Yellow headed Black bird

spanky117ab

Just trying to keep the forum alive here so im posting yet another series of bird photos from our back yard. Our old horse drawn implement collection sure attracts all kinds of birds and im glad I placed them close to the slough. These are nice looking birds however their call is ear shredding and its hard to believe that the awful noise comes from such a pretty creature. Here is the Yellow headed black bird.
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Thanks for looking .....Mike

spanky117ab

I have noticed that my photos are no where near as sharp on this site as they are on my smug site and im adding them at a very high resolution. I never noticed this issue last year in here. Is Digital Grin lowering the resolution on all incoming photos now.

black mamba

Boy, Mike, you're on a great roll with the bird shooting. This group is really well done. It's interesting that you have some old farm equipment. Shooting rust is something I play around with quite a bit, but really it's just a venue for me to create some unusual art. Close to two years ago, I started acquiring a bunch of old farm implements myself to decorate a homestead I want to finish In Elizabethton, TN. To date, I've got 13 pieces sitting on a friend's back forty...an old truck, two tractors, a horse-drawn old carriage, and the rest old odds-and-ends stuff.

Tom

spanky117ab

@black mamba said:
Boy, Mike, you're on a great roll with the bird shooting. This group is really well done. It's interesting that you have some old farm equipment. Shooting rust is something I play around with quite a bit, but really it's just a venue for me to create some unusual art. Close to two years ago, I started acquiring a bunch of old farm implements myself to decorate a homestead I want to finish In Elizabethton, TN. To date, I've got 13 pieces sitting on a friend's back forty...an old truck, two tractors, a horse-drawn old carriage, and the rest old odds-and-ends stuff.

Tom

Thanks Tom , my wife and I started collecting old equipment for our 20 acre spread years ago and the critters seem to like it all. I also have a woodworking shop with all sorts of antique tools on the walls, sort of an old meets new thing. This will all change in the near future though as my beautiful wife of 40 years has passed away recently and I cant see myself living here much longer. Im not sure what the future will bring but I hope photography will still be in it. I have stage 4 cancer so for me it's all just a waiting game now. Thanks again for looking, have a good one. Regards ...Mike

sarasphotos

These are lovely, thanks for sharing!

black mamba

Mike, I'm sure sorry to hear of your wife's recent passing. I will pray that the Lord can bring comfort and understanding to you....not only for her passing but also for the health issues that confront you.

Tom

spanky117ab

@sarasphotos said:
These are lovely, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for looking Sara.

spanky117ab

@black mamba said:
Mike, I'm sure sorry to hear of your wife's recent passing. I will pray that the Lord can bring comfort and understanding to you....not only for her passing but also for the health issues that confront you.

Tom

Thank you very much for the kind words Tom, very much appreciated.

pathfinder

I enjoy your images of the yellow headed blackbird. Most seem sharp to my eye, except, perhaps #1. I wonder if the focus point was on the grass strand, rather than the bird, maybe?

You have not included any information about your gear, body, lenses, nor the distance you are from your subjects. It seems that you must be pretty close. That information might be something that your readers might find of interest.

Shooting birds has been one of my photographic interests over the years, too. I started, in Florida, years ago, with large tropical birds, under Harry Behret's tutelage. As you may know, Harry was the mod for this forum for wildlife for almost 20 years. I, only really began shooting song birds after being trapped at home, during the recent quarantine years. Small birds were much more challenging to me, than large birds, especially until the advent of modern, tracking, AF systems. Modern tracking AF systems have really helped shooting small birds, at least in my hands. To be able to capture the eye, in sharp focus, with the bird in flight, or hidden behind branches and leaves of bushes is truly magical. My images are shot with Canon bodies, including a 1DX Mk II, and and R5, R7, and an R3. My iDx Mk II is approaching 9 years old, and still works flawlessly. But my three R bodies AF systems are much better. I never thought I would ever say that.

I wandered through your galleries, here on smugmug, from your link in your Sig. You have a lot of very lovely images, and we have a lot of interests in common - old cameras, air rifles, old farm equipment, birds and raptors, moon shots, and lightning shots. And woodworking too. I do not find moose or elk in my backyard, however, here in west central Indiana. I do have an occasional white tailed deer. I have photographed a few moose in Yellowstone, Alberta, and Alaska. And elk in Yellowstone and North Carolina. And some other critters in Kenya, South Africa, Canada and Svalbard.

I am saddened to hear of your grief and health issues. I contemplate when I may face similar issues in the proximate future, almost every morning. I hope your outlook improves with the advent of warmer, spring weather.

spanky117ab

Thank you for the kind words Pathfinder, photography has helped me through troubling times and macro photography has been a great help when traveling was not possible due to my condition as I had a whole new world open up to me in my back yard. Im not sure how much longer I will stay here but hopefully it will be for a while yet. I have many interests and hobbies to keep me busy during the long cold winters here in Alberta and they have all helped to keep my mind clear of the health issues that I have no control over. Some folks tend to dwell in such matters, im not one of them, life is to short for that. Im really looking forward to the warm weather and the return of all the critters and insects. I shoot with Nikon D810 and a Nikon D500 bodies and have four lenses that include a 105mm f2.8 macro a 24-70mm f2.8 a 70-200mm f2.8 and a 200-500mm f5.6 . These four lenses cover everything that I photograph and then some. Take care, Regards.....Mike

pathfinder

Like you, a camera has been a faithful companion of mine for a very long time. I have been a digital shooter for only 20 years or so, compared to at least forty years with film when I was much younger. I always carried a camera in my tank bag when I was riding.

lynnma

Spanky thank you for sharing these beautiful shots, they are an inspiration to one who is just starting bird photography. I'm so glad that photography and mother nature can sustain you through these hard times. Life is life and living it to the full in our later years is all there is. I'm very sorry to hear of your great loss.
I look forward to your next post.