On Saturday, I grabbed the camera with the 75-300mm and went snowshoeing at Green Lakes. Knowing where the piliated woodpecker was inclined to forage for food, I again made way to the camping section of the park.
I was expecting to walk past the cabins and into the upper camping lot closer to the Rolling Hills section of the park, but I found one in amongst the cabins and in beautiful light. The bird was high enough that I was concerned with startling it, so I proceeded to pull out my camera, turn it on, bring it to me eye and … “No Card” was flashing at the top of the EVF. Good light or not, the camera doesn’t work without a memory card.
I would spend the next 15 minutes watching the bird do their work before continuing my snowshoeing. Before leaving, I was certain to capture an image with the cell phone and binoculars, if for no other reason than to serve as a reminder to not be so absentminded again in the future.
This morning, Sunday, I participated in a photo club meet-up at Onondaga Lake to photograph the eagles.
There were a handful of folks from the club, most of whom I recognized from Zoom meetings. I saw Jeff again, and met Dave, Theresa, Deb, Ken, and John. Folks were all very kind and knowledgeable. I’d wager that nearly each person that I met had at least another 10 years of photo wisdom than I possess … some have been photographing for decades. Dave used to have their own darkroom.
While the light was nice, the birds were not flying in proximity to where we were standing at end of the creek this day. The birds could be appreciated from a distance (especially with binoculars, which I am glad that I brought along), but a quality image was a struggle today for my kit and skill. Frankly, I don’t see how anything less than 600mm on a full frame camera body would have yielded anything that was even close to worthy of posting on social media sites alone, not to mention creating a print.
Still … I wasn’t there for the birds as much as I was the company, and I was able to talk with and meet some folks even when my camera was in my jacket. So, despite not walking away with any keepers, the photography outing was a resounding success after all.