Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
I was sitting on the deck outside my bedroom when I noticed this spectacular sunset. There was also a particularly bright crescent moon…pity it wasn’t’ full.
It’s noteworthy that this post is the 5,000th since I started this blog back in 2011
Taken with a Sony RX10 MIV
I came across this convoy of Canada Geese the other day on the Hudson River in Ossining, NY. They were heading north (maybe to some kind of goose convention?). I don’t recall ever have seen so many of them at the same time. This picture shows 29 geese, but I couldn’t fit all of them in, there were probably 10-15 more behind these.
Taken with a Sony RX10 IV
I mentioned in an earlier post (See: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery/Old Dutch Burying Ground) that I was trying out my friend’s almost 20-year-old Nikon D40 digital camera. On that occasion I used the camera with her Nikon Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens in Sleepy Hollow cemetery. This time I went down to the Hudson River waterfront in Ossining and used the camera with her other lens: a Nikon Nikkor 70-300mm f4.5-5.6.
I like this lens. Of course, being a 70-300mm zoom it’s heavier, but not so heavy that my aging arms can’t tolerate it. It’s also better made. It’s clearly a more expensive lens than the other one (which I suspect was a kit lens). It’s very sharp from 70-200mm; is image stabilized (what Nikon call’s “vibration reduction”); It has a large easy to use zoom ring; The autofocus is fast and accurate. I couldn’t find much to dislike (but that might just be me).
I enjoyed using it.
Taken with a Nikon D40 and Nikon Nikkor 70-300mm f4.5-5.6
This tree is quite close to my house. I’ve been taking pictures of it for years. When I first came across it, I thought it was dead. Since then I’ve taken pictures from all angles, probably in all seasons, even in silhouette. I’ve glad to see that it’s thriving. I hope the dreaded spotted lanternflies don’t get it.
Taken with a Sony A7IV and Tamron 90mm f2.8 Macro
Although I’m on vacation at the moment I had to pass by the Historical Society where I volunteer to do something urgent. I was there for only a few minutes and after I’d finished, I decided to go and sit by the pond in Law Memorial Park, which is right next to where I volunteer.
I chose to sit on a bench right next to the pond and was surprised and disappointed to find that all around the bench were plastic plates, plastic knives and forks and a number of crushed soda cans. It was particularly disappointing because there was a garbage container only about 20 feet away. Why do people do this? Anyway, I picked up the garbage and put it in the garbage container and went back to the bench to read my book.
I guess I went there in the hope of seeing birds. I used to see birds here: Green Herons, Blue Herons, Egrets, Cormorants etc., but nowadays I hardly see any. I wonder why?
After reading for a while I noticed a large number of damsel flies (I think) buzzing around the reeds in the pond. I got out my camera and spent some time trying to get a picture or two. This proved to be difficult because they move so quickly, and I couldn’t really get close to them.
What I did get was a number of terrible pictures (although I’ve noticed that if you view the pictures on a phone they don’t look as bad as they do on a high-resolution monitor), which I’m sharing here because it’s good, from time to time, to share your failures as well as your successes.
So, what went wrong. This is my thinking at the moment:
I’ll go back with a better camera/lens and hope that a higher resolution sensor (to facilitate cropping) will help. I’ll also take a lens with more reach. I’ll try to be more patient. It’s also clear that I need to practice taking pictures of fast-moving insects.
I guess we’ll see how it goes.
Taken with a Sony RX100 VII.