Photograph what is around you: Photo of the Day

I was on on a recent trip to Ohio and the birding hotspot Magee Marsh to photograph migrating warblers. For those that aren't aware when you arrive at the wildlife refuge you follow the road all the way back to just along the Lake Erie shoreline. You will see a large parking lot and then signs for the boardwalk trail. During migratory seasons you will also see 100s of birders and photographers. During my recent trip there I fell in more with the photographers as you might expect.

Since this was my first experience photographing small birds and a warbler is very small compared to my winter bald eagle activity. Because of this I fussed quite a bit over which equipment to use. I settled on The Nikon 300 AFD with a Better Beamer and the D3 and D300 bodies. I did have mounted on a tripod the Nikon 600 AFS. Since the birds moved quite a bit and never seemed to stay in one place for any amount of time, the 600 was difficult to manuever. The boardwalk isn't very wide once you open the legs of the tripod so there is the chance of a tripping hazard or worse the camera tipping over hazard. With a D3 and a Nikon 600mm that is not something that I cared to watch or have happen.

Most of the good shots I got was with my older AF version of the Nikon 300 f/4. I might next year want to bring the 200-400 AFS with a TC. I may also want to move my equipment to a monopod because that will allow me to be mobile which I found to be very important as the birds jump in and out of the trees and move around quite readily.

I once again found the best photos to be taken with the D3 over the D300. This was not just the full fram photos, but even when cropped. I can only say that this is my experiance and yours may vary. I was also not pleased with the focusing speed of the older Nikon AF 300 f/4. AFS has really spoiled me and there isn't much room for error with birds that are able to move and twitch while on the branch that fast.

The above photo is taken of an amish family that came to do some bird watching at Magee Marsh. I found their outfits very photogenic and since there was some free time between birds I snapped a number of pictures of them. I also got some candids of people around me whose expressions I found interesting. Though I have never been a "street photographer" I did find this foray into street photography somewhat interesting, especially since I had birds as a backup.