Venison and poultry..

[wooly]

I've been seeing a crazy amount of deer around so far this year. More than I was expecting after that long harsh winter we had, but I'm glad I was wrong about the affect it had on their numbers.

Here's a few recent shots I grabbed..

I'll start checking up on the bucks in the fields shortly. Trail cams show they are coming along nicely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found a family of three coons sleeping the day away up in this old abandoned wooden stand. I had to poke him with a stick to see if he was alive....he was!

 

 

Had some serious gobbling going on this afternoon around 4pm.

Somebody forgot to tell Ol' Tommy that the turkey rut is over as he strutted and gobbled for his girlfriend out in a clearcut. Too far out for any good shots, but these two jakes came running in from behind me to his calls. They all got together and chased the hen into the woods. It was a strange sight for third week of June.

 

 

...and finally got a nice close-up of the Flicker on the lawn.

 

[nyslowhand]

Very kool, Wooly!

 

Enjoy your outings now, deer flies should be out in force pretty soon.

[Pav2704]

Great pics wooly... Keep them coming!!

[greg54]

Beautiful pics!!!  Keep them coming.

[Deerthug]

Awesome pics Wooly! You're my inspiration to keep practicing with my camera.

[Paula]

nice

[landtracdeerhunter]

I.m a sucker for all critter pictures, but that little coon sure is cute.

[wooly]

Thanks everyone!

I had a little accident on some slippery rocks in the creekbottom last week.

It put a serious hurtin' on my camera that only leaves me with two options anymore.... AUTO mode, or Apperature priority mode which is locked in at high(800) ISO.

I can't change the settings now which kind of limits me and doesn't allow me to review my shots in the field.

It still works, but I blow a lot of shots because of it.

 

[Paula]

Thats too bad

[philoshop]

Greats photos Wooly!

Sorry about your camera.

[pistolp71]

Great pics as usual. So clear.

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[NFA-ADK]

Very nice!

[Doc]

The look on that coon's face says it all. I think he wishes he had a stick to poke you with ..... lol.

 

So when you replace that camera (and I'm sure that will be soon), are you going to buy the same thing or try to upgrade some? Judging from the quality of your pictures, I would tend to replace it with the same thing.

[gfdeputy2]

Great Pic's Sux about the camera I love my Nikons

 

[Deerthug]

Ugg! Sorry bout the camera....

[GreeneHunter]

Great Pics ... Nice color !

[wooly]

The look on that coon's face says it all. I think he wishes he had a stick to poke you with ..... lol.

 

So when you replace that camera (and I'm sure that will be soon), are you going to buy the same thing or try to upgrade some? Judging from the quality of your pictures, I would tend to replace it with the same thing.

 

I've been meaning to upgrade for a long time now but always find something else the money would be better put towards.

I'll shoot this one till it stops clicking and make a decision after that, but I'll always shoot a Nikon.

It's already out lived its estimated factory life expectancy for me, so I got nothing bad to say about it there. A little upgrade to a camera that offers me more creative shooting options would be nice..., but not necessary for what I do.

I could grab this same camera off ebay today for $150 and not have to worry about it too much if I slip tomorrow and bust another,lol.

That would probably be the smart thing to do the way I knock this thing around in the field! It really shouldn't have lasted me this long.

[Cabin Fever]

Beautiful pics... as usual! That coon cracks me up!

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Edited June 22, 2014 by Cabin Fever

[Cabin Fever]

Beautiful pics.... as usual! That coon cracks me up!

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

Holy Crap! Had to hurry up and edit that last post, as auto-correct changed it to, "That colon cracks me up!" Damn that auto-correct!!! 

[ny hunter]

Great pics!!!!!!!! Good thing the camera got the brunt of the fall and not you.......

Edited June 22, 2014 by ny hunter

[Pygmy]

I loved the flicker picture...

Is that a father flicker or a mother flicker ?

[philoshop]

You've inspired me to get back into photography, Wooly!

I spent part of the weekend playing around with a Kodak P880 that I use for documenting coins. It has a great lens and macro setting for the coins, but it's not an interchangeable lens system. Looking to upgrade later this summer.

Back in the film days I was a Canon guy, but all my bodies and lenses were stolen and I never replaced them so I'm starting from scratch and leaning towards Nikon this time around.

Would you mind if I pick your brain a little regarding your recommendations for used gear that won't break the bank?

Something like a D5100 maybe with a 70-300 lens? Or save a little more and go for a 70-200 lens that will work with a doubler?

Thanks,

Mark

[wooly]

You've inspired me to get back into photography, Wooly!

I spent part of the weekend playing around with a Kodak P880 that I use for documenting coins. It has a great lens and macro setting for the coins, but it's not an interchangeable lens system. Looking to upgrade later this summer.

Back in the film days I was a Canon guy, but all my bodies and lenses were stolen and I never replaced them so I'm starting from scratch and leaning towards Nikon this time around.

Would you mind if I pick your brain a little regarding your recommendations for used gear that won't break the bank?

Something like a D5100 maybe with a 70-300 lens? Or save a little more and go for a 70-200 lens that will work with a doubler?

Thanks,

Mark

 

Oh man, that's great you want to get back into it Mark! That really sucks about your Canon gear getting lifted. Just goes to show how dumb thiefs can be,lol

 

I wish I could recommend a package that you'd be happy with based on my own experience, but what it really boils down to is what your most comfortable and familiar with shooting.

The D5100 will do everything you need it to do as far as wildlife photography goes and has plenty of megapixels for great detail. My only concern with that camera is the flip out display viewer.(I may be thinking about the D-5200) That just seems like it would be too delicate a feature for me to have bouncing around my neck while chasing critters through the sticks and over the hills. IMO the D-5000 would be a better option for that reason, and can be had for cheaper.

 

For casual nature photography, either lens combo you mention will work but you'll need to learn it's limitations and strong points. At times you may also wish you had chose one over the other, but that's just the way it goes. There's a ton of sweet used options and great deals out there if you can find them. If price isn't a big concern, get the widest aperture lens you can afford. The summer woods aren't always an easy place to find your subjects first of all, and finding them someplace with adequate light for a slow lens can be more of a challenge than finding the critter itself. Nothing sucks more than a blurry pic of a once in a lifetime encounter because the lighting was bad..

 

You probably already know how deep you can get into this stuff. You just need to decide how deep you're willing to get into it!

 

Since I'm already here, I'll leave you all with a couple shots from yesterday.

 

 

[philoshop]

A couple more great shots!! Wow!

Thanks for the reply, Wooly. I'm very familiar with the 'buy once, cry once' scenario of photography. If I had that $15k+ in Canon lenses back I'd know where to start.  

Sooo, I guess I do know where to start.
 

In the meantime, I'll look around at camera bodies some more, probably ask you a few more dumb questions about digital, and maybe even get a few of my own gimpy pics up here.

Thanks again.

[philoshop]

I warned you'd that I'd post a gimpy pic:

 

Caught this guy out behind my house when I took a quick walk between the thunderstorms this evening. I'm definitely hooked again!

Kodak P880 with max zoom (140mm), ISO 400, f4.1, 1/30 shutter. 20 minutes of being bug-chewed and rained on, and 27 frames later, this is the best I could do, but if you look real closely, there is actually a deer in there. LOL!