Photography Thoughts and Lessons:

 I am losing the race with my aging body.
As my eyesight continues to decline I am still working on my photography. A blind amateur photographer?   Oh, what the hell. 

Facebook is fine, but posting there is ephemeral, here today, gone tomorrow. This posting is for that handful of pre-Facebook folks who periodically monitor this blog, but probably more for myself as a milestone marker.

When taking photos of small flitty birds there are really two options:

1. Be very, very good.
             or
2. Be very, very close.

I am old, half-blind, with failing memory. No. 2 is really my only option. I would add a No. 3 - hang the best optics you can afford on front of your camera body.

At one time I carried a long variable-zoom lens. Every year it got heavier. I still own that lens for tripod situations, and also a close-up lens for bugs and butterflies, but for everyday shooting I use an old tech Nikon D7500 DSLR body with a NIKKOR 300mm f/4 prime lens.
I suppose eventually I could replace that with a modern, gee-whiz mirrorless camera, but I love it. Does a man put down his loyal dog simply because it is old? 

These are all fall plumage birds shot from my garden bench in the past few days.

Golden-winged Warbler - rare and becoming endemic to only Minnesota. 

Your loyal dog,

Gunnar

More Photos

 

Old and Obsolete Camera(man)

These photos were taken on 01/26/2023 on South Padre Island. I am posting this to remind myself of the joy of shooting photos with an obsolete, heavy Nikon D7500 camera and equally obsolete and even heavier Nikon 200-500mm lens, the combination of which weigh a boat anchor. Previously I had a Nikon D5600 camera which ... which I dropped :-(. The lens survived quite well; the camera body seemed okay, then acquired a mind of its own, randomly changing settings before commenting suicide. 

Nikon has embraced mirrorless camera technology to the point where the D7500 is the last Nikon DSLR in current production. It shares the sensor and processor as the previous Nikon "flagship" D500. It has the basic internal guts only in a crop format.

Lorna has a marvelous new Canon mirrorless camera and I was having a quite a bad case of camera envy. Yesterday I got my settings tuned in and got my photo groove back. I have come to the realization that I too am old and obsolete. When I die they may have to pry my rigor mortis stiffened fingers from this howitzer of a camera.

Obsoletely yours,
Gunnar Berg

Addendum: Although I still possess the 200-500mm zoom, day-to-day it has been replaced with a Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 prime lens and 1.4x teleconverter.