Favorite Shots of 2014

[Crickett]

I love them all Christy! Beautiful shots. Somehow I knew there would be pix of chix!

Thx Dennis! I had a hard time choosing which chick pics to post. I have so many!

 

[cre8foru]

#1
https://flic.kr/p/ptoksq https://www.flickr.com/people/51139645@N02/

#2
https://flic.kr/p/p6AS65 https://www.flickr.com/people/51139645@N02/

#3
https://flic.kr/p/ozgiHS https://www.flickr.com/people/51139645@N02/

#4
https://flic.kr/p/kr6Vra https://www.flickr.com/people/51139645@N02/

#5
https://flic.kr/p/kr6jaR https://www.flickr.com/people/51139645@N02/

These are great. Really like the Black and White shot.

 

[cre8foru]

Ok, here's a few I liked
#1 is from the Ijams Nature center,Knoxville,Tenn.

#2 Is from my trip to Alaska

#3 is also from Alaska

#4 Old mine car tracks Knoxville,Tenn.

#5 Skagway,Alaska

Beautiful. Very Ansel Adams like with the black and white landscapes.

 

[cre8foru]

I realized I kind of slacked off in 2014 and didn't have quite as many shots to review, but here goes:

#1 - Frio River from my spring turkey hunt in Texas where I completed my Grand Slam.
View attachment 818001

#2 - Woodpecker that came around to feed in the winter.
View attachment 818002

#3 - My little guys enjoying Jake's birthday present in early summer.
View attachment 818003

#4 - This little tree frog hung out on the front porch light for several weeks. I turned him loose in the back yard and he was right back out front that same evening sitting on the porch light again!
View attachment 818004

#5 - Thanksgiving snow from my mom's house in WV.
View attachment 818005

Love that last WV snowscape.

 

[cre8foru]

I was hoping somebody else would share their favorite 5 shots from 2014 first, but I've got mine ready, so here goes...

It was pretty easy to sort it down to my favorite 49 shots from 2014, but getting to just 5 was hard... In the top 10, I had one scenic, one frog, one deer, two flowers and 5 birds. In the top 5, I ended up with 4 birds and a flower... It looks like I have shared 4 of my favorite 5 on here already...


The flower is a huckleberry that I shot one morning while I was waiting on a landowner to meet me at his gate. He was running late, so I dug out my camera while I was waiting. I noticed the light was really nice on the huckleberry blossom and that I could get a clean background. I used my fill flash positioned a little below & behind the blossoms to give them a little glow & define their edges.

Huckleberry EXIF - Nikon D3, 105 mm, f/11, 1/125th second, ISO 200, tripod, fill flash below & behind, slight crop.



The two wood duck shots were taken less than 50 yards apart, but were taken 6 months apart. The adult was taken in January and the young drake was taken in July.

Adult Woodie EXIF - Nikon D300s, Nikkor 400 mm, f/7.1, 1/250th second, ISO 360, tripod, overcast & foggy conditions, fill flash on flash bracket with Better Beamer Fresnel flash extender, slight crop.

Young Woodie EXIF - Nikon D300s, Nikkor 80-400 @ 400 mm (600 mm equivalent with the crop factor), f/5.6, 1/320th second, ISO 200, existing light, handheld (but laying prone on the bank with the lens on a big tree root), slight crop.



The chuck-wills widow was a real treat to shoot & get a decent capture. Here's a chuck-will's widow from early May. This beauty cranked up calling as the sun was going down. I later realized that it was calling from a fence post nearby and went to see if I could get a better look. It allowed me to approach within "photographable" distance, so I went to the truck and dug my gear out and began to try to get a shot.

I got a few shots, but it was facing the "wrong" way and a little too far away. I also realized as it flew around that it had a few favorite perches. So, I set up on the favorite perch closest to a security light (but it was still DARK - this was taken at 9:28 PM). After a short wait, I saw it leave the post it was on and come fluttering in to the post that I was set up on.

I was auto-focused on the post, and then attempted to fine-tune (using auto-focus) on the bird's head (I used an LED headlamp to give me enough light to auto-focus on the post). Unfortunately, with the lack of light & movement of the bird, I completely lost focus.

I was able to refocus on the post, then adjust manually, and get a shot or three... It was re-adjusting position on the post (as it did on other posts when I was NOT taking pictures) and flapping his wings when I just happened to depress the shutter for this one.

Even with the flash as far away from the lens as I could get it and still be on the bracket, there was horrendous red-eye reflection. I think that if I'd had somebody to hold the flash a few feet away from me, I might could have gotten this image without having to digitally remove the red-eye.

Chuck-will's Widow EXIF - Nikon D300s, Nikkor 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250th second, ISO 1600, tripod, flash as main light on flash bracket, full frame (no cropping), digital red-eye reduction.


The male painted bunting wintered in my backyard for the last 2 years, but I haven't seen him this winter (yet).

Painted Bunting EXIF - Nikon D300s, Nikkor 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/250th second, ISO 1000, tripod, fill flash on flash bracket with Better Beamer Fresnel flash extender, slight crop.

Robert these are all near perfect but I love the Chuck Wills simply for the difficulty in executing such a shot. Really like the detailed explanation of how you pulled this off too.

 

[carver]

cre8foru,I'm always impressed with the bird pictures you post,(the Deer are awesome too!)

Rip, Your shots show what a true pro can do with a camera.

Dennis, your shots never disappoint, I need to come over and get Jake to take me for a ride.

Christy, love the flowers,#4 is that a Silkie?Odd but cute

 

[Crickett]

cre8foru,I'm always impressed with the bird pictures you post,(the Deer are awesome too!)

Rip, Your shots show what a true pro can do with a camera.

Dennis, your shots never disappoint, I need to come over and get Jake to take me for a ride.

Christy, love the flowers,#4 is that a Silkie?Odd but cute

Thanks Carver! Yes that was our Silkie Rooster. We had to sell him along with all of our other chickens.

 

[JasonF]

Great shots yall!! Keep em coming!

 

[rip18]

Thanks, y'all!

Crickett - Good ones! The rose & the two biddies are my favorites!

 

[FERAL ONE]

always gotta play with these threads! hard to pick faves from this year. lots of cool stuff happened to the Feral crew in 2014

 

[Crickett]

always gotta play with these threads! hard to pick faves from this year. lots of cool stuff happened to the Feral crew in 2014

Awesome! Love the sunset one!

 

[rockinwrangler]

All the photos so far are winners.. Awesome...

 

[wvdawg]

Feral One - those shots are awesome! Your son is not a boy anymore - my how he has grown! Gotta tell us more about the monkey shot please.

 

[carver]

Yeah Feral, tell us about that monkey!BTW great shots,Man,thats a super gar.

 

[FERAL ONE]

thank yall ! sorry, i should have added some "about" info ! the osprey was just one from nesting season, they nest near my plant and i just really liked the piercing stare i was given. the sunrise shot was at the tip of blacks island in pt st joe and we were on a kayak scalloping trip there ( may be an article comin' out about it in spring ) the one with ethan and the gar, well , yall see he is now 18 and scruffy chinned! time is flying i tell ya ! that was a 56" gar i believe and smashed his personal best. the hammock one was from the okefenokee swamp and i just liked it a lot for some reason. the monkey was from silver springs below ocala florida and we only got a small glimpse of them. a park airboat spraying for weeds came through and ruined the whole morning it was a great trip though otherwise. if yall have a hankerin' i posted videos of both the swamp and the silver springs trip in the kayak section of the forum. i had a blast putting them together ! can't wait to see everyone else's favorites.

 

[Smokey]

Wow these are some awesome shots. I've enjoyed looking at them. This has always been one of my favorite threads. I don't think I even taken 5 pictures in 2014

 

[Crickett]

thank yall ! sorry, i should have added some "about" info ! the osprey was just one from nesting season, they nest near my plant and i just really liked the piercing stare i was given. the sunrise shot was at the tip of blacks island in pt st joe and we were on a kayak scalloping trip there ( may be an article comin' out about it in spring ) the one with ethan and the gar, well , yall see he is now 18 and scruffy chinned! time is flying i tell ya ! that was a 56" gar i believe and smashed his personal best. the hammock one was from the okefenokee swamp and i just liked it a lot for some reason. the monkey was from silver springs below ocala florida and we only got a small glimpse of them. a park airboat spraying for weeds came through and ruined the whole morning it was a great trip though otherwise. if yall have a hankerin' i posted videos of both the swamp and the silver springs trip in the kayak section of the forum. i had a blast putting them together ! can't wait to see everyone else's favorites.

I knew it was a sunrise

 

[Sea dawg1978]

Here are my 5 favorite.

1. Cades Cove pano

Untitled_Panorama1 by choward_01, on Flickr

2. Waterfall at Cades Cove

IMG_6506 by choward_01, on Flickr

3. Cades Cove homestead

IMG_6497 by choward_01, on Flickr

4. Random guy on riverstreet

IMG_5708 by choward_01, on Flickr

5. My Best friend

Kaylee by choward_01, on Flickr

 

[carver]

Fine shots Sea dawg,your little one sure is cute,great captures of Cades cove too,one of my favorite places.

 

[Sea dawg1978]

Thank you..