Welcome to (The Occasional) Photo Tip of the Day! Please also visit my main site jeffwignall.com. Text and photographs Copyright 2016 Jeff Wignall.



“The best way out is always through.”


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Coots!

Not the sharpest photo I've ever taken, but I decided to haul out a lens I haven't used in a long time: a Sigma 400mm f/5.6 APO. I shot this photo of a coot on the Housatonic River in Connecticut using that lens with a 1.4x tele-converter (also Sigma). Coots are a real challenge to shoot because they just never stop moving, they are like perpetual motion machines when they're in the water--and they are small and fast. I was close enough to the riverbank that I found shooting from my van with the lens resting on a rolled up sweater in the window frame was the simplest solution. I shoot on a tripod about 95% of the time, but sometimes you have to improvise and being up high in my van gave me a good vantage point. I had to sharpen this quite a bit in Photoshop and it's still not blazingly sharp. I think the slight softness is due to the motion of the bird and the extreme focal length (with the 1.4x) more than the quality of the glass: on a dx Nikon body the 400mm is 600mm effectively and with the added 1.4x tele-converter, it's a whopping 840mm. It's a been a great winter/early spring for birding in Connecticut.

Friday, March 20, 2015

So long winter!

Today marks the last partial day of winter: spring starts at 6:46 p.m. on March 20th. And for all of us in New England who have endured one of the worst winters in recorded history, may I just say: Good riddance! Not that we don't love you winter, you were fun to photograph, but let's have some fun shooting spring for a change. Of course, there is snow predicted for today here in southern Connecticut--so we will begin with a white first day of spring. In the meantime, here's a shot from my bathroom window about two weeks ago with a haiku I wrote on March 19th. Happy spring.