Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion

There is a lot going on this Spring in my household.  One thing, that I’m pretty excited about, is that there is a robin’s nest outside of my kitchen window.  I’m busy taking photos of the birds as they are growing.  I use a fast shutter speed setting on my camera but sometimes I still get photos that look like this:

ISO 1000 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/125

A second later I get a clear shot:

ISO 1000 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/125

This shot has been cropped and sharpened in Photoshop.  No amount of sharpening is going to make that first picture a clear shot.  For the most part to get these shots I have my camera on a tripod which is set on top of a few of the good dining room chairs that I have set outside.  I have a remote shutter which allows me to be inside and taking pictures.  I took a photo of this silly looking set up and blogged about it here.  For the two shots above I used my Canon 50D.  I also take my point and shoot out when I am setting up my larger camera.  This morning I got this shot:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/2.7 1/200

This shot, cropped and sharpened, is my favorite of the day.  I’v been using my point and shoot everyday to get a close up photo like this.  I have a series of photos of the eggs and then the hatchlings.  Those photos I have posted on Twitter and Flickr, so feel free to drop by and follow along with the unfolding story there.

The difference between the two photos, between a blur of motion and a clear shot, is one second.  The first photo taken at 9:17:47 and the second 9:17:48.  What a difference a second can make.

What do you think? which photo do you prefer? Care to hazard a guess as to how many photos I took this morning between 8:31 and 9:18 as I was watching the adult birds come and go?  Feel free to leave a comment or you guess below.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Turtles in Motion

I’ve done a lot of hiking and biking this summer.  We have spotted quite a few turtles on our outdoor adventures in the last few weeks so I thought I would share a few:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/200

This little Eastern River Cooter was in the middle of the Katy trail.  Not a good spot, and we narrowly missed running it over with our bikes.  After taking this picture we put this little one in a safer spot off the side of the trail. The Katy trail is 237 miles long, the longest “rails to trails” trail in the US.  It runs through Missouri and is a nice place to bike or hike.  It was a hot day when I took this picture, and despite all the rain and flooding along the Missouri River this year, the trail was quite dusty as you can see by the layer of dust this turtle has on it.  In order to get at clear shot, I put my ISO to 100 and used a fast shutter speed in hopes of cutting down on the amount of light.  I put my f-stop at 7.1 so that I would get as much detail in the turtle as possible.  For this shot the background didn’t need to be in focus.

This second turtle was on a hiking trail at Onondaga Cave State Park which is also in Missouri:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/60

This is an Western Painted Box Turtle.  It was right on the edge of a trail we were hiking.  It was shady here so to get the photo I increased my ISO to 640 and had a fairly slow shutter speed of 1/60.  It worked in this particular picture, but as I was trying to take other photos with more of the turtle and less of the grass, he made his getaway:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/40

So, despite their reputation as being slow animals, a turtle really can move when it is motivated to do so!

I am not an expert at identifying turtles, so I used this site to help me.  It was kind of like playing 20 questions the turtle version.  Do you think I got them right?

This post was written in part as a response to the weekly theme at Where’s My backpack? this week featuring motion.

Cheers!

This falcon is faster than shutter speed

Aptly named “Lightning”, this peregrine falcon is faster than my shutter speed.

ISO 1250 135mm f5.6 1/100

It was pretty shady when Lightning was getting settled on the perch.  I didn’t get a clear shot of the wings with the motion frozen, so here is my favorite in motion picture.

Below is my favorite peregrine shot of the morning:

ISO 800 135mm f5.6 1/100

The light was working a bit more in my favor, plus the lack of movement meant I could lower my ISO.  I like the color in this shot as well.

Here is one with the wings tucked in:

ISO 320 135mm f/5.6 1/25

All three photos were taken using a tripod and remote shutter, in an attempt to get a clear a picture as possible.

I love the peregrine falcon.  There are a lot of them in the area.  Their story of coming back from the brink of extinction just goes to show how much harm we humans are capable of inflicting on our environment.  OK, will step off soapbox now.

Cheers!