rudy_digiacinto1

Art is for people who can't take good photographs. My walls are a museum that are full of the moments of my life in the place I enjoy most, the outdoors. Others would have to pay me a hundred dollars for these works, but I get them for free, since I would have been in the outdoors anyway.

How do you catch a unique Bald Eagle? Unique up on him! Study the birds and outsmart them! Intelligence is a force multiplier for all of you ex-military people out there!

I have not had the experience of photographing large carnivores in the wild. I have had the experience of trying to use fill-flash to photograph large herbavores (Whitetail Deer) and can tell you that you are waisting your time. The deer's ears are so sensitive that they will hear the flash unit power-up and the only thing you will be able to photograph is the empty space they were standing in. As for wild animals known to attack human beings, (grizzlies) It is not a good idea to do anything that might startle them or give away your position if it has not already been assessed by the bear. Escpecially if the bear has young nearby.

I haven't been successful at getting a great owl picture myself, but it's not from a lack of a few oportunities. I accidently came face to face with a barred owl once and was so scared and mesmorized by his big eyes looking at me, I froze-up and didn't take a picture. To be that close to a wild Bird of Prey was startling at best. The best time of year to spot owls is during winter or early spring before the trees are covered with leaves. During a hard winter with a lot of snow cover, owls will tend to become active during the late afternoon hours because food is harder to find. The best way to spot owls in the summer time is to listen for packs of crows or blue jays yelling exctitedly in a confined area. They have either spotted an owl or a hawk and will harrass the bird of prey for a long time. I just spotted and again missed an owl last week that blue jays were attacking.

Would you accept a counterfeit $20 dollar bill as real? Manipulating wildlife or using captive wildlife to get a great picture is no better than counterfeiting in my opinion. Does manipulation have its place? Yes, when the images are to be used in an identification or scientific manual like Peterson's, but when somone does this to enter a contest, I think it is an act of fraud. Why not use a stuffed animal or bird instead and save all that time and money. Anybody with a good camera can get great pictures of animals at the zoo. Does handling wildlife affect the wildlife? Yes it does and you could be writing the death warrant of that animal or bird by doing so. Some birds/animals will abandon their young if they smell human scent on their young. Young birds of prey that have become used to humans because they were handled when young by humans, usually end up in cages after they accidently attack the Sunday picnic looking for food from the humans they no longer fear. Black Bears become nuisance bears when they loose their fear of humans typically because some kind soul was feeding them or playing with the cute little cubs. These bears will be killed by local game wardens because they have now become a threat to humans. So my advice and hope is that we all keep the wild in wildlife and put the extra effort in getting the picture naturally. Overcoming obstacles or outsmarting the wildlife is half the fun of wildlife photography!

I was recently in the same quandry and had my mind made up for me when trying to take scenic pictures of the moon at night. Both of my canon zoom lenses (28-80,75-300) failed to take usable pictures because of flaring and double images. The moon was full, big, orange, bright, and this caused bad flaring and ghost images. I believe this is unfortunately an inherent flaw in zoom lenses. I have taken excellent celestial pictures with my Pentax 50 mm straight lens with no flaring.So I would recommend any short non zoom lens as part of your lens collection if you want to shoot at bright light sources.

I use both a window mount and a bean bag. The bean bag is far superior on windy days because it envolopes the lens. The window pod is almost uslesess on windy days, but itis superior when the winds are calm/light. How the pod is mounted does make a difference. The bean bag also doubles as a pillow when I get tired, so I always have it in my truck.