Photography
I love making photographs. I really do. I have been behind a camera since I was a teenager. I really enjoyed my Canon 35 mm film camera, and jumped over to digital to a Canon Powershot. Last September I treated myself to a full mirrorless digital camera. It has a entry level R100 body with an adapter for my Canon EF lense as well as a 150 mm to 600 mm Sigma EF lense. It has been a real learning curve with this thing. I can't seem to get sharp focus if in focus at all. I have been practicing and talking to people and watching Youtube videos with some success. Lately the frustration has affected my joy in birding. I especially felt it this weekend as I went to Pelee and instead of enjoying the sights and sounds of birds and birders, I was focused on how I wanted to chuck my camera into the next swamp.
Today I came to the conclusion that my focus is on learning the birds, the habitat, the sounds, not just on getting the shot. I ran into a lovely older couple, who you could tell were very experienced birders. They were telling me about the birds around, and the woman was so excited as she had been trying for years to get a good pic of a Redstart (they are so small and fast) and she was able to a few minutes earlier on her little digital camera. It was clear, close and in focus. That is something we all strive for. Her success was part patience, luck and perseverance. The small warbler was bopping about in the underbrush, the photographer had many obstacles to overcome, but she got the shot, and a good portrait of a sweet bird!
Today I came to Pinery not to take photos, but to see just how Pinery was these days. You see it is my local Provincial Park and I come every month or so. Yesterday I had gone to Pelee and the week before Rondeau, so good birding hotspots, with mediocre luck in photographing birds. In the dense canopy and understory, small songbirds are difficult to spot, never mind photograph. I was blessed to observe a small brown bird perch in a nearby tree, I thought it was a Veery. I took a shot, than another. When I got home to download the photos I couldn't believe my eyes. The bird was a Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus. This songbird is a large insectivore with an enormous call! They usually perch high in the canopy, waiting for its insect prey. This one came eye level to me and gave me a good look. Most of my photos I take are for i.d., this one I can say is a good photograph, not just i.d.. I'm happy with it.
The Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis family was known to me for many weeks, but I had not spotted them until this older couple told me they were along a certain path. I thought for sure that I would not get the birds in focus as I had been struggling with this for a while now. I don't know why, but somehow through all of the grasses, the birds are in focus, not super sharp, but I am happy with it.
I know alot of focus has to do with proximity and lighting, and luck. I have had to resort to manual focusing a times in the dense vegetation.
I post my photographs straight out of the camera, I don't use photoshop or any photo editing software. I sometimes will crop, but I do enjoy seeing the environment around the bird.
Here are some more of my less than perfect focus shots.
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