Canada Geese Family: ISO 500, 227mm, f/6.3, 1/500

Spring is here. It seems a little late this year but these Canadian Geese are right on time.

Tags: Geese, Nature, Bird, Baby

Mothers Day: ISO 200, 70mm, f/4.6, 1/800

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend! This image shows the special relationship between mother and child.

This is also proof that spring is finally here. A mother mountain sheep keeping her infant close by at the Calgary Zoo. The baby sheep is showing off her leaping abilities by leaping as high she can. If the baby sheep could talk she would probably being saying to her mom, “Watch This! Watch This!”

Tags: Nature, Baby, Zoo, Sheep, Playful

As promised, the video of a baby wren falling out of its nest. I am also posting below a shorter clip of the wren coming back and hanging on a leaf. The baby wrens have no real tail yet.

Tags: Wren, Video, Nature, Baby, Apple Tree

Baby on Bark: ISO 800, 90mm, f/19, 1/250

Gaining Strength: ISO 800, 90mm, f/8, 1/250

Peering Out: ISO 800, 90mm, f/8, 1/45

The backyard is very quiet now. The House Wrens have left the crabapple tree and our yard. I was very fortunate to have the day off when the babies left the nest. I am still processing the images and video!

The above shots were of two different babies. The first two photos are of the same bird. He/she was the first to literally fall out of the nest. The bottom picture is the second bird to fall out. I managed to video record the second baby falling out. I will upload here when I get a chance.

I ended up using my Tamron 90mm 2.8 Macro lens to get these shots. My zoom lens could not focus at the short distance I was able to get to the nest. My 35mm was not filling the frame and I would have to crop a lot of the shots. I forgot how versatile the 90mm is for not only macro but for all other shooting situations.

I also had to increase the camera ISO to 800. This was uncharted territory for my newest camera (Canon 40D). One of the reasons I hunted it down on Ebay was because it was to have good image quality and low noise at 800 ISO or less. I am very happy with the results. You can detect noise in the darker areas of the photos but the detail is still pretty good in my opinion. I hope you agree.

Tags: Wren, Baby, Nature, Macro

Open Wide: ISO 400, 100mm, f/5.6, 1/30 (Same Settings for Both Pics)

Well the baby wren's are getting bigger. Parents are flying around looking for bugs to feed them every 5-10 minutes it seems.

The parents are very agitated when I peer into the apple tree to snap shots. I don't want to push my luck too much. I noticed my settings weren't the greatest on my camera. I didn't check them before I peered in. I should have set my aperture to around 8 or 11 but then I might have had to push up my ISO to get the faster shutter speed.

I bought a Kodak Playsport Video Recorder and have set it up to record the feedings. Video will follow shortly. From what I seen yesterday there is 3 baby birds in the house.




Update: Here is the Video Link. I adjust the camera at the beginning and the babies hear the rustle of the leaves and pop their beaks out real quick then Mom comes and makes her warning call. At the end of the clip she comes back and feeds the kids.

Tags: Wren, Feeding, Baby, Bird, Nature

Baby Jay: ISO 400, 240mm, f/8, 1/1500



Proud Parent: ISO 400, 190mm, f/8, 1/500

I came home from work this evening and Angela told me we had company playing in our backyard.

We had from what we could see were three baby Blue Jays and the two proud parents. It seemed the babies were being taught to fly. The baby that was closest to the ground didn't seem to have the knack for flight yet. She needed some encouragement from her parents.

The bottom picture is of the protective parent keeping an eye on the situation from high above.

Tags: Bird, Blue Jay, Baby