Today, in the street outside the house where lives Captain Blackbeard, who was featured in my “Cats of University Heights” series in October 2017, pigeons enjoyed some fresh run-off water—perhaps from a lawn sprinkler system. […]
Tag: birds
Flickr a Week 12: ‘Reincarnated?’
The week goes to Tee Cee and self-titled “Reincarnated?“—for beautiful bokeh, clever caption, ethereal quiescence, grainy texture, and the photographic tool chosen. Late last month, Fujifilm shipped the fifth iteration of its fixed lens compact, the X100V. Tee made this portrait, using the first, which released nine years earlier. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 4000, 1/28 sec, 28mm.
I owned the original X100, back in 2011. It’s amazing—and yet not—to see someone still shooting one. The camera is a classic. Granted, the duck portrait is nearly two years old (May 2, 2018), but Tee still uses the X100 for street shooting—from looking at more recent posts to the Photostream.
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.
OB Bird
I knew that by waiting until today, someone would offer for sale, at reasonably exorbitant price, code that would let me purchase a legitimate Comic-Con pass. In the end, I chose to spend a quiet […]
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.
Kitty Food
Yum. Yum. Moment captured on April 23, 2017 at 6:03 p.m. PDT using the Fujifilm X-T1 and XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS kit lens, with Classic Chrome simulation set. Vitals: f/4, ISO 200, 1/1250 sec, 55mm. The birds are […]
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.
Flickr a Day 362: ‘Flying for Food’
Third black & white in a row, unplanned, brings back film. Leonidas Konstantinidis shot self-titled “Flying for food” on July 16, 2008, using Minolta Dynax 9, and he scanned to digital. Vitals are not available. I picked […]
Flickr a Day 291: ‘Geai bleu / Blue Jay’
When I think dramatic photo of bird in flight, eagle, falcon, or owl comes to mind—not blue jay. Hence, the self-title of our Day taker captured by Eric Bégin on Jan. 27, 2008, using Olympus […]
Flickr a Day 287: ‘Macaw’
Here is another example of stock photo perfection. No other description suits the work of William Warby, who shot self-titled “Macaw” on Aug. 13, 2013, at the zoo in Santa Barbara, Calif. Vitals, using Olympus E-3 […]
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.
Flickr a Day 274: ‘Flying Puffin’
The photostream of Sergii Gulenok is best described as a series of outdoor adventures; this guy really gets around. I spent sometime picking a pic, because my favorite isn’t really representative of his style. But […]