{"id":1286,"date":"2009-08-09T13:14:11","date_gmt":"2009-08-09T04:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-08-09\/1286"},"modified":"2009-08-09T13:14:11","modified_gmt":"2009-08-09T04:14:11","slug":"cant-get-any-work-done-with-birds-on-my-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-08-09\/1286","title":{"rendered":"Can’t Get Any Work Done With Birds on my Laptop"},"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 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 23 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 4500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDon't Mind Us<\/span>\njust give us some worms<\/b>\n( Carolina Wren and a Chipping<\/span> Sparrow )<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 20 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWaiting<\/span>\n( Buncha' Chickadees )<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

It's wonderfully pleasant to sit out there and feed the birds, but the\nbirds are not amenable to photography: it's generally dark where the birds\nare, and bright in the background. During a rain<\/span> seems to be best because\nthe difference between the two is less stark, but still, it's a challenge.<\/span> A couple<\/span> of years ago I tried<\/span> some birds-on-the-veranda photography<\/a> with a D200<\/span> and a\nmonopod.<\/span> This time I was<\/span> half trying to get some work done, so went\nhandheld and alternated work with grabbing the camera, mostly using a\nwide<\/span>-angle zoom (14-24mm f\/2.8) on my D700.<\/p>\n\n

The results were generally pretty bad.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 720 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBacklit Blur at 1\/400th of a Second<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

What surprised me most is that exposures of 1\/400th of a second<\/span> didn't do\nmuch to freeze the birds' wings. Much slower than that – 1\/125th of a\nsecond<\/span> – can almost freeze a helicopter's<\/span> blades<\/a>. I bumped<\/span> up the\nshutter speed, which caused the quality to go way down, but at least I was<\/span>\nable to get less motion blur...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm, cropped — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 3600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCaught Mid-Hover<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nComing in for a Landing<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nShort Flight Between Branches<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

It was difficult to catch them at all, much less in focus. Even with the\nwide-angle zoom, the depth of field at f\/2.8 was really slim when the birds\nwere close. It was much<\/span> easier to catch them with the telephoto zoom\nsitting at a feeder.<\/span>..<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 4000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nChipping Sparrow<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 3200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nChickadee<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nYoung Downy Woodpecker<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

None of these are very good photography-wise, but they're part of a nice<\/span>\nmemory of my summer.<\/p>\n\n

As I said, it was hard to catch them in focus, so I did<\/span> a lot<\/span> of\nguessing and photographic carpet bombing. Sometimes the result was sort of\nfunny...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSee Ya'<\/span>\n( the tip of the tail is mostly in focus.... sort of )\n<\/div>\n\n

More often than not, when I caught good action, the whole shot was out\nof focus...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nout of focus\nAir Brakes<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Eventually my mom came out and showed me that we weren't out of\nwaxworms, so I set<\/span> some on my leg, and placed the camera on my leg as\nwell, and started shooting blindly, guessing on focus and composition. I was generally<\/span> lucky about getting the worm in focus, but that was helpful\nonly when the bird came in from the side; otherwise, the bird was\nguaranteed to be out of focus...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 4500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nout-of-focus Chickadee\n“Pluck-n-Dash”, Pre Pluck<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 20 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWren's Awkward Takeoff<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Other times during this trip I've occasionally tried to photograph the\nbirds while sitting out on the veranda (the Chickadee on a branch<\/span> above was\ntaken a few<\/span> days ago), but it's just too backlit to get anything good. But I keep<\/span> trying, and keep not getting any work done, and end up with a few<\/span>\nshots that make for nice personal memories.<\/p>\n\n

Here are a few shots from when Anthony's four-year-old cousin Grace was\nfeeding the birds with Grandma earlier in the week...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 560 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHere You Go<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

At one point I got a bit smart and pre-focused past Mom's hand, so that\nif I snapped<\/span> the shutter just as I saw<\/span> the bird snatch the worm from her\nhand, I might<\/span> get the shot with the bird flying through the plane of focus.\nIt didn't quite work, but the result is better than nothing, and I like<\/span> the bird's\nform...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/3.2, ISO 2800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony and his cousin Josh were playing in a light rain, so I sat out on the veranda to watch them and get some work done, but the birds would have none of it. As I wrote last year, the birds at my folks' place have trained us to feed them waxworms, so as soon as I sat down, I was accosted by nine or 10 birds swarming around, wanting a snack. Unfortunately, we were out of worms, so I had nothing but apologizes to offer. They didn't understand, so hung around sort of insistently. (My recent post about Anthony's [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286"}],"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=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Anthony and his cousin Josh were playing in a light<\/span> rain, so I sat<\/span> out\non the veranda to watch them and get some work done, but the birds would\nhave none of it. As I wrote<\/span> last year, the birds at my folks' place have\ntrained us to feed them waxworms<\/a>, so as soon as I sat<\/span> down, I was accosted<\/span> by nine or 10 birds swarming around, wanting a snack.<\/span>\nUnfortunately, we were out of worms, so I had<\/span> nothing but apologizes to\noffer. They didn't understand, so hung around sort of insistently. (My\nrecent post about Anthony's cousin, “Luke's\nEyes<\/a>”, is on my laptop's screen in the shot above.)<\/p>\n\n