Mustang

P-51 Mustang

One of the demonstrations that really catch my attention at airshows are the old warbirds. These are usually reconditioned WWII era fighters and bombers. I am fascinated that some of these planes are still flying and impressed that there are people who care enough for these aircraft to keep them in the air.

This particular plane is the P-51 Mustang which escorted Allied bombers on bombing missions deep into Nazi territories. Thousands of these planes were manufactured for the war effort. Only about a hundred or so are still flying according the airshow's announcer.

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Spring Reflections

Spring Reflections

I saw these trees reflected in one of the ponds at Swan Lake in Sumter and thought that the colors would make a good image. With reflections like this I always wonder how I should have the image oriented. The way it is in this shot is how it was when I saw the reflection. The trees are across the pond, so the tops of the trees are closest to me in the reflection. You can see some ripples in the water in the upper portion of the image which gives the clue that it is a reflection and not simply an upside down photograph of some colorful trees.

Would it be better this way, with the reflection "upside down" but correct for how I saw it? Or would it be better rotated so it looks like the trees are "right-side-up", but you wouldn't realize it was a reflection until you noticed the ripples at the base of the trees?

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Wood Duck

Wood Duck

This little fellow was quite a patient little model. My father had been photographing him for about five minutes before I caught up to him. A second male wood duck had been there earlier, but escaped to the pond as my father started to take pictures. After I had gotten my couple of snaps, we found out why this guy had been waiting. His wife came out from underneath a feeding station where we hadn't seen her. I guess she had be freshening up of a date or something. She and the male duck waddled off to the pod together to enjoy the Spring evening ... and get some privacy.

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The Singing Mockingbird

Singing Mockingbird

While walking around the pond at Sumter's Swan Lake and Iris Gardens, I heard a songbird up in a tree. It was hard to find at first as it was hiding deep inside the branches. I did eventually spot it and was surprised to see that it was a Mockingbird. Most of the time that I hear them, they are screeching at other birds or at people that are getting too close to their nests. This seemed to be one of the happier ones. Spring does that to people as well as birds, I suppose.

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I am quite happy with the picture. First I was able to find the little guy without spooking him away. Second, I was able to frame him and focus in on him. The red berries around him give a nice bit of color to the scene. Third, I was able to push a little extra light onto him because I was using my SB 900 flash. Since he was backlit and in the tree, I needed some extra light to even out and fill in the shadows around and on him. Quite happy with the results as this is not something I think to do all of the time. The SB 900 is nice for this because it has a longer zoom range than other flashes. It zooms to 200mm which will throw light out farther than my other flash which only zooms to around 100mm or so if I recall. This means that more light will get to the subject, an important thing when using a flash in the daylight like this. It is hard to compete with the Sun after all. Plus, it better matches the zoom on my telephoto lens which was zoomed out to 300mm for this shot.

Of course, serious birding photographers use longer lenses than I have right now. Plus, they may also add an attachment to their flashes that adds a plastic Freznel lens to further extend the distance the flash can reach. The most commonly used one is call a "Better Beamer". I don't have one of those, but I have read several good reviews of them. Someday, if I ever get some of the more exotic lenses ... big if, by the way, right Honey? ;-) ... I will look into picking up one of those flash attachments. They are not that expensive compared to most other photography equipment.

I will mention that you go get some strange looks from people when you have a flash attached to your DSLR in broad daylight. You can almost see the though bubble over their heads, "The Sun is out. Why does he need that flash?" Well, the Sun might be out, but it might not be in the right place for your image. An external flash can help out in those situations. It might not take much extra light at all to even the exposure out to get a more pleasing image. Which is a good thing, because as I mentioned it is hard to compete with the Sun.

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Swan Lake

Swan Lake

This is not about the ballet. Last week, while visiting my parents, we took a trip over to Sumter, South Carolina and the Swan Lake and Iris Gardens.

My parents discovered the gardens a couple of years ago, and we had been trying to arrange a visit together. This time the weather and seasons cooperated and we were able to spend an afternoon there walking around the ponds, watching the swans and other birds, and generally enjoying a pleasant afternoon out with the family. My mother thought that most of the swans must have been hiding, but I thought there were plenty to see. Of course there were quite a few Canadian geese as well. Plus, we saw a few anhingas/cormorants as well a beautiful little wood duck. The flowers were not quite in bloom yet though. We saw some dogwoods of course, but the azaleas and particularly the irises had not budded out yet.

As I said, it was a pleasant afternoon outing with the family.

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