Eye of the Gator Well, Florida Outback week has turned into American Alligator week. This eye just seemed to have such character coming from a 60+ year old alligator. Some folks appear to think that the Nikon 70-300mm lens at 300mm can be a bit soft. On the Nikon 1 V1, the 300mm turns into 810mm; helping me keep a safe distance and still capture the image. It’s sharp enough for me.
Gator: Eye to Eye Meet the American Alligator up close and personal. Oh, sure, I was close, but not too close. The 70-300mm set at 70mm is still 189mm after the Nikon 1 V1 crop factor. This guy is much younger than yesterday’s post. As a FYI, American Alligators are black; some folks apparently think some are green. Not so, they’re all black. Anyway, I was very close to the ground to capture the image. And, there were several gators in the area. Remember, although they generally move about rather slowly, these guys can really move fast. Keep a safe distance.
American Alligator Welcome to the Florida Outback weekly theme. The American Alligator remains the iconic animal of the Florida Everglades. It’s the top of the food chain in the glades. This guy, a 60+ year old gator, barely moved as we passed by his favorite spot to sun bath. Gators must keep their internal body temperature at 82º F so it’s a water and sun life. Again, the Nikon 1 V1 and the 70-300mm gave me plenty of reach in a light hiking package.
Shrek Sometimes, the shortest actor in the play is the really the biggest to you. Ame made a wonderful rabbit in a local performance of Shrek today. I now have a new respect for shooters capturing images on stage with existing light. The Nikon 1 V1 with the 50mm f1.4 lens made a good combination giving me a fast 135mm lens in a small package.
Piper PA-18 Super Cub on Skis takes off in the snow. The PA-18 is Alaska’s work horse airplane and it seems to do pretty well in the lower 48 as well. Of course, the difficulty to capturing good airplane images in the winter with snow, is to keep the shutter speed lower enough to blur the prop and pan well enough to keep the wings and fuselage in sharp focus while dealing with bright, hard mid-day light. A 1/125s shutter speed is about as high as I like for a click like this one.
My brother, the pilot in the front seat, is having too much fun as he takes off in this Piper J-3 Cub on Skis. We are hoping to do some air-to-air photo shoots this February at the Ski Plane Weekend.
This Dassault Falcon 50 doesn’t seem to mind the snow at all; nice ride even when it’s really cold.
Cirrus G3 Turbo vs. Snow This Cirrus G3 Turbo was taking off just as I got to the airport today. The Nikon 1 V1 with the 70-300mm lens sat ready in the shoot gun seat. A couple quick clicks and the Cirrus was gone. It climbed like a jet in the cold +2º air. Yea, it warmed up a bit today. Notice the snow pile next to the runway. You know you had a really good snowfall when an airplane can takeoff and still fly lower than the snow pile while climbing out.
