Sunday, August 27, 2006
Butterfly Beach Sunset

It was a nice sunset this evening. No clouds, but still a nice glow in the sky.

Thursday, August 24, 2006
Sunset Exercise

I went to the doctor and, big surprise, I have to eat healthier and get more exercise! (should have seen that comin') On the plus side, walking is his recommended way to do that. And I figure, if you're gonna walk, you might as well do it someplace nice!

This is Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara. It is one of the less traveled beaches around here. It is not in an area that you would normally stumble on. And it is our favorite beach. So after making one good pedometer out of two broken ones, we had a nice sunset walk. Oh, I mean... we went out and got some exercise!

Monday, August 14, 2006
Sleepy Hummer

Well I did not get my hummingbird feeder this weekend, but at least I got the hummingbird! :-D

Sunday, July 30, 2006
Oriole Eating Seeds

Well, at least I think it's an Oriole. She's beautiful whatever she is. She was flittering from bush to bush looking for seeds. There was actually quite a breeze and she was swinging wildly on this small branch.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Tomato Worm Assassin

This is how we take care of tomato worms around here!

We really like birds in our yard anyway and it appears these guys really like tomato worms. We try to encourage them as much as possible.

Thursday, May 11, 2006
Santa Barbara Beach Bums

We have not been seeing the sun much lately. But, it is a beautiful day when we do!

Sunday, May 7, 2006
Costa's Hummingbird

I like this shadow of this guy on the feeder, nice profile!

Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Lil Brown Bird

I like these guys, they are quite comical.

They are not native to the United States, they are actually from Europe and Africa. But they seem to thrive anywhere by mooching off of gullible humans who like them and think they are quite comical.

Friday, March 3, 2006
Crazy Finch

Ahh he's a great bird!

This is his scratchin' perch. He comes over there when he wants a good bird scratchin'. Not something your average Finch would do. They are usually quite a bit more high strung.

But, hey bird, you are almost 7 months past your "best by" date!

This is not his first appearance here.

Friday, January 27, 2006
Relaxing Hummer

This is a little guy who had a little too much to eat. He had just finished eating at a feeder and he flew over to the Bougainvillea and fluffed out to rest.

Monday, January 23, 2006
Peacock, Hammin' It Up

Sometimes you have to coax your subjects to do something interesting. This guy was more than happy to show off for me. They were actually quite friendly (and loud!)

Friday, December 30, 2005
More Pictures of the Kids

Yes as a matter of fact I am one of those crazy people who thinks of their animals as their kids! :-D

If you had animals like mine you would too.

'Course, if you had animals as smart as mine and you treated them like most people treat their pets you'd probably get an unpleasant present in your favorite shoes.

Friday, December 16, 2005
Tweetums

I have had the good fortune to be surrounded by some amazing creatures. This is one of them, a good friend of mine, "Tweetums". Tweetums is a Zebra Finch. He is not the first bird I have shared my home with, but he is by far one of the smallest. (When I lived in Hawaii I lived with an Umbrella Cockatoo named Baby.)

Until I met Tweetums, I lived under the misguided impression that bigger birds had more personality, and possibly even more intelligence, but he's set me straight. Tweetums was pushed out of his nest at a young age. Because of this, he has imprinted more on humans like a hand-fed baby bird. Early on we noticed he was very friendly and mellow compared to most finches. It was not long before we were able to get close enough to him to scratch him on the chin.

Now, we have been friends for many years. He always finds new and interesting ways to communicate with us and he tries to understand our crazy habits. I was tinkering with the rental digital camera from last evening's Pascucci's adventure, I wanted to see what it was really capable of. I took a bunch of low light photos of Tweetums while he was hopping around (this one is my favorite). I was not totally sure how he felt about it at first, but later when I went to cover him for the night, he hopped out of his nest again and started dancing around (not his usual evening behavior). So I grabbed the camera again! Well to make a long story a little shorter, we repeated that several times before I just had to slowly lower the lights to try to lull him to sleep. He is quite the ham, and really likes any interaction with other creatures.

So I have to wonder, are the creatures around me particularly amazing and I am just blessed to be around them. Or, is the potential there in most animals for this type of connection if you look for it. If I had to guess I'd say it's both. Regardless, Tweetums is a credit to his species and I will never look at another bird the same way after knowing him. There is much more going on there than you might think.

Saturday, October 8, 2005
Costa's Lunchtime

This is one of the higher speed shots I have taken of the hummers in the Palm Springs area. I usually take a slower shot that shows more motion in the wings, but it is nice to try a variety of things. The shutter speed was actually not that fast, it was helped out buy the fact that I just happened to hit the shutter at the top of his wing sweep.

This guy has some amazing throat feathers that stick out on the sides.

I get a lot of questions about my hummingbird shots...

• How fast was the shutter speed?
  Actually, relatively slow. 60th to 250th of a second. And, it is not usually the shutter that freezes the motion of their wings. Normally a high speed strobe is used which can go down to as little as a millionth of a second because it does not depend upon the mechanics of moving a shutter.
  
  Some commercial shots are even staged with a high speed strobe and camera outfitted with an infrared trigger. The trigger fires the shutter (and the camera fires the strobe) when something breaks the beam in front of the camera. Cool use of technology, but if you depend upon the technology completely you will get a very clinical image that does not look at all life-like.
  
  I don't use a strobe for two reasons. I think the resulting photos look too clinical and just like any other bird and, I don't have one. :-D
• You must have an impressive lens, what kind is it?
  Most of my hummers are shot with an average Canon 70-200mm zoom lens. I am just very patient when it comes to watching these guys, I have spent over an hour at times to let them get comfortable with me.
• Did you use a tripod? Did you set up the shot in advance?
  Nope, with very few exceptions these are handheld shots taken while wandering around where the hummers frequent. I like the freedom to move around and get exactly what I want.

Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Pelicans

These guys are always hanging out on Stearns Wharf. They are hilarious. They waddle around behind the fishermen waiting patiently for scraps. And, all the grace they lack on the ground, they make up for in the air. They glide in perfect formations any fighter pilot would be proud of which, by the way, they do to conserve energy. The lead bird in the V formation takes the brunt of the wind resistance. The others can slip more easily through the air. On long migrations they take turns at the lead.

• Brown Pelicans at USGS

Sunday, September 11, 2005
Summer Solstice

This is my photographic evidence that the summer was way too short. This image was on a roll of film that was still in one of my cameras this week.

Sunday, August 21, 2005
Solstice Parade

I have never been crazy about parades. They have always been something to watch on TV while my dad and I make Macadamia Nut Stuffing from a Hawaiian cookbook. Our task on Thanksgiving while my Mom took care of everything else!

But I must say, since moving to Santa Barbara I have learned to enjoy one tradition... The "Summer Solstice Celebration." It is always a really creative parade held on the Saturday closest to the Summer solstice. It is, by far, the most enjoyable parade and celebration I have ever seen.

Oh, by the way, the person in the bird suit is our Mayor, Marty Blum.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Fly-thru

There have been some really important people interested in my hummingbirds at the shows lately. :) (see yesterday's post) So I decided to look through some of the images I still have tucked away. This was one of the first ones that jumped out at me.

The one in flight is exactly what I love to capture when I am chasing hummers. His face is sharp and his beak, but you can still see the movement of flight. And, the guy on the feeder looks like he is conducting an orchestra.

Many of the hummingbird shots you see are done with a strobe, a very fast flash. A strobe freezes the action and you do not have to depend upon the speed of the camera's shutter. The best cameras these days reach their limits at around 1/8000th of a second, my AE-1 goes down to 1/1000th. This image was taken between 1/100th and 1/250th of a second. Extremely high speed strobes can go down to a millionth of a second, because they do not depend upon mechanics like shutters.

Unfortunately strobe images come out looking a little clinical for my tastes. But then again, they are all just tools it really depends upon how you use them.

Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Checking the Nest

Saturday was the end of "Fiesta" here in Santa Barbara. In theory, Fiesta or Old Spanish Days is a celebration of the founding of the city. Ironically, most of the locals leave town for it. It has kind of devolved over time to just a generally wild party in the streets.

With everyone out of town I was not expecting a huge day at the show. Especially because my normal location was at the opposite end of La Cumbre Plaza under a stage with a bunch of dancers on it. But my first sale made the day worth it.

A little boy stopped with his mom, one of my cards seemed to really catch his eye. After talking to them for a bit, I found out that he liked hummingbirds. So I gave him some pictures to look at that were a little out of his reach. I had not intended to sell him anything, I just love to see kids' reactions to my images. But he fell in love with this image. And, after a small discussion with his mom, he decided to buy it with his allowance.

So in honor of my favorite customer of the week I thought I would find another picture of Mrs. "A" in case he stops by the site.

Monday, July 18, 2005
Hummers

The top hummingbird is actually the same bird as in this photo. She was hovering around the feeder for quite a while checking out the strange creature with the 200mm nose.

Sunday, June 12, 2005
Cross Bird

Well... maybe a little agitated anyway. (Cross Bird... Mad Bird... get it? oh never mind! it's not funny if I have to explain it!)

Sunday, May 29, 2005
Hummingbird Silhouette

If I really wanted to, I could tweak this and get some detail out of the Hummingbird. But I like him completely in silhouette. They seem so thoughtful when they are perched like this.

Saturday, May 7, 2005
Santa Barbara Sandpiper

These guys are fun to watch on the beach, sometimes they seem to forget they can fly as they run from the waves. I particularly like the perspecive of this shot. I got down more at his (her?) level and it made for a much more interesting photo.

Saturday, March 5, 2005
Mrs. "A"

Looking back I realized it has been almost three weeks since I put a hummingbird online. This is Mrs. "A". She was kind enough to build her nest in my potted Bougainvillea right outside my glass patio door.

The first sign something interesting was happening was the male hummer. He came one evening and sat near this same spot in the Bougainvillea. He would come at dusk and leave at dawn. He did this for about a week. Then just as I was starting to think I could get him used to my presence with my camera, he disappeared. The next day she showed up with a few twigs. Two days later, the nest was done. She sat on two eggs for a couple of weeks and they hatched on my birthday. Until I got my Hound Dog, I couldn't have imagined a better birthday present!