Trip to Nebraska (Part 1 of 3)
I grew up in Nebraska. The primary goals of this trip were to
- Visit family (not shown here).
- Photograph birds and other nature stuff.
- Photograph various other things that happen along, while I'm there.
My mother and sister live next to a highway, and between their building and the highway is a very narrow strip of overgrowth that has a lot of nature stuff in it. My mom also has a bird feeder that attracts birds and other nature stuff.
They also have balconies (of sorts) that allow me to gain an elevated vantage point, perfect for photographing birds.
Equipment:
- Leica SL3 camera
- Several Leica APO-prime lenses for family and other stuff
- Sigma 500mm f/5.6 DG DN OS Sports (Leica L) lens for birds
Figure 1. Hoop dancer at San Diego airport. Leica 50mm APO-Summicron-SL (f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO-100).
Before I even left San Diego, I took some early morning shots of a hoop dancer at San Diego's airport. You might think it odd that someone would go to the airport and hoop dance while travelers sat and watched, but that's just what happens in San Diego. It's fine.
Little did anyone know at the time while I was shooting this, the No. 2 engine of the Boeing 737 that I was about to board was spewing hydraulic fluid all over everywhere. The leak was caught before the plane took off, causing everyone to de-plane and find alternate routes of transportation. It was the first of series of unrelated/unexpected delays and detours. I eventually made it to Nebraska in the wee hours of the next morning, but only after spending the whole day and evening in several airports and airplanes.
I left my telephoto zoom lens behind (bags were already full) and just stuck with the 500mm prime for telephoto use. It was the right decision. I now love that Sigma 500 mm prime lens.
The first couple of days were extremely hot and humid, at about 100 deg F (38 deg C) and 100% relative humidity (all the humidity), fairly typical for Nebraska at this time of year.
It was so hot and humid that merely walking out of the (air conditioned) house would cause my lenses to immediately fog up and start dripping with condensation: similar to normally how an ice-cold beer or soda condensates when taking it out of the cooler. Except my lenses weren't in a cooler; they were merely at room temperature.
Figure 2. Moth and house fly on my sister's balcony, after waiting for my lens to warm up and de-fog. Sigma 500 mm (f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO-320). I don't know the particular species of moth or housefly.
There's lots of bugs in Nebraska. Lots and lots. Fun fact: before the Nebraska Cornhuskers were called that, they were called the Nebraska Bugeaters (as in "bug eaters"). I'm not making that up. You can fact check it.
The strategy for bird shooting was to place my camera in manual exposure mode with auto-ISO, put the aperture at wide-open (f/5.6 in this case), and adjust the shutter speed from around 1/1000 to 1/4000 sec, depending on the speediness/figityness of the subject. Autofocus mode was set on contiuous (AFc), with focus tracking set on Animals (this "animals" focus tracking mode is something you can now do with modern, mirrorless cameras). Then, I might adjust the exposure compensation (affecting the auto-ISO) depending on the contrast of the scene.
I've found it extremely common that I have to set my exposure compensation to -1/3 stop to -2 stops to avoid blowing highlights. It could be due to the extremely sharp lenses that I use, although I'm not 100% sure. It's just something I get used to now.
Figure 3. Bird on top of a pine tree. According to my bird app, it's some type of wren, probably a House Wren (troglodytes aedon), Brown-throated. Same Sigma 500 mm lens (f/5.6, 1/3200 sec, ISO-3200).
Figure 4. Two birds on a twig. I'm guessing the birds (relying on the bird app) are both House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), both male. Sigma 500mm (f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO-6400).
Figure 5. One of two birds leaving the twig. Once again, these look to both be male sparrows. I'm not sure if they are the same sparrows shown in Fig. 4., but they might be. (f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO-6400.)
Figure 6. Back to the wren on the pine tree. This little bird loves to get up there and chirp it's little heart out. (f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO-400.)
(All photos in this post were touched up, at least a little, in Lightroom.)
To be continued. ...
: