Tag: Pine Siskin

15 Minutes of Fame…by Brad Marks

As promised, it is time to pop another offering from Brad’s growing queue. He has been working overtime to bring you a number of new adventures, many of which we will be releasing during my fast approaching migration trip. To wet your whistle, here is an adventure which happens to be closer to home. Note, I thought monopods were just for whacking faster runners when wildlife decides to make a S’more out of photographers. Who knew there was another purpose ha.

Take it away Brad…

Usually, these posts include some sort of travel or exotic location where there just happens to be a bird or three worth photographing.  Brian heads to a bird sanctuary near the border in Texas.  Jan and I have normally just returned from a fantastic vacation location.  This time was a little bit different.

During our last trip to Colorado, I noticed my monopod (an aluminum Manfrotto 680B from the mid 2000’s) was slipping.  It was having trouble supporting the weight of my Nikon 200-500 plus the D300 with battery grip.  The middle section would slide down 4-5 inches, followed closely by the top section sliding 1-2 inches.  I tried to tighten the joints with the plastic tool included with the monopod; no luck.  When we arrived home, I discovered that parts are no longer available for this particular model.  I also found several people on-line that had simply tightened the joints beyond what may be prudent.  While that was not something I wanted to do, I wondered if the bolts had loosened because of usage.  I grabbed my favorite metric socket set and loosened all the joints to look for debris.  Finding none, I slowly tightened the bolts on the locking levers, about 1/16 of a turn each time.  Try the joint.  Adjust as necessary.  Repeat.  At some point I hit the magic friction point because the monopod stopped sliding with the lens/camera combo mounted on top.  And it didn’t feel like I was going to snap off the locking levers.  Now I had to verify the results.

Birds from Brad Mark's backyard

Hit the jump to see the results of Brad’s verification efforts!

Continue reading 15 Minutes of Fame…by Brad Marks

Surprise – Not Dead

Greetings everyone! Coming off a wonderful night hanging out with some great friends getting caught up with what’s been happening in their lives since last we met – in some cases that’s been more than a year thanks in part to the pandemic. One of those friends reminded me I had 4 birds to go to meet my goal. So, while I shake off the last of the spirits in my machine, thought I’d see if I could cut a bit into that deficit. To set the stage I am generally not a fan of “surprises”. I’ve found over the years that a vast majority of those incidents result in some kind of bad experience. In the corporate world, I dreaded system surprises – ghosts in the mechanical machine if you will. Those in the IT/Systems world know NOTHING positive EVER comes from a code surprise. When it does, you tear your hair out until you determine a way to get the failure to predictably repeat thus solvable. In private life this fear of the unexpected jolt is equally favored to the bad side of the ledger. “Wow, surprised how hard that cement step is that I just launched my chin into while second guessing a new skateboard stunt” or “Amazing my hand made it through that sharp opening – wait, what’s all that blood from”. Add to those examples my surprise on how painful a blow to the back of the head from a box fan can be (once I regained consciousness). A few stunners do end up on the good side – meeting Linda on day one of my career and later her agreeing to spend the rest of her life with me are up there at the top hehehe. Today’s featured feathered friend happens to be one of those surprises that also landed on the positive side.

Pine Siskin found at Brazos Bend State Park, Needville TX in January 2021

Not the most flamboyant of birds I’ve brought your way for sure. Unfortunately, this specimen lost a bit of its luster thanks to less than ideal shooting conditions. It is hard enough to shoot in dense woods on its own, but when you have to shoot across rays of light penetrating through small gaps in the trees it gets a bit tricky. I had my settings dialed in for black subjects hanging out in the canopy (more on that in a bit). Perfect for those conditions – not ideal for capturing this Finch that popped out on the trail ahead of me. Did my best to pull it out in the digital darkroom at the expense of the yellow highlights on the outer edges of its tail and wings. For the birders out there that are unfamiliar with the Pine Siskin, visualize the overall coloring being a bit tanner and more of a lemon yellow piping.

Pine Siskin found at Brazos Bend State Park, Needville TX in January 2021

Hit the jump to find out more about this new addition along with a “bonus”.

Continue reading Surprise – Not Dead