{"id":1118,"date":"2009-01-19T14:48:06","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T05:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-01-19\/1118"},"modified":"2009-01-19T14:48:06","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T05:48:06","slug":"lots-of-crows-at-kyotos-shogunzuka-overlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-01-19\/1118","title":{"rendered":"Lots of Crows at Kyoto’s Shogunzuka Overlook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 340 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 1800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCrow<\/span>\nand the Osaka skyline 30 miles away\n<\/div>\n\n

As I've been doing lately<\/a> in\nhopes of catching a great<\/span> sunset<\/a>, I headed<\/span> up again the other day to the overlook at\nShogunzuka<\/a>, which offers a commanding<\/span> view of downtown Kyoto.<\/p>\n\n

The sunset was not particularly interesting....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWell, It Was Worth<\/span> a Try<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

While waiting to see how the sunset would develop, I occupied<\/span> myself\nby practicing to track focus on crows as they flew around....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 340 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I had a 1.7× teleconverter on my 70-200, and with the resulting\nbig zoom, I knew I<\/span> could isolate the little bit of color the far-away sky\ndid offer, so I tried<\/span> to catch a bird<\/span> in front of it. The result<\/span> is a photo<\/span>\nthat holds more color and excitement than you actually felt in person\n(and when you consider just how little excitement the above photo generates, you'll\nhave a good<\/span> idea of the boring sunset I witnessed.<\/span> \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n\n

Crows tend to congregate in that area around sunset, and they alternate\nbetween quiet and frenzied. Sometimes for no apparent reason a bunch<\/span> will\ntake off or a new<\/span> wave will come in, which feels like it should make for an\ninteresting shot, but doesn't...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 340 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBunch'a Birds<\/span><\/span>\nyawn\n<\/div>\n\n

This time, though, the crows outdid themselves and sometimes hundreds\nand hundreds would fly up at once creating a huge,<\/span> swirling cloud of\nHitchcockian proportions....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 120 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 900 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 120 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 120 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 1400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLots'a Birds!<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I wondered what why they were doing that until I was<\/span> on my way back to the parking lot and I saw<\/span> this guy...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 340 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>80 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSlingshot in Hand<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I chatted with him a bit. He likes<\/span> to feed the cats that congregate in\nthe area, but the crows eat what he puts out, so he's... er.... “training”\nthe birds that it's in their best interest to leave the cat food alone.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I've been doing lately in hopes of catching a great sunset, I headed up again the other day to the overlook at Shogunzuka, which offers a commanding view of downtown Kyoto.<\/p>

The sunset was not particularly interesting....<\/p>

While waiting to see how the sunset would develop, I occupied myself by practicing to track focus on crows as they flew around....<\/p>

I had a 1.7× teleconverter on my 70-200, and with the resulting big zoom, I knew I could isolate the little bit of color the far-away sky did offer, so I tried to catch a bird in front of [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}