DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... The Camera/Picture Taking Thread

HDR fun!


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Amazon offers these Reconditioned cameras and accessories and often at knock down prices. Definitely a good way to go as 9/10 the product will look and work brand new but you could get $300+ off or some blockbuster bundle package.

I should say that reconditioned sellers have to be approved Canon or Nikon and it is in their interest to not sell crap as the knock on effect of being dropped by Amazon is potential nail in the coffin for their company.

The Canon Outlet frequently has sales on their refurb kits. You gotta check back frequently, as they're random.

Here's a little screech owl that took a break from his daytime nap along a trail at Maumee Bay State Park.

Sweet!

Who?

Yes.

Tonight I find myself in Alaska for the last full night until my return in August. I got out, and found a creek where 25 or so people sternly angled for some salmon;I didn't stay too long as our unofficial state bird, the mosquito, started biting away at me.

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Some years ago I watched a TV show about fishing in Canada. The mosquitos were awful. The visitors were dressed showing little skin, spraying themselves with repellent and constantly swatting. As four of them sat around in a group only the Canadian native sat in a short sleeve shirt, did not use spray and was not swatting. When the interviewer asked him about that he said, "Mosquitos are a state of mind. You let them bother you or you don't."

Do you find that true of the locals? That the mosquitos just don't bother them much.

Like I said...I enjoy photographing my dogs. Here is one where I captured Bentley in mid-flight. Look at him go!

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Every weekend I go for a long hike with the dogs and this is just one of the views that may present itself. Here is a view from this morning's hike. Ladies & gentlemen...I give you the beautiful Columbia River. At certain points of the year you can't get down this close to the river as it is high. Other times (last summer) there are long sandbars that stretch out to the island at the left of the photo. On your right, the cloudy peak is Mt Hood.

I live right in the city of Portland yet, I can be standing at this spot within one hour from my house. This is just one of the reasons why I love Oregon.

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^That^ is a great picture!

Awesome! What type of lens did you use to get this shot? 300mm?

I downloaded the pic, cropped it (had to) and now it's my desktop picture.



P.S. Up close that beak is a bit intimidating.

What a beautiful bird.

I wonder how this particular type of owl evolved its coloring to match the bark on this particular type of tree.

What?

Over thousands of years the owls that hung-out in this particular type of tree started eating better the closer their feathers started matching the tree bark color and patterns?

You're kidding right?

Everyone knows that started off as a Redwood and evolved to look like the owl.

Sigma 150-600 Sports lens, Canon 7d mkii camera. I just got this setup in early March and I'm still dialing it in. This photo was shot at 430mm, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 1600. No fill flash. It was shot in RAW, and I did some shadow/highlight adjustments, vibrance and sharpening...along with a little noise reduction. TBH, I was expecting somewhat better (less noise) high ISO performance from this camera.

Sweet shot and sounds like a nice lens. Assuming on a tripod? I think there is often a bit of noise when using a zoom.

Have you compared your Canon to the Nikon equivalent? It would be interesting to see how their equivalent model matches up to it.

Here's a red morph screech owl taken last year in the same general area:

GREAT composition on this one. I love the framing of the arching branches. Nice!

Most of my bird and wildlife stuff is with a monopod (or freehand from my truck window). I do have a good tripod and gimbal head when I have a good idea where my subject is and it's not too long of a hike, like at the eagle nests and whatnot. The warbler building his nest was taken with the tripod also.

I've got too much invested in Canon glass to consider a Nikon.

How do you like that sigma 150-600? I was reading an airshow photography article recently where that was mentioned, started thinking about that recently. Currently shooting airshows with a 100-400 or a 70-200 with a 2x tele. Some more reach could always be useful.

The lens is sweet, it's very sharp even at 600 on birds in flight if you stop down to f/8 or so. You lose a bit of IQ wide open, as you do with most zooms. You're probably shooting at least that at air shows anyway. Autofocus is very quick, quite a jump from the 50-500 I've been using for years. It has focus distance limiters for the autofocus, so there's much less hunting.

The lens is very heavy. If you're handholding at airshows that could be a problem. They make a contemporary model of that lens that is considerably lighter with comparable features and image quality. It has fewer elements and doesn't have the weather sealing, but it's half the price. There are plenty of reviews on the forums and Youtube. You also get a USB dock with both lenses to make adjustments to the image stabilization and focus distance limiter, and micro adjust the auto focus at 3 seperate distances. You can save 2 custom settings to the lens. I haven't even touched that yet.

It was a foggy morning as the sun rose for the Balloon Festival in T-Town.





Midway was empty.





Not a chili dog to be found for the weary traveler.





But the balloons were flying high.







Some were relaxing and enjoying the view.





While others were just getting high on getting hot.





Now we walk the long road home to dream of more pleasant days tomorrow.





Link to see them larger.

That's a cool story!

I love that misty meadow pic.

That was just a lucky shot. I didn't plan on taking it, there was just a layer of fog hanging there and with that sun coming up I knew it would be gone in another 15 minutes, so I tossed on the widest lens I had with me and bracketed 3 shots under exposing one by 2 stops, and over exposing one by 2 stops.

Who say's Okie's don't have a sense of humor?

I spent my Memorial Day at Lakeside, Ohio off of Lake Erie in Northwest Ohio. Turns out I know people who own a cottage up there!


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The first picture in this latest group would be close to a dream house to me.

quote by me on the thread "Where would you live? June 23, 2015:

"...That leaves the North Coast. I’d want to be within a couple hours of a metropolitan area.

Of the major North Coast cities Cleveland is by far my favorite. Lot’s of things to do.

I’d like to be between Cleveland and Sandusky. Right on the water.

On one of those farms with a big cliff overlooking Lake Erie. How about Vermilion?"

I wrote in the "Memorial Day" thread about our annual release of ladybugs to honor my sister's passing and her life. Here are a couple photos I took from today's release...

For you, sis:

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The bees from my neighbor's hive are covering the Pink Escallonia in my yard. I'll have local honey in the coming months for their efforts.
Having a local bee keeper means my huckleberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries get extremely well pollinated. Every flower turns to fruit.

Here's some pictures from the game last night.

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Thunderbirds in town for the air force academy graduation

Happy Friday everyone.

Nice pics. I attended a graduation ceremony there in '87. It was quite an event and the Thunderbirds stole the show (just behind my brother receiving his commission!). That was quite a story about the Thunderbird going down. Was that far from where you're at?

J/C

I love having summers off, and this current summer in northeast Ohio! Such great weather to take pictures, and lots of things to do. I went to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo this morning. Here's a few of the shots.

Incredible I got these out of a crop frame...


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I get a chance to eat these a couple of times a year. Reindeer ribs are incredible.


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I discovered I like floral photography.


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I shot a bunch of these guys. The're hilarious.


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Cleveland did right on their elephant renovations.


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Very regal looking right here.


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So soft, yet so sharp!

If you're in NE Ohio, you might want to check out Sandy Ridge Reservation. I've not been there, but I've heard it's a photographers dream and seen some great pics from that place. It's definitely on my short list of places to go.



Also, the CVNP looks like a wonderful place to get pics.

With my son graduating and going off to college this summer, I'm not going to get a vacation in and I missed a lot of the birding season getting things ready for the party.

The crash was on the southend of town, maybe 15-20 miles away. But it happened on their way back to the airport after their graduation performance. It happened maybe 5 minutes after they left the graduation.

Nice.


I got a kick out of your comment "I get to eat these a few time each year."