Seeing a storm during a sunset is a rare event. As I was driving from a nearby park home with the family, I saw a small rainbow on one side of the sky:
And the below image just a couple of minutes later on the other side:
Red-Winged Blackbird
Apr
22
2010
Red-Winged Blackbirds are very common in Colorado. They are permanent residents in most local parks, including Cherry Creek State Park, where I captured one of them while it was singing to attract a female. Spring is a great time for birds in Colorado, except when it gets very cold. It snowed today in Denver and the temperatures dropped below 40F, which is not abnormal for Colorado in April :)
Red-Winged Blackbird
Hoping for a sunny day next week, so that I can get out and do some spring birding!
Captured with Nikon D3s and Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S + 1.4x TC.
Dead Horse Point Panorama
Apr
17
2010
Here is the promised panoramic version of the Dead Horse Point at sunrise. The full version is comprised of 8 vertical images, measuring approximately 32 megapixels with an aspect ratio of 2:1.
All 8 shots were taken in Manual mode at f/8 and 1/10th of a second, ISO 200. Whenever you shoot panoramic images, always remember to switch to full manual mode to get identical exposure. You do not want your shutter speed or your aperture to change when you move from one point to another and shooting in manual will always yield consistent results for stitching software. Do not forget to disable Auto ISO as well – you want to keep your ISO at the lowest value for the best image quality. I will explain all of the above in a detailed “howto” that I’m currently working on.
Birding with Nikon D3s
Mar
24
2010
I took Omar and Ozzy on a quick road trip today for some nearby birding at Barr Lake State Park after work. On the way to the park, I spotted this Ferruginous Hawk on a pole and took a picture of it:
The focus was dead on and all sequential images came out tack sharp, as expected.
As we arrived to the park right at sunset, we found a deer, along with a killdeer roaming around the park :)
Bald Eagle
Jan
17
2010
Captured this guy a couple of days ago on the way to Barr Lake State Park:
I was told that there is a big number of bald eagles near Barr Lake this year. I’m planning to drive there this weekend and take a long hike, with the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR lens.
Cooper’s Hawk
Jun
28
2008
As you can probably tell, I used flash to illuminate the bird:
Cherry Creek State Park, CO. Shot with Nikon D300, 300mm f/4 AF-S
Another sunset picture
Jun
28
2008
By 1 Comment
I took this one today:
I always shoot with white balance set to “auto” because I shoot RAW. This photo was changed to “tungsten” in Photoshop and produced a very interesting result – the lake was changed to dark blue and the sun colors stayed intact. By the way, the dark black area in the middle is the Cherry Creek Reservoir dam.
A suggestion to DSLR newbies – never shoot directly at the sun like above. First, you could get blind or get your eyes damaged (don’t forget Galileo). Second, you could damage the sensor of your DSLR very easily. If you still want to do it, stop down your lens (I shot the above at f/16 and f/22) and shoot in live view mode with a tripod. If you do not have live view, point at the location you want to shoot without looking into the viewfinder and make a couple of shots. If you missed it, you will see the result in your LCD right away – just keep on trying. Your eyes are more important than a stupid picture!
Northern Bobwhite
Jun
15
2008
The Northern Bobwhite is marked as “Extirpated” in the Barr Lake official bird list. Don’t know if I should report this rare bird encounter, but this one was walking around by the visitor’s center. The bird is also classified “Near Threatened” species.
Great Horned Owl Chick
Apr
28
2008
Great Horned Owl Chick:
Captured at Cherry Creek State Park, CO with the Nikon D300 and Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 lens and 1.4x TC.
