifically. Of course photo quality is the ultimate test, which I haven’t gotten to yet. But, having the two components function together well will make quality easier than having to fight a lens and body that don’t work well together.

The Tokina doesn’t have a small switch to turn the auto-focus off, instead, it has a clutch mechanism built into the focusing ring of the lens. Push the focusing ring forward, and it auto-focuses, pull the ring back, and you have manual focus, quick and easy, even wearing gloves.

The auto-focus alert system on the Canon 60 D body still functions even when I have the lens set to manual focus. I get the flash of the focus points in focus, along with the beep. So, as I focus the lens manually, not only can I see by eye when it is in focus, but the camera alerts me as well. It works most excellently!

Abe from a five dollar bill

And here’s the same shot cropped.

Abe from a five dollar bill

For any one interested, those were shot at ISO 100, f/6.3, and a shutter speed of 1.5 seconds. The camera was mounted on the tripod, and I used the self timer to limit camera shake.

The auto-focus of the Tokina lens is a little slow, but it isn’t as bad as I expected from the reviews that I read, it is well within what I can live with. I’m not going to use this lens to shoot birds in flight or anything like that, just macros and landscapes.

Woo hoo! I’m a very happy camper! I can still get slightly closer to the subject than I did for those two photos. I haven’t shot anything colorful yet to test that part of the lens’ performance, and I can tweak that to some degree in the settings available to me with the 60 D bodies. Be prepared for an onslaught of macro photos for the next few days!

I checked on a few other things while at the camera store, I’m afraid that the Pelican case that I’ll need to hold all my kit will run me just over $200, so I’d better keep on saving.  That’s true anyway, as I still have one more big-ticket purchase in mind, the Canon 400 mm L series prime telephoto.

I knew that my tripod was a piece of junk, I’ll have to replace it one of these days, but there will be no big rush for that. Before I purchase anything relating to a tripod, I have to do a lot more research first. I think that a better head on the tripod I already have would go a long way towards getting better photos with a tripod, so I’ll see about how compatible different parts of a tripod system are.

I already have a good Manfrotto monopod, and I’ll have to see if I can get a good head to fit both my tripod and the monopod for the time being.

I know, I’m rambling now, I’m waiting for the camera battery to recharge so I can play with my new toy a bit more before work. 😉

Friday

Well, it’s official, we’ve had enough snow to make this December one of the top ten snowiest Decembers on record, a rather dubious achievement if you ask me.

But, the good news is that it may make it to freezing today, with a little sunshine, maybe. The forecast for tomorrow is for well above the freezing mark, so it could be warm enough to melt the ice off from all the trees, which would be a really good thing.

As much as I would like to be outside trying out the new lens, I’m waiting out the clouds, as it does indeed look as if there will be at least some sunshine today.

With it being warmer tomorrow, I could go to Muskegon to do some birding, but I think that I will pass on that. Places near Muskegon received 18 inches of snow in just six hours one day earlier this week. That, and other than a few tundra swans, there are no species of birds being reported to eBird that I don’t already have photos of. So, I may just hit Palmer or Aman Park tomorrow, since the price of gas shot up fifty cents a gallon this week.

One of the other things that I checked on at the camera store yesterday was 1.4 tele-converters ( extender). That would turn the Tokina lens into a 140 mm macro, allowing me to shoot at slightly greater distances, and/or achieve even more magnification.

My brother is using an extender behind his version of the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) and is turning out some really great photos. A 1.4 extender turns the Beast into a 700 mm lens for a little more range, which would be a good thing.

An extender would also be helpful behind the 400 mm telephoto that I plan to purchase as well.

The problem is one of compatibility. The Canon extenders are built to fit just their L series of lenses for the most part, so I would have to go with another brand. The salesperson at the store told me to bring in all my lenses when the time comes for me to make that purchase, and we would try all of them out with different extenders to see if they work. That’s about the only way to do it. There are no reliable lists or charts that one can go by. I found that you can’t even rely on Canon’s compatibility lists online, as those said that I could use a 25 mm extension tube behind the 15-85 mm lens, but the manual for the lens says otherwise. The good thing is that the two brands of extenders most likely to work with all or most of my lenses are half the price of the Canon brand extenders.

The downside to an extender is that I would lose the ability to auto-focus with the Beast and the 400 mm prime telephoto lens that I am planning to purchase. But, I don’t see that as too big of a problem for what I intend to use the extender for. Two instances that come to mind are the peregrine falcons and the golden eagle that I photographed at Muskegon. They sat perched long enough for me to have gotten a few shots without the extender, then I could have added it for some better shots using manual focus. Something else for me to weigh.

Well, I see sunshine, time for breakfast, then try out my new toy!

In a cruel twist of fate, there was sunshine while I walked down the road both ways, but during the time that I was in the park, the clouds were thick, and the light was dead. I even tried waiting the clouds out while I was in the park, and that didn’t work. No problem, I got some very good shots as far as checking out the new Tokina lens, and it is everything that I had hoped for and a bit more.

It is slow to auto-focus, and it tends to hunt for a focus on occasion, I knew that when I bought it, for its intended purposes, that’s not a big deal. But, just so any one who reads this and may be interested in that lens, I’m letting you know.

Here’s my first shot with it outdoors, a blue jay in a pine. I missed with the focus as I had the camera set to use all 9 focus points, but I think that it is still a pleasing photo.

Blue jay

Since the reviews that I read on this lens said that it was somewhat prone to chromatic aberration, I gave it the torture test by shooting photos where I knew that I would get out of focus ice in the frame.

Ice

Ice

Ice

Ice

Ice

If any one thinks that this lens is prone to chromatic aberration, they haven’t used the Nikkor 70-300 mm lens that I used to have. I would say that the Tokina passed this test with flying colors by not adding colors! There may be a hint of chromatic aberration in a couple of these, but not enough to be a major problem.

I took a few test shots to check the sharpness as compared to photos that I have taken with the 70-200 mm L series lens.

Sharpness test

I love it! The subject may not be anything special, other than that I can compare this photo to one shot earlier with the L series under similar conditions.

Winter scene

I would call it a toss-up when I view the two of these full screen, maybe a slight nod in sharpness to the Tokina, with a slight nod to color rendition to the L series. But, I haven’t fine tuned a set-up for the Tokina yet. It’s a little hard to judge, since the exposures are slightly different, and there’s more snow stuck to the trees in the photo taken with the Tokina. But, other than to have taken a photo with each, that’s the best test I could come up with.

Since there are more than a few people who consider the L series lens I have to be one of the finest lenses ever made, the fact that the Tokina can hold its own is a great testament to the Tokina. Now all I need is some better weather and subjects to photograph!

Changing the subject, you didn’t want to be in the woods today. While I was taking a break hoping for better light, it sounded as if there were running water everywhere. I could hear the water running down the trees under the ice, along with it dripping from the trees. Anytime that the wind picked up at all, large chunks of ice, snow, and occasionally branches would come crashing down as well.

The birds seemed to be enjoying this break in the weather, I saw more today than in the last week.

Female downy woodpecker

White breasted nuthatch

White breasted nuthatch

And, with a few songbirds out in the open, one of the Cooper’s hawks made an appearance.

Cooper’s hawk in flight

Cooper’s hawk in flight

The birds, other than the first blue jay, were all shot with the L series lens on the wildlife body. It’s a bit of a pain carrying two camera set-ups and my tripod, but I think that those last two shots prove the worth of doing so.

Well, that’s it for today.

Saturday

It’s bright and sunny outside, not only that, but it’s getting warm! This will be the warmest day in a month, by far, getting well above freezing. This weather won’t last though, it’s back to the deep freeze tomorrow.

For the record, we’ve received just short of three feet of snow at the official reporting station for Grand Rapids so far this season. Areas to the west of where I live have already gone over the three-foot mark, and places in the UP are approaching ten feet already.

I think that I’ll go to Aman Park for a change of pace this morning. It isn’t the greatest place for birding, but it’s OK. I’ll have some opportunities to try out my new macro lens there.

I’m also going to try something that I’ve had in mind for a while now, I’m going to take the wildlife body with the Beast on it, and the landscape body with the Tokina macro lens, and of course, my tripod. My plan is to carry just a long lens on one body, and the macro lens on the other body most of the time, and leave the other two lenses home, or in my vehicle.  That is, unless I’m going somewhere that there’s the possibility of shooting landscapes. I’ve done this a few times already, it does work well, and then I am able to shed some weight by not carrying everything.

That’s my plan for when I go to places that I am very familiar with, when I go somewhere new, I’ll bring the 15-85 mm lens along as well for landscape shots. But, there will be more on that in a post coming up. Time to get moving.

It was a good news, bad news kind of day today. The bad news, it’s hard to find good subjects for a macro photo when there’s almost two feet of snow covering everything. I can also see from the very few photos that I shot with the new Tokina lens that I’m going to have to invest in a few accessories to really get the best from it. The number one item will be a light source of some type. I’m thinking of trying an LED panel rather than a flash so that I can see how the light is playing on the subject that I am trying to shoot, f/2.8 doesn’t cut it. The depth of field is so short that little of the subject was in focus in the photos that I tried today, I should have let the ISO float rather than keep it at 100.

The good news was that the birds were enjoying the weather even more than I was today.

Hairy woodpecker

The hairy woodpecker was the only bird that I managed to get a photo of for the first two-thirds of my hike today. The Beast hadn’t suffered any let down during the vacation that it has had since it turned so cold, but my timing was way off. I got it back!

Black capped chickadee

Black capped chickadee

I saw a golden crowned kinglet hoping across a frozen pond, and every so often, launch up in flight to capture what I believe were crane flies that the kinglet scared off from the ice. The kinglet was working in my direction, so I hid behind a tree with the camera held in the almost ready position, waiting for the kinglet to get close enough for a photo. It almost worked like a charm, the kinglet came into view, I lifted the camera to my eye, and found that my breath had fogged the viewfinder to the point where II could barely see through it. I pointed and hoped.

Golden crowned kinglet

One out of five attempts, not bad.

I told this red-bellied woodpecker that it should get its head straight….

Male red-bellied woodpecker

…it obliged.

Male red-bellied woodpecker

I was able to get four of the five species of woodpeckers common to southern Michigan, here’s number three, a downy.

Male downy woodpecker

I brought a plastic bag to use if I had wanted to set the Beast down on the ground while shooting with the macro lens. I never did use the bag for that, but I did use it to sit on while taking a break sitting on a snow covered log. While I was taking a break, a couple of more species of birds posed for me.

White breasted nuthatch

White breasted nuthatch

White breasted nuthatch

White breasted nuthatch

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Brown creeper

Brown creeper

Red-bellied woodpecker in flight

Not bad for a ten minute break, but then I was off to chase a few more of our common tweetie birds.

Tufted titmouse

Including the fourth species of woodpecker for the day, a male pileated.

Male Pileated woodpecker

Male Pileated woodpecker

The only somewhat uncommon bird of the day were these two sharp shinned hawks. I heard them long before I saw them. When I did see them, I thought that they were blue jays at first, but a closer look proved me wrong. What these two were up to, I have no idea. There were two blue jays with the hawks, the hawks were chasing each other most of the time, with the jays trying to warn the other birds. But every so often, one of the hawks would chase off the blue jays. Then, the hawks would start screeching at each other, and then go back to chasing, the blue jays would return, until one of the hawks would chase them off again.

Sharp shinned hawk

Sharp shinned hawk

I’m not going to post any of the photos that I shot with the Tokina, the subjects weren’t that interesting, nor were the photos very good. I did well enough with the birds today.

This isn’t a knock on the lens, but I can see that there’s going to be a learning curve to get to the point where I get great macro photos from it regularly. Like I said, some of it will entail purchasing a few needed items. Most of it will be learning how to use the lens effectively. I can go into more detail as I progress along that learning curve.

So, that winds up another week, since this will be posted after Christmas, I suppose that I should limit myself to saying Happy New Year to every one. Well, that and say that I hope that every one had a merry Christmas as well.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

December 28, 2013 | Categories: Birds, General, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos | 33 Comments

My week, The almost winter blahs?

Sunday

I’m sitting here drinking my very early morning coffee, thinking how quickly the past three days have flown by. It’s been nice having some extra time off from work, and even nicer seeing some sun yesterday.

I have decided that I will invest in a Pelican hard case for my photo gear. They are waterproof, and they can be fitted with locks. One of them will fit nicely with future plans that I have. I can mount the case on a wheeled cart of some type, either a golf cart or baby stroller, for when I walk the well maintained trails that I find myself on most often these days.

Some day, I’d like to purchase a small rowboat to use on larger rivers and lakes as a platform for photography. I have a kayak and canoe, but neither is a safe or steady way of getting around on the water with all my gear. I grew up rowing a small fishing boat around, I still love them the most of all the watercraft that I have used. They are stable and a quiet way of getting around on the water. I can mount the Pelican case in a rowboat, and be reasonably sure that my camera gear will be safe.

Well, it was a busy day, but not many photos to show for it. Even as I was eating breakfast, I was trying to decide where to go today, I had been thinking of Palmer Park again, but that has been a let down of late. So, I headed to Aman Park instead.

The common resident birds were out in full force today, but because I’ve posted quite a few of them lately, I didn’t try very hard to get photos of them. Another major reason that I didn’t try very hard was the weather, very nice with very little wind, so most of the time the birds stuck to the tree tops. I was trying to keep count of each species but I gave up because of how many I was seeing, dozen each of chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, and kinglets, along with four species of woodpeckers, downy, hairy, red-bellied, and pileated.

Here’s a bird that may be common but is seldom seen, a barred owl. One of the things I neglected to add to my list of things that I’m thankful for is my vision. I saw a flash of tan out of the corner of my eye, and I knew somehow or another that just a quick glimpse of movement was enough for me to check it out, which is how I found the owl.

Barred owl

Barred owl

Barred owl

It was hunting along the edge of the woods, and playing peek-a-boo with me, as you can see.

I also caught this female red-bellied woodpecker doing her best to get to some kind of food hidden in a sycamore tree.

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

I’ve never seen a woodpecker impersonate a hummingbird before, but she sure was!

I also got a good shot of a hairy woodpecker.

Male hairy woodpecker

I know, they look just like downy woodpeckers, the only difference is size, the hairy woodpeckers are larger.

I also spotted an example of the black morph of grey squirrels, something that I have never seen in Aman Park before.

Grey squirrel, black morph

Well, that’s all the wildlife from today, the rest of the photos from today are for Allen and all the other lovers of lichens, mosses, and fungi. I don’t know for sure what any of these are, I suspect that some are turkey tails in various phases of freezing, but I could be wrong. So, here goes.

Lichen or fungi?

Unidentified fungal object?

A whole lot of unidentified stuff

Turkey tails?

Unidentified fungal object?

Turkey tails?

A whole lot of unidentified stuff

Unidentified fungal object?

Unidentified fungal object?

Lichens? on a dead beech tree

As I was finishing my walk, I decided to stop off at the New Balance store on my way home. I’ve got the Keen boots broken in and they feel OK now, but they’re not completely waterproof. With the snow melting today, my socks got damp, enough so that my toes were cold. At the store, I found two pairs that were close to my old New Balance hiking boots, but I didn’t want to try them on with damp socks on. So, I zipped home, cleaned up, and zipped back to the store.

I tried on both pairs that I had looked at earlier, and bought the pair that felt the best. They are like the old pair, like walking in slippers, not hiking boots.

After sorting through the photos from today, I checked my Email, and there are reports coming in from the entire west Michigan region of both snowy owls, and golden eagles being seen, including at the Kent County airport, which is less than five miles from where I live. So, I laced up the new New Balance boots, and set off to see if I could spot either the owl or eagle, no luck. But, there were crowds of people there already who had seen the same reports that I had, and were there to look for the owls an eagles. Word travels fast these days! The new boots worked great!

I had better keep both eyes peeled the next few days for large white or brown birds, with both the eagles and owls being seen so close to where I live, one of them could stop by to pay me a visit!

Monday

Back to the old grind, drat!

It’s sunny and right around the freezing point here this morning, so I think that I’ll take my time when I go for my walk and enjoy the sun while it lasts. By the end of this week, the forecast is for the area to be hit with a polar air mass with extremely cold temperatures for the first week of December.

Before I forget, the Keen boots will be good for mild weather hiking, so they weren’t a complete waste of money. That’s what I purchased them for, as that’s what they are built for. The real let down has been the Cabela’s brand boots, I may have had to break in the Keens, but every time I wear the Cablela’s boots, they cause such pain to my legs, that I can’t wear them for very long at all.

One other thing before I go out for my walk, there are snowy owls showing up in numbers all around the state, and the country. While it’s thought that they come south when the lemming populations in the owls’ normal range drops very low, there are also many other species of more northern birds showing up down here as well. I’m afraid that this points to a long cold winter, the bright side is that I’ll have a better chance of photographing some of these rare migrants..

To Beast, or not to Beast, that is the question.

OK, I took the second body and the 15-85 mm lens with me, along with the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens), and I have to say, that the Beast is one fine lens, at least in good light.

Fox squirrel

Fox squirrel portrait

It’s hard to imagine images much sharper than those, remember, I knock the quality down quite a bit before I post these.

However, then I shoot a few shots with the second body and the EF S 15-85 mm lens….

Ode to a sycamore tree

Milkweed seed

… and I have to say that the shorter lens is even sharper, as is the L series 70-200 mm lens which I didn’t take with me today.

It’s not that the Beast is horrible in low light.

Downy woodpecker, lower light

It’s just that the photo above looks a bit flat when I compare it to the one of a downy that I shot last week with the L series lens, under much the same light.

Downy woodpecker

But in bright sun, the Beast shines almost as brightly as either of the other lenses.

Downy woodpecker, sunlight

Here’s a few more from the Beast today.

American tree sparrow

That’s a very good photo, but again, it looks a bit flat.

Northern flicker in flight

Then, there are times when the light is perfect, the bird poses nicely, and I get shots like these. Notice the goldfinch keeping its foot warm.

American goldfinch

American goldfinch

American goldfinch

When you can see the individual fibers making up a bird’s feathers, and the subtle color differences, even in a reduced quality photo, then it is hard to imagine that any lens could be better.

Blue jay

And the last photos from today, Bertha, the very large red-tailed hawk.

Female red-tailed hawk

Female red-tailed hawk in flight

Those last two were shot with Bertha all the way on the other side of the expressway from where I was, a case when the extra length of the Beast is something that I wouldn’t want to be without.

I’ve sidetracked myself here, as I often do. What this is really all about is taking my photography up to another level, continuing to improve. It isn’t just about the sharpness of the three lenses that I have, it is the overall image quality, including contrast, color rendition, and color saturation. I’ve been using the two shorter lenses more often the past two weeks, which has given me a better idea as to the strengths and weaknesses of both myself, and the lenses.

As I was on my way back home, I was thinking to myself that I really need to practice with the 15-85 mm lens more often, that I don’t know how to use it to its full potential yet. That will only happen if I use it, and learn from my mistakes. I suppose that the same could be said of the L series lens, but I have used that quite a bit and have a better handle on its potential than I do the short lens.

I am also sure that many people reading this would think that I am being overly picky too, but I am always my own harshest critic, and one never improves by settling for good. I want to both improve the quality of my photos, and, expand my horizons as far as subjects.

The photos that I get from the Beast continue to get better, as I learn the settings of the camera and lens which produce the best images under different lighting and weather conditions. Yet, when I can see that either of my other two lenses are just a tad better as far as the images they produce, even though I have not become as skilled with those lenses as I am with the Beast, then that tells me something, I’m not completely sure what that something is yet.

Maybe it’s telling me more than one thing, strike that, I’m sure that it is telling me more than one thing, for part of it is that I still have much to learn.

Tuesday

There’s a combination of rain, snow, and freezing rain falling this morning, and a late morning it is. I had to run a double run last night, so I didn’t get home until the wee hours this morning. It was so dreary outside when I woke up that I thought that I was up at my normal time, way too early for how late I had worked last night, but a check of the clock told me that it was after 10 AM already, a time when I am normally already walking.

I would like to continue to ramble on about improving my photographs even more, but because it is so late already, I had better hold those thoughts until later, except for this thought. The quality of my photos made a huge leap forward when I made the switch from my old Nikon equipment to my current line up of the Canon 60 D and the three lenses that I have now. Seeing how much better the images are has provided the motivation to continue to improve even more. I may not ever become the best photographer in the world, or even the best nature photographer in the world, but I do want to become the absolute best photographer that I can be, given the level of equipment that I have, and the way that I go about photographing nature.

It’s sure a good thing that I can laugh at myself!

I had just finished typing that I wanted to be the best nature photographer that I could be, I step out of the door of my apartment building, and shoot this photo.

Canada goose in the rain

I used the wrong settings, I didn’t have enough sense to check them before shooting that photo. In my defense, I was turning the camera on, getting ready to check the settings, I didn’t expect there to be a flock of geese waiting at the door for me. I knew as the shutter clicked that the settings were wrong, I considered correcting them and shooting another photo, but they were “only” geese, I could spend entire days photographing the geese here.

My only other photo from today is this one.

Whitetail doe

That’s not a great photo either, but this blog is still a record of what I did and saw, so while I would love every photo to be as close to perfect as I can get it, I do have to take what nature gives me.

Today, that wasn’t much at all. With the gloom and mixed precipitation falling, any photos from today would have been less than perfect, and I didn’t see anything to photograph other than the geese and deer anyway.

It’s interesting how on one day like today, I see very many birds carrying on as if the weather was nice. Then on other days, they are all hunkered down in thick cover somewhere, and I see few, if any.

Wednesday

A dense fog advisory has been posted this morning, with temperatures just above freezing, lovely weather for photography, NOT! I would like to prattle on longer, but I have been busy this morning, doing a post in the My Photo Life List series, and other things. So, time for food and a walk, from the forecast for the next eight days, I’ll have plenty of time to prattle later.

OK, I’m back. On one hand, I have to stop listening to myself, with the camera gear that I have now, there is no such thing as bad weather for photography.

On the other hand, I need to listen to myself more often, and take the gear with me for the subjects that can be photographed on a given day.

I actually shot quite a few photos today, but most are almost winners, not worth posting. Here are the two that I liked enough to keep.

Unidentified fungal objects

Milkweed seeds

I was telling myself over breakfast that I should take body #2 and the short lens with me today, but with the weather the way it was, I didn’t want to fight keeping two cameras and lenses protected from the mist and drizzle in the air. I did take my tripod, but I forgot my glasses which I need to be able to use the live view for focusing close-ups, so the tripod wasn’t much use.

I saved the first shot of the mushrooms to remind myself to bring the right stuff with me tomorrow, and to go around the fence which prevented me from getting closer today.

The second image, of the milkweed seeds is 90% of what I wanted, slightly different composition, and a little more depth of field would have made that an excellent photo.

Oh, by the way, I used the 70-200 mm L series lens today.

I want to go on at length about getting better photos, but, it basically boils down to doing things the right way. But, while I know in theory what the right things to do are, until I get a better handle on the capabilities of my lenses and camera, I don’t know the exact settings to use. And, until one knows the capabilities of their equipment, how do you know when to put forth the effort of doing things the right way?

Theory is easy, mount the camera to a tripod, compose the shot, set the aperture to give you the depth of field that you want, and press the shutter release. If it were that easy, every one using a camera would be a world-class photographer, but we all know that isn’t true.

One thing that I have to get past is that my new camera gear is not the old Nikon stuff I used to use. When I purchased that camera, I tried to do things the right way, but the results were so poor that I gave up, and because of that, I have developed bad habits, or a laziness, that I need to shed.

So, I’ll keep plugging away, making mistakes, hopefully fewer of them as time goes by, as I learn just how capable my new gear is under different circumstances, and for different subjects. You know, this would be so much easier if I limited my photos to just one category, say birds for example. But no, not me, I go from shooting a golden eagle flying through fog one day to snow-covered landscapes on a sunny day the next, with a little macro photography thrown in for good measure.

The good thing is that it’s getting easier all the time, and my photos are improving as well.

By tomorrow at this time, a cold front is forecast to be moving through the area, plunging us into a deep freeze which is only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.

Thursday

I guess that the best word for the weather so far this morning is changeable. It was so dark and gloomy when I woke up that I wasn’t sure if I was up before sunrise. A few minutes ago, there was sunshine, now it’s back to clouds. The temperature is falling, it’s just above freezing yet though, with a strong west wind blowing the colder air into the region.

Time for food and a walk before the truly cold air gets here.

Well, I found weather conditions that did preclude most photo opportunities, a very cold, very strong wind. The lichens that caught my eye yesterday, all swollen from the rain, were all but invisible today. It was almost the same with the mushrooms, but instead of disappearing, they were withering in the cold wind, and not very photogenic. I found a few birds, more of the same winter residents that I have been posting a lot of lately, but during the gloomiest lighting of the day. So, I didn’t save a single photo from today.

I didn’t know that lichens could disappear the way that they did. I knew that they expanded and contracted depending on the amount of moisture available to them, but the tree trucks that were covered with lichens on Wednesday looked to be devoid of them today.

It was a very frustrating day, especially since I had blown many chances for really good photos yesterday by not bringing the correct things with me. That was reinforced when several times today, holes opened up in the clouds to allow small areas to be lit up with some dramatic lighting, but I was always in the wrong spot at the wrong time for a photo. For example, one time when the dramatic lighting appeared, I was looking through the chain link backstop of the baseball diamond at the subject that I would have liked to have shot, but by the time I decided which way around the backstop to go, the clouds had closed back up, and the lighting was gone.

So, I had a short debate with myself. I was thinking about how much respect that I have for photographers with the patience to find a subject, then wait for the exact lighting to make what otherwise would be a ho-hum photo into a work of art. Well, my daily walk is for exercise as much or more as it is about photography, so maybe I shouldn’t worry about missed photo ops was my next thought. But, that runs counter to the first thought in a way, you have to be prepared for the moment when a great photo-op presents itself.

This goes with another train of thought running through my head today, how slight changes in the camera settings can make large differences in the quality of the photos that one captures, and how many settings that there are in a modern camera that have to be tweaked to get the best possible photo for a particular subject at the correct moment. Little things, like switching the white balance from auto to the best possible settings for the light at hand at the time make more of a difference than I had imagined.

I am going to repeat myself here, so you have been warned.

All this would be so much easier if I limited myself to just one discipline of photography, say just birds, or just landscapes, but that isn’t going to happen, which is one of the main reasons that I bought the second camera body. It seems like overkill to carry them both on my daily walk around here, but the other alternative is spend five to ten minutes changing settings back and forth for the various types of subjects that I photograph every time that I switch subjects. I suppose that I could simply miss getting great photos, so I can delete the bad ones that I got instead, then spend the rest of the day kicking myself for not getting the great photos.

I have been taking the last option most of the time, and I’m tired of whining about it. So, I guess that I had better do something about that, like start taking both bodies along every day, along with the tripod, and my glasses, and use them!

It sounds counter intuitive, but I find as much or more of a need for the second body in bad weather as in good, because of the settings that I have saved in the second body, and, I seldom shoot birds in bad weather, but I see other subjects that I would like to shoot instead.

A couple of things are going to come of this, one is a trip to the camera store to purchase some type of weather proof method of carrying the second body and a short lens, the other is a day of quality time with the manual for my camera to learn how to take advantage of the custom menu options available on the 60 D. Changing settings would be so much quicker if I could do them all from one page on the screen, rather than scrolling through multiple pages. I believe that the 60 D allows me to make a custom menu page, I think that it’s time to explore that option.

Friday

I can be such an idiot! Yes, the Canon 60 D has the option of creating my own menu page to access to the settings that I choose to add to my custom menu. However, there was really no need for me to do that, as Canon has thoughtfully provided something very similar, and even better.

There’s a button on the back of the camera that allows quick access to almost all the settings that I wanted to be able to access quickly. I knew that the button was there, but I had skimmed over that part of the manual when I first read through it, wanting to take a slower, more methodical approach to learning how to use the camera. There was far more information on the screen called up by that button than I wanted to try to digest at one time when I read that section of the manual.

My objective since I bought the Canon has been to master one thing at a time, then move on to the next, rather than take a willy-nilly approach, and get lost in the process. So, I have been learning the controls one by one, which I think has gone well, but now I’m ready to work on the “big picture” of the camera in its entirety.

OK, the weather today is cold and cloudy, the wind has slacked off a little from yesterday, but it’s still nippy out there.

I’m back, and rather than being greeted by a flock of geese at my door, today it was the first few flakes of lake effect snow, that continued all through my walk, picking up in intensity as I went.

As far as birds, I saw a couple of gulls, a few mallards, and two goldfinches, not what you would call a great day of birding.

I know that I ramble on about photography and equipment, but it helps me to get things straight in my mind as I read back through what I have written. Since there wasn’t any bird activity to speak of, I had plenty of time to think, and I put that time to good use.

I don’t really want to carry both cameras with me everyday, especially not in weather like today. I’d rather not spend money on multiple ways of carrying my camera gear. A Pelican case is the best way for me to carry all my gear, I’d rather leave it at that, and not purchase a waterproof holster to carry the second body and one lens while I do my daily walks.

So, pulling many things together today, I found that I have space in body #1 to save the low light settings that I have been using in body #2, one problem solved. Since I’m now to the point of being able to tackle all the settings at one time, the quick access button does exactly what I need, another problem solved.

I found out today that I can make all the setting changes that I need to make in just a few seconds, not a few minutes as it did when I first purchased the Canon.

Most of that is because I have become much more familiar with the camera, and of course, the settings that work best for different subjects. So I think that for my daily walks that I can get by with just one body, and the 70-200 mm L series lens during the winter, since that lens is weather sealed, and my other two lenses aren’t.

On the rare days when the weather is nice, then I’ll consider taking both bodies with the Beast on one, and the 15-85 mm on the other.

That is not to say that I regret having purchased the second body, not at all. Having the second body is so much easier as far as going back and forth between wildlife and other subjects quickly. Just last week during my trips to Muskegon and Pickerel Lake, I put having two camera bodies to good use, and I’m sure that I will continue to do so.

Okay, my one photo from today isn’t much of a photo, but I shot this one as a test of sorts to see how quickly I could change set-ups.

Queen Anne’s lace

For some reason, that was one of the few things not swaying in the wind today, which was the only reason I picked that as a test subject. My tripod doesn’t extend high enough for me to get the angle that I really wanted, so I had to make do with what I could get. I learned what I needed to learn while shooting that photo, so I guess it is worth including here.

I probably shouldn’t do what I’m thinking of doing, but the weather forecast for Saturday is calling for some sunshine. If that holds true, I’m going back to Muskegon again, even though I was there over the Thanksgiving weekend. I have been trying to limit my trips there to one per month, but seeing the list of birds being reported in the Muskegon area, and with the possibility of sunshine, I think that the trip would be worth it.

Since I photographed the golden eagle last weekend, it has been spotted by other birders since then. There have been both snowy and short eared owls seen, along with a northern shrike. I’d love to get better photos of the eagles and snowy owls, and I don’t have any photos of short eared owls or northern shrike. Besides, you never can tell what’s going to show up in the Muskegon area.

Saturday

What to do?

While driving for work last evening, I was treated to one of the most spectacularly beautiful sunsets that I have seen in my life, which gave me great hopes for the weather today. Later, the lake effect snow machine kicked in, and that continues this morning, although the forecast is for the snow to wind down, with at least some peaks at the sun for later in the day.

The entire state of Wisconsin, to the west of here is clear, not a cloud in the sky, at least according to the satellite images. You can see the clouds hanging over the Great Lakes, and the entire state of Michigan.

So, do I risk another day of poor light in Muskegon, or do I wander around home here?

One thing is sure, around Muskegon, I’ll find things to photograph, and that’s not always true around here, so my mind is made up, off I go!

I’m back, and man, I’m getting spoiled! I did get a lifer today, snow geese, but the photos aren’t very good.

Snow geese, the darker ones are a color variant called the “Blue Goose.”

Snow geese, the darker ones are a color variant called the “Blue Goose.”

The snow geese drove me crazy, they would circle the fields in the area, but never seemed to land. I watched them through binoculars for quite a while, a flock would fly over, circle repeatedly, then fly on again.

I also got a few close-ups of eagles, but I’m not happy with them.

Juvenile bald eagle

Juvenile bald eagle

Almost mature bald eagle

Almost mature bald eagle

Almost mature bald eagle

Almost mature bald eagle

That last shot was not cropped at all, I was that close. But, once again, I fell victim to the weird atmospherics at the wastewater treatment facility today. I have written about that before, none of the photos that I take there are as sharp as I get at other locations. Today, that was compounded by the cold, the high temperature for the day was 20 degrees ( -7 C), with a stiff wind that made it feel much colder. I would say that it was bitter cold, but I had better not say that since it really is bitterly cold in other parts of the country.

I didn’t find either species of owls that I searched for, nor the golden eagle.

Most of the day was cloudy, with a little snow at times, but there were a few breaks in the clouds at times. I tried for a few photos of the northern shovelers during one period of sunshine, showing how they for tight rafts as they feed.

Northern shovelers

Northern shovelers forming a feeding raft

Northern shovelers forming a feeding raft

It’s really something to see them circle together tighter and tighter as more individuals join in.

Since not much was going on at the wastewater facility, I went to the channel to look for diving ducks, and found a few.

Common goldeneye ducks

Common goldeneye ducks

Male long-tailed duck

White winged scoters

White winged scoters

Horned grebe, non breeding

I’m feeling a bit bummed out. Yes, I got a lifer today, the snow geese, but I think that from now on, I’ll wait until there’s a better chance of sunshine and warmer temperatures before I return to Muskegon. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to drive that far for photos that aren’t very good.

I don’t think that the Beast likes the cold. I’ve noticed that when the temperature drops well below freezing that the photos that I get from it go down in quality.

I know that I don’t like carrying the Beast when it’s very cold like today. I don’t know what the tripod mount, which I use as a handle to carry the lens and camera, is made from, but it sucks the heat out of my fingers faster than I can warm them back up again by switching the hand I use to carry it. And, that’s with gloves on, although the gloves are thin ones meant to be used while fly fishing. I like wearing those gloves, because I don’t have to take them off while adjusting the settings of the camera.

Well, I don’t have anything else to say right now, I think that it’s time for a nap, so I’ll end this here.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

December 7, 2013 | Categories: Birds, General, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos | 28 Comments