I finally felt well enough to use the borrowed extension ladder
to get up on the roof and look at what the roofers had done.
Then I got sufficiently distracted shooting birds and helicopters
that I forgot to take pictures of where the roof is sagging.
Oops.
More stuff I've learned about shooting birds:
If they're moving downwind and are faster than a pigeon, fuggedaboudit.
There's a nest inside my chimney (about five feet down, I think).
Lying on my back does help for tracking them across the sky, but
makes seeing what direction they'll be coming from harder. (This
shouldn't be as much of a problem when I try to shoot the sentry
bat next month. In past years, it has established a pretty stable
route and held to it flight after flight, night after night. But
it'll be a factor if I try to shoot feeding bats.)
That cardinal is bloody fast, and sneaky. But I might have a
start on figuring out the robin's pattern.
If I have to think about it, the bird is already out of the frame.
Raptors are convenient. They just hang there in a thermal,
waiting for me to shoot.
I don't think I'm ever gonna get that damned dragonfly. Yes,
I know that's not a bird, bat, or helicopter; it did zip past
me at a womdigious speed a few times.
At one point I had the 100-300 zoom on, 'cause, well, I was
planning to shoot birds with it ... and two sparrows decided
to loop around my ankles. That lens doesn't focus that close.
The rest of the afternoon the sparrows stayed too far away to
shoot at all. I tell you, they're doin' it to me on purpose ...
Earlier, I watched a small black bird launch itself into a
headwind and get stuck. It stayed stuck in place in midair
long enough for me to get a long lens up and pointed in the
right direction, but not long enough for me to focus after
that. (But it was a really cute sight.)
The weather was working against me on the medevac helipad. The
air doesn't look as hazy as it did last week, but I still got
a lot of fog in the frames where I tried to shoot it, about a
mile away (uh, 1.2 miles, I think, but I can check it with my
odometer the next time I go downtown). The same shot just after
dusk with the camera not braced as well a couple days ago was
clearer. (This afternoon I rested the camera on the chimney; a
couple nights ago I was leaning out a window.) I have to check
again after I copy the photos onto my computer, but looking at
the LCD there didn't seem to be much difference in fogging
between the lens I don't have a UV filter for and the lens that
had a UV filter on it, so I think it's just summer humidity.
OTOH, the police helicopter came near enough for me to get the
best shot of it I've managed yet.
-- Glenn
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