The title says it all. Sunflowers are such attractive, bright flowers. The bee was just the icing on the cake.
Taken with a Sony RX100 VII
Sunflower with Bee
Mallards
I often write jokingly that when looking for bird pictures, I often find only Canada Geese and Mallards – as if there’s something wrong with that. But, although Mallards are numerous, they’re actually rather attractive birds. So, my apologies to the Mallards.
Taken with a Sony RX100 VII
A convoy of geese
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
Takeoff
I was sitting reading on the deck outside my bedroom when I saw this Red-Tailed hawk (or at least that’s what I think it is) circling overhead. Eventually it settled in a nearby tree. When I’m sitting on my deck there’s always the possibility of a bird picture, so I had an appropriate camera/lens combination right next to me. After a while I got the sense that the bird was about to take off. I was right and I managed to get a few pictures before it flew away. The first one shows the bird spreading its wings just as it was about to takeoff. She second was taken only a second or two later when the bird was already into its flight.
They’re certain not my best pictures (once it got going the bird moved very quickly and the tree was some distance away) but I like them, particularly the second one because it’s a view you just don’t see with the naked eye – it happens so fast. And just look at the talons in the second picture. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of those.
Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.
A borrowed lens
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