Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Recent Nature Pics - Subject: Grey Jay

I tend to choose a subject every now and then for my photo compositions. A few years ago I spent a few winter months shooting Grey Owls. The week before New Year's we spent a few days at my parent's cottage and we were graced with some friendly Grey Jays - affectionately also known as Whiskey Jacks. They are possibly the tamest wild birds in Canada. They will eat right out of your hand after about 15 minutes or so of checking you out. My sister Keira (Kiki) helped me out with these shots being a human bird feeder!

Up close & personal - note the crumbs on the beak! Click for an even closer shot!

I love the blur of bird wings in motion!

Maybe a bit too post-cardie but hey 2 jays in a tree!

Another cool motion shot!

I love the snow in the shot and how the bird is all puffed up to keep warm.

The shots above take me back to a backcountry ski trip in Quebec in 99' with Medeba. I remember impressing the non-Manitoban contigent of our merry group with feeding the Grey Jays with some peanut M & M's. We actually stayed in a cottage called Refuge Le Geai Gris.

2 comments:

Jaime said...

Your pics always amaze me. What type of camera are you using?

Garth said...

Thanks - photography is my sideline hobby that doesn't get nearly enough attention. My problem is that I have way too many hobbies or sports I'm involved in.

My camera is a Pentax Digital SLR known as the IST-D. I bought a Pentax mainly because over the years I've purchased a number of really good lenses for my regular SLRs.

I shot the bird pics/football pics with a 80-320mm autofocus lens. So although I was quite close - shooting with such a zoom definitely brings me yet closer. An interesting reality of going from a regular SLR to digital is that the lens magnification increases to about a one and half times.

When I use a long lens like that I do have to change my film speed to 400 or higher otherwise there would be too much blur even with a tripod. So the pics are grainier as a result.