Birds of Arizona – Phainopepla ( Phainopepla nitens )

November 16, 2017November 18, 2017Jeff

Yesterday was an interesting day for me as the weather prediction was not excellent, but still fair and relatively mild with a predicted high in the low 80’s and we were eager to take a hike. We decided to select a route off of the Granite Mountain Trailhead (The Bootlegger Trail) which is part of the McDowell Mountain Preserve.

Whenever I hike, I anticipate capturing a picture of a bird that is either better than one that I currently have of that bird or, as a bonus, a bird for which I do not have a picture.

I have seen many Phainopeplas, but I have never been able to take a good picture of one. I also know that this is the time of the year that they visit the Sonoran Desert. I spotted one just 100 yards from my backyard a few days ago, but it was not in a very nice setting so I passed.

Today I was able to take a “starter picture” of a Phainopepla that we spotted along the Bootlegger Trail. I am labeling this a starter because I am hoping to capture a photograph that is even better one of these days!

As I have stated on this blog before, I am an amateur photographer with very limited bird photography experience and just a bit more as a birder. The only camera I have with a long reach is my Canon PowerShot SX50HS and that is the equipment I used for the shot below.

Phainopepla captured at the McDowell Mountain Preserve

Phainopepla captured at the Granite Mountain Trailhead along the Bootlegger Trail which is part of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve

Phainopeplas remind me of Cardinals or Waxwings because of their sleek profile and the tuft. Males are black while females are more grey. Interestingly enough, they have a red eye which is very striking and not always easy to capture in a photograph. I am placing a cropped image below to show more detail even though it may not be as sharp as I would like.

A cropped version of the image above

Now I have one more picture for my collection!

My Photography Conundrum – Part 1

May 5, 2016March 31, 2017Jeff

When I was younger, much younger, I was very interested in photography. There was a magic about being able to freeze a moment in time to capture an event that will never appear in that exact juxtaposition of all the elements again. At least it seemed like magic to me.

Life progressed and my camera saw little action as I was busy trying to advance my career (which was not related to photography). I continued to take snapshots, as opposed to serious photographs, the interest in photography continued to simmer in my heart.

A few years ago, now that life is a bit more subdued, I purchased a bridge camera. Heretofore I had been using Canon point-and-shoot, jpeg only cameras such as the Canon PowerShot A75 with a whopping, for that time, 3.2 megapixels.

Canon PowerShot A75 picture courtesy of Imaging Resources

Starbucks Coffee Shop Boston Taken with the Canon A75
Picture of Starbucks Coffee Shop in Boston taken with the Canon A75 and cropped

That little camera went all over with me and took some fairly decent pictures; not great, but good enough!

I soon had to acquire a newer camera for a trip to Peru which I didn’t want to risk by taking my older A75 which was “acting up” at that time.

Canon PowerShot A590 IS
Canon PowerShot A590 courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Native girl with pet sloth-Amazon
Young Amazon native girl with pet sloth taken with the PS A590

A pet Capybara in the Amazon taken with the PS A590

Native guide handles a poisonous frog - AmazonS
Rather closeup picture of poisonous frog in the Amazon taken with PS A590 and cropped

Machu Pichu taken with the PowerShot A590

Machu Pichu taken with the PowerShot A590 – Sorry, I didn’t know about blown highlights!

These cameras served me well and I still bring the A590 with me whenever I want to capture something quickly and with ease. Of course now that I have a hand-me-down iPhone 5, I can also tuck that into my pocket for the same purpose.

A couple of years ago, I became interested in bird watching. I am not a fanatic, but I do like birds and I enjoy trying to identify them. It was a short hop, skip and a jump to an interest in photographing birds. I did some research and found out that there are approximately 950 different birds in the United States and at some point in the year over half of them spend time in my newly adopted state of Arizona (although not exactly in my neighborhood!).

I began to wonder how many of those birds I could photograph and record. I wasn’t thinking of beautiful bird photographs like those of Scott Bourne and other nature photographers. I was simply thinking about pictures of record.

So…I did what most people would probably do and I signed up for a guided bird hike and I brought my Canon PowerShot with 4x zoom with me. Screech…..

Those birds are so far away! All I can see is an outline of a bird. How am I to identify that bird from such a photograph?. Of course I do exaggerate a bit. There were some birds only a short distance away that could be identified with the naked eye and/or a quick snap, but it was becoming obvious that I would need a “better” camera, i.e. with more of a zoom.

Compounding my dilemma was that I wanted to try shooting in the RAW mode which is/was recommended by most accomplished photographers I follow and it was the advice offered repeatedly. “If one wanted to take their photography to the next level, they needed to learn to shoot in RAW and to post process!” Well, my current photographic skills weren’t at any level near that goal at that time, but my ambition was to get there.

I did what I usually do nowadays and I began reading the reviews on the Internet and after many, many hours of reading and pondering, I decided to purchase a Canon PowerShot SXHS 50 with a tremendous zoom lens. It met my main two criteria, i.e. a lot of reach and it could shoot RAW.

PowerShot SXHS 50

Canon PowerShot SXHS 50 image courtesy of Imaging Resources

PowerShot SXHS 50 with zoom extended
Canon PowerShot SXHS 50 with lens extended image courtesy of CNET.com

White-winged dove taken with the Canon SXHS 50

A White-winged dove atop a saguaro – One of the first bird pictures taken with the Canon PowerShot SXHS 50

There were some serious drawbacks though and I understood that going in. The camera did not do well at high ISOs as a matter of fact, most accomplished shooters using this camera advised to stay at 200 ISO or lower so that was going to be one limitation. I did set the auto ISO not to exceed 400 to give myself some leeway.

This camera did not disappoint me. It could take some really nice photos and I was able to get up close and personal to a lot of birds and other animals which I really liked. It did provide some challenges along the way. There was some chromatic aberration and noise in tricky situations. Of course I took them into an editing program and modified them to reduce these issues as much as possible and I could live with that.

For more than a year, I was pretty happy with my choice and then…and then…

Read additional posts in My Photography Conundrum series:

My Photography Conundrum – Part 2

My Photography Conundrum – Part 3

My Photography Conundrum – Part 4

JBRish.com originally published this post
See previous Photography posts HERE

Scott Bourne – Gifts from A Life in Photography

February 17, 2016Jeff

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” – William James

Let me preface this post by pointing out what a great time it is to be interested in photography or to be a photographer whether it is from a hobbyist or professional perspective. It is so easy to take for granted the wealth of information available to us today because of the Internet.

There aren’t many artists, professionals in any field or accomplished practitioners of a given skill who would willingly and freely give away their hard-earned knowledge. Many of us, when we learn a special trick or secret, would like to hold it as though it would give us an edge. Scott Bourne is not one of those people.

Picture Courtesy of a screen shot from YouTube Video, The Grid #49 – Guest: Scott Bourne

For those who don’t know Scott, I would like to make the introduction. He can be found almost on a daily basis sharing his knowledge and skills. This is information he has worked years to codify and embrace and he offers it to anyone with the inclination to read or listen.

Recently, for example, he posted an article describing the use of the relatively new Adobe Portfolio option. Naturally he tried it first and then wrote about his experiences and not only that, he posted his portfolio (not completed at the time I am writing this; just experimental) for all to see. This isn’t just theory, this is real!

Another thing I have to appreciate is that Scott is a no-nonsense guy. You wouldn’t have to read too many posts or listen to more than one podcast to find that out! And that’s a good thing! When he says that he has tried almost every new camera, he means it. He can speak to the pros and cons of many cameras available currently and he does. I don’t have the resources, time or skill to assess these things, but you can get a head start in such matters by listening to Scott on his photofocus podcasts or by reading his posts at photofocus.com

Enough by way of introduction. Let me share some of Scott Bourne’s work and explain why I admire and follow him. (By the way…I am not a relative of Scott’s. I have no vested interest in writing this post except to recommend his work as a resource for those who want to become better photographers in general, and especially those interested in bird photography.)

It is not easy to pick out the work I like best because there is so much goodness out there.

Let me just share a few pictures.

All Photos used with permission and Copyright by Scott Bourne

This is a beautiful, tender picture capturing the relationship of the adult with a pup. The viewer can sense the emotional connection and the wariness of the ever-vigilant adult.

Perhaps Scott is best known for his bird photographs and this picture of a barn owl is amazing. Not only is this a beautiful picture of the animal, but the composition is perfect. (arrows are from the screen capture and are not part of the original photo)