Catching up in late 2016 - 3 photos from 3 locations

I was posting regularly and then well I wasn't.  I did it for a bit, but then fell back in to my old ways and got busy doing other things (but still shooting mostly).

As 2016 is winding down, I was thinking about using December to catch up and post a new photo a day, but that didn't happen.

So today I just posted 3 images, each from a different day and locations.

(In chronological order)

The first images is of some oystercatchers, an adult and chick, feeding in New York, in late August.  I grew up just down the beach, literally, from this spot where a bunch of different birds nest (common terns, black skimmers, oystercatchers, plovers, etc).

The oystercatchers can be a little hard to shoot if they get weary and react to being watched.  This day I tried to notice when they were watching me and then looked away and didn't eyeball them.  It mostly worked and I shot them from a fairly close distance as they went around hunting and feeding their chicks.  There were a handful of adults and chicks.




Next I shared an image of a Green Heron from Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC.

This year I went as many times as I had been in all previous years combined. Earlier in the year I photographed the lotus flowers a bunch, experimenting and doing some macro stuff in the last few visits.  By September when I got the heron the flowers were past, except for a few lotus, and for some water lilies in the back ponds.  Most of the busy summer traffic is over and I saw just a few other people there this morning.  Everyone comes for the lotus - so by September it is much more peaceful and low key.  And even if your thing is flowers there were enough water lilies to make it good.



Finally from later in September, I shot some stars at Cape May along the beach.

I've only experimented with star photography a little bit, I think all this year.  It can be a challenge.  Getting good focus is hard because it is night out and the stars are small and far away - I used manual focus on nearby lights and tried to chimp and adjust but I need to work on the night focus techniques...  With the cold nights, it can be hard to keep the lens from fogging up (but I plan to use hand-warmers to keep the lens warmer than the ambient air temp and some special lens coating/spray to prevent fogging next time).  I also wonder if shooting from sand (ie not solid ground) contributed to softer images.



2016 has been an amazing year, I've seen and done a lot.  I've changed a lot of things I needed to change (in 2015 and 2016).  I've been meditating for a little more than a year, and chalk up a lot of the movement in my life to that slowing down practice.

-Jon

Catching up in late 2016 - 3 photos from 3 locations