Bosque Del Apache, New Mexico.
This week’s photo challenge asks us to think ahead, maybe consider an early New Year’s resolution. Krista suggests sharing a new goal, making plans and simply imaging that new horizon. You can read the entire challenge post here. A short time ago, we headed south on our usual trip to Arizona for the winter. The normal 3-day trek expanded to 8 days as we did some sightseeing along the way, visited friends and family and most importantly for this challenge, got used to using a new tool in my photographic arsenal, a Nikon D500 camera.
In the future, I can imagine myself like the folks in the photo above, camera at the ready to capture wildlife. In this case, it’s sandhill cranes and snow geese at the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. I need to save up some more to be able to afford one of the long lenses these photographers are using. Having said that, my Tamron 16-300mm lens does a pretty good job of capturing birds in flight.
Make no mistake, I have plenty of fuzzy, out of focus shots as I am learning to master the sophisticated auto-focus functions of the D500. I never did fully understand the focusing features of the D7000, which has now become my backup camera.
As you can see by the shot of the sandhill crane above, the focus tracking on the D500 does an excellent job, when you use it correctly. Lest you think that my goal here is to capture birds in flight, the truth is that my goal, my resolution, is to master the D500’s many focusing modes so that I can capture both action sports and wildlife shots. I know the camera is capable… now it’s time to make the photographer capable. The gallery of images below features some of my successes in selecting the right focusing mode, exposure settings and with the help of Lightroom, composition. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
Nice shots of the Sandhills, John. A good goal to delve into the features of your camera– so many helpful functions which can be overwhelming. Enjoy!
Thanks! I had another learning experience today at a car show. Do you know how hard it is to catch a bee in flight? 🙂
Yes, I do, John…have many blurry photos of bees, flies and other flying things. haha! Hope you got it! 😊
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You seem to have mastered he D500. Those Sand Hill Crane shots are just as good as any I have seen.
Thanks. I still have a long way to go, judging by the lousy shots I throw away.
Love your comment that the camera is capable, now to work on the photographer!! Know just what you mean on that one John. BTW, a good way to try out a great lens for a short trip is to rent one. They’re SO heavy, good to have a tripod too. Enjoy the new baby 🙂
I need to think ahead for my next trip to a wildlife refuge and rent a lens in advance… and I have to ask Santa for a much better tripod than I currently have.
An excellent resolution for a new year of photography, John, and obviously you are off to a very good start. My camera, the Nikon D7100, will do for me, but I do dream about a new lens, perhaps a wider angle lens because I have discovered that I am drawn to landscapes.
You might consider the Tamron 16-300mm lens. I have a review on my blog. I’m very happy with it, and it has a great zoom range. It is the only lens I carry anymore.
Great pics, birds in flight are difficult unless ya’ got a good zoom and even then it’s difficult not to get movement blur. Well played!
Love to show you the new camera, but not bringing it with us due to space constraints.
Love your shots of the cranes! I have tried and tried to capture them in flight and have failed. Great job.
Thank you. I also have a bunch of shots that I wouldn’t want to share. Lots of fuzzy shots of birds!
Excellent.
! BTW, a good way to try out a great lens for a short trip is to rent one.
! Love your shots of the cranes!
Thank you! And thanks for following along on my journey here!
! Love your shots of the cranes!
Thanks. I am looking forward to visiting there again.