Haven't read the book

I've been whipping out my new Nikon 1, attempting to capture images of birds. Not having read the manual, all were snapped using fully automatic mode - all I set was the zoom, mostly at full zoom of whichever lens I had on the camera. Of 71 photos, only 7 or 8 were close enough to be in focus that I went ahead and cropped them.

First up, are a couple of photos (below) of the previously posted red-breasted nuthatch. This time I got a couple of frames in focus. The bird in the background of the photo on the right is a female downy woodpecker.

           

Ever since at least mid-summer, we have had a family of tufted titmice hanging about our yard. Although we started with a family of five, I believe that one or two of them have met untimely ends - I only see three at a time, these days. Here are a couple of photos (below)that include two titmice - the extra bird being a chickadee. Don't ask me which kind: I don't know. I used to think that I could tell the difference between a black-capped and a Carolina. However, we live in an overlap area where I am convinced that the two species teach one another their calls/songs and where they may even interbreed. If you want to "bone up" on the differences, see Tricky Bird IDs. (The photos make it appear that it is easy to differentiate the two species. That is misleading - they appear more alike, in person, than the two photos imply. They got two specimens that were at the extremes of their plummages.)

     
The next couple of photos (below) are posted with some trepidation on my part. The reason I snapped photos of the birds at all was because they were flitting about too much for my old eyes to be able to focus on them. I believe that they are female pine siskins. Just a week previously, we had had a mixed flock of 7 male and female pine siskins; but, this time, I saw no males.

       

The following three photos are posted for Bogie. Bogie posted photos of a male northern cardinal feeding in the snow at her house, yesterday, in Pretty in Red. (Knowing the true color of a male northern cardinal, I was not at all put off by the relative dullness of the red in Bogie's photos - at least as they appear on my monitor. When the sun does not cooperate, it is difficult.) I commented to Bogie, " We have a cardinal couple who hang out in back; but, they rarely come close enough to get a meaningful photo."

Fast forward to my downloading, today, of the photos I've taken during the past week. Lo and behold, two frames were of a cardinal. Unfortunately, when I chose the better of the two for cropping, I inadvertently saved over the original; so, I can't really show the progression that I wished to show Bogie. Pretend along with me, eh?

Below is the original of the second exposure - to show you how far away the cardinal is. I believe that I had the longer lens zoomed all of the way out, meaning 100mm. (No, I don't write down data on my exposures the way a real photographer does.)

This (below) is what the first exposure looked like after I cropped it, producing faux enlargement. Much better than I would have been able to obtain from the HP 817 camera!

To show you that the cardinal isn't truly in focus, below is how it looks with too much cropping (too much faux enlargement).

Comments

[Joy]

Looks like you'll get better and better with your Nikon 1 as you go along. These photos are beautiful CC. Happy New Year dear friend. ~Joy

[M.E.]

Wonderful photos! I'd say that was a black-capped chickadee, but what do I know? not much. My photographer friend Linda introduced me to the Project Noah, and I think you might like it, too: projectnoah.org

I love that cranky looking cardinal!

Happy New Year, CC!!

[bogie]

Wow - that cardinal really stands out doesn't it? Our male is not nearly that bright, but not as dark as my pictures suggest. The sun was behind the house, the bird was under the deck, and the camera adjusts exposure on the overall pattern of white (in my case, an almost total snow background).

I believe that is a pine siskin, but we've only had them a couple of times in all the years we've been here, so I could be mistaken.

Looks like you are having fun, and making progress with the new camera!

[Dudette]

I love the fact that you didn't read the manual before you started using your new camera! There is much ado made at our house about my resistence to reading the manuals. Usually I can figure out the care of (the crock pot base does not go in the dishwasher), the warnings (I will most certainly not use the hair dryer in the shower), multi-language (actually these are fun to try and read), zillion page manuals. All of this aside, the camera takes beautiful pictures.

[Cop Car]

DRAT! After taking the time to reply to everyone, TypePad deleted my comment. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joy--And a joyous new year to you. Thanks for the assessment and compliment.

ME--The Project Noah with which I was acquainted had to do with identifying hazards in the Philipines. Thanks for steering me to the one that has to do with publicizing the precise location and details of sightings of any type of wild organism. I probably won't join, but now I know that it exists. Thanks, too, for the compliments - and - a happy new year to you!

Bogie--Thanks for filling us in on the conditions under which your cardinal photos were snapped. You did really, really well for those conditions - and - you documented your sighting! Yes, I was truly surprised at how my own cardinal photos turned out. It is one thing to see a bright red spot, in person, and quite another to see that spot in a photo. With the old HP 817 camera, it would have been a bright red dot, I think. I'll have to try comparative shots!

Dudette--My lack of manual* reading is a running joke with your father, of course. He is still poring over his car's manual - the car that he bought last summer?! You may also recall how your newly-retired father and newly-retired uncle (if anything, EB is more anal retentive than HH!) approached putting together the metal shed for Mom to use when they moved her from Kansas City to Wichita. (They were really good about helping Mom and Wichi Dude was always willing to run up to Kansas City whenever it would be helpful!)

I am learning the use of my Nikon 1. For instance, most of my first photos were out of focus because I didn't know how to make the camera focus where I wished it to focus. It turns out that, by repeatedly pressing the shutter button 1/2-way down, I can tell the camera to focus on something else. When it stumbles across the correct item(s) for focusing, I continue to depress the shutter button all of the way to take the photo. Of course, by that time, the bird has flown - lol!
___________________________
* I would blame it on the fact that I used to write parts of maintenance manuals for Cessna airplanes; but, I had the disease before I ever went to work for Cessna in 1974.

[Joared]

Happy New Year! Think your grandson is studying the camera intensely as you take his picture as he's trying to see what the camera is doing -- serious business, nothing to smile about until after the fact.

Enjoying your bird pics. Reminds me of those we had at our feeders in snowy Ohio -- black capped chickadees, nuthatches, red-headed woodpeckers and those colorful male cardinals with their attractive less colorful females. So many years have passed I've forgotten the other bird types -- except recall enjoying the robins arrival signalling an end to enough of winter's snow and it's less welcome ice, melting slush to have to drive/walk through.

I think it's interesting to see how user friendly new devices are. I'd just as soon not have to spend much time reading the increasingly large operation manuals, but with so many features complexity prevails.

[Cop Car]

Joared--If only that were our grandson...HH and I would be a lot younger! We have flocks of robins, year round, now. Did not used to do, but things have changed. Nuthatches are cute little birds. We have white-breasted nuthatches year round, but usually the red-breasted nuthatches are here only in winter. Their cousin, the brown creeper, is a cutie, too; but, so secretive that we rarely see them. I've seen a pair of them in summer and winter. It's been a while since I've seen/heard an eastern bluebird; but, we have them throughout the year, too.

You probably had juncos, titmice, and various sparrows in Ohio. Ohio has a wide variety of birds. Did you have bluebirds? Pileated woodpeckers? Surely you had blue jays and mourning doves. Actually, you probably had 50-100 different species in your yard.

Let's hope that 2013 is a great year for redheads! (Did you note that our younger great-grandson is a redhead?)