Circle of Life

My wildlife photos are lame. They're usually of dead stuff, like this bird. I don't know what the bird is but I found it next to the shore of a creek that runs from a warm springs in the West Desert, about an hour out from Salt Lake City. I assume there's a lot of wildlife here because of the water - especially since it's warm water and it's pretty cold right now. Anyway, something got this bird. It's the way of the world.

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Here are a few more of Horseshoe Springs, where I saw the dead bird. It's a very neat place. This was my second visit. The first time was before it snowed and I didn't realize it was a warm springs, then. It was pretty clear on this visit since everything else was frozen and there's steam coming off the water. I felt it and it was probably about 80 degrees.

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Here's a photo from a few weeks ago, before it got really cold and snowy.

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This photo was taken with the Nikon 1 AW1 and all the previous photos were taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1.

Wonderful snowy landscapes

I love finds like your first image, not to photograph, but to use as bait. It won't take long before any of a number of birds or critters will come along to enjoy a cheap feast! I am surprised by the last two images. Being AW, I was expecting the Nikon to display poorer clarity, yet it gave what looks to me to be a significantly better image than the Olympus did on essentially the same scene. I realize there is a couple week lag between the shots taken, but it seem the Nikon did a fine job. Would love to see you do a side-by-side comparison between it and the TG-2!

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Originally Posted by ksbryan0

Being AW, I was expecting the Nikon to display poorer clarity, yet it gave what looks to me to be a significantly better image than the Olympus did on essentially the same scene. I realize there is a couple week lag between the shots taken, but it seem the Nikon did a fine job. Would love to see you do a side-by-side comparison between it and the TG-2!

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Blame it on the nasty inversion, not the Olympus's image quality. The Olympus is definitely better. The Nikon AW1 is surprisingly good, though. I haven't been able to do studio tests yet because I gave the camera to a pro ski photographer to play with. But I should be able to get them done next week and I will definitely be comparing it to the TG-2 since I think that is the obvious competition.

I didn't think about the bird as bait. Again - I'm not much of a wildlife photographer. Also, there were two kids with shotguns and a puppy running around so it wasn't likely any critters would show. I will remember that for the future, though. I think Horseshoe Springs might be a good place for me to "get my feet wet" with some more serious wildlife photography. Thanks for the tip :)

Wonderful snowy landscapes