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lonestranger

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Posts posted by lonestranger

    Share Your Best Photo of the Day

    in Photo Sharing and Discussion

    Posted

    12 hours ago, IKLland said:

    https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/379933461( 4 or 5)?2400?__hstc=264660688.c695a93e6745b82f45

    four or five? https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/3799334512400?__hstc=264660688.c695a93e6745b82f45

    four of five? https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/3799333912400?__hstc=264660688.c695a93e6745b82f45

    Did you get an external flash unit with your new DSLR purchase or have you been using the camera's built-in flash? Either way, I agree with @The Bird Nuts, your use of flash makes things look unnatural. When used properly, fill flash can turn an average shot into an eye popping photo, using flash as the primary light source seldom produces pleasing images though and usually just ruins the picture, in my opinion.

    As far as rating your photos go, if you start off giving yourself 5 star ratings on all your photos, you're bound to be disappointed when the rating has nowhere else to go but down.

    • Like 6

    Caption Contest!

    in Photo Sharing and Discussion

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, meghann said:

    I had a hard time choosing between 3 different photos, but we'll go with this one. I'll probably want to pick a winner sometime on Thursday, since I'm going out of town to a bird conference Friday.

    DSC_1619asmall

     

    Okay, what aisle are the House Sparrows in?

    • Haha 11

    Bird Banding

    in Birding Trips

    Posted

    12 hours ago, floraphile said:

    I won't be banding, but I do want to count the birds I see while I am there.

     

    11 hours ago, The Bird Nuts said:

    Usually people don't count the birds caught at banding stations on their life lists, right?

     

    My take on the ABA rules was that birds caught in the nets wouldn't be countable, but after they were released and shaken off the effects of being captured, they would once again become countable. You can't count the birds immediately after release, but once they're back to normal behaviour you can count them. It may not be that simple, but that was my take on it. I don't count birds so my spin on this doesn't really matter, but if I saw bird X at a banding station and was pretty sure that I would never get the chance to see/count that species ever again, if it was possible I think I'd make the effort to get that bird on my list, even if it meant trying to track it for a few minutes after being released until I was comfortable that the bird was no longer under the influence of being confined. Admittedly, MY comfort level in making a call in that situation might not measure up to someone else's comfort level in the same situation. That same comfort level might also be influenced by the value of the bird wanted for the list, too. 

    Having said all that, I wonder if the best approach might be to focus on the birds before they get caught in the nets.

    • Like 4

    ANHU's?

    in Help Me Identify a North American Bird

    Posted · Edited by lonestranger

    10 hours ago, DLecy said:

    Primary shape is diagnostic. All ANHUs.

     

    3 hours ago, floraphile said:

    @DLecyCould you elaborate, please?

    I'm not sure if I'm interpreting it the way it was intended but I took it to mean, Shape of the primaries is diagnostic. I'm not sure if that's the elaboration you were looking for, but thought it might help by putting a different spin on the wording. I could be wrong though.

    • Like 3

    Photo Backup ?

    in Photo Sharing and Discussion

    Posted

    7 minutes ago, Clip said:

    I like your is "only" $115cdn. Gosh that seems like a lot to me. Maybe because I'm old.

    I used the word "only" because my 2TB external hard drive cost me $120 when I bought it. If price is an issue, USB flash drives are considerably cheaper and even come in 2TB sizes for under $40. Not sure about the quality but they're definitely a cheaper alternative.

    • Like 2

    Need some expert advice

    in Help Me Identify a North American Bird

    Posted

    21 hours ago, Liam said:

    Sounds like a Black-fronted Canary to me. They have a similar song and are often kept as a caged bird and released or escaped.

    1 hour ago, jimbarnett said:

    Did you mean "Yellow-fronted Canary"?

    I look at pics of the Yellow-fronted Canary, but that's not what I saw.  Yellow did not extend over the eyes, and the bill wasn't that thick.  This bird was more vireo-like than finch-like.

    Thanks for everyone's opinions, I do appreciate them.  Looks like this will be the dreaded "bird sp" ID.

    Perhaps Black-faced Canary, or Black-throated Canary? I can't find anything on Black-fronted Canary so I am guessing it's a typo/brainfart for one of the other Canaries, maybe?

     

    • Like 1

    Photo Backup ?

    in Photo Sharing and Discussion

    Posted · Edited by lonestranger
    Operator error

    I'm not one to take advise from since I seem to be in the same boat but I'll share my thoughts. I don't know if I have hit the 100,000 mark yet, but I know that I had over 50,000 photos from just one of the four cameras I have used in the past 15ish years since I first picked up a camera. I have filled a 2TB external hard drive, that back up thingy, with photos and am in need of another storage device. I could go through old photos and delete those that aren't worth keeping and probably end up with 1.75TB of new storage space but I am a packrat with my photos and hang on to the old garbage for some stupid reason. Since I haven't gotten around to buying a new storage device yet, I have resorted to deleting some of the recent photos on my computer so I can make room to process(look at) the newer photos that keep accumulating on the cameras' memory cards. I keep wondering about my method because I seldom review old photos on the external storage drive because I usually keep a copy of the real keepers stored on the computer and online, so I wonder why I bother to keep the old ones if I don't even look through them anymore. There's only been two occasions that I can recall where I went back to the original photo on the backup drive and reworked the photo in post processing. Those two occasions don't seem like reason enough to keep thousands and thousands of photos, but I'm keeping them anyway. I think at this point in the game, sorting through my photos and organizing them isn't really an option, and I have already regretted deleting recent photos when I had mistakenly resized a group of images to save disk space and deleted the originals before I had cropped the images, so I think I will just lay out the money and get another external 2TB storage device and keep ALL my photos, the good, the bad, and the ugly. 🤪

     I just looked to see the current prices and the 4TB version of my 2TB external hard drive is only $115cdn with 1TB Solid State Drives running around $200cdn. 

     

    Caption Contest!

    in Photo Sharing and Discussion

    Posted

    37 minutes ago, kansabirdguy said:

    how long am I supposed to wait to pick a winner?

    Typically people have been waiting at least two days before picking a winner, often announcing a cutoff time (eg: later tonight/tomorrow morning) prior to declaring a winner so that people get one last chance to come up with a caption.

    • Like 1
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