[Leica] Photos: Western Yolo County Critters

[telyt at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)]

on 5/31/04 10:54 AM, Adam Bridge at abridge@dcn.org wrote:

> So what if gas is a bit pricey. It's the holiday weekend and my wife and
> headed
> out to see what me could see.
> 
> As we scouted the western boundary of the Central Valley, down a county road
> surrounded on either side by the Acme Gun Club property (heavily posted no
> trespassing: patrolled) this western meadowlark (thanks Doug) finally came to
> roost long enough to capture:
> 
> <http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/2004-05-Valley/P160NC-33-WYolo1-crp-crv-shrp.
> jpg>
> 
> <http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/2004-05-Valley/P160NC-29-WYolo1-crp-crv-shrp-
> 2.
> jpg>
> 
> <http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/2004-05-Valley/P160NC-31-WYolo1-crp-crv-adj-s
> pt
> -shrp.jpg>
> 
> Later, up closer to the rise of the Vaca Range and on the other side of a deep
> draw carved by a stream, now almost empty as we enter our rainless summer,
> this
> quail posed against the colorful background of grazing land, drying out in the
> sun.
> 
> <http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/2004-05-Valley/P400VC-31-WYolo2-crp-crv-spt-
> shrp.jpg>
> 
> <http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/2004-05-Valley/P400VC-30-WYolo2.jpg>
> 
> A redwing blackbird oversees a wheat field.
> 
> <http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/2004-05-Valley/P400VC-12-WYolo2-crp-crv-adj-
> shrp.jpg>
> 
> 
> The first three images are on Portra 160 NC, the last three on Portra 400 VC.
> Leica R8 with 560 f/5.7 tele.
> 
> I suppose these don't meet the criteria of political statement and are just
> bucolic photos of the California countryside. I stand convicted.
> 
> Adam
> 
>

As I mentioned to Adam off-list, it's not often anyone gets this close to a
Western Meadowlark.  The second Meadowlark photo illustrates one big problem
with long lenses: there ain't no depth of field.  The bird's head and neck
are clearly in focus but the feet are far enough outside the plane of focus
that they look soft.

When the Quail photos came up on my screen I started thinking "aha!  so
Adam's having trouble getting close to the quail too!"  but what Adam's done
is illustrate the male Quail's habit of finding a high perch to call from.

Were these scanned with Vuescan?  I find that I often have to increase
saturation somewhat to get a vuescan-scanned file to match the original
slide.  These seem to be low saturation.

I'm envious of your meadowlarks.  Keep it up.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com