Joe's Photos

A busy week in Joe's back yard, what with the baby owl dropping out of the nest and the red fox kit stopping by every night at 5:30 for supper tidbits.
For you photographers out there, the owl was shot with a Nikon D3 with a AF 105mm f2.8 macro lens. Setting were 1/250 @ f8.0, ISO 2200.
The fox kit was shot from a blind using the "trap-focus" method (and his favorite food on the outcrop).

The trap focus method allows you to set up your equipment and walk away and check back, in this case about 45 minutes to review the captures.

The procedure is this. Open the MENU, CUSTOM SETTING MENU, AUTOFOCUS, AF-C PRIORITY, ans select FOCUS ONLY.

Next, open CUSTOM SETTING MENU, AUTOFOCUS, AUTOFOCUS ON BUTTON, several options--choose AF-ON.(to focus now, you use your right thumb on the AF-ON button. This disables the focusing capability of the shutter release button.

Attach the electronic remote shutter release (10-pin connector) for the D3.

Position the camera/tripod so that the subject will fill the frame and create good composition. Position one of the focus/meter blocks in the view finder where the subject's eye would be. In this case I selected a focus block in the bottom row of the view finder, and placing it on the outcrop (same distance as the hidden food), I hit the AF-ON button. Without moving the camera, I moved the active focus block in the view finder to the eye level of the fox. I set the continuous drive to low and selected one second intervals...higher speeds are noisy and frighten the animals while one per second makes them curious.

With the camera turned on and focused at a point in space, I activated the remote trigger and waited for something to not only be "right down the gun barrel" but to be in perfect focus.

EQUIPMENT: NIKON D3, AF 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter, tripod with ball head and quick release, Pocket Wizard transceiver and 10-pin connector cable, and blind. Exposure was 1/250 @f5.6, ISO 2200. No flash.

Our backyard twin visitors.

White counter tops are "before", the dark counter tops are "after".

thanks to daughter anne, i'm learning about blogging. pictures are better than my blogging expertice. Sunset on the skyline drive

Baby screech owl one day before fledging. Shot at my neighbor's house. Arrived at his house at 0700 and waited over two hours for him/her to show.

Originally posted on 5/8/07 on my other blog:



Mutton Bustin'

Yellow-crowned night heron shot after sunset at Chincoteague, VA. It is feeding on crab, its favorite food. I think best animal photos are taken at the animal's eye level or lower. I took this while laying on my stomach on the boardwalk which winds through the marsh.

Wow! 145 of these to make a pound.

This is a pallas cat native to the high deserts of Asia. I was not in Asia nor was I above 12000 feet to make this image. It was taken on a beautiful afternoon in October at the Columbus, Ohio Zoo.

Bathing female cardinal

This is what happens when the camera slips on the tripod during an exposure. Some mistakes turn out all right.

I gave my grandson the remote and put him in front of my camera. This is one of about 140 images he took.