Susan Cifaldi
March 2025 - Who pulled my tail!
Original
About the Image(s)
Gear (forgive me, I was just starting): Nikon Coolpix 900 at f/6.3, 1/500, 285mm and ISO 100. Exposure was center weighted
Narrative: My very first camera! (April 2020). It was the middle of CoVid lockdown, so I picked up this camera at Best Buy (the agent said it was easy to use), and went hunting for something to shoot. At the Montezuma NNWR (Seneca Falls, NY) there is a tree that everyone called "The Eagle Tree." I thought this was a strange-looking eagle but I took some shots anyway. "What's This Bird" said it was a peregrine falcon, the fastest animal on earth! (faster than the cheetah, even) So, I was pretty pleased with myself, having upgraded from a point-and-shoot to, well, a bigger and more expensive point-and-shoot and actually got a photo of something that was more than just a tiny blob in the middle of the screen. :-)
I didn't wait around for it to fly off because I didn't know any better. I was off to see what else was around the corner.
I didn't do much tweaking other than cropping and intensifying the yellow and orange just a bit so his/her legs wouldn't look so gray. It's a jpg, so I was limited in what I could do. It's a bit intense for my liking, but it's pretty c=sharp, considering it was my first "real" photograph.
As I look through my stuff over the years I find that the smaller-sensor cameras didn't give me a problem with grain. I thought the larger sensor in the Nikons would allow more light, hence very little grain, but that doesn't seem to be true. It could be me, though. Maybe as my technique improves that will improve, too.
That's how green I was, but I loved it. Got myself an online education, learned about things like sensor size, jpg vs, raw files, exposure settings, and things like that. In two years I got myself a mentor and went on a couple of trips. I can't wait to schedule a few more, now that I know a little more about what I am doing.
You will be happy to know that I gave the Coolpix 900 to my sister once I got some real camera gear.
Of course, comments good and bad are welcome.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
That said, anytime you can get a sharp shot of a free peregrine you have a good picture.. This has just a bit of drama due to the twisted body position resulting in the over the shoulder look. I feel your crop frames the bird quite well and the more or less square format also eliminates more of the distracting branches and makes the bird more dominate. The small size looks good but the expanded size show a bit of a halo on the left side of the bird. MATT K'S technique should get rid of that easy enough
This is a nice capture, no matter what camera you used.
As to your question about the noise it all comes down to the size of the sensor. Coolpix cameras use smaller sensor sizes, which means each pixel on the sensor is smaller and captures less light, this results in less noise when shooting in low-light conditions, but this comes at the cost of a shallower depth of field and less detail compared to a full-frame camera. Basically, the smaller sensor is "cropping" the image more, effectively magnifying the image and minimizing the overall appearance of noise. If you blow it up you will see the noise. Posted: 03/08/2025 14:28:39
Very nice job of cropping and processing this. The color is vibrant but natural, and the crop has the branches framing the bird well. It doesn't matter what the camera is- it's what you point it at and do with it! Posted: 03/16/2025 12:53:37
Posted: 03/18/2025 15:06:06
I think I have one other photo of a peregrine, this one sitting atop a utility pole. Really hard to sneak up on these guys. :-)
I will have to look through my "Matt K" files to see if I can find that technique. I try to avoid halos by not overprocessing, but this was in my very early days. Posted: 03/20/2025 21:40:08
