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.

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.

Monday, May 23, 2005
Dropin' in for Lunch

It was a good weekend. It was the 40th anniversary of the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts show. The show is usually only on Sundays, but since it was a special occasion some of the artists were out there on Saturday too.

Unfortunately it was a big weekend for other things in town. A car show and a Volleyball tournament combined with temperatures 13 degrees above made for a slow weekend. The good thing is, I am not just out there for the sales. :-)

I love talking to people about my photography. Hummingbirds in particular seem to bring about great conversations. I have heard wonderful stories about peoples' interactions with these amazing creatures.

Today I talked to a very nice couple visiting from Germany, they had been traveling the coast and seemed to be having a wonderful time. We talked about Big Sur and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park where they had been. And the wonderful hummingbirds they had seen. The man told me how he had just mentioned to his wife how the perfect job would be to travel up and down the California Coast and take pictures of nature and wildlife, and there I was!

So today's photo of the day was his choice. From the selection of Hummingbird prints I had at the beach, this was his favorite.

Saturday, February 19, 2005
Dragon

Proof that dragons once roamed the earth! (or at least the skies)

Don't believe me? Well imagine this guy's great-great-great-gran'daddy with a wingspan of well over half a meter. Making them among the largest flying insects ever known, and the largest thing in the sky at the time. Of course that was millions of years ago. In fact, these insects were around long before the dinosaurs.

• Living fossils
  Other interesting plants and animals that have remained virtually unchanged since pre-historic times.
• The Wollemi Pine
  Perhaps that giant dragon flew over these trees. The trees were thought to be extinct until 1994 when a small grove of them was found near Sydney Australia. You will soon be able to help preserve the tree by purchasing one of them (cultivated in captivity) for your garden.

Friday, January 14, 2005
Droppin' in for Lunch

I like to feed the Sea Gulls at the beach. This guy was doing his Humming Bird impression.

Monday, January 3, 2005
Morning Salutation

Humming birds are incredible to watch, this guy was sitting in a huge Bougainvillea above my head. They have a habit of making a sound that makes you think they are dive-bombing you but they are usually sitting still when they make that sound. When they call they put their beak in the air and the feathers on their throat stick straight out. This photo was taken just after he had made the call and he was in the middle of a good post-breakfast stretch.