Trying the New Camera

UPS delivered my new camera on Wednesday and I've been anxiously waiting for a chance to use it. The sky was overcast Friday after work, but I decided to go shooting anyway. What better test than dull skies to see what the camera can do?

The first thing I noticed was that the ospreys are back. I saw several pairs on platforms, and there were several overflights with ospreys carrying sticks as they are busy building nests. Wandering along the shore, there was little to shoot: no eagles at the shore-side eagle nest, no eagles camped on the tree with the osprey nest where I've had so much good luck before, no hunting events over the water.

I'm usually not interested in herons, but I wanted to shoot something, so I got a few photos of herons to at least have something to inspect when I got home.

Heron

When I reached the other eagle nest, there was clearly a parent sitting on eggs, but it was barely visible and its mate was nowhere to be seen.

Bald Eagle in Nest

This is a very aggressive crop, with only a modest bit of clarity dialed in. Eventually I started seeing more ospreys and I had a chance to get some shots of them.

Osprey in Flight

Bad light, distant bird: Just the kind of test I wanted. I had cranked the ISO up to 800, which let me shoot at f5.6 and 1/1000. That would be noisy on my old camera. I brought the shadows up, turned the blacks down, used noise reduction, and cropped to get the photo above. Not a keeper, but I'm pleased with the wing feather detail I was able to get and the sharpness, even after a pretty severe crop.

I heard a helicopter coming closer, and I got this shot.

VH-3 Sea King (sometimes called Marine One)

The marines were on a training flight. Again, not a great photo, but it gave me a chance to practice. It looks like 1/1000 is a good shutter speed for photographing a helicopter: The fuselage is sharp; the rotor tips are blurred.

I was getting tired, so I decided to go home after a disappointing outing. I turned a corner and this eagle was perched ahead. I approached slowly, trying not to flush it, maneuvering to get a clear shot through branches.

Bald Eagle

This is a moderate crop, with the shadows (dark feathers) turned up and noise reduction. It just sat there gripping the branch with one talon. The other talon is just barely visible above.

Not great photos, but I can experiment with them. I wanted to see how far I could go with the cropping before reaching unacceptable quality.

Bald Eagle

This is a pretty severe crop, with modest noise reduction and shadow lightening. I like the feather detail in its white head and dark body. Here's one more aggressive crop.

Bald Eagle

When it flew away, I botched the capture. I clearly need more practice with this camera. The lessons for this camera: it crops well, it's quiet (the old one sounds like a machine gun in comparison), and the noise level in low light is much more acceptable than with my old camera.

Rain today. Bummer. I'll try again tomorrow when the forecast is much better.