Happy Saturday. A quick post this morning. The image above was taken with my little point and shoot camera that I always keep in the car. It really doesn’t do justice to what I saw yesterday morning on my way to work. I had an early morning meeting that I was doing the presenting so being a little late was not an option. The sunrise had this amazing shaft of light coming from the top of the rising sun extending far up in the sky. It was very pronounced and an amazing sight to witness.
Unfortunately the poor quality of the lens just does not let me show you what I saw, however as I reasoned in my mind, it was better to stop on the shoulder and grab the image then not having it at all. So this is what I have for you today.
Snowy day in our area today. No flying today (maybe tomorrow), hope I can find some eagles fishing by the river.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful it is going to be slick today. 🙂
Happy Friday! I have wanted to capture this image for weeks. Well maybe not this exact image but I’ve seen these horses inside the barn on really cold mornings looking out and I thought it would make a good image. So this isn’t exactly what I had in mind but it’s close enough to make me happy.
Yesterday was a crappy day weather wise. There was lite snow most of the day and moderate temperatures hovering around 24 degrees when this was taken. You can see it was snowing pretty hard at the time because the snow fall is really prevalent in this image. What you don’t see is the very strong wind that was blowing so hard it was difficult to keep the car on a straight path.
I really feel sorry for animals that have to be exposed to these harsh conditions. I suppose they have adapted to it but I can’t imagine it is comfortable for them by any stretch of the imagination.
I drive by this scene every morning. 99% of the time I’m running too late to stop and take an image. The other 1% of the time the horses are nowhere to be found. So yesterday I grabbed a sandwich and headed out to see if they were in the barn. This is what I ended up with. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Thursday. Back to the archives today for an image I shot on February 22, 2013. I was coming back from Cedar Rapids and have often thought about shooting this scene but never got around to it. It was a cloudy, gray, overcast day and so I stopped on the way back to Maquoketa and shot a few images. I used a 3 shot bracket because of the lighting conditions and I don’t remember now why I didn’t use this image before.
I did give it a bit of an HDR look and some folks don’t like that I know. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t but in this particular case I do.
One thing that makes this day stand out for me is it was the day that my new Nikon D4 arrived. In fact it came about 15 minutes before I needed to leave for my meeting in Cedar Rapids. I just remember how hard it was to leave that box on my desk and get on the road.
Just a quick story about yesterday. I hate to admit it but I haven’t been very good at attending Rotary. My boss asked me if I was going to Rotary and I didn’t have a reason to say no so I rode with him and attended. It felt pretty good to be there. During the meal one of my friends from Rotary and the owner of KMAQ Radio in Maquoketa asked me if there was anything new on my blog. Another friend said, “Yes you should see his ‘drone’.” Well that got everyone’s attention so I gave a brief description of the Phantom flying camera and then one of my other Rotary friends said, “I am responsible for the program next week, how about doing a program on your drone for that meeting?”
What could I say, I love to talk about photography, gizmos, and geeky stuff so I said sure. Now I have to do some flying this weekend and shoot some video and still images so I have something for my presentation. 🙂
I also want to see if the eagles are flying and fishing this weekend.
That’s it for today. It won’t be much longer before there is enough light after 5:00 p.m. for me to start shooting again. I hope you enjoy your day. Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.
I think I got the date right today. Both Monday and Tuesday I had the wrong date on the blog. Just wishful thinking on my part I guess, trying to hurry the week along. 🙂
There is no question about it, I love eagles. I love to watch them, photograph them, and read about them. I went out on my lunch break yesterday to see if I could catch sight of some of the eagles that have been fishing in the Maquoketa River. It was bitterly cold and the wind was blowing fiercely so there was little opportunity to photography anything let alone eagles.
As I sat there in front of my computer last night thinking about what to show you today I reasoned that eagle images are eagle images no matter when they were taken. So these images were taken last year around February near Guttenburg, Iowa. They are still my images taken by me so a little age on them doesn’t hurt anything as long as there is no mold.
The first image is heavily cropped but I like the vibrant colors of the eagle. The image above is not cropped much at all as this juvenile flew over the top of where I was standing on his way to his favorite tree to eat his bounty. It’s fun to watch mature eagles and juveniles together. The juvenile will often miss more fish then they will catch and many times resort to trying to steal the fish of another eagle.
An interesting trait of eagles is that when they catch a fish they will look down at their catch to judge the size. If it is small enough to eat on the fly they prefer to do that because they are assured of a meal. If the fish is big enough like the one in the second photo and this one then they have to protect it until they can get some where to eat it. Then likely as not a juvenile will attempt to steal it from them anyway.
I’m hoping to find some fresh eagles this weekend. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Not much for today. I thought I had lost this 46 second clip of the landing. Of course I also thought I kept the camera running as I landed but I didn’t do that either. Anyway I found the clip in a place it should have never been.
The weather was lousy yesterday (at least in my estimation) for still or video. The wind was up around 25 mph gusting to 30 mph so no flying the Phantom. Overcast day so it is very hard to shoot eagles in that type of condition. I opted to take lessons on video editing instead. There is always so much to learn and I love it.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your Monday and be careful.
I was telling you last week that I had added a new tool to my photography tool box and the image above shows it. It is the DJI Phantom 2 Vision®. A “Flying Camera.” It has an integrated 14.5 mp camera that shoots RAW images and it also shoots 1080p video.
I was not interested in a Remote Controlled (RC) airplane, for a variety of reasons. One I’m not that good with eye / hand coordination. I don’t like looking up at the sky for long periods of time. They are expensive and crash often. What I was interested in and the sole reason for purchasing the Phantom was it is primarily a system to get aerial images without having to get into an airplane. Since I hate flying I really like that.
It is a GPS controlled flying platform with 4 propellers that spin in opposite directions to help stabilize the camera. I have watched about two weeks worth of video instruction about how to fly the Phantom and it is a learning curve like any system but it is very easy to get and keep in the air. Now admittedly I have a total of 3 minutes in the air but I reached an altitude of 106 feet, took some pictures, flew about 100 feet away, returned to my take off point, made a perfect and very soft landing. 🙂
There are a lot of steps to go through to finally get in the air and yesterday was not a good flying day. I didn’t really realize how bad it was until Jeanne and I got to the launch point. The temperature was about 29 degrees with a 20 mph wind. It was colder than a Witch’s heart. But I couldn’t stand it any longer and had to see if I could get it in the air without hurting it, me, or anything else. Jeanne got pretty far away from the launch site but came closer when I landed.
As you look at the controller you can see that I have my iPhone attached to it. The flight controller has a WiFi transmitter (more like a repeater) that picks up the WiFi signal sent by the Phantom and it becomes a network for your iPhone (or Android.) Once connected to the Phantom network, what the Phantom’s camera sees is transmitted (via an App.) back to the iPhone. In other words you fly from a first person point of view (FPV.) Also there are controls on the iPhone App, that let you control the up and down angle of the camera and you control the zoom and angle with the Phantom itself.
What I didn’t take time to do (I just forgot about it) because I was anxious to get the Phantom in the air was to configure the camera. I did that after the flight but that is why the image below looks so bad. It had the lowest resolution setting (which is how it was shipped from the factory.) I didn’t set the video properties up either so the video isn’t very high quality in this clip.
Having said all that it was the most fun I’ve had in 3 minutes that I can remember. Well like I said that I can remember. 🙂 So I took off from the school playground (which is behind our house) and flew it up and over the trees (then switched to the still camera function) took some images (low resolution) of our home and then flew it back to the play ground. Did I mention I made a perfect landing? The video is a little jerky because of the wind and my quick direction changes.
As you watch the video you will also notice that the video shows a 15 degree list to the port side. That is because the Phantom actually is flying West (sideways) into the wind to maintain it’s prescribed position (North) as determined by the 11 satellites that it had locked onto.
There is no question that I have a lot to learn but like anything practice does help as I have found with my normal photography. I’ve still got a long way to go with it but I’ve seen improvement over the years. I just imagine where I can go with this flying camera and the things I can capture images of and I get very excited. I have a list of over a hundred things I was to capture from the air and areas I want to explore. The Phantom has a maximum altitude of 400 feet (although several videos on YouTube® have show flights much higher than that. That is also the FAA’s regulation for UMV flights. It has a range of about 500 feet in length although again there are a lot of videos with people flying them 1,000 feet away from their controller.
One of the cool things about the Phantom is its “Return Home” feature. If the signal is lost or if the battery is too low it will go into the RH mode, fly to an altitude of 60 feet and return to the place (within 3 feet) of where it took off.
Yep, I forgot to add a opening image to this video but if you click on the little > above it will show you about 1:05 minutes of my first flight.The video runs for about 4:00 minutes (a video editing error on my part) so you can just stop it if you don’t want to watch 3 minutes of black screen. 🙂 Okay since I posted this I have figured out how to add an image to the video, shorten it to the actual 1:05 minutes and at about 10:00 a.m. the original lighting should be back. It was easier to get the Phantom into the air then it is to show it here. 🙂
That’s it for today. Hopefully the weather is a little better for flying today. I have a little more confidence now so I’m going to try one of the areas on my list. Hope I have some good video to show you Monday and no sad news about any crashes.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful.
I must have driven past this barn a hundred times over the last few years and never felt compelled to photograph it. Yesterday, however, sitting in the snow against a gray sky it was enough to entice me to pull over and grab a couple of images.
I had to go to one of our Cedar Rapids banks yesterday for a meeting. I always seem to find something of interest to photograph. Yesterday was no exception. On the way back from Cedar Rapids I noticed this large bird sitting in a tree close to the road. My first thought was it must be a juvenile eagle so I slowed down and pulled onto the shoulder. As I stealthy moved up (imagine me being stealthy) it became clear this was a large hawk. He let me get 4 images before he took off.
My new system arrived yesterday. There is a pretty steep learning curve to it and last evening was spent reading material, doing some minor assembly, and charging a series of batteries. It is a complex system but I am hopeful it will add another interesting dimension to my photography tool box. More work on it tonight and then Saturday the first trial (hopefully.)
That’s it for today. Enjoy your Friday, it took its sweet time getting here. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Be careful.
This is the last of the eagle images, at least for the next couple of days. That is of course unless I find some more to shoot between now and the weekend. I’ll be back out amongst them looking for the perfect shot and hopefully the weather will cooperate.
Great day yesterday! A couple of challenges that I’ve been working to resolve came to a close (at least for the short-term) so that felt good. Then when I got home a there was a very thoughtful gift from a very good friend that I totally did not expect and it just made my day. 🙂 Nice when something good and unexpected brightens one’s day. Thank you Brian.
If all goes well in the next few days I’m going to be taking on a new type of photography. This is kind of a teaser but assuming a learning curve and a little luck I will be introducing some new images on the blog that up to this point have been unachievable by me. Is that enough of a teaser or a hook as they say on TV? Anyway more to come as an old friend of mine use to say. Hopefully by next week you’ll see what I’m talking about.
That’s all I have time for today. I hope you enjoy your Thursday. Thanks for checking out the blog and be careful.
Happy Monday! Well as happy as it can be when the only two teams I was rooting for in the playoffs got beat. Kansas City was beaten by the Colts and Green Bay was also defeated by the 49ers. I don’t have much interest now in the remaining games.
I have three completely unrelated images for you today. All of them are from my Saturday photo outing but they have little in common. The image above was shot on the Iowa side of Lock and Dam 10. I was trying to capture some images of eagles fishing near the dam when I heard a noise behind me. This young lady ran past me slugging through the snow and ice. As she was joined by her dog I thought I would capture an image of her running near the river.
This image was taken on the Wisconsin side of the dam. I was frozen solid after shooting images of eagles for two hours and as I was walking back to my car I saw these two fishermen headed to their truck. I don’t think they had much luck because some of the conversation I over heard from others on the ice indicated that the fish were not biting this day.
I felt like both of these images lent themselves to black and white.
Angie brought the kids over Saturday afternoon for a short visit. Gabby was not in the mood to be photographed but Joshua gave me some good poses. One of the many lessons I have taken in photography is about getting close to your subject. In fact Jay Maisel says that when you think you’re close enough get just a little bit closer. I like this serious look from Josh.
That’s it for today. I have more eagle pictures to share with you later this week. Thanks to all who commented about loving eagles and some of my shots. I could watch them for hours. Half the fun, for me anyway, is watching their interaction with each other and the skirmishes they have. It’s all good stuff.
So that’s it for today. Record cold temperatures and wind chills. Stay safe, bundle up and be careful. Thanks as always for stopping by.
Happy Sunday! Fun day yesterday filled with a lot of activity and I even had time for a nap. Is this a great country or what. I had an appointment to get my hair cut and as usual I found a way to delay my departure to the point that if I broke a few speed limit laws I could get there on time. So that is the foundation of my saga on shooting yesterday.
I grabbed my D600 with the Nikon 80 – 400 mm VR lens. What I wanted to take but didn’t have time to get it put together was the D4 and the 500 mm lens. Yes I could have come all the way back to our home got that setup and then back to the river but that would have killed another hour.
So I’ll talk about the camera settings and all my excuses as to why this was a challenging shoot. First of all it was a grey day. Shooting images of eagles against that grey sky was like shooting a subject in front of a bright light source. When I raised the shadows to bring out the details in the feathers the sky went almost pure white. Should have used some exposure compensation but I didn’t think of it at the time. 😦
So I shot most of the 605 images at ISO 1000, 1/2000 of a second @ f8.0. The D600 does not handle noise as well as the D4 but I think the software did a pretty good job of reducing it to acceptable levels. I was totally unprepared for the shot above. This juvenile flew over the top of me as I was just getting out of the car, so I didn’t have a change to get set up properly.
It is difficult to shoot at Lock and Dam 10 because of the high fences and the location of the lock is such that it blocks a good view of the dam where the eagles fish. So I decided to drive over to the Wisconsin side of the river and I did have better results there. This image has almost no cropping to it as he was headed for a tree behind me and was nice enough to get close to my lens.
Even though the temperature was a balmy 29 degrees the wind was blowing with enough intensity that it got very cold after a short amount of time, which also slows down the action of the camera. The D600 only shoots at 5 fps, which is pretty slow for shooting flying birds. Additionally it has a small buffer so you can only rip off about 8 shots and then it has to write to the card, which means no more images until it clears out some of the buffer. The D4 on the other hand shoots at a robust 11 fps and has a huge buffer. I’ve shot as high as 30 – 40 images before it slowed down to write to the card.
This is an interesting image not from a technical stand point but because of the story behind it. This young juvenile had been pestering the mature eagle for some time. I made a lot of shots of them “dinking” with each other on the ice and occasionally in the air. On this occasion the mature eagle suddenly diverted towards the river and made a great catch of a fair-sized fish. I got the blurry image of him getting the prize but they are not worth showing. Anyway the young eagle was left without any food as the older eagle took his catch across the river to the high bluff trees by Eagle Point Park. Maturity has its benefits. 🙂
More to the story yet to come but that’s it for today. Remember you can click on the images to view them in a larger format. I hope you enjoy this day, cold as it’s going to be. Thanks for stopping by. Stay warm and be careful.
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