It’s winter in the western/Finger Lakes region of New York, which means there’s not much activity out there.

So, I spent a few minutes today looking at all my blog posts. . .okay, more like a couple of hours. Some of my photos downright embarrass me! A few others are so good I can’t believe they’re mine. Most, though, are mediocre (according to REAL photographers), but I do see a gradual improvement over the past nine years.

As I ponder, I regret some of the gear choices I have made. I started with a gifted inexpensive gray-market Canon product… but don’t let anyone tell you how bad they are! I got some pretty good shots, especially from my 1100d, before they all passed — some peacefully, some not so much — over the rainbow and into that 18% gray sky that harbors all tired cameras.

I fooled around with a few different brands for a few years, trying to find the one with the best results. As I look back, I really miss my Olympic gear. Love the color science, the IBIS, the lenses, the weight (or lack thereof), but was convinced by a former mentor to ditch it in favor of the Nikon DSLRs (the 850 and the 500). I’m now up to the Z9 and saving for a good distance lens. . .but I might try to find some lightly used Olympic stuff, just to see if I reallyreallyREALLY like it or if I’m just being nostalgic.

These photos could use some improvements, I know, but considering I was shooting in jpg and had no idea what a photo editing program was, I guess they aren’t that bad. What I find really curious is the noise factor — none of these jpgs were edited for noise (or anything else), but it seems to be less of a problem with the small-sensor Olympus.

Anyway, on the advice of a (former) mentor, I sold all these cameras, including my Olympus EMx-1 (wahhh) and settled on the Nikon d500 and d800 with a 200-500 lens Later I added a Z9 and a 500 pf prime (that was back when I had money!). Under his tutelage I discovered Adobe Camera Raw and learned to make simple edits. Unfortunately, the only way I could improve most of my photos was by hitting the magic button, <delete>, and hoping for better results next time. 😦

Nonetheless, I’m determined to improve my technique — that’s an achievable goal, right? even for a short, round, opinionated old lady.

In chasing this photographic rainbow, I suddenly realize that I’ve wasted far too much time worshipping YouTube’s Guru-du-jour. Their names are well known among Nikon and Canon users — I learned a lot of nomenclature and compared the differing advice, but none of it was really helping. That’s all in the dusty past now, because I discovered a Facebook group called Nikon Teaching Photography. The admin, Bob Scola, has a large following and a large online volume of inexpensive but stellar videos, explaining all things Nikon on a site called EyeSo100. You can check them out here:

https://www.eyeso100.com/spaces/10626684/content

I found Bob after an outing where I had captured a stunning composition of two baby foxes playing on some railroad tracks. . .until an oncoming train sent all of us running. However, the resulting photos were just awful. Awful! I was horrified but desperately wanted to salvage at least one, so I sought advice from a “beginner’s” FB group. However, all I got was embarrassed, especially when the admin featured my photo on a YouTube video as proof that some photographers are so lousy they simply can’t be helped. After suffering a severe existential meltdown (complete with tears, blocking the admin and several of the worst advisors along with thoughts of selling all my gear), I looked for real help elsewhere. I found it with Bob Scola and his videos. No shame! No bragging! No snarky comments! Just good, solid advice explained in a way that even *I* can understand. It really helped!

So, I decided to test my new knowledge and take a ride out to my favorite-ist dirt road in Savannah, NY, where I had originally found the foxes but now hoped to find a few hardy winter birds. The first lifeform I found was this inquisitive squirrel. A little soft, but better than no shot at all (the tree bark, though, is nice and sharp — I mean, it’s not like I didn’t have the focus box squarely on his right eye, go figure).

There were sparrows galore, all feasting on the dirt-road grit. Of course they scattered, despite sneakily trying to keep my distance.

In fact, I was so intent on (visually) chasing a few more tree sparrows that I nearly missed this guy sitting in a tree, watching the show.

I waited about 30 minutes for him (her?) to take off, but no go. S/he did, however, have an itch. Or maybe was looking for his keys:

Eh, the most exciting thing I could catch was a sudden spook, which caused a spin-around so rapid that I thought s/he would fall out of the tree:

Merlin thought it heard a screech owl, so I was off to find it. No luck, but I did find a heap of trumpeter swans, a bunch of gulls, and a variety of geese hanging out in the mucklands.

Savannah’s mucklands appear whenever the Seneca River overflows, which is fairly often (the water table is quite high in this area). The town is quite proud of this — their unique attribute. They even have a road named Muckland Road. During migration the mucklands provide a resting place for ducks, geese (sometimes even a flock or two of snow geese), and swans. They are safe from hunters here, because the mucklands are also farmlands whose harvest litter attracts foraging birds and other animals; therefore, hunting is prohibited.

The crows were not welcome in the mucklands, so they annoyed each other and foraged upon the adjacent icy marsh.

Off to the B&H site to check out some Olympus prices!