3/26/09 - Short-Eared Owl

This past weekend we went for a drive along the Gurnet from Duxbury out to Saquish. I was hoping to be able to show the girls Saquish Village, but got cold feet when we saw the enormous sign at the enterance of the village threatening a hefty fine for any trespassers. I figured nobody would be out there this time of year, but the existence of vehicles in a few of the driveways proved otherwise.

On the way back, we noticed a largish owl hanging out on a fencepost. I stopped the jeep and grabbed my camera. But, it flew away before I could get my long lens attached.

At that time, a car pulled up and told us there was another owl hanging out on the bayside a few hundred yards up. I walked the distance and soon spotted a short-eared owl hanging out on the grass washed up on the beach. It was being backlit from the setting sun, so I had to angle myself in such a way to avoid sun flare. I love my 70-200mm 2.8, but it is not the lens for wildlife.... not enough focal-length. However, the beauty of this lens is its sharpness, and I was able to crop it down significantly to get a respectable image

3/19/09 - Chinese New Year Dragon Festival

Took the family into Chinatown for the Dragon Festival. Aside from having to keep one eye on the kids while trying to look for photo opportunities with the other eye, the challenges were 1) capturing good images with so much movement, 2) jockying for position with the crowds, and 3) dealing with so much color. The later was probably the most challenging. As odd as it sound (probably because most photographers thrive on color), the abundance of color was overwhelming. I believe the more simple an images is, the more compelling it is to the viewer, and it was difficult to create images that wouldn't seem overpowering with a mix of bright colors. To overcome this I positioned myself, as best I could, to have darker and simple backgrounds, and used a shallow depth of field to bring out my subject compared to what was going on the background.