26/04/12 Filed in: Spring
Half Eaten Tulips: ISO 200, 47mm, f/2.8, 1/500
This past winter the deers took a liking to our backyard. At first I thought this was pretty neat then I seen all the deer droppings.
I also noticed that the birds were no longer visiting our feeder. Even the magpies and crows were staying away.
I managed to get a shot of a deer at our bird feeder helping himself to the nice mixture of seeds and nuts early one morning. The quality is not the greatest. I was fresh out of bed and quickly set the camera settings to ISO 800 and shot with the lens wide open. I also had to shoot through our dirty back door window so that I would not startle the deer before he ran away.
This is why the birds have not been visiting. I will have to give the feeder a real good cleaning hoping to wash the deer smell off it!
As the snow started to melt and the spring flowers came up I noticed that they were also a tempting food source for our four legged friends as you can see by the picture above. I will not have many tulip pictures this spring as the deer have eaten most of them.
Deer at Bird Feeder: ISO 800, 35mm, f/2.8, 1/13
Tip: When taking photos of wildlife I have learned that it is best to take your shots early and then move in a step and take another shot. Keep doing this in a slow steady action until the subject “flees”.
13/03/12 Filed in: Winter
Birds: ISO 200, 53mm, f/4.5, 1/4000
A followup to my previous post.
This is where the flock of flying waxwings were headed. The neighbour’s Mountain Ash (Right Side of Picture) provides many tiny berries for a large quantity of birds to feed. I wonder how these tiny branches can handle the number of birds that perch on them.
05/03/12 Filed in: Winter
Formation Flying: ISO 200, 15mm, f/8.0, 1/2000
The bohemian waxwings came back to our yard this winter for another feeding. The sound this amount of birds make is surreal.
This is just a small bunch of the birds. Most of them were in the trees behind me feasting.
Yellow Warbler: ISO 200, 200mm, f/8.0, 1/750
Waiting for spring to arrive. This yellow warbler was captured last spring at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre, Red Deer, Alberta during one of my nature walks.
20/12/11 Filed in: Winter
Face Off: iPhone 4 edited with Perfect Photo Suite 6
I have been in a bit of a rut lately when it comes to my photography. Not sure why. Kind of the same feeling I had when sitting down to write papers in University. You get this block in your head and are not sure where to start.
Some of the photography blogs that I read regularly suggest getting out of your comfort zone and shoot something different to get out of these ruts. I believe that I like nature photography because my subjects don't judge me. I feel comfortable knowing I am alone with nature and I can take all the time that I need to find shots that catch my eye.
This past weekend I took a baby step in getting out of my comfort zone. I went to a Western Hockey League hockey game and took some photos. Now, when I say baby steps what I mean is that I didn't take my "big" camera but instead pulled out my iPhone. No big lenses, no wondering which settings to use and not worrying what people might think I was doing. I actually had fun! This maybe the power I needed to get out of my rut.
I had pretty awesome seats to the Red Deer Rebels game. Front row right up against the glass. They were playing the Regina Pats. Our home team Rebels (Team in Black) won the game 2-1. These are a couple of shots from that game.
Neutral Zone: iPhone 4 edited with Perfect Photo Suite 6