Feathers

I'm known as being a feather collector - can't resist photographing them too.  Trying to get detail in a feather floating by the bridge, such a small feather, I decided to try spot metering to see what effect I could get.  It was quite hard to keep the focus on such a small thing on a moving surface and I had several failures, but I kept trying and this is one of the successes.  What I liked is how the river water darkened and displayed the white feather perfectly.  I used Aperture Priority which stopped at 6.5 when I zoomed in fully, and the spot metering faded out the surrounding water beautifully.  You can also see the surface tension on the water around the feather.

I love my Panasonic FZ200 - it is easy to use, it has f/2.8 available throughout the zoom range, and many other reasons.  It is also the first camera I have had that I ventured outside "everything auto".   But I found I was looking for a longer zoom; this one is 24x, which has been great for me as a beginner.   But when I started looking for more zoom, and found the extension zoom for the FZ200 was going to cost nearly as much as a new camera with a 60x zoom, I did my research and decided to get the Nikon Coolpix 610.  Only had it a few days but I'm finding it just as easy to use; there are diffferences of course - each has their own pluses and minuses, like anything in life - but the 60x zoom is giving me what I wanted, the fine detail on feathers on those too-far-away birds.

Crested pigeon - look at the colours, and then see how the texture of the feathers shows up too.

from a distance - look at the feather edges

Experimenting with flare

I have found that using flare as opposed to avoiding it, can be quite interesting in its effects.  I found this down feather on a fence at the park, and faced directly into the sun to see what flare effect I could get.  I was delighted!  The purple circles on the lens, plus the sun itself as a glowing white ball with flare lines erupting, so interesting, and you can still see the feather barb details.

Using flare for effect

©Christine Linton