Friday, May 10, 2013

Monkeying around with the camera.

If you're trying to keep birds out of the garden and squirrels out of the bird feeder, a camera works lots better than any scarecrow ever made. The street in front of Roseholme Cottage is usually bustling with wildlife ranging from sparrows and robins to cats to tricycle motors, but when I was sitting out front with my camera and my "Your Camera For Dummies" book, it made the surface of the moon look like the Amazon basin. There weren't even any bugs crawling around on the porch for me to test out the lens's macro abilities.

Well, it wasn't totally deserted... This one velociraptor saw me with the camera and took off running through the grass:

Round robin raptor run...

12 comments:

Jennifer said...

It always cracks me up when they run. I mean, seriously? You choose to run on those awkward little legs when you can fly?!?

Bob said...

I said wound Wobin waptor won! in the voice of Michael Palin's Pontius Pilate from Monty Python' Life of Brian and started laughing.

Who waughed? Guards! Awwest him! Fwow him to the fwoor!

Kirkster said...

maybe you have seen it maybe not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKffm2uI4dk

K

Douglas2 said...

Very impressive to capture the movement and have the bird largely in focus while the surrounding ground is going "whoosh!"

Ted said...

You have seen the Ted talk about turning a chicken into a poor mans velociraptor?

I would love to have a couple of those running around the backyard, chasing the cats over the fence and arguing with my pup over the dog food bowl.

Anonymous said...

Faster shutter speed!

Tam said...

No shit? Really?

;)

Rob said...

"It always cracks me up when they run. I mean, seriously? You choose to run on those awkward little legs when you can fly?!?

Out west there's a game bird, a type of partridge, called a chukar. They live in very mountainous terrain, and when startled they will run UP hill (and they're fast little buggers) and then fly down the other side.

Chasing them isn't advised. You will simply be out of breath and minus any birds. Your best hope is to ambush them on the top of a ridge, so you can shoot them when they take wing, or hope you find a bunch of them in an area with little ground cover so you can shoot them on the ground, like a rabbit.

Mike_C said...

> Who waughed? Guards! Awwest him! Fwow him to the fwoor!

Hah. Last night I was rooting around in a box of film cameras trying to decide which to bring on a trip and came across an Olympus "Centurion." Pontius Pliate popped into my head and sneaked his fellow rhotacism sufferer Lili Von Shtupp in as well. Argh.

Incidentally, got the dirtiest look from a rather chunky TSAgent going through security just now. For some reason that made my day. "A face full of horizontal meat" as my grandmother used to say. I guess that's an idiom that doesn't translate well.

Will said...

Birds run because it takes less energy than flying. That's wing flapping type flying, not the soaring style.

Jeffro said...

The ring necked stubble ducks 'round here can cover some serious real estate and stay under cover quite well.

Kristophr said...

Anonymous:

Tam uses a slower shutter speed so that she can properly capture the souls of her victims when she commits photography.

She'll need to know your location after she upgrades to a daguerreotype camera for advanced photographic necromancy. The best spells are fueled by the souls of idiots.