[NatureNS] Dark-eyed Birds and other notes

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:55:26 -0400
From: Hans Toom <Htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca>
To: "Naturens@Chebucto.Ns.Ca" <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--Boundary_(ID_dYNJRlzvQlzhe7XpPvOYEg)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

The hardest birds to photograph well are the ones with dark-eyes on dark faces such as Boreal and Black-capped Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco. If the eye is not reflecting light and in focus the bird appears lifeless and so sadly does the resulting photograph, no matter how competent the photograph may be in other respects.  Often the best time to get the eye to reflect light is early in the morning or late in the day.  I never resort to frontal flash or photoshop touch-ups to light the eyes.  The trick to photographing birds is to focus on the eye and then while holding this focus moving the view to compose the shot.  This is easier said than done since these critters seldom stay still for long.  Try this technique with a Golden-crowned Kinglet or a Brown Creeper and you'll discover why 95 out of 100 photos are trashed.  I've posted three photos of Boreal Chickadee and one of Black-capped Chickadee.

I was able to photograph our young male Ring-necked Pheasant in the backyard snow yesterday.  There is something about the facial features of this bird that is beguiling to my camera.  This series of photos finishes off with a Hooded Merganser in Sambro Harbour, a Mourning Dove in our backyard and the last one is Sambro Harbour's Belted Kingfisher in folded wing dive. The wire he lept from is visible just above his body.  He missed the target!

This is the first winter that the local Mourning Doves have overwintered successfully in numbers.  I have at times 40 of these birds mingling about my feeders.  In previous years I've watched dozens of them sitting on wires in the freezing rain, and not surprisingly disappearing shortly thereafter but this year they are doing much better.

Hans

http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlights27.html
_______________________________________________________________
Hans Toom
E-mail: htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca
Migration Count: http://hanstoom.com/NAMC/Index.html
Nature Website: http://hanstoom.com 
_____________________________________________________________

--Boundary_(ID_dYNJRlzvQlzhe7XpPvOYEg)
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The hardest birds to photograph well are the ones 
with dark-eyes on dark faces such as Boreal and Black-capped Chickadee and 
Dark-eyed Junco.&nbsp;If the eye is not reflecting light and in focus the bird 
appears&nbsp;lifeless and so sadly does the resulting photograph, no matter how 
competent the photograph may be in other respects.&nbsp; Often the best time to 
get the eye to reflect light is early in the morning or late in the day.&nbsp; I 
never resort to frontal flash or photoshop touch-ups to light the eyes.&nbsp; 
The trick to photographing birds is to focus on the eye and&nbsp;then while 
holding this focus moving the view to compose the&nbsp;shot.&nbsp; This is 
easier said than done since these critters seldom stay still for long.&nbsp; Try 
this technique with a Golden-crowned Kinglet or a Brown Creeper and you'll 
discover why 95 out of 100 photos are trashed.&nbsp; I've posted three photos of 
Boreal Chickadee and one of Black-capped Chickadee.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I was able to photograph our&nbsp;young male 
Ring-necked Pheasant in the backyard snow yesterday.&nbsp; There is something 
about the facial features of this bird that is beguiling to my camera.&nbsp; 
This series of photos finishes off with a Hooded Merganser in Sambro Harbour, a 
Mourning Dove in our backyard and the last one is Sambro Harbour's Belted 
Kingfisher in folded wing dive. The wire he lept from is visible just above his 
body. &nbsp;He missed the target!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is the first winter that the local Mourning 
Doves have overwintered successfully in numbers.&nbsp; I have at times 40 of 
these birds mingling about my feeders.&nbsp; In previous years I've watched 
dozens of them sitting on wires in the freezing rain, and not surprisingly 
disappearing shortly thereafter but this year they are doing much 
better.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hans</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A 
href="http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlights27.html">http://www.hanstoom.com/Highlights/Highlights27.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial 
size=2>_______________________________________________________________<BR>Hans 
Toom<BR>E-mail: <A 
href="mailto:htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca">htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca</A><BR>Migration 
Count: <A 
href="http://hanstoom.com/NAMC/Index.html">http://hanstoom.com/NAMC/Index.html</A><BR>Nature 
Website: http://hanstoom.com 
<BR>_____________________________________________________________</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

--Boundary_(ID_dYNJRlzvQlzhe7XpPvOYEg)--

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects