{"id":1695,"date":"2011-01-17T23:28:37","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T14:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-01-17\/1695"},"modified":"2011-01-17T23:28:37","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T14:28:37","slug":"feeding-frenzy-on-the-kamo-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-01-17\/1695","title":{"rendered":"Feeding Frenzy on the Kamo River"},"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 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 1250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBlustery Mountains<\/span>\nlooking north up the Kamo river, from Nijo Street\nKyoto Japan<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I've been busy with a project lately (which explains the lack of posts\nlately), but took the opportunity of having lunch in town with Zak<\/a> to enjoy the walk from home.\nCrossing the Kamo River on the Nijo-Street bridge on the way home, I noticed<\/span> that the mountains were still blustery from a snowfall<\/span> we had last\nnight, though it was mostly clear and sunny in town.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>8000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAvoiding the Crowds<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I noticed a lone heron was standing in the water near the bridge, while\na big<\/span> frenzy of birds jostled for bread near some people on a sand<\/span> bar\nfurther up river. Not having<\/span> had anything else pique my photographic\ninterest on the walk, I decided<\/span> to venture down to see what the fowl hubbub\nwas about. I moved<\/span> upstream to the center of the stepping stones<\/a>\nseen dotted across the center the shot above for a closer<\/span> shot of the\naction...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>8000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 280 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFrenzy<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I had only my Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm<\/a> with me\non the stroll, though I wished<\/span> I had<\/span> the Sigma “Bigma”<\/a> as I did<\/span>\nwhen I shot<\/span> the heron\nfishing<\/a> along this same river last fall, for its longer reach<\/a>. If I would<\/span>\nhave had more zoom, I might<\/span> have been able to get shots like this...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a><\/div>\n\n

That's an extreme<\/i> crop from the “Frenzy” shot, and as such the\noverall quality is poor; but considering the magnitude of the crop, the\nsharpness of the two birds in the lower right is more than acceptable. That\nreally pleases me because I didn't<\/span> hold out much hope for getting the birds\nin focus, at least when they were flying (in a frenzy,<\/span> you know). Manual\nfocus is enough of a challenge<\/span> for me in the best of situations, so I\nthought<\/span> to use the opportunity of the frenzied birds to practice a bit,<\/span>\nand this is one of the shots where I nailed<\/span> it (or, at least, got lucky).<\/p>\n\n

But everything was still too far away, so I decided<\/span> to abandon the\nstepping stones and walk further up the bank.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>8000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 560 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHeading For the Action<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

As I got closer, I realized<\/span> that the white birds (gull?) were for the\nmost part just a hazy<\/span> bee-hive of unspecific activity, but the kites<\/a> (large\npredators like hawks) were the excitement. There were dozens flying and\nsoaring aimlessly around... sometimes quite close... so I focused<\/span> my\npractice (so to speak) on them.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>8000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSoaring<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I'm sure I looked fairly comical (or drunk) trying to track the birds as\nthey flew around, almost losing my footing near the edge of the river more\nthan once.<\/p>\n\n

Occasionally a kite would dip into the frenzy to see what's what, scattering the gulls gathered at the couple giving the bread...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 heavily cropped — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 1250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMy Turn<\/span>\nwhat the big bird of prey wants, the big bird of prey gets\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 heavily cropped — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>8000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLeaving With His Plunder<\/span>\nkite takes a bite of the bread while in flight\n<\/div>\n\n

The shot above is pretty strange because the bird is reaching down to\ntake a bite<\/span> mid-flight, but from this angle it looks almost as if he's\ngrabbing his own head. You can see<\/span> it better in the larger version, but\nbecause this is a crop<\/span> from a much<\/span> larger frame, the sharpness is not\nthere.<\/p>\n\n

I did get one nice well-focused shot of a kite<\/span> as it flew close by... here's about the only good uncropped\nshot I got.<\/span>..<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>5000 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 1250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nKyoto Kite<\/span>\nhigher-resolution shot\n<\/div>\n\n

The size of the bird in frame is about the same as in the previous shot,\nbut if you compare the larger versions, the second is much sharper because\nits using the full resolution of the camera sensor, as opposed to the first\nwhich crops most pixels out.<\/p>\n\n

In both cases, though, I was happy<\/span> to have achieved reasonably good\nfocus (of these fast-moving birds with a manual<\/span>-focus telephoto lens) so\nI'll mark today in the win column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've been busy with a project lately (which explains the lack of posts lately), but took the opportunity of having lunch in town with Zak to enjoy the walk from home. Crossing the Kamo River on the Nijo-Street bridge on the way home, I noticed that the mountains were still blustery from a snowfall we had last night, though it was mostly clear and sunny in town.<\/p>

I noticed a lone heron was standing in the water near the bridge, while a big frenzy of birds jostled for bread near some people on a sand bar further up river. Not [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695"}],"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=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}