The pTerodactyl posed perfectly in the Tangle Heart Tree for Valentine’s Day.
Miss Stripy Sparrow
Mama Owl
Sparky Sparrow
Daddy Owl snoozing at sunrise.
A congregation of cranes at dawn.
Tommee Towhee
Cranes celebrating the frosty sunrise.
The other side of Miss Stripy Sparrow.
A pTerodactyl takeoff.
A silly duck on takeoff.
“¡Hasta la huego you silly goose!”
As a thunderstorm blew in this evening lots of crows were flying all around us.
“Suffering succotash! Do I see birds?”
18% waning crescent moon February 7, 2021
We got about an inch of snow last night. The sun came out and melted most of the snow even though the high temp was only around 35ºF. The clouds broke up for a very short time this evening, allowing me to get a shot of the moon through the lavender mist†.
†Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) is a masterpiece by Jackson Pollock: https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights/pollock-number-1-1950-lavender-mist.html
Murder over the bosque
Lavinia asked if I had used a telescope to photograph the moon last night. Lavinia never lets me down on being observant and asking questions when something seems different like a whole lot of detail in the moon photo. As I answered her, I did not use a telescope, I used a 400mm lens that is equivalent to a 640mm lens on my Canon 7D Mark II body. I have been considering getting a long telephoto lens for quite some time.
I was originally looking at the Canon 100-400mm lens, which is one of Canon’s best telephoto zoom lenses for mere mortal photographers, such as myself. However, the 100-400mm lens is ƒ/4.5 to ƒ/5.6, which is a little slow for as much low light photography as I do. I really needed a faster telephoto lens. I seriously considered both the Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 and the Canon 300mm ƒ/2.8 lenses. The problem with those lenses for me is their weight. The Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 weighs in at 12 pounds, and the 300mm ƒ/2.8 weighs 6 pounds, 1/2 the weight of the 400mm ƒ/2.8, but still a heavy lens.
I ended up compromising on speed for lighter weight and bought a 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO lens with Refractive Optics, which enables Canon to put a 400mm ƒ/4.0 lens in the same body as the 300mm ƒ/2.8 lens, shaving 2 pounds off the weight in the process. At 4 pounds, the 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO is easy to handle, and fast enough to get decent images hand held in low light. In the photos of the owls below, we could only see outlines of the owls with our bare eyes like in the first photo, but not nearly as close up. The new lens is able to focus on the owls in relative darkness, through the branches and get an amazing amount of detail.
Spunk loves my new lens
Preening
Spunk’s a lens hugger
Intermission photographed using a Fuji XE-1 with 27mm ƒ/2.8 lens
“Who are you calling a ‘lens hugger?’ Stupid Paparazzo!”
RAW image of the owls before I cropped the image and adjusted the exposure, contrast, color balance, etc.
“Oh my! The paparazzo found us again.”
Mirroring
The streak photographed using a Canon 5Ds with a Canon 70-200mm ƒ/4.0 lens
A little over half a moon on 01/21/21
“It looks like the wind is blowing in a nice afterglow tonight.” Wise words Daddy Owl.
Crows on the crow highway.
Ducks basking in the afterglow.
Cranes, ducks, and geese enjoying the glow.
More crows heading south.
Sandias catching the afterglow long after sundown.
Clouds from the bosque view.
Gwendolyn gargoyling
Glenda and Gwendolyn have full run of the house, catio, and deck now. Teagan had cast them as flying monkeys in a kitty fantasy, and she was right. The kittens are like a couple of flying monkeys. They have become very difficult to photograph because they won’t hold still if they are out of the dark kitten caves they have made for themselves in the laundry room. The big kitties have finally accepted the kittens and everyone is getting along reasonably well. The big kitties have become much more playful under the influence of the kittens. Of course, the big cats are also teaching the kittens many of their bad habits.
Cranes coming in for landing with crows in the background.
Marble
Gwendolyn
We’re just dropping in the see what condition all the conditions are in.
Spunk in the fuzzy hammock I replaced the last burlap hammock with.
The murder of Crows continues.
“You didn’t include me in the title?” Nope! You’re the intermission.
Cranes cavorting
Glenda in the dark.
Cranes at sunset
Gwendolyn: “What cream?”
Glenda
Gwendolyn: “La Llorona? What were you saying about La Llorona drowning kittens?” Children. She drowns children.
Glenda: “Kittens are children too!”
Crows peppered the sky
Jets few by
Cranes fly by
Landing gears down
Mama Owl & Daddy Owl
Jupiter & Saturn
Wild moon
Saturn & Jupiter in the Tangle Heart Tree. I had to get way back into the wilds of the dark bosque with coyotes and chupacabras nipping at my heels to get the shot.
I made my way back onto the levy at the same time as the coyotes.
There were two of them and they paid little attention to me even though we were close to each other. After I lightened up the photo, I could see the coyote on the left had a bad case of mange.
I started walking towards the coyotes. They took one last look before they scurried into the bosque.
Crow flying under the quarter moon.
Saturn and Jupiter through the trees. They are supposed to conjoin in three days.
Crows over cranes at dusk.
Crows, crane, Sliver Moon over Mia’s Tree.
Intermission: Daddy owl hooted at me in the dark and got my attention. +2 stops made for an interesting exposure.
Crows and Sliver Moon.
An alignment of Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity, a plane, and the Sliver Moon under the Tangle Heart Tree. Saturn is trying to shine through the clouds above Jupiter.
Crows bathing in the Rio Grande in the late afternoon.
Video of the crows bathing.
The Pterodactyl was sunbathing in a cottonwood and took a flight when he got tired of the paparazzo photographing him. He landed on another cottonwood across the ditch. No sooner than he settled in, another Pterodactyl flew in a took his place.
What’s that?
Incoming
Ready
Get Set
New Pterodactyl
Off Center & Not Even 