[Itsed65]

A quick shot from the car while driving to dinner in Yountville (Napa Valley) the other night. The train tracks belong to the Napa Wine Train.

Napa County Clouds by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[Captain Blood]

Went to Telluride 2 weeks ago. Home to some of the most scenic mountains, ghost towns, and campsites. And $16 burgers. These pictures are of the San Miguel River about 2 miles downstream of Telluride. The other is the road to the ghost town of Tomboy and Imogen Pass, looking down at Bridal Veil Falls.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Real Dodger

Went to Telluride 2 weeks ago. Home to some of the most scenic mountains, ghost towns, and campsites. And $16 burgers. These pictures are of the San Miguel River about 2 miles downstream of Telluride. The other is the road to the ghost town of Tomboy and Imogen Pass, looking down at Bridal Veil Falls.

They look nice, but need to be rotated to show correctly in this Forum.

[Terry989]

Its scorpion week! Costa Rica has 14 varieties of scorpions, and I think I found at least four of these (as well as some of their relatives) - - - all found at night within a short walk of my hotel room. Here is the first one I found, small, fast and hard to photograph. I usually use a tripod, but this on was always on the move so it was taken hand held.

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by dcstep

They look nice, but need to be rotated to show correctly in this Forum.

I rotated them several times. Why won't they come out straight?

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Terry989

Its scorpion week! Costa Rica has 14 varieties of scorpions, and I think I found at least four of these (as well as some of their relatives) - - - all found at night within a short walk of my hotel room. Here is the first one I found, small, fast and hard to photograph. I usually use a tripod, but this on was always on the move so it was taken hand held.

Wow, great shot! Check your shoes every morning and examine the bed good before jumping in.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Real Dodger

I rotated them several times. Why won't they come out straight?

Wish I could help. I host mine on Flickr and bring them over as BBCode.

[dcstep]

Hand held, with the stellar Canon 5DS-R/100-400mm S-II combination, with the EF 1.4x TC-III thrown on for good measure:

Yum by David Stephens, on Flickr

[Itsed65]

Can't believe its almost August. Harvest soon.

Summer Grapes by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Itsed65

Can't believe its almost August. Harvest soon.

Oh yeah.

Looks like it'll be a good year.

Dave

[Terry989]

This is a photo of the next scorpion I found in Costa Rica. I was walking up the trail from the beach on the way back to my room after my night wanderings when I spot the largest scorpion I have ever found to date - - - at that time anyway. I noticed it on the side of a large rock that formed the base of the stairs at the bottom of the infinity swimming pool. And Dave, I definitely would not want this one in my shoe!

After taking this photo, I notice another scorpion, a different species, further up the trail. I get the tripod and camera picked up and head up the trail, but I'm spotted the the scorpion turns and heads off into the forest. I briefly gave chase, but had to give up after leaning something I didn't know about scorpions - - - they can be very fast when they want to be!

[Itsed65]

Hawk at Fernandez Ranch by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Pelican on final approach:

Pelican Landing by David Stephens, on Flickr

[Itsed65]

Hawk in Flight #65 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[Arsonism]

Hey Everyone, it's been a minute.

I leave out soon for about a year, but I'll try to bring the camera and snap some photos (if they get released) of some other countries. Should be fun!

Here's some from the summer, I'll post a few up before I'm gone for good, I'm always open to some CnC on these ones. If someone would like the raws to stab at themselves let me know!


Hard Breaking Hummingbird by Shane

Hope y'all have been well.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Arsonism

Hey Everyone, it's been a minute.

I leave out soon for about a year, but I'll try to bring the camera and snap some photos (if they get released) of some other countries. Should be fun!

Here's some from the summer, I'll post a few up before I'm gone for good, I'm always open to some CnC on these ones. If someone would like the raws to stab at themselves let me know!

...

Hope y'all have been well.

Good luck on your trip.

[dcstep]

Shane, your hummer shot is obviously a HUGE crop and underexposed. I think your better off with less of a crop and trying to get exposure right. Saturday, I took the shot below at ISO 6400, f/8 and 1/500-sec. Not ideal for hummers, but the light was that bad. I did crop some, but much less than you. I applied DxO's PRIME noise reduction, to deal with the noise from the high ISO.

Sweet Little Girl by David Stephens, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Kingfisher dives for minnow:

Diving by David Stephens, on Flickr

[Terry989]

Great photo of a Kingfisher in the dive. I always enjoy seeing these animated and skillful birds at work. Unfortunately we don't have that many of them in this area.

[Itsed65]

This guy is missing most of his tail feathers

Hawk in Flight #78 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Terry989

Great photo of a Kingfisher in the dive. I always enjoy seeing these animated and skillful birds at work. Unfortunately we don't have that many of them in this area.

Thanks Terry.

They're cocky little birds, with good reason to be confident with their fishing skills. This one was on a regularly used perch, but, I'd have a hard time finding them if they didn't always announce when they caught something. Whether celebrating, or annoyed, their distinctive ratcheting sound always puts me on alert.

[dcstep]

Shane, I dove deeper into your hummingbird shot's EXIF data. The under-exposure was caused by you being in Automatic mode. The bright background raised the shutter speed way higher than it needed to be.

If you're going to shoot birds-in-flight, you have to break out of the Automatic mode and go to Manual. The shutter speed required to get some color on the hummer is about half where your camera chose. If going to Manual seems too daunting, then you might try Av or Tv mode and then using the EV adjustment to deal with the changing background. For instance, if I was in Av mode for that shot, I would have spun the big wheel on the back of the camera to get to +1EV, realizing that the bright background was going to under-expose the main subject, if I didn't adjust.

I shot in Av mode for several years. Av and Tv are good stepping stones to full Manual. You have to understand how the meter is working, but then you can easily adjust exposure with the +-EV wheel. For birds-in-flight, I ultimately went to full manual because there were too many situations where the bird would start against a dark cloud, go in front of a white could, then blue sky and finally trees. I couldn't spin the EV wheel fast enough and accurately enough to expose the bird correctly. In manual, I expose for the subject and don't worry about BG. Of course, I have to be constantly aware of changing light conditions and manually changing my setting. That's the downside, but, if you shoot enough, you get used to it.