Nashville Zoo

From the 'right place at the right time department':

Went to the Nashville Zoo with some friends. Lugged around the big lens all day in the backpack, which is a bigger chore than I'd like to admit. That may, or may not, imply that I am a wuss. Right before we were ready to leave, I finally had a good reason to whip out the big gun. So, in the end, it was worth carrying it around all day. This cougar is playing with a ball that, surprisingly, seems to have developed a small leak. I can't take credit for snapping at the right moment, I was firing in bursts and did get lucky that one shot hit pretty close to home. The light level was a little low - the cougar shots are at ISO1600, maximum aperture.

Moonbow, Cumberland Falls

5 Minute, ISO400
7:33PM CST

Well.... Some days I go out and shoot all day, then pull them all in, and finally, when I see that all of them are crap... I think I must be photographically challenged. (From the looks of that last sentence, englishly challenged also.)

Then, on rare occasion, I go out and shoot all day and get a few keepers.

A polarizer and ND1000 filter were used on all but the moonbow shots. I went overboard with the polarizer on some (mainly the bridge shots). I cropped most of the sky out of those as it was dark and unevenly polarized. (They say that can happen with a wide angle lens - they seem to know what they are talking about. Whoever 'they' are.)

Moonbow:
I was going to leave just as it was getting dark, but the moonbow was starting to make an appearance, even though the moon was only 1/2 to 3/4 full. It was pretty dark. In person, it (the moonbow), looked more whitish.

Next weekend will be a full moon, but the moon is going to rise several hours later so it may be 11pm or so before the moonbow may be out.

20 Second

6 Second

8 Second

8 Second

This is the same photo as above, converted to B&W.

30 Second

15 Second

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More Bear. More Canoe. More Water.

Last Time Was Daytime. This Time Is Nighttime.

Ok, so I have taken tons of pictures here. Here is one more.

Cloudy in BG

My favorite nearby, and easy, shooting spot.
Nice clouds, so I stopped by on the way home.

This (below) was taken with an iphone 4. I originally took it mainly for GPS coordinates, but it turned out surprisingly good, for a camera on a phone.

Bear Canoeing

This is bear. He loves to canoe. He stays up there the whole trip (several hours).

Several campers took pictures of us (well really of Bear) as we went by.

Deer and Turkey

Now that sunrise is happening at a more reasonable time, I am no longer sleeping through the best part of it.

ISO 6400 Shots

Now With More Fog!

I have been on a frog kick for a while, now for a fog kick.

Maybe I have the frog habit licked. Hmmm.

My shots have been sucking substantially lately. I have just gone through and posted several from the past couple of weeks that have slightly less 'suckage'.

Different Butterfly, Different Flower, Different Day. And a Bee.

It's Foggy, and this is a Road.

This is a road, and it's foggy. I think we've got that covered.

Look, no frogs. Amazing.

Same Horse Different Day - Same Frog Different Day

This barn is very close to the park boundary. I saw the horse this spring and got a few shots. Now, as I go into the park, I look to see if he is around. Today he was.

Weekly Dose of Frogs.

You've seen one frog, you've seen them all.
Yet, more frogs - they are here.
I needed to get a little bike riding in this weekend, so I did it in the park, and hit the pond before and after.

My guess is that he is better at catching food than he looks.

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Wow! Lightroom 3 high-iso noise reduction.
I am gaining confidence to crank up the ISO when I need to. The dragon fly was hand held at iso 6400. With lightroom 2 that would have been a mess, there is visible noise, but I'm happy with it.

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The back end:
This is obviously not the most stable way to setup a tripod. I used a remote shutter release , and there was no wind, so it was a quick way to lower the camera and get the job done. In other words, again, I am lazy.

Even More.

I am working on my frogging technique, so I may be going up to the pond several more times.
So... here are more frogs - may as well get used to it.

The polarizer filter is the ticket.