Random Photos

[Andy Resnick]

More experimental photography, this time some magic with the Helios 44 lens (58mm, f/2, M42)...

(I notify @Andy Resnick since you said you were interested in this before. I don't know if you can mount M42 lenses with your gear, though).

All in all, it was very fun to shoot with the lens modified like this.

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[DennisN]

Animal time!
I was on my way home and stumbled over not one, but two unexpected surprises.
In the park I spotted a large bird I had never seen before, and thankfully I had my camera with me.

The very cool-looking (in my opinion) heron:

"Hunchback style":

The sharpest shot I got was this:
(though the bird was a bit in the shade here. I told it to move, but it didn't listen to me!)

And later I got lucky again! I very seldom see butterflies here, but when I was shooting some flowers a beautiful butterfly suddenly came by and landed on one of the flowers in front of me. It was far easier to shoot than bees, as this butterfly stayed on the flower for ca 30 seconds or more.

Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta):

Spreading its wings on the flower:

A little more "3D" here:

Fuelling is done. Ready to takeoff:

And last, a photo which isn't that sharp, but I thought it was cool that the eye of the butterfly can be seen here:

 

[pinball1970]

That does look like a heron. Where is @Astranut when you need him? (He is a twitcher)
The colours in the Butterfly images are stunning @DennisN

 

[DennisN]

The colours in the Butterfly images are stunning @DennisN

Thanks! Well, actually I can't take credit for the colors. The credit goes to Mother Nature and Japanese optical engineering (Canon).

 

[pinball1970]

Thanks! Well, actually I can't take credit for the colors. The credit goes to Mother Nature and Japanese optical engineering (Canon).

The next door neighbor had carp in a pond which attracted a heron. Quite a site, a large and rather majestic bird and not one you get in your garden.
He covered the pond with mesh and I was really disappointed when it stopped visiting.
I googled and all the Heron images have longer necks but your neck of the woods may be different.
The colours and body look heron like. Great pics though. Ornithology was my baby steps towards Science, I still have great affection for birds.

 

[Oldman too]

That does look like a heron.

Yes, that would be a blue Heron, they are very common here in Montuna (misspelling is intentional). While in flight the neck is stretched considerably compared to when resting, (This isn't my image, just a convenient screen shot).

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Yes, that would be a blue Heron, they are very common here in Montuna (misspelling is intentional). While in flight the neck is stretched considerably compared to when resting,

Looks more like a grey heron, common here in the UK.

 

[Oldman too]

Looks more like a grey heron, common here in the UK.

Hello @Jonathan Scott, its good to hear from you again. I hope all is well with you and the family.
I had no idea that these birds also lived in Europe until seeing @DennisN posting the photos, guess I hadn't even thought about it. I'm used to them being referred to as "blue herons", the concept of grey herons was new to me, so checking into it, this is what I discovered. When I pulled up the picture that I posted, I used the phrase, "blue heron in flight image". After reading your reply, I repeated that again but substituted grey in place of blue. These are the results.
https://www.shutterstock.com/search/blue-heron-in-flight?
https://www.shutterstock.com/search/grey-heron-in-flight?
It looks like I've gotten hung up on semantics. Obviously, by the images that come up, we're both talking about the same bird, just different labels. Its easy to see where grey and blue are both quality's involved.
Take care, Scott

 

[DennisN]

(This isn't my image, just a convenient screen shot)

That's a lovely photo, by the way.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Obviously, by the images that come up, we're both talking about the same bird, just different labels.

Not quite; the blue and grey are slightly different. In the UK (and Europe in general) we have the grey heron. In the same general family, we also have little egrets and occasional great egrets, especially in recent years. Here's a crop from a lucky (although distant) photo I took at Radipole Lake, Weymouth, a few years ago, which shows a grey heron, great egret and little egret:

I currently have a Lumix TZ200 (Travel Zoom) compact camera (called ZS200 in the USA) which is very convenient to take everywhere with me, with excellent optical zoom and a reasonable electronic viewfinder. The above picture was taken with an earlier Lumix TZ8, which was mostly good but had an autofocus mechanism that often seemed to deliberately avoid the intended subject, especially at close range, even when macro was enabled. I take photos of birds, butterflies and any other form of wildlife for later identification, and flowers mostly because I like the pretty colours!

 

[morrobay]

Ducks in Central Park . And I miss New York.

<

 

[morrobay]

Chelsea @ 20th&8th Avenue

 

[Oldman too]

Not quite; the blue and grey are slightly different.

Thanks for that perspective, I should have known better than going off only similar characteristics. I wonder how much genetic difference has evolved between the European vs. North American herons?

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Sometimes I meet very strange animals in my back garden:

As you can see, it's obviously an alien rabbit. Or is it?

After some research, I found that it's an Oak Eggar moth.

 

[berkeman]

Sometimes I meet very strange animals in my back garden:

Looks like you and morro have the same autofocus camera...

 

[morrobay]

Looks like you and morro have the same autofocus camera...

The images in posts #701,2 are photos taken with a phone of film camera photos. And getting the frame of the original photo to correspond with the frame in the phone photo was a tradeoff with focus.

 

[Oldman too]

I call this one, Smoke on the water.

This one, the opposite side of the hill in the first image is taken from my daughters yard. I call it, A fire in the sky.

 

[morrobay]

Meanwhile back at the ranch.

 

[Rive]

Lady

Mudlarking

Ps.: lesson: never leave your gear at home - otherwise all you will have for a good theme is just your phone

 

[Astranut]

That does look like a heron. Where is @Astranut when you need him? (He is a twitcher)
The colours in the Butterfly images are stunning @DennisN

Sorry late to the party. I concur Grey Heron. Grey Herons are a resident species with in Europe. Where as Blue Herons are a rare visitor for America.

 

[morrobay]

Gulf of Thailand

 

[morrobay]

Yaowarat Rd. the main street in Bangkok Chinatown. Quite a polarized population here: The wealthy educated Chinese Thais centered in Bangkok: doctors ... And then the upcountry Lao Thais in the farming populations.

 

[yecko]

The view outside my office in Hong Kong : )

 

[morrobay]

Looks like it would be quite a chore getting down to the water

 

[pinball1970]

View attachment 305485The view outside my office in Hong Kong : )

Beautiful.

 

[DennisN]

I revisited the heron, and this time I brought my zoom lens.

I kept a watch on it/followed it for about 30 minutes or so, and I found it fascinating to study the behavior a little more closely. I can imagine they are excellent hunters; it seemed to be absolutely hyperfocused during hunting, and it moved VERY slowly, methodically and gracefully even though it's a quite big bird. It feeds on "Fish, amphibians, small mammals, and insects [] taken in shallow water" according to Wikipedia.

Taking a stroll in the pond (and showing one of its cool-looking "dinosaur" feet):

Spreading the wings:

Walking upright:

Eventually I got quite close to it (ca 3 meters), and it didn't seem to mind me being there (though I was very calm in my approach).

Hyperfocused and hypercalm during hunting:

 

[Arjan82]

Stranded...

So, this is intentional, it is on a Dutch part of the sea called 'Waddenzee' which, on low tides falls dry entirely. On high tide we just sailed away

 

[berkeman]

I can imagine they are excellent hunters; it seemed to be absolutely hyperfocused during hunting, and it moved VERY slowly, methodically and gracefully

Much like you with your camera stalking the bird...

 

[morrobay]

Hong Kong. Oppo A12 phone photo of film camera print

 

[morrobay]

Kaohsiung, Taiwan