52 Photographs - Week 8

 All of the photographs I took this week are of birds. 

Apparently I've turned into a bird photographer. Now I'm not the kind of bird photographer who puts on camo, sets up a blind in the woods, covers his lenses and camera body with camo, and sits all day with the lens poking out of the blind.

I'm the kind of bird photographer who takes his camera along when he takes his dog for a walk in the morning. When I see a bird, I bring the camera up and try to get the shot. If I miss it, I'm ok with that. If I get the shot, I'm surprised and sometimes astonished.

This week's choice was again a difficult one. So here is my choice out of ten possibilities.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 7

 Well, this was a very productive week. A lot of photographs of birds. And again, my approach to photographing birds is to take a walk with my camera and if I see one take a photo. Most of the time there no opportunity for a good photo. I just get lucky.

So here's this week's photograph of a Northern Mockingbird. One of my favorite photos of this bird.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

A Little About Focal Length...

 Sometimes even the longest lens you have still is not long enough. This is especially true when there is no way to get closer to your subject. Here is a case in point.

I was out at River Park this morning and saw a couple of cormorants on the large rocks in the Catawba River. Not the first time I've seen them. I had my Olympus OM-1 and the Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm lens. At 400mm the subject was just about 1/8th of the frame. Not too bad, but I wanted a tighter shot. So I used the 2X Digital Teleconverter that the OM-1 has. Here are three photos. The first was taken at 100mm, the second at 400mm, and the third with the 2X Digital Teleconverter. An amazing difference in reach.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 6

Well, this week's photograph was an easy one to select. This is a House Finch. The first time I've seen one. This was taken at Manchester Meadows Park on February 6th. I think this may be my most favorite photograph of a bird I've taken so far. 

As I've stated before, I am not a wildlife photographer. I have neither the right gear nor the patience to sit and wait for hours for the right bird in the right location. I'm more of a "hey there's a bird" and then I try to get the shot before it flies off. Most of the time, it flies off. So I feel very fortunate to have gotten this photograph.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“  

52 Photographs - Week 5

Well, this week's choice was difficult. I had several to choose from and I liked them all. However, I chose this photograph taken on my walk this past Tuesday along the river.  This is underneath the Riverwalk Trestle. I like the juxtaposition of the graffiti and the plant right in the middle.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

Books, Books, and more Books…

 Some time ago I created a PDF book of my trip to Washington, DC, with World War Two, Korean War, and Viet Nam War veterans to visit the various memorials. I went along as a photographer to document the trip. I created the book using Lightroom’s Book feature and had a copy printed using Blurb. Some time later I created the PDF book and uploaded it to my Google Drive and made it available to anyone with the link.

Subsequently, I created several more PDF books on various topics: Musicians I photographed when I lived in Arkansas, some macro photographs both film and digital, photographs of Pelicans, photographs of the Heron at Manchester Meadows Park, photographs of the Northern Mockingbird, and finally a very personal memoir of the last three months of my father’s life.

All of the later books were created using Apple’s Pages app on my iPad. It’s a very easy and nice way to make my photography available to friends and family without the expense of having to purchase a copy. A couple of years ago I gave a presentation to The Rockford Photo Club (Rockford, Illinois) on my process of created a PDF book using Pages.

All of the books are in a folder on my Google drive and you can access them by clicking here: PDF Books. Feel free to download any of the books. I hope you enjoy them.

Here are three of the book’s covers.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“