Many say that Muscovy Ducks are very friendly and indeed there are those that keep them as pets. My experience last Wednesday gave me a different feeling towards these feral birds. I was visiting Irvin Pitts park in Ware Shoals. There was a skittish pair of Mallards keeping their distance from me. There was also a Great Blue Heron poised in the distance and several smaller song birds flittering about. Also, as soon as I exited my truck I was greeted by several Muscovys. They wandered aimlessly about as I set up my tripod.

After a short time had passed, a male duck was chased away from his female companion and the aggressor forcibly had his way with her. Interesting and perfectly natural behavior. It wasn’t until a couple of hours later when three males and a female showed their aggression towards me (heehee). These little buggers actually thought they were going to take me on. Anyway I persuaded them to leave me and once again settled down behind my tripod. Well, I guess they were still wound up because one of the more animated males started to beat up on another male.

For the next 8 to 10 minutes this bully pummeled the other bird, first on shore and them in the water. Once he chased his victim into the river he really went to town on him. I think he was trying to hold him under the water but I don’t know. Beaks, feet and wings were ferociously flying and it seemed as though the instigator did not want to let up.

When it was all over the dominator circled around me and sat down in some grass. The loser swam to a rock in the center of the river and started to care for himself. He never left that rock as long as I was there. I suspect that he broke a wing in the fight but I can not confirm that.

After an embarrassingly long absence, I have returned.  I’ve had many things going on in my life that kept me away.  Now, I am back once again.  I will start slowly with only sporadic postings and eventually increase to . . . well . . . whatever level I decide upon.  I will also be experimenting with format changes for a while.  Well . . . change is good, right?

Canon EOS 7D, 8 sec @ f/11, ISO 400

I took this shot Tuesday night.  It was my first attempt at night photography.  Tried to shoot the front of my house.  Obviously, a little more experience with this after dark shooting couldn’t hurt me.  At any rate, this nighttime stuff could be a fun ongoing project.  Perhaps more to come.

Canon EOS 7D, 1/640 @ f/6.3, ISO 800

Canon EOS 7D, 1/500 @ f/3.5, ISO 400

Canon EOS 7D, 1/160 @ f/8, ISO 640

Canon EOS 7D, 320 @ f/8, ISO 640

Canon EOS 7D, 1/500 @ f5.6, ISO 200

Canon EOS 7D, 1/320 @ f5.6, ISO 320

Canon EOS 7D, 1/8 @ f/29, ISO 200

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/250 @ f/2.8, ISO 1000

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/125 @ f/3.5, ISO 1000

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/160 @ f/3.5, ISO 1000

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/125 @ f/3.5, ISO 1000

Another shot from the 4th Annual Lawman’s Hockey Tournament.

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/250 @ f/3.2, ISO 1000

A quick shot from the 4th Annual Lawman’s Hockey Tournament held at The Duluth Heritage Center (in Duluth, MN) last Saturday. It was my second year shooting the event but this time it was much tougher for me because of mobility issues.  It was a grueling two day event and it took it’s toll on me.  It was a great time anyway!

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/8000 @ f/2.8, ISO 500

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro – 1/4000 @ f/2.8, ISO 200

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro – 1/320 @ f/10, ISO 800

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/8000 @ f/3.2, ISO 200

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/8000 @ f/2.8, ISO 320

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/8000 @ f/2.8, ISO 400

Last night I did a very, quick unscientific experiment with the two SanDisk readers.  I first uploaded 30 raw images into my iMac with the old ImageMate reader.  This process took me 4 minutes and 41 seconds.  I then uploaded the same images twice more using the new firewire reader.  I did this twice because the SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader comes with two different cables.  One cable is for firewire 400 and the other for firewire 800.  With cable ‘A’, which I presume is firewire 400, these 30 photos took 1 minute and 32 seconds to upload.  With cable ‘B’, presumably firewire 800, the upload of the exact pictures took 1 minute and 11 seconds to upload.  So, these 30 files uploaded 3 and 1/2 minutes faster with this reader and the firewire 800 cable.  As you can see, the SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader is considerably faster than my old reader.  Obviously the benefits would be substantial when uploading hundreds of files.

This simple test was done on an iMac running OS-X version 10.5.8 software with 3 GB of ram. I used Lightroom version 2.6 for the whole process.  The card used was a SanDisk Exreme III with 8GB capacity (the reader by the way, was designed for the Extreme IV cards).   The 30 raw files uploaded were approximately 18 MBs each, for  just under 540 MBs total.  Your results may vary but, anyway you look at it, this is a fast card reader.  As for myself,  the $60 invested seems to be money well spent.

So far, I am quite happy with the firewire reader.

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/8000 @ f/2.8, ISO 250

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/640 @ f/8.0, ISO 200

What always amazes me is the variety one can find when cruising the back roads.  This was most certainly  a surprising discovery.

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron 28 -75 f2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro – 1/1250 @ f/4.5, ISO 200

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/640 @ f/5.0, ISO 200

Sony Alpha A700, Tamron SP AF 70-200 mm f2.8 Di LD(IF) Macro - 1/800 @ f/5.0, ISO 200

After having starting many web presences over the years, I took a leave of absence from blogging and web publishing due to various reasons.  This is my return, for good or bad, to the internet publishing world.  I will, however, start slowly as I reacquaint myself with the art of web publishing and blogging.  Some software and tricks I must recall and some software I am totally learning from scratch.  Anyway, I plan on probably creating only sporadic posts initially and hopefully (if all goes well) publishing daily or nearly so.

Here’s a toast to a new adventure!