Wildflowers are out

 

Every spring I say to myself, there is no need to publish more photos of the wildflowers that we can find in the woods behind the house. I have done it many times before. But then, after four or five months with snow on the ground, it is tempting to go out and make some clicks of the little beauties between the dry leaves on the ground. I have to admit it is a great exercise for learning about light, background, and depth of field. Returning to a subject over and over again makes you a better photographer and there is nothing wrong with that.

Finally I was happy about that we used the wonderful weather last Saturday to spent time outside and enjoy the first wildflowers. The Sunday came with rain nonstop and this morning there was even some snow. I knew it was a mistake to hang the winter coat already in the closet... ;-)

Nature clicks #190 - Mourning Dove

 

My job kept me at the desk almost the whole week but I couldn’t resist to grab the camera and make this photo out of the window in my home office. This Mourning Dove enjoyed a few warm rays of the sun on a branch across the yard at the edge of our timber. This is as close as I can get without cropping the heck out of the photo, something I try more and more to refrain from in my wildlife photography. This one is nevertheless slightly cropped in order to make the borders a little less busy.

Why will this photo not make it into my galleries, even if it is sharp and the light is really lovely? Well, it is the background that sucks. It is way too busy. You may also notice that a branch comes right out of the bird’s head. Shooting from a window does not leave much room for a different position. It is the hint of warm light in combination with the cold snow in the background that tells a story about survival in the winter here in Iowa. It is the visual story telling that I saw in this scene and that made me grab the camera and make the click. If this would be a bird I have never photographed before, I would probably introduce it in my Iowa wildlife gallery. But we have the Mourning Doves here all the time and the picture that will replace the existing one has to be better in any way.

Warning: test shots only ;-)

 

The avid reader of my blog may ask why I post a picture today that is way below my usual quality standards, except for the light, which I think is good. As you can see the photo has an awful distracting background, branches hanging all over the place, and the bird is placed almost dead center. Well, there wasn't actually a plan to post an image today but here is why you have to put up with this.

My Sigma 50-500 / 4.5-6.3 APO EX DG HSM lens came back from a necessary repair job today and I wanted to test it while there was still a little bit light outside. In order to test the focus accuracy of the lens I shot about 200 pictures, mostly static stuff (our satellite dish in the yard is a perfect subject for test shots ;-)  ).

Back in the house I suddenly saw a flock of American Robins foraging in our woods. They literally turned every leaf on the ground upside down. This confirms an observation we made several times already during the last few years, the robins don't migrate very far south in the winter. It is cold here but most of the snow has melted over the weekend. Obviously this is enough for the American Robin to move back into the area here. However, it felt a little like spring already and I enjoyed watching them.

As I mentioned the light quality wasn't bad and I set up the tripod in my "bedroom blind" and made some more test shots with the birds as the subject. For the sake of comparison I used the center AF sensor of the D300s only. And this is why the bird sits almost dead center in the frame. I cropped the image slightly on the left and bottom side to make it a little more pleasing. The photo was made at 500 mm, 1/125 sec, f8, -0.5EV, and ISO 800. I usually don't use such a high ISO setting for my wildlife photography but pushing the limits, while making test shots, is a good way to find out where the limits really are in order to be prepared for a future "ones in a lifetime" click. Stay tuned for better stuff to come ;-)...