Category Archives: photography

The Battle of Technologies: Hummingbirds and Cameras

Hummingbirds, photography

 

 

As I said, I went to the English Country Garden to meet friends and pursue hummingbirds. It was a glorious day.  The Best of Times? Pretty close. Yet, the clear blue skies provided a distinct challenge. As a result, inside the gardens the plants soaked in sunlight and spread deep shadows underneath their branches and leaves.  Photographers call this contrasty light. Cameras really can’t match the variation from bright sunlight to dark shadow very well. The camera’s light meter is challenged to pronounce what would be an appropriate lens opening to allow in just the “right” amount of light for the instant the aperture is open. And it really is an instant.

 

And as you follow a hummingbird, if you are able to do the right setting chances every second. The aperture of a camera lets in the light. It is opened and closed by the shutter. The longer the. shutter is open the more light is allowed in. The shorter time the shutter speed is opened the less light is allowed in.  In my camera, the shutter of the Nikon Z8 can be opened as little as 1/32,000 of a second. Think of that. It is an incredible short period of time. Even shorter time than a hummingbird’s wings will beat. The electronic shutter is much faster! This is incredible technology.

 

As well, the technology of my camera is designed so that one can continuously, within limits, track and keep a bird in focus!  It focuses on the eyes. The most important part of a bird to keep in focus.  But it does require the operator—me in other words—to keep the camera lens aimed at the bird while it flits in and out of the flowers in the park. This is a Herculean task. Actually, impossible. The camera can only focus on those eyes while the lens is “looking” at the bird. If it flits into the shadow or behind a flower or behind a leaf it is “lost.”  The camera will focus on the next nearest thing—like a leaf you don’t care about.

This is a battle royal between technologies. The technology of the hummingbird is astounding. The hummingbird is as described as “the most remarkable things on 2 wings” by a documentary film I watched on PBS called Magic in the Air.  The film also said they are “intriguing, enchanting and utterly captivating.” All of that is true.

Hummingbirds are so fast that they rarely provide more than a fleeting glimpse to the observer. That is a pity because there is much to see. It also made, I found out, my task of pointing my camera lens at the hummingbirds at the right time, incredibly difficult. They were there and then they were gone. I seemed to always be behind them. By the end of the afternoon, I was convinced that despite my fancy camera I would get no images at all. Just air and leaves and shadows. That is what I feared. I feared these were indeed the worst of times. And I wanted the best of times. It seemed to me an impossible task.

The camera  also had another technological trick up its  sleeve.  The camera could repeatedly lift the shutter and expose an image at astonishing speeds. Over and over again! I could set the camera to automatically fire a burst of images on merely touching the shutter button.  And it would keep firing away repeatedly at amazing speeds.  Mistakenly, I had set the camera to keep firing away at the highest level—10 to 20 frames per second. Imagine that, the camera would be set up to photograph that many images with one press of the shutter. The camera could make all the calculations of shutter speed that fast.  Over and over again. It was incredible.

Later I realized, when I looked at the images from my camera card on my computer, I had actually caught some pretty good images. At least by my lowly standards.  The camera had been faster than I. the technology of the camera was far better than the Hans Neufeld technology. It managed to capture some images of these illusive birds.

 

September 2, 2024: Mother Nature was not cooperating

 

All of these problems were exasperated by the incredible winds. If the hummingbird landed on a branch in the sun, as it did from time to time, it was only for a brief moment. And then, as often as not the wind moved the branch a great distance and the bird somehow managed to hang on for dear light. Of course, by then, the camera lens was no longer pointed at the bird, but that darned tree again.

 

This was the most amazing race of technologies.  The Bird was holding its own however. If would alight on a branch or hover in front of a flower for just the briefest moment before moving on. I was profoundly challenged to keep up. This was the real amazing race.

 

However, the birds had one flaw which made it almost impossible to grab an image in focus.  They would constantly be chasing each other. These tiny hummingbirds are amazingly territorial. Even though there was an abundance of nectar—the nectar of the Gods, yet each bird would try to chase away each competitor. That I show they have evolved. Don’t let any other bird get your nectar!  Even if it means you are wasting an in incredible amount of time in which you could be fueling up, you were instead chasing the competition away. This was insanity.

 

This was insane.  Each bird in the garden could easily find plenty of flowers for itself. Hummingbirds are the tiniest birds in the western hemisphere.  A baby hummingbird is about as heavy as a post-it note! As soon as they can fly, they are constantly on the move.  They stop for very short and infrequent rest stops. Like this bird posing for me in the sun. Mocking me and my feeble efforts.

 

[1] “Magic in the Air”, PBS

The Best of Times and the Worst of Time

Hummingbirds, photography

 

I was extremely pleased to get this photograph

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

― Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

In some respects, I have experienced the summer from Hell. And I don’t want to stay in Hell any longer. In other respects, it has been the summer from Heaven and I want a lot more of it. Like Charles Dickens said, “They were the best of times; they were the worst of times.”

 

The troubles started at the end of 2023 when I accidentially pitched myself down the stairs in our home, and, frankly, was lucky to be alive and not paralyzed. I had literally sailed down the stairs head first until it collided abruptly with hard prejudice, against the bulkhead, leaving a big hole where my head hit. I hit the bulk head nearly 7 feet above the stair underneatb where the collision occurred. That pitched me back onto my ample derriere and slid the rest of way down. Hitting that board, I now believe saved me from more grievous injury. I lay there utterly defeated, but without broken bones or paralysis. I think I was lucky. Very lucky.

 

I did however have a torn meniscus which interfered with my enjoyment. Then I carelessly affixed my camera to its tripod on the patio of the house we were renting in San Tan Valley Arizona and it fell relegating it to the dump heap. I did have an old spare camera, but I was grumpy.

 

As a result, I was unable to do the things in Arizona that I liked the most. Except for attending Arizona State University and numerous (too numerous?) happy hour with friends. I was not able to swim the breas stroke and hiking was very difficult.

 

When we got back to Canada I was determined to buy a new camera and a better one at that. That is what I did. And it was a dandy camera.  Much too expensive for a schlep photographer like me to be honest. Then I made a bad mistake. I jammed the camera’s adapter into my best lens, which I needed to photography wild flowers and the two were stuck.  Like lovers in a loveless marriage. I wasted most of the summer to get the lens and adapter repaired. The details are a long pitiless story which I will spare my faithful readers.

 

Finally, a couple of days ago, I was back in business. I went to the English Country Garden at the Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg to try to photograph hummingbirds. The camera has some special awesome technology that makes it ideal for that purpose.

 

However, because of my malfeasance and making my fantastic camera unavailable for most of the summer, I had been unable to complete the steep learning curve to figure out how to fully use this technical marvel of a camera. I had learned the basics most of which I had sadly forgotten.  I realize, as a result, that any attempts to capture images of the extremely illusive hummingbirds at the English Country Garden.  I realized I would have to learn on the fly. And I knew this would not be easy. I feared my mental technology was not upto the photo technology.

 

I went with my friend, Sheldon Emberly and his friend, who I think is now also my friend,  Bev Giesbrecht. These people had already been photographing humming birds for 2 hours before I got there. And they got some great shots. Needless to say, I was jealous.

I feared it would be the worst of times.

 

To be continued.

 

Pursuing Truth and Beauty

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Arizona Photos, art, exotic flowers, Philosophy/Ideas, photography, Poetry

 

When I saw this cactus in Green Valley Arizona, south of Tucson and near the Mexican border I thought it might be the most beautiful cactus I had ever seen. I was on a church yard, so I thought I could walk and photograph it without fear of being shot.

 

When I first retired I said I wanted to stop spending my time in order to make a living and feed my family, I wanted now to pursue “truth and beauty” as John Keats said. I have done that. And it has been great fun.

When I went to university, in my first English literature course, taught by Jack Woodbury, one of the best professors I ever had, the first poet we studied was John Keats. English poet. He published only 54 poems before he died at the age of 25.  That is 54 more than I have published. And many of them were great poems.

John Keats was an English Romantic poet, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and others. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when in 1821 he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. Talk about brief beauty!

 

One of the poems we read was “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”  This might have been the 3rd or 4th poem I studied in university. The poem describes an urn with an image of  a young shepherd pursuing a beautiful young woman who he wants to kiss. But of course, in the image he never catches her. She is forever, a “still unravished bride of quietness.” She never speaks. Their love is never consummated, but their love never turns stale either. It is a love that never withers. The shepherd is also a piper whose song is never heard.  But this too is fine. As Keats says in the poem, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.”

The last two lines of that poem go as follows:

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

 

There has been much critical debate about what those words mean. Many, including me, have puzzled over the meaning of those words. I think they make sense in the context of the whole poem. In a way it is a summation of the poet’s thinking expressed by the previous 48 lines.

By beauty I think he means beauty in a wide sense. Beauty basically is art. And art is true or it is not art. So beauty is truth and truth is beauty. Some cactuses bloom only for a day. What a dreadful pity.

So a beautiful cactus flower, caught in a silent moment by a camera, is a work of art (beauty)  that never withers. It  is an eternal thing of beauty. If is it good, it is good forever.  It never changes. That is truth which also is truth forever.

 

 

Ephemeral Beauty

2023 Grand Finale Tour, exotic flowers, photography

 

The first time I saw one of these gems, called the Argentine Giant Cactus I was told they bloomed for only 1 day.  I was stunned. How could such beauty be so brief? We heard this on the way out of the Phoenix Botancial Garden a few years ago. And they were blooming right now!  Of course, we had no option but to return back to see them. And they were indeed stunning. And the next day the flowers were gone!

 

In one respect we were very lucky in the weird year.  The cactuses were blooming about 2 weeks later than they normally do.  As a result, in a normal year where we leave for home on the last day of March, we would have seen very few cactuses blooming. That would have been disastrous. As it was, since we left April 15th this year, we got to see a lot cactuses in bloom. Not as many as we would have liked, but disaster was avoided. I did not have to pitch myself off a building.

 

One disadvantage of looking at cultivated cacti was I often did not know what kind of cacti they were.  I have some knowledge about wild cactuses but even less of the exotic ones

 

I always say I am an orchid guy.and it is true, I am an orchid guy. But I must admit cacti are pretty good too. Sometimes it is cruel how short of time we get to enjoy such beauty. And if you miss it, you must wait a year to redeem yourself.

Harris Hawks: Hawks of the South

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, Natural History, photography

 

 

In the US Harris Hawks can be found from Arizona to Texas, but not farther north. They can be found as far south as South America.

It has a long tail and a relatively small head.  Harris’s hawks can live up to 15 or 20 years old. The Harris’s hawk is usually between 18-24 inches in body length and has a wingspan of 3-4 feet yet only weighs from 1&1/2 pounds to 2 & ½ pounds.

Some of the Harris Hawks nest in spring but some females lay a second or even a third clutch whether or not their first breeding attempt fails. As a result, in Arizona eggs have been recorded in each month of the year.  This is possible because they nest in the southwest USA and farther south. This would not be so easy in Manitoba.

Young Harris Hawks sometimes play with each other by chasing insects or jumping on stick in imitation of the prey they capture.

Like most hawks, the female Harris hawks are larger than their male counterparts.  males. Sometimes these hawks practice a behavior known as “back-standing” where several birds stand on top of each other.

 

Crested Caracara

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, photography

 

 

I have been to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum many times, but this year we saw a new species the Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway). This  bird is a fairly recent immigrant to Arizona that flew in over Trump’s vaunted wall. Actually, it arrived before the wall, but the wall would not have bothered it.

This bird is very rare in the United States, but it has been expanding its range into the southern United. So far it has only reached a few of the most southerly states.

It was a treat to see this magnificent bird up close.

It is a falcon but looks a little like a vulture. It acts a bit like a vulture too usually dining on carcases or otherwise immobile prey that it locates by soaring or cruising over pastureland or grassland. Sometimes it can be found in a group of vultures participating in a feast.

It is easy to recognize this bird as it stands tall on yellow-orange legs with a sharp black cap set off against a white neck and yellow-orange face

 

The Crested Caracara is a bird of open country and reaches only a few states in the southern U.S. It flies low on flat wings, and routinely walks on the ground.

 

 

 

A silent hunter

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Arizona Photos, Birds, photography

 

 

The Great Horned owls fly extremely quietly to avoid giving themselves away to their prey. I learned this personally and directly when I was at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum one came up from behind me and flew right over my head and I never heard it. It was so close I could have touched it. I did hear excited people gasping near to me and I did not why until it had flown by . It was so close I could have touched it. I pretended to be brave. It gave me a personal feeling of what it must be like to be a prey of such a magnificent raptor. It was thrilling.

These owls have very good low-light eyesight, and hearing that allows them to spot prey in difficult circumstances. I don’t think they saw an old fat guy like me as prey.

These owls don’t actually have horns. They have tufts near the ears that gives them their names. They also have deep yellow eyes

They will eat a great variety of prey including large insects, reptiles, amphibians, other birds, and small mammals such as skunks and jackrabbits. I don’t know about you but I have no intent to add skunk to my diet.

The Great Horned Owl is a generalist raptor that captures a very wide range of prey, including reptiles, amphibians, rodents, and birds and can be found throughout the U.S. and even Canada in many different all habitats.

Owls do not build their own nests; because they lay eggs earlier in the year than most other species, they use old raven and hawk nests to raise their young. As a result, in Manitoba I have managed to see them early in the year where their young must battle the cold.

 These owls sometimes fall prey to Golden eagles or Northern goshawks.

Today was the first time I managed to capture a photo of these magnificent birds in flight. It was a great experience for which I was very grateful .

 

Great Horned Owl

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, Natural History, photography

 

 

 

At the Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum I saw a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) can close its feet with 500 psi (pounds per square inch). I have seen these before in Manitoba but never this close. This was a treat.

The average human exerts- squeezing as hard as 80-150 psi. However, the story that owls will eat your dogs/cats is an mainly an urban legend because an owl cannot lift more than its own body weight of (2-3 lbs).

These owls are found around North America, and owls are found throughout urban areas. Many people fear they will attack their pet cats.  While we don’t like to say it ‘never’ happens, it certainly doesn’t happen with frequency. Owls will dive at cats, dogs and even people if they have a nest in the area, sometimes misconstrued as a hunting attempt.

 

The Great Horned Owl is a generalist raptor that captures a very wide range of prey, including reptiles, amphibians, rodents, and birds and can be found throughout the U.S. and even Canada in many different all habitats. Today was the first time I managed to capture a photo of these magnificent birds in flight

These owls are found around North America, and owls are found throughout urban areas. Many people fear they will attack their pet cats.  While no one should  say it ‘never’ happens, it certainly doesn’t happen with frequency. Owls will dive at cats, dogs and even people if they have a nest in the area, sometimes misconstrued as a hunting attempt.

 

Sonoran Desert Museum Tucson

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, Natural History, photography

 

This is a Great Horned Owl which I saw in Tucson Arizona this winter.

In Arizona this past winter, we went to one of my favorite places in Arizona, the Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona. The word “museum” however is very misleading. You have to put all of your preconceptions about what a museum is on the shelf. This place is very different.  As they say here, “this is a place to turn your idea of museum inside out.”

It is almost entirely outdoors and consists of a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery that was founded in 1952 and is located west of Tucson adjacent to the Saguaro National Park and closely integrated with it. It  features 2 miles of walking paths through a 21 acres of desert landscape. It is a place of wonder. If you want to learn about the Sonoran Desert this is a great place to start as it contains much of the flora and fauna of that special North American desert.

My favorite part of this museum is the Live Raptor display that is held each winter. Here you get to see a variety of desert flying raptors flying in the wide open spaces. The birds are actually free to fly away and sometimes do exactly that. They don’t usually fly away because they know if they show a bit of patience people will place food for them in the surrounding shrubs, cacti and other plants. Why would you leave this place if food in convenient bite-sized chunks will soon be available? This food is place on shrubs close to where the people stand with cameras at the ready.

I have tried a number of times to get photos of raptors in flight and failed each time until this year. This year I was thrilled with my results. I have will show more of my photos in future posts.

The Museum  contains only birds that can be found in the Sonoran Desert.  The birds are completely untethered and without any jesses (leg straps) and mainly even without bracelets. A narrator tells the story of each specie on display that day including their habits, diets, hunting strategies, behaviors, and fun facts that I usually end up forgetting because I get to wrapped up in the raptor display. But that’s me.

The thing that is most surprising about this place is how close the raptors come to us. It turned out today that as far as the raptors were concerned, I was the centre of attention. A number of times they swooped right over my head. I could have touched them were I not such a smart guy (big chicken) who knew better than to touch them in flight. A few times I missed a great shot of a bird because I was too close to photograph it with my zoom lens.

This was a sensational day!

A Flower Child arrives in Heaven

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Arizona Photos, Natural History, photography, Wild Flowers, Wild Flowers of Southwest USA

 

 

 

When I was a young lad going to University, it was the time of hippies and flower children. I always considered myself as on the fringes of this group. The term we liked to refer to ourselves was “freaks.”  But I always liked the expression “flower children.”  It called to mind these crazy kids at the Kent State  University Vietnam War Protest, and other places, who stood in front of the national guard members that were pointing their rifles at them and they smiled at the guards and placed flowers in the barrels of the gun.  How crazy is that?   Much to my surprise I actually became a flower child of sorts many years later when as an adult of sorts I became interested in wildflowers. I remember my mother was amazed. How could this happen?  Well, my answer to her was, “How could it not happen?” What is there not to like about wildflowers?

It was a very windy day, so I gave up on trying to freeze images of flowering blowing in the breeze.

One afternoon this winter in Arizona Christiane and I went for a jaunt on Red Mountain Road and Saguaro Lake and then headed south to complete a loop to Busch Highway and then Usery Pass Road.  We saw many wildflowers along the way. But we were really shocked at Usery Pass Road  where there was a long line of cars parked beside the road. What was happening we wondered? It was the wildflower children going crazy photographing flowers. My sport has been turned over to the rabble! And there was good reason for that. The flowers were outstanding.

 

There was a traffic jam of sorts in the countryside where we saw these wild flowers. Everyone, it seemed wanted to see these gems. Who can blame them?