Getting Close to Wildlife

I got a new toy this week. It's my inspiration to update the blog. I've had my Nikon 300mm F4 AF-S for a bit more than a month. It still doesn't have the reach that I need for wildlife photography. I used a few of the dollars from a recent publication to add a bit more length to my arsenal. I bought the 1.4X TelePlus 300 Pro teleconverter from Kenko. It isn't Nikon but my testing indicates that it will do the job. And, it is only half the price of the Nikon TC14E II teleconverter. The first few pictures are quite satisfactory.

Vultures are in no shortage around the lake. These guys are basking in early morning sun after a feast on dead, rotting fish. This is one of my first photos with the new setup. I was reasonably close but the lens pulled them in tight. In 35mm equivalency, the 300mm F4 AFS lens with 1.4 teleconverter is approximately a 620mm F5.6 (still autofocus) lens. That is due to a "crop factor" in cameras with sensors less than the 24x36 measurements of 35mm film. Sensors on digital cameras less than about $5,000 are much smaller.

I was impressed with the speed of the autofocus, especally with the cheaper Kenko converter mounted between the lens and the camera. The vultures were brightly lit, however. The brighter the better for autofocus.

Focus is one thing. Depth is another. When photographing anything alive, sharp eye-focus is a must. I noticed while shooting my buddy "Bruce" the blue heron that unless I was very careful I would have sharp eyes and soft feet and legs. Or, from some angles, one eye sharp and the other less so. On the other hand, that lack of depth certainly separates Bruce from the background. It gives the image a lot of "pop."

The image on the left is part of the same Bruce series. It came out a bit softer, partly due to the warm, wrap-around backlight from a setting sun. I like the rim light effect on his neck and beak. Looking closely at the legs you may notice a bit of softness in the focus. I think that is due to a lack of depth but can't be sure. The eye is just a bit soft also.

Another important point with the long lens setup ... I can NOT hand-hold this lens. I was using a monopod.

The focus tracking is fast. The Nikon 300 AF offers an override focus capability. Even in autofocus, I can manually adjust the focus, overriding the autofocus. This allows me to move the subject out of the autofocus area and still maintain focus. I used that feature in this picture of a green backed heron running back and forth under the neighbors pier. He stopped long enough for me to move him off-center for this exposure.

You still have to get close to the creatures. All these images are cropped. This image of a smaller bird on phone lines is VERY cropped. It is also a bit under exposed from looking directly into the light source. I wanted to display it because of the sharpness in difficult conditions. I probably used only twenty percent of the image and the whiskers are still quite sharp. This setup works. I think I'll spend many hours playing with it. The Kenko is a Keeper. :-)

As always, click the image for a larger view.

l8r

Writing

Writing seems to have always been the activity that has given me most pleasure. I have worked as a journalist, a technical writer, and a want-to-be novelist. My lack of self-discipline and infrangible laziness have kept me from any semblance of success. I actually got well into the development of a novel on my experience in Vietnam. It died with an unbackedup hard drive. :-(
Much of a writer's writing comes from the writer's reading -- read to write. I am also not a good reader. Again, that probably has a lot to do with my lack of discipline and laziness. I'm easily distracted and frequently leave projects in various stages of incompleteness. My Vietnam project is no exception. I poured my heart into those few chapters of memories. Their loss broke my spirit. And, of course, I had no backup or even an outline. I have never been able to outline. Even in writing classes, I would quickly sketch the required outline from a completed piece of writing. :-)
As I put thoughts and memories on paper, I began to research (read about) the war in Vietnam. I read several great books on the war. The Cat from Hue, by John Laurence is one that held my interest to its completion. John Laurence was a CBS war correspondent. Reading his book was like living the event again. I loved it. His thoughts were my thoughts. His opinions, mine. The above link is to a NY Times review of Laurence's book. The following paragraph is an excerpt from the review.

Excerpt:
When Laurence arrived in Vietnam, he believed the cause honorable and its success certain. After all, the United States had never lost a war. The 25-year-old reporter spent 22 months in the country, spread over more than four years, and the neophyte transformed into a soldier of sorts. When he returned in 1970, in time for the assault against the North Vietnamese command structure in Cambodia, he realized the war was hopeless, that South Vietnam was swollen with corrupt military and political leaders, and yet Richard Nixon proclaimed a determination to win. When he announced the invasion of Cambodia in 1970, Nixon declared, ''The time has come for action!'' And Laurence thought, ''As if five years of bombing and killing Vietnamese has been inaction.''
By this time, Laurence found the killing beyond reason. ''And for what? For pride! For the egos and vanity,'' he writes, of Washington politicians and pundit generals. How can you maintain objectivity in such a climate, he asked a fellow correspondent, who insisted that if you opposed the war, you lost your objectivity. As if accepting the war salvaged your objectivity.

The current action in Iraq is reminiscent of those times. Only the names have changed. I suppose to protect the guilty? Or, confuse the innocent?
Retirement and lack of physical activity have me again dredging my failing mind for memories of those absolutely brilliant words that crashed with that hard drive. It is amazing how much better we remember being than we actually were. :-)
l8r

Monument Valley

Our fun ended suddenly in Monument Valley. We parked the RV at the historic Goulding Trading Post and RV Park and went for an afternoon drive to Mexican Hat. We picked up a Navajo hitch hiker and learned a lot about the area on our way to his house near Mexican Hat. Most of the rock formations in the valley are visible from the highway, US163. Rudy, our new Navajo friend, pointed out many of the formations and told us a bit about each. And, even he was excited when pointing out to us the place that Forrest Gump ended his long-distance run. :-)

After stopping for drinks in Mexican Hat and a sunset, self-guided tour through the Navajo Nation Monument Valley Tribal Park, we returned to find messages from my doctor. Results from the stress test I had taken before leaving were not perfect. It was late. He left his home number and that scared the crap out of Jane. She was sure it was bad news.

Since it was too late to return the call and poor connection on the cell phone, we waited until morning to contact the doctor. At least Jane did. I made a dawn return to Monument Valley. Jane called my (our) doctor and got the results. It was bad news. He said that if we chose to continue the trip that I should take it VERY easy. We made plans to continue the trip with no hiking and drive-by only photography. But, the next morning we decided it would be best to get this fixed. I'll be seeing the specialist next week for a procedure to improve blood flow. However, I did get the pictures I wanted before we departed. They are very cliche, but they are my cliche. :-) It was disappointing to walk into a gift shop and see post cards of all the photos I just took. LOL

Here's the cliche stuff:

This image is a Hogan. Hogans are typical Navajo dwellings. These are at the Tribal Park Visitor Centor. They are used for hogan life demonstrations for tourist. They are predominant however, throughout the Navajo Nation Reservation. I think that every house or mobile home within the reservation has a hogan beside it. I think they are religious as well as cultural. I know that the door always faces eastward to allow access for the spirits.

The image on the right was taken when Jane and I made our afternoon self-guided tour through the Tribal Park. It rained on us, leaving the dark clouds over a beautifully lit formation with the rainbow as a bonus. I have several of these, each of a different rock.

I nearly overslept the next morning. The sun was up before I made it to the park. This silhouette was taken from the parking lot of the Goulding Grocery Store. I had to stop twice more for "once in a lifetime" images; all available on postcards, of course. :-(

By the way, the lens flare was intentional -- the perfect touch to my "once in a lifetime" image. :-)

Most of the flare is illiminated from this silhouette, the one to the right. There is enough however, to separate the main subject from the harder foreground silhouette, a real-life hogan between the subject and my position. I think this may be my least cliche image in the set.

On this silhouette to the left, I used a slightly different flare technique to get the star effect of the sun peeking around the large butte. It worked but isn't as effective as it would have been on a smaller object. The large butte overwhelms the small fingers of the star. :-(

And finally, I was so excited to find the image of the dead tree to enhance this Monument Valley image in the soft, red morning light. You guessed it. It's on a postcard in the Goulding Gift Shop. :-)

As usual, you can see an enlarged image by clicking on the thumbnail.

For the family ... we're camped in Amarillo tonight. We'll be home Sunday and I will talk to the specialist on Monday or Tuesday. My family doctor said I would probably remain overnight after the procedure.

More...

l8r

Traveling West

We left home on August 28, headed for Utah and a tour of five of their National Parks. We're a week into the trip and have not yet made it to Utah. Actually, we're a little bit into Utah. We're camped at the historic Goulding Trading Post RV Park in Monument Valley. It is just across the Utah line but we are here to tour the part of Monument Valley that is in the Navajo Nation Monument Valley Tribal Park, which is in Arizona.
On the way here we spent three days at Canyon de Chelly National Monument which is also within the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona. These Navajo dudes have a huge reservation. The Navajo ranch and farm the land in the canyon, sharing it with the spirits of Anasazi. The Anasazi cliff dwellings still remain hidden in the shade of outcroppings and caves. The entire region is rich in western history going back more than a thousand years -- and some absolutely breath-taking Kodak Moments.

Our first point of interest in Arizona was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks. We spent two nights in Holbrook, AZ, a few miles west of the parks. At each of our stops, I try to allow for a photo shoot in morning light and another in evening light. Arizona has some stunning sunsets and the subject matter makes bad pictures difficult. Arizona also has some time problems. They refuse to adhere to daylight savings time. The parks don't open until seven their time (Mountain Standard) and close at seven in the evening. I missed two hours of morning light because of their hard-headedness.

The Navajo are even more hard-headed -- maybe. Even though most of the reservation is in Arizona, the Dineh (Navajo people) chose to use daylight savings time on the reservation, presumably to spite the Arizona State Government. :-) As you see, time gets to be an issue.

Our first night on the road was spent in the Lamesa City Park. Lamesa offers free camping with water and electric. What a deal. Jane is adamant about keeping the camping costs very low. She shoots for an unheard of Ten-Bucks-a-Night. Good thing we have a generator for those times when we just pull into a roadside park. :-) Anyway, Lamesa was a pleasant surprise and has been added to the memory bank.

Having the generator was a life saver coming through New Mexico. Towns along our preferred back roads are WAY scarce. Fuel is even more scarce. We seemed to have left civilization in another time when we followed US60 out of Socorro up to Magdalena, where we spent a night. Between Magdalena and the Arizona border is desolate. I never saw so many towns with NO gas station. Thanks to the generator, I keep a five-gallon can of gas in the bed of the truck. I had to use that five gallons to get us across the mountains to Springerville, AZ. That five-gallon can is now a necessity. :-)

I'm having a blast and wake up excited every morning, ready to watch the sun spread light over another refreshing day of excitement and adventure. I'll post a few pics below. I've taken hundreds. These are just a few of my favorites.

Painted Desert

Storm Approaching

Painted Desert Sunset

Petrified Logs in Crystal Forest

Petrified Forest National Park

Twisted Juniper Tree in Evening Light

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle AZ

Cliff Dwelling in Morning Light

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Having a problem remembering how to use the blog editor. Posting pictures is especially a pain. I'll try later when I'm more interested in what I'm doing. :-)

l8r