365 Project - Day 16

A few weeks ago I shared a photo of a bird flying over the open water, actually over the Pacific Ocean, with the online community at Light Stalking. I had just joined the community and they offer a wonderful sharing and learning opportunity. As a result of the rather lively dialog around that photo, I decided I would spend time developing bird photography skills, beginning with my birthday gift of a Nikon 1.4x teleconverter. I have big ambitions ;-) but you always have to start somewhere.

My husband was kind enough to prime my efforts by filling the backyard bird feeder. In no time the birds arrived, but I was preoccupied and didn't get out until dusk. Few birds remained and I had lost a full stop of light by using the teleconverter. This is my favorite photo of the evening, simply because she is singing. I am thrilled that I captured that moment. I know the quality isn't good, but I have all kinds of issues playing out here - the use of the teleconverter with its stop loss, extreme cropping of an underexposed photo where ISO was over 1000 AND I had this lens (70-200mm f2.8 VRII in my hand when "the accident" occurred. I'm not yet convinced that it fully survived. For now, I'm happy with this photo as the starting point in developing my bird photography skills. I'm anxious to get out again.

Today's Photo: "The Winged Singer"

“The earth has music for those who listen.” ― George Santayana