Other than snapshots and quick street photography, I’ve actually gotten to really prefer manual focus anymore
Been taking some LBB1 pictures lately. Not because they’re particularly bright or colorful, like those Hooded Orioles were, but because they’re a bit of a challenge. Both in that they are very twitchy, so getting them sharp means fast shutters and a quick hand with the focus, and in that they never stay in the same spot for long enough to play with composition at all. Like billiards after eight beers. Or sex. It’s just point, shoot, and hope for the best.
We seem to have three or four species in the yard at the moment. Some orioles, though only females and I haven’t seen the brilliant yellow males in quite some time. Also a couple species of Finch, sparrows, and doves. There are, of course, crows and an occasional hawk, but this group of LBBs has been eating whatever the berries are on the bush next to the driveway, sitting in the pine tree behind the garage, and occasionally on the rafters and power wires.
They’re quite active mornings and evenings, so I took these shots while a pair were bickering and posturing this afternoon. This one would sit still for long enough to yell at the two smaller LBBs, so I was able to get some sharp photos, and even walk closer and take another pose.
I think the goal here was to see what composition and light can do to make a rather mundane subject look interesting. I tried a few different crops to see what I like. I won’t mention which is my favorite and which I like least, you can decide that for yourself.
Taken with a 105mm DC, manual focus, of course, the Z6 body and FTZ adapter not having the driver for the bayonette screw lenses.
Not going to complain in detail again about losing autofocus with the Z6 and my favorite legacy lenses, but I will say one thing. Other than snapshots and quick street photography, I’ve actually gotten to really prefer manual focus anymore. The autofocus is easy, but when DOF is razor thin it might not get the one bit I actually want in focus perfect. Like taking a lizard pic, to make it above and beyond you need to specifically get the eye and the nose in focus. Autofocus, even with the absolutely stellar Z lenses I have tried seems to want to get the whole lizard, and so most of the pics have blurry noses or blurry feet. Even using pinpoint focus, the pinpoint isn’t quite small enough for these guys. A quick touch of the focus ring will light up the focus peaking and let me see precisely what’s going to be sharp instead of trusting the camera and losing out on a good shot.
Not that losing out on ANOTHER lizard pic matters much. I have taken hundreds at this point. I really don’t need another.
1. Little Brown Bird. This stems from the times in the coffee shop when I got my very fist digital camera, the D70, and Jim and I would experiment, trying to take sharp pictures of sparrows that were always flitting about in the bushes behind the fire pits.