Month: August 2016

Leslie’s Shots from the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

Although I knew this is probably the worst time of the year to visit the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, I still wanted to stop on our way to Santa Rosa because I hadn’t been able to get there before. We didn’t see nearly as many birds or species as we have on previous visits. Heck, they hadn’t even flooded most areas of the preserve yet.

Luckily, they had opened a pond I’ve never seen and there were birds we seldom see in the Pacific Northwest. Leslie decided she wanted to use the Canon SX60HS and binoculars and not the heavier camera and lens. I decided to start with a selection of her shots that you can compare with my shots in the next blog entry.

Here’s one of the first shots we took showing a small island covered in Snowy Egrets, Common Terns, Cormorants, White Pelicans, various ducks, American Coots, and Black-Necked Stilts.

IslandPan

A little further along, there was a small flock of White Pelicans herding fish into a small area.

YtPlcnsFedng

I was surprised to spot this Bullfrog on the edge of the pond.

LslesFrg

It must be challenging to survive in a pond with this many predators.

Leslie was trying to capture the golden glow of these dragonflies as the evening sun hit them.

LslesDrgnfly

This shot was heavily cropped after I located the dragonfly among the rocks.

I didn’t have a problem locating this doe and her two fawns, though.

3Dr

Technically this shot is probably too bright and too dark all at the same time, but I like the image of a family of wild turkeys running down the road like a flock of velociraptor.

LslesTrkys

Of course, because I always shoot in RAW format, these shots have been processed in Photoshop. I’ve read arguments that shooting RAW format requires a lot more editing than shooting in jpg format because the camera’s computer leaves all the decisions up to the photographer rather than deciding by itself what “looks best.” Depending on what you want to do with your photographs, it might be best to just shoot in jpg format to save time, but I’m not sure if the jpgs would come straight out of the camera looking this good or not (just saying).

Mira Likes the SX60HS, too.

I found another use for my Canon SX60HS on our recent trip to Santa Rosa. Mira wanted to take pictures two of the days we were there, and she definitely wanted to use the SX60HS.

Focus

I wanted to visit the local cemetery because a lot of birds were reported being sighted there. Leslie and the grandkids wanted to go, too, so we ended up visiting the cemetery and not birding.

Mira took a considerable number of shots that she “liked,” so I chose a few from those to feature here.

There were lots of flowers on gravestones.

FlrsOnGrave

This one was an unusual combination of flowers, though.

There was also an infinite number of tombstones to choose from, but this one stood out to me.

GravSton

After our walk through the cemetery, we walked up the road to Santa Rosa’s famous McDonald House.

McDnldMnsn

Leslie wanted to show the grandkids where Pollyanna was filmed, probably so she could entice them to watch it with her that night.

Mira got up early the next morning to go birding with me. My favorite shot from the day was this one a swan preening itself.

MirasSwn

This shot of a squirrel eating an acorn was definitely Mira’s favorite, though.

MirasSqrl

Mira and I rewarded ourselves for our early 4-mile walk by having breakfast at IHOP.

Shooting Mt. Rainier with my Canon SX60HS

After seeing all the flowers at Mt. St. Helens, we decided to go up to Sunrise on Mt. Rainier to see if the flowers were blooming there, too. Besides, I wanted to try out my new Canon SX60HS.

A few years ago I hiked the same route with Leslie and a friend of Ted’s who was younger than I was. I managed to keep up with them on the trail, but ended up scaring myself because my heart was racing at 120 bpm for an hour and a half after we got back to the car. It scared me enough that I made Leslie drive down the mountain. I resolved after that to lose some weight and to train harder because I wasn’t about to give up hiking in the mountains.

I’ve lost 30 pounds since then while managing to increase my strength. I still have problems getting enough oxygen due to some moderate COPD, but my heart and leg muscles can manage the climb without protesting until after I get home. Just the memory of that hike, though, has made me unwilling to carry extra weight, even if it’s a camera. I bought the Canon SX60HS precisely with these kinds of hikes in mind.

Unfortunately, at first the weather wasn’t very cooperative. Clouds obscured the mountain most of the time we were there,

ShrddInFog

though they made the long uphill stretches easier than normal.

At the top, the camera showed its versatility. This shot was taken at the widest setting.

TopRainierHike

You can almost see the hiker on the left side of the shot.

Here is a medium range shot centered on the hiker,

RainierHiker1

and here is an extreme closeup centered on him.

RainierHiker2

Personally, I was blown away by the detail. I think if he were walking toward the camera I could identify him.

This capture of a Marmot that almost crawled up my leg showed the camera’s versatility. I doubt I could have gotten him in frame with the lenses I normally have mounted on my main camera.

Mrmt

The camera also seems good at taking closeups of flowers like these Avalanche Lilies,

2016AvlnchLly

managing to even capture the drops of water.

It even captured the fuzz on this Indian Paintbrush.

2016Pantbrsh

It also did a nice job of capturing Rainier as the clouds finally cleared on our descent.

FinlyClerng

Lest I begin to sound like a “fanboy” of the SX60HS, you really have to search to find out how to shoot HDR. Unfortunately, I hadn’t read far enough to find the setting for HDR on this trip. Next time.

I also wasn’t happy that the only bird I saw on the trip flew off before I could get it in focus, though I’m not quite ready to blame that on the camera’s limits yet. There’s certainly a learning curve with the camera that I haven’t mastered yet. It’s pretty clear that I would never use it as my primary birding camera, but I knew that before I bought it.

Why I Bought Yet Another Camera

Despite the number of cameras I own, I’ve been thinking about buying yet another camera because I want to start doing more hiking now that Leslie has finally retired. At 74, I no longer want to push myself to my limits by carrying as much weight as I can uphill. In fact, I’ve been known to leave all camera equipment behind to avoid carrying extra weight.

When hiking steep areas I always have to limit myself to one camera and one lens, and all too often it seems the lens I most need is the one at home. So, I’ve been looking for a relatively light camera that can take both scenics and telephoto shots, even if the quality doesn’t match the camera and lenses I already have.

I was waiting for a Nikon camera that was supposed to be released July 1st which seemed to fit all my needs and was touted as taking particularly good telephoto shots of birds. Unfortunately, it was delayed until Fall, so late I wouldn’t need it until next year.

So I decided to settle on my fallback camera, a Canon Powershot SX60HS, particularly after I saw the shots it was capable of taking while visiting with a birder at Theler Wetlands. I ended up buying. It got its first test at Theler Wetlands when Leslie carried it and binoculars.

Here’s a relative closeup of yours-truly walking through the marshes,

SX60HS1

a shot of me walking out on the boardwalk,

SX60HS2

and a shot of Hood Canal taken from the boardwalk.

SX60HS3

I’ve never managed to get this shot with the cameras I usually carry, though I have come close by stitching four of five different shots together.

Here’s a shot of invasive flowers taken from the same boardwalk.

SX60HS4

Of course, I figured the camera would take good scenic shots and closeups of flowers, particularly since it shoots in RAW format.

I was more worried about how it would capture shots of birds. I was pleasantly surprised by this shot of a Least Sandpiper taken from the bridge.

SX60HS5

Even more impressive was this shot of a Dowitcher taken at a distance where I couldn’t see it with my bare eyes.

SX60HS6

It uses digital magnification at this distance and that’s notoriously bad for most cameras. This is certainly a good enough image to identify the bird, even if it’s not one I’m going print or save for posterity.

The SX60HS is destined to become my go-to camera whenever I’m doing any serious hiking.