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all creatures great and small

birds and bees,flowers and trees, dogs and cats and things like that...
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In several pictures throughout my galleries I mentioned how many great shots got torpedoed by my 18-50mm F2.8's poor performance from medium distances out. It made me go out and spend money I didn't have to purchase Nikon's 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 (which performers as well as all the 16 Nikon lenses I purchased before it). Still with my 18-50 Sigma now just an attractive paper weight, I still had a hole where my general all purpose lens should have been in my lineup. And so often when space wouldn't allow me to add one of my micro lenses, I kept running into shots where I wish I could have brought along a lens with macro capabilities. No other company other than Sigma makes a lens in this focal length that has macro capability, and they make several. So I took in my old Sigma zoom (which did perform brilliantly when taking macro shots), and traded it for their 17-70mm f2.8-f4, hoping that it would perform better than it's predecessor.<br /> <br /> Today was the first day after purchasing it, and I left the house 30 minutes or so early to walk around the ferry terminal grounds to test it out. Walking around near the ferry's Sept. 11th memorial I spotted these colorful flowers in a large flower pot lit by the warm directional early morning sunlight. It looked like a good photo opp. to see if this lens could take macro shots as well as it's predecessor. So far so good!
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In several pictures throughout my galleries I mentioned how many great shots got torpedoed by my 18-50mm F2.8's poor performance from medium distances out. It made me go out and spend money I didn't have to purchase Nikon's 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 (which performers as well as all the 16 Nikon lenses I purchased before it). Still with my 18-50 Sigma now just an attractive paper weight, I still had a hole where my general all purpose lens should have been in my lineup. And so often when space wouldn't allow me to add one of my micro lenses, I kept running into shots where I wish I could have brought along a lens with macro capabilities. No other company other than Sigma makes a lens in this focal length that has macro capability, and they make several. So I took in my old Sigma zoom (which did perform brilliantly when taking macro shots), and traded it for their 17-70mm f2.8-f4, hoping that it would perform better than it's predecessor.

Today was the first day after purchasing it, and I left the house 30 minutes or so early to walk around the ferry terminal grounds to test it out. Walking around near the ferry's Sept. 11th memorial I spotted these colorful flowers in a large flower pot lit by the warm directional early morning sunlight. It looked like a good photo opp. to see if this lens could take macro shots as well as it's predecessor. So far so good!

summerflowersferry terminalStaten IslandnatureNYC

  • If any one's curious of where the robin's nest in the previous and upcoming shots was located at, then this shot is for you. Look at the young man in the pink shirt, then lift your gaze upward into the opening in the tree directly above his head, near the right corner of the photo. There's one of the parents just back to the nest after feeding it's brood of chicks. Everyone who walked by this spot, save for one over the two days I came here totally missed spotting the nest. I pointed it out to many a camera toting tourist, much to all of their delights.<br /> <br /> One women asked me how ever did I manage to spot the nest. My response to her was pretty simple, "I'm a photographer, spotting things is what we do." And I must say compared to the nest I photographed last month at the Chinese gardens in Staten Island, spotting this one was a piece of cake. At least this one wasn't buried deep inside of a bunch of pine tree needles.
  • DSC_6539 studies in gold
  • DSC_7050 nature's bird bath
  • Ever since I saw this spot last last year I always wanted to come back and capture some birds bathing here, so finally today I came back to do just that.
  • DSC_7131 Grackle with insect
  • DSC_7134 Grackle with insect
  • DSC_7297 robin's nest
  • DSC_7377 robin's nest_DxO
  • I came back to this spot a couple of days after my first attempt to capture the birds bathing at the waterfall adjacent to this nest but failed to photograph any because I was photographing this nest instead. Just 2 days later the chicks have grown noticeably. Their eyes barely more than a slit two days ago, were big a bright looking today. And after spending most of my time aiming my camera at the waterfall this time, I stopped and climbed up some rocks that gave me a clear line of sight through the branches of a tree 50ft across from the nest and I was able to add a few more shots for my collection.<br /> <br /> In order to achieve the magnification I desired I had to use my old 300mm ED-IF nikkor and 1.4x teleconverter. Sticking a tripod in a tree was hardly an ideal support solution for steadiness, and needless to say this setup also predates auto focus equipment by many many years, let alone lens stabilization, so most of the shots did not come out sharp, but this one with a huge assist from some Nik software plug-ins, definitely gives a great shot of the nest. I must have been quite a sight up in that tree, but it was worth it!!
  • DSC_7574 robin's nest
  • DSC_7604 robin's nest
  • This was my first visit to Van Cortlandt park, despite living in the Bronx for many years in my youth. A bunch of friends from work asked me to come photograph them and their friends and relatives playing softball on Independence Day. So I printed out a map from an online website, and packed up my equipment, then took the long trip from Staten Island to the final stop on the #1 train. After the game broke up and I had captured a couple hundred images I turned down the request from one of my friends to drop me off closer to the city, and instead pulled out my trusty home spun map and went exploring in the park for 2 or 3 hours. With several lakes spread around the park it was not surprising that the park attracted many birds and insects. The first insect interesting enough to photograph was a swallowtail butterfly, contrasted against the muddy ground it stood upon. While I was down there I noticed a huge amount of dragonfly's zipping about.<br /> <br /> The composition potential for them was much greater than the butterfly, if I could get one to stand still or hover motionless in a good spot. But the spots they chose to remain motionless at were the least attractive locations. The most attractive spots got the shortest and least frequent visits. I was easily there for 40 minutes crouched down rather uncomfortably, before the kind of opportunity I was hoping for materialized. I COULD have given up after 15 minutes of frustration, with much of the park still left to visit on this hot 4th of July, but the other shot I took of a dragonfly (at the Botanical Gardens) that you saw earlier in this gallery, was not sharp enough due to the great distance from the subject, and before I could switch to a longer lens it flew off. So if there was a good dragonfly shot in here somewhere I was bound and determined to get it. Patience and persistence are hallmarks of the nature photographer.
  • While photographing a sunset scene as I perched upon some slippery rocks at Silver Lakes Park this past 4th of July, I kept looking down, to make certain my footing remained sure, and didn't slip and knock my camera and tripod into the lake. With the waning light evaporating by the minute, it got harder and harder to see and I became more anxious of my footing. After taking another series of shots I moved around again to try and find a more comfortable way to stand on pointy rocks. Looking down I saw a fat curled up leaf at my feet. It was so fat, it almost looked like a mini green blunt. But looking closer, it seemed a little too fat, even for a rolled leaf. Bending down - VERRRRY CAREFULLY- I stranded in the dim light to get a closer look and discovered it was actually a caterpillar. Picking it up and putting on a near by branch to keep it from accidentally becoming a green sploch on the bottom of my shoe, I went back to photographing the lake, but not before I snapped a few shots of it. Briefly I was upset that I didn't bring one of my micro lens along and had to use my 16-85mm zoom instead, but seeing it crawling around safely on that branch instead of scraping it off the bottom of my sneaker helped mute my disappointment.
  • Walking through the Brooklyn botanical gardens on the 1st day of August in 89', I saw this beautiful group of snap dragons. This digital copy of the original slide doesn't do it justice.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Nikon F3<br /> Kodachrome 64<br /> 1/15th sec.<br /> nikkor 200mm f4 micro + TC-14b tele converter<br /> F11 (effective app. f16)
  • DSC_2482 think pink
  • DSC_2517 the monarch of Battery Park
  • I followed this fellow all over a quaint little flower-laden section of Battery Park City for at least a half and hour, as it fluttered almost non-stop from flower to flower. I really wanted to capture it feeding on a spray of back lit daises, naturally that was one group of flowers it didn't land on. But at least my efforts didn't result in complete waste of time.
  • DSC_3534 orange orange everywhere
  • Providence
  • In several pictures throughout my galleries I mentioned how many great shots got torpedoed by my 18-50mm F2.8's poor performance from medium distances out. It made me go out and spend money I didn't have to purchase Nikon's 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 (which performers as well as all the 16 Nikon lenses I purchased before it). Still with my 18-50 Sigma now just an attractive paper weight, I still had a hole where my general all purpose lens should have been in my lineup. And so often when space wouldn't allow me to add one of my micro lenses, I kept running into shots where I wish I could have brought along a lens with macro capabilities. No other company other than Sigma makes a lens in this focal length that has macro capability, and they make several. So I took in my old Sigma zoom (which did perform brilliantly when taking macro shots), and traded it for their 17-70mm f2.8-f4, hoping that it would perform better than it's predecessor.<br /> <br /> Today was the first day after purchasing it, and I left the house 30 minutes or so early to walk around the ferry terminal grounds to test it out. Walking around near the ferry's Sept. 11th memorial I spotted these colorful flowers in a large flower pot lit by the warm directional early morning sunlight. It looked like a good photo opp. to see if this lens could take macro shots as well as it's predecessor. So far so good!
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