Country Oaks Images

Week 22 – Working At the Limits of My Equipment – Handheld, Low Light, Too Far

Ed Belding — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:36:27 +0000

Great Horned Owl in Palo Pinto Hills

I saw the great horned owl fly over from a nearby hill and land about 30 yards northeast of my elevated stand. He saw me and wasn’t concerned in the least. I am sure he sees himself as the meanest thing the area, and he might be right. This bird is beautiful and huge. I was again using the Nikon D300 and the Nikkor 300 AF-S f/4. This was hand-held and out of the 8 images I took this is one of perhaps tow that were of marginal value.

This is heavily cropped and processed. It won’t be featured on a magazine cover but I think it shows how impressive these birds are. It was fun seeing him in the wild and being just close enough to get some kind of image.

Great Horned Owl In Palo Pinto Hills

Week 21 – Working At the Limits Of My Equipment – Low Light and High ISO

Ed Belding — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:26:53 +0000

yearling whitetail after sunset

This is a young ”button buck” that came by my stand after sunset. You can only tell that he is a buck in the first image if you look close at where the antlers will be. The light was obviously very low so the ISO is crank up to 3200. The Nikon D300 doesn’t handle such high ISO’s very well. The high ISO really pulls in the available light but at the cost of very grainy images. I was about 25 yards away in a blind using a monopod with the Nikkor 300 AF-S f/4 and a Nikon 1.4 TC2. If this guy survives the predators maybe he will be show up next year as a small 4 or 6 point.

Week 20 – Working At the Limits Of My Equipment – Too Far, Hand Held

Ed Belding — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 02:51:39 +0000

Great Blue Heron at Muddy Pond

I saw the great blue heron fishing at the far edge of a pond. I stop in the side of the road and braced myself as best as I could for this hand-held image. I was using the Nikon D300 with Nikkor 300 f/4. I had lots of light so I opened the aperture for addition depth. The distance was approximately 70 yards so this required a heavy crop and heavy post processing in an attempt to get a decent image out of the dozen I took.

Week 19 – White Tail Doe

Ed Belding — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:27:10 +0000

Went out this morning with my rifle and camera. The rifle was for feral hogs. The camera was for images like these.

Shot with Nikon D300 and Nikkor 300mm f/4.0. Handheld and braced against the edge of my deer blind. I think the 3rd and 5th images are my favorites from this series.

Week 18 – Autumn Color in the Palo Pinto Hills

Ed Belding — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:17:40 +0000

Taken about 30 minutes before sunset on the first evening of deer season west of Mineral Wells Texas. You can see we are in enjoying our two weeks of autumn in north central Texas.

On this outing my camera was better equipped for wildlife than landscapes, but the wildlife were uncooperative. This scene was several hundred yards away from me. I was using a Nikon D300 with Nikkor 300mm f/4.0. As the sun dropped lower on the horizon it illuminated the stone amongst the cedar and elm trees.

Week 17 – My Hunting Buddy

Ed Belding — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:05:39 +0000

Alec gave me a hand preparing one of my deer stands and scouting the area.

We found these growing out of the creek bank while following some turkey tracks

Alec in front of stone outcropping that looks like a cave entrance. This was fertile ground for a 7-year-old boy’s imagination.

The Early Evidence of Fall’s Approach

Ed Belding — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 01:55:38 +0000

This week we started seeing evidence that our two-week Texas Autumn season is just around the corner.

Week 16 – Old Mineral Wells Rams Stadium

Ed Belding — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 04:01:07 +0000

I stopped by the now retired Rams Stadium of Mineral Wells where the high school football team played for may decades before their modern stadium was completed several years ago. Anyone would agree that the new stadium with its modern spacious press box, improved and expanded seating and perfect location is better in every way. But this old stadium was full of charm and everyone who played, coached or officiated at the stadium will share fond memories about the its uniqueness and charm. When a field goal or PAT was kicked during night games the ball would disappear from view in the thick oak trees that encroached in and over the field right at the goal posts. You can see this in some of the images below.

The facility is used today by a semi-pro team and recreational soccer and the grass field still looks great.

Week 15 – A Reminder of Earlier Times

Ed Belding — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 03:24:27 +0000

I found this old abandoned farm-house in southwestern Palo Pinto County as a gentle rain storm was rolling in. No doubt there are memories attached to this place.

Week 14 – Lone Liveoak

Ed Belding — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:54:33 +0000

This is one of my first attempts with a used Nikon D300 that I picked up recently. It has the same form factor as my D700 but has a DX sensor which provides for a 50% tighter crop effect because of the smaller digital sensor. It isn’t intended to be my landscape photography kit; that genre rightly belongs to my full frame D700, But when a picture presents itself you use what you have on hand.D300

Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 at 80mm (120mm equivalent)

Hand held

Focused on tree

Lone Oak in Pasture