Alameda / Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline

Just a few odds and ends from around the neighborhood over the last month or two.  Nothing too exciting, just some birds and things.

Ring-billed Gull -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

San Francisco, CA

USS Hornet, Alameda, CA

American White Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

American White Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Great Blue Heron -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline

Odds & Ends

January, 2014

I've been stopping by Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline on my way to work off and on over the last couple of weeks.  Stockpiling photos.  Trying things out with the new camera.  I think I've got enough interesting shots to make a post.

Burrowing Owl -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

I finally found the burrowing owl out there.  He seems to hang out in the same spot most mornings.  From a distance he looks like a large potato that has been stuck on a stick.  Actually, he looks a lot like that in the pictures, too.

Black-necked Stilt -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

There's usually a small flock of stilts hanging around.  They're funny looking birds.

Turkey Vulture -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Cooper's Hawk

There was a dead bird on the road this morning.  It attracted a few vultures.  I was able to get some nice shots.

A cooper's hawk was hanging around for a while.  I saw him/her a couple of times.  I'm more convinced now than I was earlier that it was a cooper's hawk and not a sharp-shinned hawk.  What a good looking bird.

One morning a scroungy looking red-tailed hawk was hanging out in the trees.  His feet were dirty and his feathers were untidy and in general he looked like the kind of bird that worked dark alleys at night.  A bad seed, if you will.I assume it was a male only because it's hard to imagine a lady hawk letting herself go like that.

Red-tailed Hawk -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

California Towhee -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

 Ring-billed Gull-- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Oakland/Alameda Estuary

Breaking in the New Camera

January 4, 2014

OK.  So, I bought a new camera.  I've been using a Canon SX40 HS for the last year and a half or so.  It's not a bad camera at all for a point and shoot.  It's got a nice zoom lens built into it with which I've taken a lot of pictures.  I've been happy with it.

Black Phoebe -- Alameda, CA

Barrows Goldeneyes

I took the pictures of the black phoebe and the goldeneyes with my SX40 this morning.  See, not bad, right?  Honestly, I'm not upgrading because I was at all unhappy with that camera.  I've been having a whole lot of fun taking pictures over the last year and a half, and it just felt like it was time to open things up a little bit.  I took my time and studied up, and I think I've got the right camera for where I'm at with photography.

Oakland/Alameda Estuary, CA

My new camera is a Canon EOS Rebel T5i.  I'll have a 250mm zoom lens for it soon.  Hopefully that lens will have enough reach to keep me satisfied for a while.  I seriously considered going with the comparable Nikon D5200.  Same price range, same basic feature set minus the flippy-swivelly touch screen monitor, which was actually a big selling point to me.  It boiled down to slightly better picture quality with the Nikon or an easier learning curve and more goo-gaws with the Canon.  I went with fun to use over superior picture quality.  I'm more of an adventurer with the camera than an artist, I guess.

Ring-billed Gull -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

A couple of things are obvious to me after only a day of playing with this camera.  First, I can take action shots now.  If you notice in past entries for this blog, there aren't a lot of action shots, especially where birds are concerned.  The SX40 just isn't fast enough.  The T5i can fire off five shots per second and is adept at tracking moving subjects.  It used to be sheer luck for me to get a usable picture of a bird in flight.  It doesn't look like that's going to be a problem with the Rebel.

Also, with the touch screen I can establish the focus point in any given shot just by pointing to it on the touch screen.  How sweet is that?  The SX40 is pretty good at guessing what I'm trying to focus on, but it's easily confused by branches and tall grass.  Hopefully that problem is a thing of the past.

It also looks like post-processing is going to be a whole lot easier.  I always have to monkey with the brightness and contrast with the pictures I get from the SX40.  I've only had to perform minor tweaks on the T5i's photos, and in fact most of the time I didn't need to do anything at all.  These pictures come out of the camera looking great.

Ring-billed Gulls -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

I guess I'm a little excited about the possibilities.  Bring on 2014!

Ring-billed Gull -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline

Or Should I Say She Once Had Me

December 11, 2013

Another post of local bird pictures?  Sure, why not.  It's really all about that picture above.  I thought is was a lot of fun the way the goldeneye makes a circle with its reflection.

Yeah, I know.  Nerd.

Fruitvale Bridge, Alameda, CA

I also like how the buildings on the Oakland side of the estuary create yellow reflections in the water.  I think it makes for some cool looking pictures.

Surf Scoters -- Oakland/Alameda Estuary, CA

Lady Goldeneye

I took all of these pictures on my way to work Wednesday.  I stopped at Peet's for a cup of jo, then headed South down Doolittle.  I like taking the back roads when I'm not in a hurry, and this particular morning I felt like taking my time.I stopped at the little park on Doolittle just before the airport to shoot some bird pictures.  There's always a decent amount of bird action there.  It's not like one of the Central Valley wildlife refuges, but then again what is?

Greater Scaup -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Silly Scaup

I don't know, I've been enjoying taking pictures of birds lately, and I like to read blogs of a few people who consider themselves to be birders.  I even started an eBird account to track my bird sightings.  I don't think of myself as a birder, though.  I'll definitely take a seal sighting in the estuary over any kind of bird sighting short of a bald eagle or a condor, and what are the odds those would ever happen?  

Ring-billed Gull -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Identifying birds is definitely fun, though.  There's such a wide variety, it seems I'm always being surprised by the types of birds I see.  I'm definitely water-focused.  Ducks are awesome.  Geese are a little wacky.  Pelicans kick ass.  I like the hawks, too.  Eagles may be my favorite, but I've got a soft spot for the vultures and condors.  I dunno.  I guess I do like taking pictures of birds, so maybe I am a birder, or perhaps transitioning into one.  We'll see, I guess.

Ring-billed Gull -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA