Tag: birds

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Cock-of-the-Rock

Confession: I conduct a test—to see how search engines or organizational filters might censor this post, or my entire site, because of “cock” in the headline. Or will something quite unexpected happen: Surge in traffic because of indexing that brings porn searchers my way? Now that would be hilarious outcome—and not my purpose.

The title refers to the name of the bird that you see in the Featured Image and its companion: The Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, which is the national bird of Peru. He posed for my wife and I yesterday, during a San Diego Zoo visit. Vitals are the same for both portraits, which were taken using iPhone XS: f/2.4, ISO 400, 1/60 sec, 6mm; 12:50 p.m. PDT. The first is composed as shot; the other is cropped 3:2 and slightly recomposed. Neither is enhanced, or otherwise edited.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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The Predator

While walking down Maryland Ave. late this afternoon to the grocery store, what looked like two birds locked together swooped by me. As I turned my gaze across the street, the one dropped the other before perching on a building. There waited the first hawk I ever recognize seeing. Had the Leica Q been with me, I could have manually focused in the moment and close-cropped later during post-production for detail. Instead, I made do with the iPhone 7 Plus second camera, which acts as a 2x optical zoom.

The smartphone poorly addressed the lighting, measuring from the brightly-lit background—something I could have compensated better for if not in a rush. The bird wouldn’t wait around long. The Featured Image, and its companion, are both heavily edited; in the first, I purposely blew out the sky’s highlights to contrast against the urban structure and to brighten bird and building. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Momma Hummer

This hummingbird is better entertainment for our cats than TV is for humans. She faithfully sits in her nest, on a tree in the middle of our apartment building’s courtyard, with clear view from a window we leave open year around for Cali and Neko. The felines are mesmerized during the night.

The featured photo is the original, shot using Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF35mmF2 R WR lens. The image is converted JPEG from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The second is an edited crop. Vitals: f/4, ISO 200, 1/60 sec, 50mm. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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What Is Your Flickr Anniversary?

I can’t count how many times my relationship with Flickr nearly ended over the past decade. I subscribed in October 2005, making 10 years ago this month. For reasons I cannot guess, my oldest uploaded photo is the Pelican, on Ground Hog’s Day 2006. I shot the bird with Nikon D70 and Nikkor 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens while vacationing in San Diego (where I now live) in August 2004.

I don’t have an exact date during the month, just a receipt for a Pro membership on May 6, 2006. I maintained Pro until Flickr (more or less) ended the option in May 2013. But Yahoo brought back Pro accounts in July 2015, offering perks to previous subscribers. Last month, I renewed mine for two years, for $44.95. 

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