Today I visited my friend and fellow photoblogger, Melinda, at her home in Benicia. After a delicious lunch, we decided to take a hike to a nearby reservoir to see if we would be lucky enough see and photograph the osprey or bald eagle that have been sighted there. We had no luck. We failed to take into account the time of day (early afternoon) and the temperature (90’s). A turkey vulture was the only raptor we saw today and it was too far away to take any decent photos.
We did see other birds and dragonflies and wild flowers and interesting trees and shrubs but I was unable to take any decent pictures. The majority of the photos I took today were blurry. I sometimes wonder if I have learned anything at all about photography because I have so many missteps. It was only after I downloaded the photos to Melinda’s computer wondering why they were so out of focus that I discovered that I had turned off Vibration Reduction on my long lens, which was extended to 300mm and when at full extension it is more prone to shake than when it is at 70mm. I have no idea why I turned it off but Melinda suggested it might have been because I had used it on a tripod. One is supposed to turn off VR when a VR lens is on a tripod and I probably turned it off when I went to the Folsom zoo to photograph the animals there a couple of weeks ago. When will I learn to look at all the settings on my equipment to make sure they are appropriate for the job at hand? I thought I was doing better at resetting things. Obviously, not. Out of about 100 photos I took this afternoon, just a handful are in focus. The two best were a dragonfly and a baby robin, which I chose because I just featured a dragonfly the other day. Unfortunately, the only baby robin photo that was in focus has a leaf in front of the baby’s eye. Fortunately, I used a wide enough aperture to blur it a bit.
Focal Length 300mm
ISO 200
f/8
1/100
SOOC