American Robin at the Morton Arboretum

Nov 5, 2015Jul 2, 2015 / Robert Small / Leave a comment

These are a close relation to the European blackbird (whereas the American blackbird is no relation at all and often just a name for several other appropriately sized black birds) and acts in a similar manner. Watching them provides the same enjoyment as watching a European blackbird and they seem to have the same set of foraging and nesting habits.

As someone used to gardens – both house and stately – I found the Morton Arboretum a welcome calm in the storm of every day life. They have a substantial amount of varied woodland, grassland and more formal garden arrangements.

I like this photo because it takes the subject and maintains the setting (trees) without allowing it to overwhelm the bird itself (bokeh). I also like the way the tree branch itself is in focus along with the new leaves next to it giving it a springtime feel.

Camera: D5300
Lens: 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6
Focal length: 300mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter: 1/500
ISO: 450

The owl

Aug 6, 2015Jul 2, 2015 / Robert Small / Leave a comment

This is one of those images that really captures the personality of the owl for me. The stern stare is almost like a disapproving parent.

I like that the background bokeh mixed with the two tone colours to really of sets the owl from its environment. All these things made it a keeper.

This lens quickly became my go-to lens for zoo trips. The crispness of the images and the colour it produces is really impressive, matched with the extended focal length and rather good VR provides a lens that rarely leaves your camera during zoo trips. I do have a 70-300mm Sigma which I like a lot as it has the ability to do macro, however it is about twice the weight and doesn’t have VR so it has mostly been used to take photos of flowers and such with a tripod.

Camera: D5300
Lens: 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6
Focal length: 300mm
Aperture: f/8
Shutter: 1/500
ISO: 800

Red kite – post processed in darktable

Jul 14, 2015Jul 8, 2015 / Robert Small / Leave a comment

One of the things I’ve been doing recently is to try and work on my post processing and to work out a system for photography on Linux. A fundamental part of this is to use a tool capable of taking raw files and processing them, sometimes with various tweaks, to produce good looking jpeg files.

After playing with several systems I’ve found Darktable handles the raw output of my Nikon D5300 better than the other solutions and provides a massive raft of modules to fix any elements you see fitting.

Minimal Darktable work (colour correction/shadows and highlights):

Standard settings (Nikon Like Alternative colour profile, etc.)
Enhance shadows and highlights to bring the bird itself into colour (it was quite shadowed with a ligher area where the sun caught the edge). I used the default settings for highlights and 60 for shadows, any more would have made it look unrealistic.
Crop to a sensible size given the amount of sky on the original picture

As much as Darktable can do massive things to your image and make it very different to the original I try not to do this but to get it right when I press the shutter.