Nature Blog Network Wildlife Photography Blog Fatbirder's top 1000 birding websites

Welcome to the Pine River Review. Our sight is dedicated to our little homestead located along the Pine River tucked inside the Chippewa Nature Center's 1400 Acres of wild in Michigan's lower penninsula. We love to share our pictures, video, comment, and our own homespun music. Step inside our world as we celebrate this beautiful nook!


Monday, November 15, 2010

Duck, Ducks, Goosed!

 
I feel like I did when I graduated from High School and my friends all left for College and I didn't, I was lazy back then and had paid the price. I was lost and alone in a familiar land, forced to seek a different path. In this case its the ducks that are leaving town, not my 12th grade buddies.       

 For some reason I'm taking the migration kind of hard this year, sort of personal. The leaves have changed colors and fallen. The stark Oak branches reach out with gnarled fingers and grip my very soul...




Okay, the ducks are leaving, get over it,
But you know your bio-rhythms are on a down turn when you sight a Red Tailed Hawk and grabbing your camera off the back seat and fumbling through your memory bank for f stop #'s you get a click off just in time, and it looks good on the little three inch screen on the back of the camera. The whole team is excited! Way to go Hands! Nice job Eyes! Way to get that picture!



What is that?
And if you think I'm talking about the branch across the face your not looking close enough.
Somethings I don't want to touch even with Photoshop!



5 comments:

  1. Great pics. I like # 2 especially. I don't know what it is either. If you want a quick tip shoot in aperture priority and preset to f8 which will give you a fast enough shutter speed for most birds. You can then adjust the white balance to whatever, and use exposure compensation to fine tune. As I move I readjust and shoot a pic of nothing just to check the white balance.This was a tip handed onto me by two guys one with considerable experience, and the other a pro.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Gary,
    That white balance thing I definitely don't have a handle on. It will be my research for today. I've been trying to shoots mostly in shutter priority(Tv) to make sure I get 1/1600 to freeze a moving bird and then balance the aperture and ISO from there. We need light and lots of it. It has been so overcast here I haven't taken a decent shot in days. By the way, #2 is a dried up frog!
    Suns up, I'm going to hit the swamp!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful images! I particularly like the pic of the troll (frog). Re camera settings, I'd recommend Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure" to figure out the link between aperture, iso and shutter speed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was wondering about the dried up frog. Every time I look at it, I see it as a troll creature, hand on hip, roaring at the world to get out of here!
    I love the ducks, too. The flying drake - I can see the water drops on his belly! And the duck in the water is pushing up a bow wave!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The bird shots are awesome but the frog image is incredible! Sort of a Sci Fi movie frame! :-)

    ReplyDelete