robert becker

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I like your attitude, John. If everyone went out and bought high quality lenses to "fill the bag", we'll be out of this recession in no time!

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All,

 

Thanks for the responses and comments. This is a great hobby we enjoy, but it has the potential to land us in these predicaments of having to explain ourselves.

 

Brian Carey,

 

Truth be told, I was rather nervous about being accused of something unthinkable and being labeled (branded for life) as some kind of peeping tom or pervert. Or possibly worse and being accused of a crime and having to defend myself in court.

 

Joe Smith,

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out in more detail when time permits.

I couldn't agree with David's comments more. The most important thing to remember is to move very slowly and don't make eye contact. Even when setting the tripod, keep the camera pointing away from the bird. They must view the lens as if it were a great big eyeball. Normally I'll get a few "grab" shots as soon as I can, then try to get closer and closer. Each time I stop, I'll fire off a few more grab shots. Another trick I use (and tend to prefer due to it's success rate) is to stay in my truck with the camera ready on a beanbag on the window sill. I suppose the animals don't view the truck as much of a threat as a human walking.

 

Good luck.

Greg, I agree it happens. Just for giggles, I might spend every Saturday morning in that same place from now on! You know...photographing waterfowl and such.

So this morning I was out enjoying my favorite hobby of wildlife photography. I had been shooting some songbirds in

shrubs and waterfowl along a local river. The area I was shooting is public property, but across the river is high end

private homes. After the action slowed down, I decided to head back to my truck parked about 1/2 mile away. As I

was driving away from the parking lot, two men with a dog stopped me. The older man told me that he noticed my

binoculars on my dashboard and asked if I was taking pictures of his house. I told him I was not taking pictures of

anyone's house, but of wildlife. He seemed rather belligerent so I decide to call the police to stop this nonsense and

to absolve any possiblility of wrong doing on my part. The police seemed rather disinterested in the matter, but

dispatched an officer anyway. It turns out, the officer is a bit of a nature photographer himself, but could understand

why the two men were upset about someone photographing their house. I showed the officer the camera and

explained that the file numbers were consecutive and nothing has been deleted, then went through the two hundred

or so shots that I had from the morning without even so much as a hint of anyone's house in the shots.

 

As I departed the scene, the officer was busy reprimanding the two men about how it's within my right to shoot

photos in a public place or even to photograph their house for that matter and how it was wrong for them to follow me

to my truck to "talk" to me. As I drove away, I thought I would record the scene for posterity and I shot a dozen grab

shots of the lecture for the heck of it.

 

I needed to rant a little, thanks for letting me vent.

 

Any thoughts?

Here's a link to a photo of the culprit. Nasty stuff. I never would want to tangle with it again. http://www.pbase.com/robert_becker/image/114797704

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Jeffrey Lee

The 40D was introduced in 2007 and not even a year later the 50D already replaced it. No more new 40D's.

 

Yep, and probably the 50D will be upstaged with a 55D in the fall: 18.1 friggen MP, HD video, GPA enhancer, pheromone emitters and built-in direct upload buttons to FaceBook and uTube

 

 

Hehehe, but still no mirror lock-up button!

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I bet it would be a real bitch to throw over your shoulder for a little walk around the marsh!

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Happening to me as well. Strange though, the advertisment content seems to load quickly and smoothly. It's becoming too frustrating.

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First sign of spring.<div></div>

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I would agree with Derrick's comments. I typically shoot in Aperture Priority mode with the lens stopped down one stop from wide open. Keep the ISO as high as you need to provide a very fast shutter speed. I routinely shoot with the ISO at 800. The trick to avoiding noise associated with the high ISO is to use exposure compensation to keep the histogram toward the right without blowing the highlights. Noise will become evident when you allow the shot to become underexposed. Just an FYI, you can pick up tons of great information from Art Morris on his website www.birdsasart.com and www.birdphotographers.net

Keep shooting,

Robert

I must be getting more and more impatient as I get older. The amount of time I need to wait for ads to load on every page is driving me nutty! If they start beeping or other noises, I'm going to take a serious look at pbase!

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