Photography 2

[Commercial Floor Rep]

You're officially an addict. No cure, so be content and live with it.
If I had one of those, I'd be tempted to go out and use it. Nice camera.

I forgot to tell you how great your video of your birds was!!

I was in the office when I was replying back earlier and while I was replying to your post, I was having a discussion with a customer about why it's not a good idea to use Schluter's Ditra Heat system under floating LVP. It can be done, but it's problematic. It was one of those conversations where no matter what I say, I'm pretty sure the guy has already sold the consumer on the idea and he's going to do it anyway. They just want someone to validate their bad idea. So frustrating! And I forgot to mention your video because they were being a dumb head!

That would be so cool to feed them like that! I've been thinking about putting a bird feeder in my back yard. Maybe I can become a "bird whisperer" like you! You'll have to teach me your secret! My mom and dad feed birds and humming birds all winter long. My dad can just about get them to land on him when he's out there watching them.

I discovered a sort of hidden secret on how to buy some of that gear and save a bit of money! shopgoodwill.com People donate all kinds of photography equipment. You have to read the descriptions well and study the images to really look things over, but I've bought quite a few lenses and even a couple of camera bodies and so far, I've not made any seriously bad buys on there. I just bought a Canon T7 for $200 with two lenses. That same camera in used condition is worth about $475 just for the camera body. With a kit lens it's about $575. I honestly think, I could just about make a reasonable living just flipping gear online. However, I have one major issue with that. Once I buy it, I want to keep it!

 

[Incognito]

I'm amazed at how beautiful those bird pictures are. Thanks

 

[MSLI]

I'm amazed at how beautiful those bird pictures are. Thanks

Hey CFR, are most of them from out in the open or behind a bird blind ? Looks like a nice hobby to pick up.

 

[Floorist]

Nice pictures. I like that you use a real camera. I use a Nikon 5100 myself.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Hey CFR, are most of them from out in the open or behind a bird blind ? Looks like a nice hobby to pick up.

Out in the open. I started walking / hiking as part of my medical goal to lose weight. I get bored easily and found that if I have a camera along it doesn't feel like exercising. When I first started walking I would get winded and need to rest pretty often. Since I was going to a couple of local city parks, my wife suggested that I try a local wetlands nature preserve here in Fort Wayne called Eagle Marsh. It's just down the road from my office and they've built and maintain trails as part of the preservation project. Most of the pictures I've posted are from Eagle Marsh as it has become my regular "haunt". But, after really getting into "birding" I started to go to other locations around the area as well. Huntington Reservoir (Southwest of me about 35 miles), Metea County Park which is just a couple of miles to the Northeast of Fort Wayne, near Leo Indiana, Bicentennial Nature Preserve on the north side of Fort Wayne, Lindenwood Nature Preserve on the west side of Fort Wayne (nearby my house).

I found a helpful app called All Trails that thousands of these types of nature trails and so I'm slowly trying all of the ones around me. There's also a group called Acres Land Trust that I joined that buys land and sets up protected reserves, builds trails, and maintains them on these properties.

Since I'm walking / hiking these preserves they don't really allow any types of blinds on the property, at least not permanent ones anyway. A lot of them also have occasional benches spaced out along the trail for old folks like me who need to sit for a second or two now and then. Although, I've built up my stamina now to the point that I can go for 5 or six hours and not need to sit down.

I've been averaging recently about 5 to 7 miles per day on the weekends and about a mile a two to three evenings per week. I'd go a little longer during the week but the darn sun sets here at about 5:30.

I also found a really cool, lightweight "pop up" stool that I take along with me so if I feel like my knees and neck need a break I can stop or, even more importantly, if I find a spot with lots of birds, I can stop and sit and let them settle down and get closer to me. This is crazy sturdy and will hold up to 400 lbs.

Here's a link to it in case anybody's interested:

Amazon.com

(Admins, sorry if this violates any rules just wanted to share in case it could help anybody else, I get nothing from the link or sale ).

It really works well for me and it has a little strap that I use a carabiner clip with to hook it to my backpack. I have a Lowepro photography backpack and my straps on the bag have two loops on them that you can hook things to. I use two sets of Pygtech camera straps (I usually have two cameras out and on) and that takes all the weight off of my neck and puts it on my shoulders. I have one camera set up for birds and wildlife with a tele-zoom lens (usually my Olympus OM-1 with my Oly 100-400mm lens) and the other one (Usually my Lumix G95) I have set up with a 45mm or 60mm lens that are also macro lenses for doing close up, magnified shots of plants and regular shots of landscapes. I have extra batteries, and other lenses in my backpack along with my monopod, and my portable tripod. Although, I don't really use the monopod or tripod much. My Oly & Lumix camera bodies and lenses both have built in stabilization so I can shoot handheld most of the time without too much problem, even for birds in flight. Even with the little pop-up stool my backpack probably weighs about 20 #'s total.

It's been interesting because when I was first going out, I was just wearing a strap around my neck, but with all the cervical issues and surgeries I've had it started really making me sore. That's when I started figuring out to move the straps onto my bag. What a difference. I think it's actually been therapeutic because it almost gives me a spinal traction type of relieve in my neck. I've noticed that I'm actually getting more range of motion in my neck since I started all of this. Plus, looking up into trees has helped me get strength back into the muscles in my neck and shoulders that I lost due to the surgeries.

Here's an early morning shot of a small part of Eagle Marsh with some nice morning fog settled in. I believe the wetlands preserve area is about 830 acres or something like that. It's a very beautiful and bio-diverse piece of ground. I think I read that there are something like 240 documented bird species found throughout the marsh. I've been logging my "finds" and I think, so far, I've only seen about 42 of them so I have a lot to find yet!

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Some more Eagle Marsh shots...
View attachment EM Fog.jpg

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

There are probably about 15 ponds like this throughout the marsh. You can kind of see a car to the left side of the photo. There's actually a 4 lane road right there. That road leads to my office about a mile and half from where I'm standing.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

This is one of my favorite spots. I'm standing on a little bridge that crosses this little creek. Many mornings there a ducks or Great Blue Herons in this little stream. Reminds me of my idea of Scotland or something.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

This is one of the "raised" paths that the Army Corps of engineers built a while back. They did this to stop the invasion of the Asian Carp from moving further upstate. The water on the left is actually an old section of the Erie Canal that runs for several miles down towards Wabash Indiana. They used the natural path of the Wabash river when they built it. You can kind of see another little foot bridge that crosses this canal in the distance.
View attachment PB220081.JPG

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

This is a shot across "swampy" area of the marsh. I liked all the cat tails. I thought they made an interesting pattern.

View attachment PB220080.JPG

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Nice pictures. I like that you use a real camera. I use a Nikon 5100 myself.

I was just looking at my gear and I actually have 7 camera bodies including:

Olympus OM-1 (My primary and most "advanced" camera for birds.
Panasonic Lumix G95
Panasonic Lumix G7
Nikon D810 (DSLR)
Nikon D7500 (DSLR)
Nikon D40 (DSLR) - Old and small but still takes a decent picture @ 6.2 Megabytes.
Canon T7

Between all of them I have about 55 lenses and about 4 more that I bought but haven't received yet. (Damn weather). The lenses range from Olympus, Lumix, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron, Leica, TTartisan, & Canon. I've also got a 2x teleconverter for my OM-1 and some other odds and ends like Speedboosters & adapters so I can use the glass between multiple bodies (Canon lens on my OM-1 for example).

It's a terrible addiction (buying gear), that's all I can tell ya! I'm worse than a crackhead. I see a decent used lens and I just can't help myself!

I keep telling my wife, it's a good thing she's rich! I told her the other day that I've been buying so much gear that I'm going to have to become Morman so I can marry another rich woman! Somehow that didn't help.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that over the summer I got my FAA Part 107 commercial drone pilot's license. (Yes, that's really a thing) So, I have two drones with Hi-res video and still cameras on them. Little cold to fly those right now, although I could. They are in storage until the spring warmup for now though.

I still have a few things on my wish list though. I'd like to get a tilt-shift lens for one of my bodies and give it a whirl and possibly a T-adapter and a cheap telescope to try my hand at astrophotography, and a dehumidifying lens cabinet for when I'm not using a lens, I can store it safely and not worry about lens fungus. See, see what I mean. I'm like Steve Martin in the Jerk. "All I need is this, this lunchbox...."

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

This is a spot in Metea County Park called The Oxbow. You can see the stairs they built to accommodate the hiking trail on the right side of the picture.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

This is what most of the trails in Eagle Marsh look like in the marsh area.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Thistle in the marsh with snow. This is with my 60mm macro lens on my Lumix G95.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Red Shouldered Hawk...just launched from a branch.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Swamp Sparrow just launched...

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Red Shouldered Hawk

 

[Floorist]

I was just looking at my gear and I actually have 7 camera bodies including:

Olympus OM-1 (My primary and most "advanced" camera for birds.
Panasonic Lumix G95
Panasonic Lumix G7
Nikon D810 (DSLR)
Nikon D7500 (DSLR)
Nikon D40 (DSLR) - Old and small but still takes a decent picture @ 6.2 Megabytes.
Canon T7

Between all of them I have about 55 lenses and about 4 more that I bought but haven't received yet. (Damn weather). The lenses range from Olympus, Lumix, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron, Leica, TTartisan, & Canon. I've also got a 2x teleconverter for my OM-1 and some other odds and ends like Speedboosters & adapters so I can use the glass between multiple bodies (Canon lens on my OM-1 for example).

It's a terrible addiction (buying gear), that's all I can tell ya! I'm worse than a crackhead. I see a decent used lens and I just can't help myself!

I keep telling my wife, it's a good thing she's rich! I told her the other day that I've been buying so much gear that I'm going to have to become Morman so I can marry another rich woman! Somehow that didn't help.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that over the summer I got my FAA Part 107 commercial drone pilot's license. (Yes, that's really a thing) So, I have two drones with Hi-res video and still cameras on them. Little cold to fly those right now, although I could. They are in storage until the spring warmup for now though.

I still have a few things on my wish list though. I'd like to get a tilt-shift lens for one of my bodies and give it a whirl and possibly a T-adapter and a cheap telescope to try my hand at astrophotography, and a dehumidifying lens cabinet for when I'm not using a lens, I can store it safely and not worry about lens fungus. See, see what I mean. I'm like Steve Martin in the Jerk. "All I need is this, this lunchbox...."

I only have two Nikons, a 5100 and a 3100. I have a box of lens, even some commercial stuff. Been too sick to get out with mine lately. I have some bird pictures, not as nice as yours, but I do like my butterflies.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

I only have two Nikons, a 5100 and a 3100. I have a box of lens, even some commercial stuff. Been too sick to get out with mine lately. I have some bird pictures, not as nice as yours, but I do like my butterflies.
View attachment 18201View attachment 18202View attachment 18203

Awesome! I love butterflies too. I got started too late in the season to see any unfortunately so hopefully I'll see some this spring!

I've heard good things about both cameras and entertained them when I bought my 7500. I just went with that one, because of the faster focus tracking and processor speed to try and help with birds in flight. The 810 I have is probably too slow for that unless I shoot in the DX (cropped) mode. I got it more for still subjects and to try and do focus stacking and/or HDR stacking with it on some of the macro shots.

I'm excited that the weather finally let up after about 9 days here and I'm going to try and go for a short hike on my way home tonight. Assuming it stays within reason, I'm hoping to get out both days and get some mileage in.