Finally! I Got Out For A Very Short While To Photograph

Great Blue Heron (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T4; 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens + 1.4x Teleconverter @ ~840mm; 1/1000th sec. @ f/8; ISO 400; JPEG file cropped to 18mp from a 26mp.

I've gotten out to photograph very little this year.  With the restrictions caused by 'the virus' and almost all of my attention being focused on building our new house, my photographic endeavors have been terribly lacking.  That needs to change now that we are in our house and getting things put away as well as creating new daily routines.

Having a bit of extra time on my hands the other day, I grabbed my kit as I headed out of the door to run some errands.  Along the way, I briefly stopped at a small pond which, from the past, I knew there is usually some wading birds.  Unfortunately, when I arrived, only this Great Blue Heron was present.  Oh well, I decided to take the opportunity to practice a bit.

So, I attached my Fujifilm 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens to my X-T4 and, shooting handheld to test my remaining skills, made some images of the heron.  Then, to make things a bit more difficult, I popped on my 1.4x teleconverter to see how I did with that as well.  Then, to add one more challenge, I shot using the JPEG format on a blue sky sunny day just before noon.

All in all, almost every one of my (rather mundane) images was pin sharp, even with the teleconverter and the lens wide open.  I did make one small error.  I had my camera set on single advance when I first started photographing and missed some sequences of the bird plunging its head in the water catching small fish.  I pressed the shutter to record peak action and held it down only to realize that when the bird's head resurfaced with the fish in its mouth, no exposures were being made.  That is my fault for not checking all of my settings beforehand.

The missed opportunity.  My intention was to catch an image of the bird's head emerging from the
water with a small fish in its bill.  But I had my camera set for single shot and not continuous
advance.  Lesson learned. At least the photo is sharp and I froze the action.  (click to enlarge)
Same exposure information as above but the JPEG file was cropped to 13mp from 26mp.

All in all, I felt vindicated that over the past months of inactivity I hadn't lost much of my skill in making (technically) successful images.  I felt my little self-test was successful and I can't wait to get out again with more time and a more diverse subject matter.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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