By Ted Grussing
… the more time I spend down at the ponds the more respect I am getting for the grackle and its mastery of flight. I took this shot of one at the ponds last week as it was preparing to land on one of the metal rails going down into the water. Unlike the ducks, they do not wait for the personnel at the ponds to throw the fish food into the water, rather they perch on the edge of the feed buckets and pick it up or if the level is low, they go right down into the bucket and get breakfast lunch or dinner … maybe even an in between meal snack. I played with the background to get a look and mood I wanted for the image. More of these beautiful creatures to follow.
Next week it will be back to Watson Lake in Prescott and hopefully get some great migratory birds and shoot them from water level … battery is fully charged for the electric motor and as always the camera is ready. One of the truly awesome features of the new 1DX MK III for my wildlife shooting is not just the shooting speed of 16 frames per second in raw format, but the buffer for temporary storage before the image is written to the CFexpress card is 1000 shots. That means for all practical purposes you can just keep the shutter down and shoot continuously until the card fills up. In normal shooting circumstances I will be able to get sequences of 100 shots pretty easily where I currently am doing good if I get 50. Scheduled to have mine a month from this coming Tuesday. Yay!
This makes six out of seven photos this year that are of winged creatures and only one shot that is an aerial image … you might think I am building up the collection of birds for a presentation to the Audubon Society and you would be correct. January 22nd at the Sedona Library and the program starts at 6PM. The presentation is open to the public so you are welcome to come and enjoy beauty from a birds perspective as well as photos of many of our feathered friends. The library has one of the best projection systems in the area … I did a presentation there last fall and was very pleased with the quality of the images on the screen. More on the presentation at: http://www.northernarizonaaudubon.org/?p=5670 . So make plans to be there … the program will last for about an hour … Hope you can make it!
Today was a wonderful day … time with friends, time continuing the transition of all the mailing lists to the cloud, time on home projects and most important, time providing a lap for One to sleep on.
Keep breathing … keep smiling.
Cheers,
Ted
A bird flies through the sky, and I fly with it. I am each pearl of moisture sparkling in the sun.
I lie lazy on the clouds. And I acknowledge my kinship with each winged thing.
I see all as one, and nothing repels me, as this new day climbs noiselessly out of the valley of the night.
Peace lies over the world and over the world of my soul.
— Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
More about Ted Grussing …