Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: starling

Yup, we've got starlings. We've always got starlings. I like 'em a bit better in the winter, when they don't arrive in gangs; their winter camo garb's better than their summertime dark PJs, too.... Y' really gotta nail the focus, or folks won't take your photographs seriously. The problem with the fully-manual Nikon 1 V1/Minolta lens combination is that 1) I'm out of practice doing manual focus and 2) the camera/lens setup gives you less help than you'd hope. What's more, the electronic viewfinder's not sharp enough for fine focus, as you quickly become aware of its limitations. From around 1990 to 2004 I had a cataract on my right eye. I could usually still see well enough to frame photographs, but I became heavily dependent on my various cameras' autofocus capabilities. And although I've used my Minolta SR-T101 a bit since my eye was fixed, I've not used it enough to (again) become fully comfortable with a manual focus camera. (And the SRT at least gives you a little assistance.) Anyway, I can see that learning to use this camera's going to require some practice. Except for the starling thing, this one came out well....

This went on for a couple minutes.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366 Snaps project discussion for May 28 .

Explored! #112 [5/29/2013]. (No longer in the top 500; so goes Explored.) Thanks everyone. A year ago today it was just gorgeous, and I had one or another camera in hand all day. Late in the afternoon I unloaded the big Nikon and found I'd got these neat pix of a baby Starling trying to defend its birdbath. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 232 Title of " roll :" Birds Other photos taken on 5/28/2012: The day's entire "Birds" set is excellent , and the Daily Flower Census was delightfully colorful.

I'm really not much of a Starlings fan, but there's no way to keep 'em away.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 61 Title of " roll :" Birds [mostly Starlings. at the birdbath] Other photos taken on 5/27/2012: The Daily Flower Census consisted of 14 rather boring photographs.

This is an outtake from my 366 Snaps project . The photo I was trying to capture would have been of the Mourning Dove taking off. Never got that pic; what I got instead was a bunch of pix with the Dove just sitting on the branch. And this. The Starling had been harassing the Dove--hollerin', doing little charges, even a peck or two--from a branch on the edge of my frame, to no effect. He gave up, and left in a huff. So here he is. The 366 Snaps has been generating roughly as many usable outtakes as actually-posted photographs. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but you'll see 'em all, in black & white, eventually.

Posting this a day late: Had an equipment failure yesterday. All better today; thanks for asking. This day's photos were a deliberate effort to capture birds in flight. I had some success, but wasn't really satisfied. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 91 Title of " roll :" Sparrows & Starlings Other photos taken on 5/7/2012: The Daily Flower Census shows that we had Irises, Columbines, and Cranesbill open a year back. And that our flowers-in-planters had largely survived the easy 2011-12 winter.