Special Moment

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/5.6 at 1/250
ISO 400

In the previous post I said I had stopped to take pictures of some Black Tailed Deer on our way up Hurricane Ridge Road. This is a picture of one of the young deer that formed part of the group. They didn’t like our presence but they tolerated us enough to get a few decent shots.

For this shot my camera was set to ISO 400. Unfortunately there is a large amount of noise visible in the dark areas of the background. Noise aside, I think I captured a special moment with this fawn.

Roots in Rock

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/4.5 at 1/250
ISO 200

I just realized I needed one more post today to be up-to-date. This picture was taken in Olympic National Park. We were driving up hurricane ridge road and had stopped to take pictures of some Black Tailed Deer that were grazing at the side of the road.

It was cloudy and dark. I had to up my ISO setting to 200 just to be able to get a shot. Even at that low an ISO setting I was not happy with the noise in the images. After shooting some pictures of the deer I turned my camera towards this little tree trying to take root in the rock wall of the mountain.

I am always fascinated with things that grow in difficult environments. This little tree has rooted in solid rock. It is a testament to the will of Mother Nature.

A Web of Branches

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/16 at 1/30
ISO 100
Manfrotto 055 tripod

Here is another shot with similar circumstances as the last one. It was late afternoon in February 2008 and the sun was falling fast. I was on the roof of the Office Depot on Broadway trying to get a shot of the downtown area of Vancouver.

I turned and saw this section of trees backlit by the orange sun. I pointed my camera at the scene and set the f-stop to achieve some decent depth-of-field. I decided to use my long lens zoomed to 155 mm to compress the scene a little.

This is the resulting image. I really like the detail in the branches. I think there might even be a bird nest in the upper left side.

Evening Sky

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/16 at 1/40
ISO 100

Some moments are fleeting. Sunrise and sunset are particularly short-lived events. Clouds come and go. Sometimes an interesting sky presents itself but you find yourself nowhere near anything that can take advantage of it photographically.

This was one such moment. The skyline of trees was all I could find to add some interest to the shot. The light disappeared pretty quickly after this shot was taken. Not my best photo but I still like it.

Garden Visitor

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Tamron SP90 Macro
f/8 at 1/320
ISO 100

Ooops! I forgot to post something yesterday. Today I will post 2 images to make up for it.

This is another shot from Mexico. This butterfly came to visit us by the pool everyday. It was quite patient with me as I poked around with my macro lens only a couple inches away.

I like the detail I managed to capture but I am not that happy with the background. I find it a little distracting. There was not much I could do to change it while taking the photo but I might be able to alter it using Photoshop.

I don’t like to do that usually. When taking pictures I never think about what I can do in post. Perhaps I should. Generally I like the challenge of try to produce a near final image in-camera.

A Game of Patience

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/9.5 at 1/250
ISO 100

This little guy loved the flowers around the small resort where we stayed in Mexico. He would arrive, feed on the flowers for a few minutes and then disappear. I decided to try to get a photograph so I kept my camera with me and set with what I hoped was a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action of the bird and with a small enough aperture to give me some depth-of-field.

I failed miserably at first. He would land on a flower that was nowhere near and if I approached it would fly away. After some observation I realized there were several flowers it liked best and always stopped at. So I sat myself in a chair pre-focused on one of those flowers and waited. It was a game of patience.

Finally some success! This strategy allowed me to get at least a few decent shots of this and one other hummingbird. This is probably my favourite. I like the fact that the shutter was fast enough to freeze the action of the bird but slow enough to allow the wings to blur.

Spreading the News - 2

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/8 at 1/350
ISO 100

While in Mexico, we spent two weeks in a small private resort located about 5 kms down a dirt road near the small town of Troncones. Several times a day this Volkswagon Beetle passed by with someone speaking Spanish through the loudspeaker attached to the top of the car.

At first we thought it was someone trying to spread some sort of political propaganda. I was curious and decided a photo album would not be complete without a shot of this car. I was sitting by the pool one day when I heard him pass by. I grabbed my camera and ran to the road to wait for him to return.

When he did I pointed my camera at him as he approached. He noticed me and stopped to ask why I was taking his picture. I responded by telling him I liked his car (which was not a lie because the first car I ever drove was a Beetle). With that comment I made a connection. He was quite proud of his car and started showing me all the work he had done to it.

Through our conversation I learned that the so-called political propaganda coming out of the loud speaker was simply the headlines from the daily newspaper. Rather than work in a hotel serving tourists, he said he makes more money selling newspapers to the locals. He buys them in town for 5 pesos and drives around reselling them for 7 pesos. We had a nice conversation and then he said goodbye and continued on his way.