Bald Eagle portrait.

Hand held at 600mm. Distance was about 125-150 feet.

Canon 5Dsr - Canon 300 2.8 II - Canon 2x III - 1/800 - f/10 - ISO @ 400.

Removing paper labels off dvd

Over the years I have created many slideshows for family members. I dressed them up with disk labels. Now I’ve discovered that with the new optical drives the paper disk covers do not spin in the drive properly.
Does anyone know how to carefully remove these paper covers?

Misty Mountain Waterfall, Shenandoah National Park

This as "moody" a landscape as I ever seen. Of course, the fog will do that for you. I never thought I'd go looking for foggy days, but they hold magic which is nigh impossible to emulate. ( ...collaboration with Svona Yankle ).

The rain kept me in, but the birds stayed out

They can't get food delivered.

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Family Christmas photo-help wanted

My mother in law has suddenly asked me to take a family photo on Christmas Eve. She wants 15 people in the photo to be arranged in three rows--5 sitting on the floor, five sitting in chairs, and behind them 5 standing up. The photo will be taken in front of a Christmas Tree in a relatively small room. I am an amateur: will be using my Nikon D5300 and will probably need to use my Nikon 10-20 wide angle zoom in order to get everyone in the photo. The light will probably be pretty bad. I will be shooting in RAW.I don't have a flash other than the one that is part of the camera. The camera will be on a tripod and the shutter will be tripped with a remote control. Since some will be seated on the floor and others standing up, should I mount the camera a little above belly height? What D5300 camera settings would you recommend that I use to take the photo? Should focus be on someone sitting in a chair? Any UHH suggestions would be most appreciated.

An Aardwolf

Our guides got very excited when we spotted this Aardwolf. They said it is extremely rare to see one out in the daylight. Not a great photo, but a lucky one I guess!

The aardwolf is an insectivorous mammal, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called "maanhaar-jackal" and in Nama, "ant hyena" or civet hyena, based on its habit of secreting substances from its anal gland, a characteristic shared with the African civet. The aardwolf is in the same family as the hyena. Unlike many of its relatives in the order Carnivora, the aardwolf doesn't hunt large animals. It eats insects and their larvae, mainly termites; one aardwolf can lap up as many as 250,000 termites during a single night using its long, sticky tongue.

Another Day at the Beach.

Been having too much fun with the camera lately, gonna have to spend a few days working around the house...

A couple of these are heavily cropped so they are not much more than thumbnails.

Baltimore

The Inner Harbor

Red Shouldered Hawks mating ritual

During the last week Sally and I have been observing the mating ritual of these two Red Shouldered Hawks.All of the in-flight shots are the male performing for the female. It is also the male who is grasping the female from behind but they are not mating but simply a show of force from the male. When they mate they tumble to the ground. Enjoy the downloads....

Female red shouldered hawk

male performing

male taking off

Roseate Spoonbill & friend.

We moved into our last house with a lake at the rear in Bradenton Florida this week, before heading back to the UK on Saturday. When I first saw this Spoonbill I thought it was standing awkward because of the sloping bank. Later I realised it had part of a leg and foot missing. The Tricoloured Heron seemed to keep he/she company.

Canon 650D, Tamron 18-400 lens.

Please try the downloads.

What’s down there









Time for a rest