My Wanderings

[Loupey]

Things lined up nicely to allow me to go out shooting (with camera) this past Friday evening and all day Saturday. I wanted to capture some migrating birds along with the fall colors - ideally both at the same time - and so I went off in search...

Hiked several miles in many new locations. My standard modus operandi - one lens (except for image #1), one body, one monopod (tripod used for #1), no bag, no food/water, and no set targets. I did wear a camo jacket and had an extra battery in my pocket. But basically stalk and wait, and repeat


A quick edit posted in the order captured:

1) a rock, some water, a few leaves (that baby was tough to stalk )
2) cedar waxwing eating (crabapples?)
3) ruby-crowned kinglet in pine
4) juvie robin eating berries
5) red-bellied woodpecker with pupa of some kind

[Loupey]

A few more:

#6) a sparrow (you know, the kind that stay amazingly camoflaged until you nearly step on them)
#7) early morning white-throated sparrow
#8) early morning white-tailed deer (she didn't see me and grazed to within 25'~30' of me - this image is nearly full-frame)
#9) cedar waxwing with berry
#10) yellow-rumped warbler


The leaves will be mostly gone by this weekend and most of the earlier warbers, vireos, and gold-crowned kinglets were completely absent.


My hips and right shoulder (where I rest my mounted monopod) are quite sore right now. But I attribute that to raking another 27 bags of leaves, mowing, and shooting baskets with my son rather than the hiking


Thanks for looking.

[slayer7124]

Very excellent finds Loupey. I really enjoy the deer and the cedar waxwing with berry. Its amazing what you can find just wondering around.

P.S. What lens did you use for these? Very crisp shots.

[scott-devon]

Very nice shots Loupey. I'm with Dan on the deer shot and the cedar waxwing below it, amazing shots.

[Loupey]

Dan & Scott - thank you both very much for looking and commenting. Dan - all of these (except the water shot) are with the Canon 50D and 500mm f/4 combo. The birds were mostly in the 20' to 25' range. Although, at one point, the kinglet landed perhaps 5' above my head and I had to wait for her to fly away. I had waxwings landing less than 10' away from me at times - although concealed by branches - which was very cool to be that close to such timid birds.

It is a shame about that waxwing/berry shot - it was supposed to be The shot of the weekend. I only got full body opportunities of waxwings two or three times and that one was against a great background. But they down the berries so fast and this one was bouncing around on a thin branch that I missed this shot.

Here's a one-after-another shot comparison. Literally 1 frame apart (#5173 and #5174) at high speed burst (6.3 fps). So close but now I can't do anything with #5173

[Loupey]

Here's another missed shot.

The focus was on the fawn but the position and lighting on the doe throws the entire shot off.

The scene was much darker than it appears here. 500mm, ISO 3200, f/4, 1/180s.

[slayer7124]

Pumping that ISO up, huh? Still a good shot. If I do 400 or higher I get dead pixels everywhere, even in daytime, really annoying.

[Knight]

Very nice series Loupey , are you really done with your leafs ? i think we might be able to finish with them this weekend

[paulnj]

your unknown sparrow is a song sparrow..... you disappoint me my friend

Great images though........