[JohnR]

Startled me! On top of the Hills Hoist:



I tried to get closer with the camera (don't have a long zoom, and the above image is cropped somewhat) and he took off. Here he is in the yard:

[jeffreybehr]

And just what is that, John?

[mca]

What a great picture  What kind of camera do you use?

[JohnR]

Oh, it's a kookaburra. Not exactly rare but I'm not used to getting quite so up close and personal. And it was a nice day so I nicked back inside to grab the camera.

mca -- my digital is a Nikon D40. Frankly, I love it, it's very light and compact and it does the right thing most of the time. And I can put my manual focus lenses on it if I really want to   jeffrey -- I didn't have much time to look at your site but "Antelope Ceiling and Blue" is really drawing me in. I can't tell what the scale is which is part of my fascination with it.

[jqp]

Its too unwieldy to fly, like a Bumblebee...is it as big as it looks in the pictures?

I am getting closer to getting some kind of Nikon DSLR when I see pictures like this and hear about the cameras.

What kind of roof tiles are those? I was discussing all the terracotta tiles that I saw in Europe with a friend - these are not the terracotta color, maybe it is a moss on them?.

[jeffreybehr]

John, TY.  AC&B was shot about straight up at an overhanging part of the top of Antelope Lower Canyon.  The light is coming from the left, and the color temp is so low from all the reflections off the sanstone, that the parts of the same-color-sandstone wall in the shade turn blue because the light relecting from them is much higher in color temp.  As I recall I did NOT enhance the colors when I developed this frame (other than that resulting from adjusting Levels), and I was really surprised the way it turned out.  I LOVE the colors and sometimes wild formations of the Colorado Plateau--parts of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico where they meet--and consider myself blessed to live close.

[Wind Chaser]

Great shot, nice work!

[brj]

Great shot, John - that is an interesting looking bird!  As for the D40, I've recommended that camera to two different people within the past week.  Which lens are you using?

AC&B was shot about straight up at an overhanging part of the top of Antelope Lower Canyon.

Wow, Jeff - beautiful!  How long did you leave the shutter open?  A friend and I stopped by that location coming back from Zion last year, but I didn't have a tripod with me to get long exposures and really bring out the best color.  The following was about the best I could manage by hand when braced up hard against the canyon wall:



Not nearly as clean as Jeff's, but the color turned out better than I expected.  That pic was one of the last I took with my old Nikon film camera.  I've since moved on to a Nikon D80 and love it (except for an exposure control that could use a firmware update to get better dialed in).  I still need to get some new filters, though, as the new lens is a different size than any of my previous ones.

[navi]

Hey Jeffrey

Just browsed your site- Loved to canyon shots.... Love to go there one day. All you need now is a hot model draped on a rock

Ivan
www.ijproductions.com

[JohnR]

Wow, those rock patterns are fascinating.

JQP -- yeah it flies alright, although now you mention it I wonder whether it ever travels very far. I think that guy would have been... maybe 15 inches all up? They love eating big grubs -- they'll grab one, smash it against a rock several times, and then swallow it. Yum.

(Roof tiles are fake. They're actually tin)

brj -- just the 18-55mm kit lens. I've considered getting a longer lens (18-200mm VR, or perhap the 70-200, I think there's an AFS one) but the basic package is so lightweight and just works so well together. A heavier lens makes it feel front-heavy. What do you use with your D80?

[Wind Chaser]

(Roof tiles are fake. They're actually tin)

Tin roof tiles and woodpeckers would be interesting.  Around here they tap on just about everything.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Tin roof tiles and woodpeckers would be interesting.  Around here they tap on just about everything.

Here too, Ditto for vinyl siding. 

[brj]

Wow, those rock patterns are fascinating.

Yeah, its a really interesting place that I'd like to visit again, but I think I might try to search out some other slot canyons that aren't quire so heavily trafficked.  Of course, when you look up an realize that the clumps of sagebrush 10 feet above your head were put there by a flash flood from a few days before, it does drive home the fact that it isn't exactly your typical walk in the park - no matter how popular or commercialized the site might appear.

brj -- just the 18-55mm kit lens.

From what I've read, that is supposed to be a very good lens, and a virtual "no-brainer" at the kit price-point.

I've considered getting a longer lens (18-200mm VR, or perhap the 70-200, I think there's an AFS one) but the basic package is so lightweight and just works so well together. A heavier lens makes it feel front-heavy. What do you use with your D80?

I've got the Nikkor 18-200 VR, and I love it.  I'd definitely trade in my D80 for a D40 if that was that was the choice to get the 18-200 VR over some other lens.  (The D40 was announced, but not shipping when I ordered the D80, otherwise I probably would have saved the cash and grabbed it instead.  Lenses, however, are a longer term investment than even the most advanced digital camera body, which may stay current a whole 2 years if you're really lucky.)  The VR technology works very well and really does let you shoot several stops lower.  Of course, if isn't as if they are adding the VR technology to a super fast lens, but a f/2.8 of that zoom range would be far too expensive for your average hobbiest.  At f/3.5-5.6, however, it is quite typical for zooms of that range, and the VR adds a lot of capability if you're looking for one lens that you can just leave on the camera all the time.

(Until I bought the D80, I had been using a Nikon N2000 film camera for 20 years, and the newest lens I had for it was about 18 years old.  Aside from the 50mm kit lens, none of my previous lenses were Nikkor.  Hoping to see the same longevity out of any new autofocus lens purchase, I decided to blow my budget on the 18-200mm VR.  That said, Nikon still can't produce them fast enough even after 2 years, and many stores are still charging above MSRP.  It took some serious searching just to find a store that I could talk down to a whopping $10 below MSRP.)

[JohnR]

Hah! My original film SLR is an F-301, which is the same camera as the N2000. Still have it, although I prefer a newly purchased FE2 for film. (Soooo cheap now!)