Clovis' 2025 images

[clovishound]

OK, here's the updated osprey image. I included the B&W version. I think I may like it better. Time will tell. Sometimes I have to let them age a bit before deciding. Just like I probably shouldn't post some images until I have a chance to let them sit around a bit, and discover what I did wrong in editing.

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[Hatchdog]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course but I like the color shot the best. Either way that’s a great capture.

[clovishound]

I often have trouble deciding between the color and the B&W versions of an image. I might change my mind on this one eventually.

[clovishound]

Got a series of wood duck in flight shots. Did I say I got a new camera? I know, I just bought one last year. I've been unhappy with the autofocus on the current camera, especially with moving subjects. I've drooled over the Z8 ever since it came out, but it was just more than I was willing to spend. Well, I got an unexpected large check this week, and just couldn't resist. The autofocus on this camera is a huge step up. I'm still trying to figure out the new control layout, and some of the new features and menu items. It will take a while to get it all down pat. I may need to eventually replace my long lens with one of the newer versions to get full value from the new system, but that can wait, and I can sell some of the current equipment to help pay for it.

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V1!

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Rotate!

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Positive rate, gear up!

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[Hatchdog]

Sounds like photography equipment is a lot like firearms, constantly changing and upgrading.

I don’t know what is finer, the explosion of the Woodie off the water or the explosion of colors in the entire shots. Spectacular indeed!

[clovishound]

Explode is exactly the word I used to describe his flight from the swamp. One split second he was sitting there, the next he's in the air with a huge spray of droplets. I am planning on spending a morning over there trying to get another series of one taking off from the water. The new camera takes 20 frames per second in this mode. The four posted images were sequential. That shows how little time it was between starting and being fully in the air. The camera is capable of taking up to 120 frames per second, depending on the quality selected. If I am able to reliably get a takeoff series, I might try one of the higher speed modes to get a better look at just what happens when one of these guys takes off. Precapture is another interesting feature of this camera. You can set it to buffer what is in the viewfinder, and then when the shutter is pressed, it will save images from the previous 1 second BEFORE the shutter was pressed, until you release the shutter. That will be 30 or 120 frames depending on quality selected.

The Pup and I had scheduled a trip down the the Boneyard Beach for this morning. I left my new camera in the bag, as I didn't want to risk it at the beach, and I wouldn't get any real benefit from it over my older one given a static subject. I think perhaps I should stick to wildlife.

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[clovishound]

Well, I went out for the fourth day in a row. Really wanted to put the new camera through it's paces with birds in flight at Magnolia. There are more birds there nesting now than last week, and many were making trips back and forth to bring nesting material. Here are a few:

It was rather overcast, so ISOs were high, making the images noisy. Topaz cleaned it up, but detail still suffers.

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[CT_Shooter]

Beautiful photos. Thanks.

[rickhem]

Neat pics, and good to see that you're using your new equipment so well already. I have longer learning curves for new stuff that I get.
Love all the color too, everything is brown and grey and white by me still.

[clovishound]

Neat pics, and good to see that you're using your new equipment so well already. I have longer learning curves for new stuff that I get.
Love all the color too, everything is brown and grey and white by me still.

It helps that many, if not most, of the options are identical/similar to what I have been using for a couple years. The biggest difference is that I can use several automatic features with this camera, that gave poor results in my previous cameras. The most notable being autofocus modes. In my old cameras I had to severely limit the autofocus to get results I want. The automatic tracking and focus point decisions made by this camera are mostly spot on. Not a big deal with landscapes, macro, portrait, etc, but this makes a huge difference for a lot of wildlife shooting.

I watched a couple setup videos today, and then went through the menus and did some customization. I was surprised at some of the options available on this camera that I didn't have before. I can set up almost any button on the camera (it has nearly 2 dozen) to a wide variety of controls. It is almost sensory overload going through them the first time, but I choose a small handful of buttons that make sense for me, and programed them for the most useful controls for me. Now I just have to remember which buttons I set, and what they are set to control.

I'm not an equipment snob, but it does help my confidence to have a camera body that is pretty much high end, state of the art. Having said that, the nut on the shutter button is the key component.