Day 167—Larger Than Life

I’ve been so frustrated with my computer the past few days that I haven’t spent much time with my camera. This morning I sat on the patio while the temperature was still delightful (and the slight breeze kept it that way) and fiddled with camera settings, reading the manual specifications for each and trying to decide if I should make certain changes. What prompted my excursion into the bowels of my camera was a recent post on Moose Peterson’s blog announcing that he had just received his Nikon D800, a full six weeks after I received mine. I’m happy that I received mine earlier (I had to wait two months for mine as it was) because after all, I am a paying customer and Moose, wildlife photographer extraordinaire and man larger than life that he is, did receive his D800 gratis from B and H Camera, one of his sponsors. But I’m so glad he has one because I will be meeting Moose in February 2013 when I will be participating in his photography excursion to the Grand Canyon as . . . drum roll please . . . the only woman and I’ll be able to pick his brain about the camera. I was reviewing Moose’s D800 settings and comparing them to my own. And, thanks to Moose, I discovered that I could (and did) rename the default files that the camera produces with my own initials. Woot!

I was on the patio for almost an hour and a half enjoying the delightful area it has become (thanks to my sister-in-law’s recent help) and expecting the hummingbird to pay a visit. Although I could hear the hummers and other birds in the shrubs, and saw an occasional bird fly overhead, very few birds visited my patio this morning while I sat there. And, just as I stood up to go inside about noon, the hummer flew by my head and buzzed me, flying to a branch, then another, then another. I guess he was annoyed that I was camped out there for so long near his food source. I was hoping he’d come to the feeder while I was out and had my camera set to get some shots of that eventuality. Instead, he stayed secluded in the pear tree; I followed his sounds and found him but, of course, failed to reset my camera. Since I’m back to using manual mode, there was no chance for the camera to automatically make corrections. But the good news is that since my class, which required straight out of camera shots, is over, and I am relaxing my usual self-imposed requirement that my blog posts be SOOC, I edited this shot without feeling guilty. I cropped it and added a levels adjustment to brighten it. I’m posting the original as well. I was curious to see how much I could crop a shot and have it still be sharp. I’m happy with the results. This shows that Moose isn’t the only “larger than life” character in my life right now; I’d guess this photo makes the hummer about 3 times life size!

Info for both shots:

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
WB Fine Weather
f/5.6
1/320