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Now on to the reptile house! A favorite place of mine for more than five decades (story here), seeing these critters always fascinates. Now being able to capture them for posterity takes it to a new level.
Knowing how dark it was inside, for these I cranked the ISO up to 1600 - something I would not have done with the D300s, but handled beautifully with the Bigger Cahoona. There was lots of press about how it's almost impossible to hand-hold the D850 because of the very high resolution, but I found on this visit that, with my style of shooting, the results are about the same as what I'm used to with the D300s.
The red flower things are fake but everything else is real...
Who says animals can't take good portraits? This little guy had a severely injured left eye, so had to overlay a copy of the right eye in its place.
Card below also "in development". Still learning how to do lots of things in Photoshop...
...and for your more traditional pose. Could photograph simians all day long.
Card below is still "in development":
Snapping away, tried to capture every conceivable angle that might look interesting. Many would ask, "Why the backside of a monkey?" (in fact someone did) Answer - 'cause I just like it...
Elbows on a railing helped keep the Bigger Cahoona steady during the tenth of a second it took to get this exposure.
These guys were everywhere around the zoo grounds at the time of this photo shoot, back in November.
Felt comfortable cranking the ISO up to 1600 at f5.3 in this exhibit area; the shutter speed was 1/60th of a second. Promotional card below (still in development), using the color from one of the brighter areas of the medulla for the lettering:
The wife asks, "Why do you need to make so many cards?". The answer is that I don't; I'm using these only as an opportunity to practice Photoshop skills, though some may end up in print someday...
Now THIS is where the Bigger Cahoona (D850) really showed its stuff...no way I could have captured something like this even with the Big Cahoona (D300s). In post-capture I was amazed at the quality that could be extracted from all those pixels in very challenging, low-light conditions.
Similar subjects below, as well as a business card (still in development) promoting this blog using the photo above. Think I'll save the best one of all for tomorrow's post...
People often overlook the fact that zoo staff are just as meticulously dedicated to caring for the plant life as well as the animals. This was captured just inside the entrance; different angle of same featured below:
I was standing quite a distance from this somewhat postcard-ish scene, but the 300mm zoom along with the over-the-top resolution of the Bigger Cahoona's sensor made short work of it.
Back in November of this year my wife went to Taiwan to visit family and get some business taken care of. I didn't go with her for the lack of vacation time, so was by myself here at the house for almost three weeks.
Very fortunately, I'd received the Bigger Cahoona just before she left, so had plenty of opportunity to play with it without taking time from her or the family. On one of those days I decided to go to the zoo.
It was wonderful. For five hours I did nothing but follow my instincts as a photographer, gravitating to whatever suited my fancy for as long as I wanted to be there. By the time it was over I'd snapped some 1,800 photos (thanks to burst and sometimes bracketing). At home I immediately threw away about 1,400, and from the remaining 400 whittled it down to 117 real keepers. Over time that number was reduced to about 90 that might be blogworthy, so here we are.
I'll be posting them in the order captured, beginning with these red and white flowers. The awesome landscaping done by zoo staff creates as much opportunity botanically as with the animals in their care.
This shot was hand-held and zoomed to the full 200mm on the Bigger Cahoona, captured from our back yard. Below is a crop from the same picture file, "edited to taste", as they say, in Photoshop:
Back in my college days, for the Christmas of 1978, I went up north to Wilmington, Delaware, to visit family. It was my first time there, as Dad had recently transferred back from Orange with DuPont.
Because it was my first visit, and because I was scheduled to arrive in the wee hours, Dad left a key under the mat, but with a warning: Robbie, their golden retriever, may take measures to protect the territory. I was told to be cautious upon entering the house.
After arriving from the airport at almost 4:00 in the morning I retrieved the key and very quietly inserted it, hoping not to alert Robbie. I opened the door and peered inside, not stepping in until I was sure it was safe.
Nothing happened, so in I went, setting my suitcase just inside the door. Since Robbie still hadn't made her presence known I felt she must be behind something, waiting for just the right moment to pounce. Very quietly I surveyed the area and, seeing no activity, went into the kitchen downstairs. Nothing. The family room, where the fireplace was...nothing there either. Where's this ferocious dog?
It was while in the formal living room that I heard a faint scratching sound, then something going "bump bump" as if it were thumping on the floor. The noise got louder when I went back into the kitchen. After a few seconds I was able to isolate it...under the table, where Robbie was trembling in fear so badly that her legs were shaking enough to cause her claws to scratch on the linoleum floor. Her imploring eyes told enough of the story - we'll be great friends if you don't scare me like that again!
It was much easier to use the 300mm zoom to capture this guy roosting among the branches. No trouble with pinpoint focus on the Bigger Cahoona...
Went to Orange for some heron action and was not disappointed. This was a luckier shot, hand-held while trying to follow the bird. Two other pics below, though the focus remained on the feet as it took off:
This was captured hand-held at full zoom, then cropped to about half of its original size. Even so, the detail is astounding, even when significantly magnified on the computer.
This is from the very first shoot with the new D850. A little nervous, I went to the back yard and started snapping away. Will these pics surprise me with their quality - or will they disappoint, rendering my purchase a failed investment? Fortunately the former proved to be the case, in spades!
One of the things they warn you about in the reviews and YouTube videos is that the 850 shouldn't be hand-held due to the massive resolution, which magnifies even the slightest shake. Obviously I could not have captured the moon pics without using a tripod, but the results with these guys - and many others captured later on - are about the same as with the D300s. Using burst, sometimes with exposure-compensation bracketing, will usually yield a keeper in the mix. Thus, it's business as usual...except now with a tool that is far superior to anything used up until now.
In between moon shots I swung the camera around to the east for this silhouette as the sky was lightening.
The next morning I was up before dawn to catch the moon as it set on the other side of the horizon. Using an app on the iPhone I researched its azimuth and where it would go, setting up the tripod behind Cook Jr. High near our house. As can be seen, it was getting light as this was captured. It is very highly cropped in, so only shows about a tenth of what was in the frame. The Bigger Cahoona is already proving its worth...
Back in my post of 02/15/11 I wondered how much better a full-frame sensor in a camera would be with 48 megapixels. Well, the D850 just came along with almost 46 and I thought that was close enough. And the answer to the question? Like night and day! The D300s, referred to as the Big Cahoona in this blog, is a fantastic camera, but the 850 takes the potential to a whole new level. And, due to my experience with the 300s, the learning curve has been quick and intuitive. I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to buy one, and that the wife gamely went along. Following tradition, this new tool will heretofore be known as the Bigger Cahoona.
It's a beast of a camera, not only in heft but in resolution, quality and file size. In fact I've already run into issues with getting the files small enough to post, which are typically reduced to about one megapixel JPEG's. Small considerations, though, in light of the vast potential - there is no picture that cannot be captured with a D850. Looking forward to what lies ahead...
Knowing that such high resolution requires a steadier hand, I'll be working a bit more with a tripod; this moon shot was captured using one on our driveway here close to Jersey Village. Pretty good, considering that the starter lens I purchased is a middling one that, at 28-300mm, has exactly the same reach as the D300s's 18-200mm...not one that would typically be used for this type of photography.
