Wood Ducks in Fog
What Makes a Good Image?
That is a deep question and whole books have been written on the subject. One current definition of a good image might simply be one that causes the viewer to…
Dealing with Noise: Salvaging a Severely Underexposed High ISO Image
Digital noise in images can be a real problem when photographing in low light conditions. Although each generation of new cameras seems to show an improvement in noise characteristics, photographers…
Eagle Pan-Blurs
When light levels are too low to capture sharp images of wildlife in action, consider using slow shutter speeds and panning the camera with the subject as it moves across…
From Slides to Digital with the D850
I spent the past couple of weekends finding a way to use my Nikon DSLR to convert slides to digital files. I started taking photographs in 1982, first using Kodachrome…
Different Ways to Photograph Hummingbirds: Part 1
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only species of hummingbird known to occur regularly in my home state of North Carolina. Over the years there have been at least 11 other…
First Time-lapse Video: A Starry Night at Mattamuskeet Lodge
I finally got a new computer with enough processing power to create time-lapse videos so I went back to Lake Mattamuskeet to photograph Polaris, the North Star, above historic Mattamuskeet…
Outer Banks Night Photography March 2019
Night photography images of the Outer Banks, including Milky Way images, star trails, and Lighthouse light beams
Photographing Bodie Island Lighthouse and the Milky Way
With a weekend forecast of clear skies and moonless nights, I decided to drive to the Outer Banks and photograph Bodie Island Lighthouse with a Milky Way backdrop. So I loaded up the car and left home at 1:30 pm last Saturday.
(more…)Photographing the Eastern Screech Owl
The eastern screech owl is a subject that I’ve wanted to photograph for many years, with no success whatsoever. Although I’d heard their eerie and distinctive song many evenings, I had never even seen one in the wild until this year. In late January I discovered one using several wood duck boxes on my pond as roosts and nocturnal feeding stations. The only photographs I took were of the owl asleep inside a nest box. My luck finally changed in April,
(more…)
Robin
Using Auto Exposure Lock (AE Lock)
When I first started in photography, I used aperture priority mode pretty much all the time. Later I learned the advantages of using manual exposure mode in certain situations. However, I still felt more comfortable using aperture priority mode and preferred using it when possible. Eventually I devised a method of using Auto Exposure Lock as a substitute for manual exposure mode. I wrote an article on the technique in 2011 that was published in Nikonians eZine, Number 51.
(more…)