“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that is the way to bet.” — Damon Runyon
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” — Carl Jung
“It’s not hard to find a new husband, but someone who is, for an example, a good bridge partner for you comes along once in a lifetime.” — Zsa Zsa Gabor
American Dipper at Seven Falls, CO – bobbing for food.
I have written about two of my interests, photography and bird watching, on the pages of this blog. When I speak of them, I describe myself as an “opportunistic” photographer and an “opportunistic” bird watcher.
What I mean when using such a phrase is that generally speaking photography and bird watching are not often the center of my activity. I am usually hiking, touring or visiting with friends. My camera is with me during most of these events so naturally, I like to capture photographs of things that are of interest me. I am not too hyper about my photography exploits however. I try to capture those images that will serve my artistic or educational purposes, but if I miss the shot…well, I miss the shot.
In the same light, a number of my photographs are lacking in quality for one reason or another. Perhaps my equipment is not up to the task. Sometimes I make a mistake and my settings are incorrect and the capture fails. While photographs taken under less than ideal circumstances may not have much artistic value and may not be worth placing on the Internet, they can be good enough. Let me explain…
We were recently visiting Colorado Springs, CO and during our stay, we went to the Broadmoor resort to hike their Seven Falls Park and it was very nice. As we walked the trail and came to an elevated platform called the Eagle’s Nest, there was a stream that ran along the base of the nearby mountain. Wading in that stream, looking for a good meal, was a bird I had never seen before: an American Dipper.
When I see a bird that is new to me, I like to capture a picture as “proof of sighting.” Quite honestly, at times I take a bird’s picture because I don’t know the bird and I hope to ID it later via a birding book, a birding app or the Internet. In this instance, I knew the bird was an American Dipper because of an explanatory nearby sign. I wanted a record of my sighting of the bird.
Here is my problem…the bird was relatively far away and the only camera that I had with a chance of yielding a photo that would be useable was my bridge camera, i.e. a Canon PowerShot SX50HS. As I have reported on this blog before, the camera does best with an ISO of 100, but may be passable at ISO 200. It also performs better with smaller aperture openings.
Unfortunately, this was a cloudy day and the time was getting late. Low ISO and smaller aperture settings were not going to work here. I could not use the settings I needed to get the best shot. What was I to do? My philosophy is “Take the picture anyway.” As long as the picture is able to be used to ID the bird and provide “proof of sighting,” it will be good enough.
Here are the pictures I was able to capture. They are not going to impress anyone or come close to winning any awards. They really aren’t even good enough for posting on Instagram, Flckr or anywhere on the Internet except for an educational article like this one.
The pictures are good enough for my purpose and when added together, enable me to identify the bird as the American Dipper. Whether or not a picture is good enough for you can only be determined by the goal(s) you set for yourself. I can use these photographs to validate that I saw and identified this particular bird and that was my goal!
“American Dipper at Seven Falls, CO – resting between bobbing for food “
“American Dipper at Seven Falls, CO – searching once more for food”
For comparison, below are two clearer pictures of an American Dipper. The yellow bill in my photographs indicate that my photos were of a young bird. The bill turns dark as they grow older.
American Dipper – Picture Courtesy of National Audubon Society
American Dipper – Picture Courtesy of the website of Joseph V Higbee
**NOTE** – The waterfall pictured above is inaccurately referred to as Vernal Fall when this was initially posted. It has now been corrected to reflect the appropriate reference to Nevada Falls.
Standing on the top of Sentinel Dome, was like having my head on a 360 degree swivel mechanism. All I could do was turn a bit and stare and then turn a bit more and stare until I absorbed as much of the 360 degree view as I could. While I had seen many of these Yosemite features from other areas of the park, it is much like looking at a spouse or good friend and noticing something that perhaps was not as memorable prior to that instant. These familiar features took on a different character because of the change of perspective when viewed from Sentinel Dome.
I hope this photograph conveys the power of Nevada Falls. The curtain of water had prominent cascades with the new waves of water trying earnestly to overtake those that went before. This, my friends, is a first-hand example of the power of the natural world.
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.
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Meta Data – Day 163 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: 0376.CR2
Capture time: 11:58:06 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
Exposure: 1/400 sec @ f/8
Focal Length: 70mm
ISO 125
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
“Life is half spent before one knows what life is.” — French Proverb
“If you want to catch something, running after it isn’t always the best way.” — Lois McMaster Bujold
“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” — Anton Chekhov
“I am a deeply superficial person.” — Andy Warhol
Moving up onto the very top of Sentinel Dome and looking west, El Capitan stood out among all of the other mountains. This colossus of the valley asserts itself into the minds of Yosemite visitors as well as the camera rolls of numerous smart phones.
Also shown is the topography of the distant hills as well as the dome. Sentinel Dome’s colors and textures where on display as it drops off into the wooded hillside below.
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.
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Meta Data – Day 162 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: 0357.NEF
Capture time: 11:55:12 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
Exposure: 1/60 sec @ f/18
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO 110
Nikon D3300
“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.” — Plutarch
“I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion-and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.” — Ram Dass
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” — John Greenleaf Whittier
“I tried being normal once. It was the worst five minutes of my life.” — Georgia Cates, Shallow
It felt like I was standing on top of the world. Obviously I knew intellectually there were many places that were higher, but when walking across the top of Sentinel Dome, which was quite wide, it seemed as though I could see most of Yosemite’s major sights.
The picture above is a distant view of Yosemite Falls. Because of the height of the dome and the distance, a larger portion of Yosemite Falls is visible and it was splendid. The torrents of water spread out as they fell into the basin and then traveled down the crevice into the rest of the valley.
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.
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Meta Data – Day 161 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: 0349.NEF
Capture time: 11:50:41 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
Exposure: 1/80 sec @ f/18
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO 100
Nikon D3300
“Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.” — Unknown
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” — George Bernard Shaw
“All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.” — Andre Breton
“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” — Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
Below is the photo from yesterday’s post. This was the top of Sentinel Dome as seen from a distance.
Since I had my Canon SX50 HS bridge camera which has quite a reach, I decided to take a picture of a person standing on top of Sentinel Dome from the place in the trail where the above photograph was captured. I could see people up there, but I could only recognize them as abstract shapes.
This is a picture taken with the Canon SX50 HS super zoom camera from basically the same place as the picture above.
I was gratified when reviewing this picture that it captured as much of the detail as I had hoped. We were very far away and only the zoom lens made this a possibility. Thank goodness for image stabilized cameras!
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.
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Meta Data – Day 160 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: 0375.CR2
Capture time: 11:23:08 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
Exposure: 1/320 sec @ f/8
Focal Length: 215mm
ISO 125
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
