In two days I’ll be escaping the chill of upstate New York and plunking myself down in the sun-drenched land of southeastern Texas for the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Birding Festival (held in Harlingen, Texas).
It looks like festival attendees are in for some good weather, as long as Hurricane Ida behaves. Already, early reports say that Masked Duck, Blue Bunting, Hook-billed Kites, and Rose-throated Becard have been spotted at field trip locations. Heard tell that Jeff Gordon saw a bobcat and Chris from Picus Blog posted an adorable photo of a javalina with young on Twitter.
Today I am packing and prepping gear: polishing bins and lenses, jamming a rat’s nest worth of chargers and cords into my backpack, and raiding drawers trying to find a decent pocket notebook. I’m also reviewing some of the more obscure settings on my dSLR so I’m ready at the word GO! for the day-long photo safari scheduled on Sunday.
The JumpStart Guide to the Nikon D90 has been indispensible as I venture into the world of digital SLR photography. The guide explains the menu and buttons, covers features and functions, explains how to change settings (such as white balance, ISO, etc.) and dips into why and when each setting may be necessary.
I pick up a little more information each time I view the DVD set. There are tons of pro-level tricks to be found on the camera, and even many of the standard settings are not self-explanatory, so for me the guide has been a necessary accompaniment. The narrative moves at a rapid clip, so I watch it on my computer and find myself pressing PAUSE again and again while I digest what I just learned.
The guide doesn’t teach me how to be a better bird photographer. That’s what time in the field and Sunday’s workshop are all about. But after just completing my third or fourth viewing, I think I’ve finally found out where they keep the shutter button on this thing. Dog help me, I’m ready to shoot some birds!
I’ll try my best to blog while on the road. Better yet, check out my Twitter stream (@lkamms) for live, action-cam updates of RGV doin’s!
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* I’m a newbie Amazon affiliate. If you purchase the DVD from the link above, a half a cent may be deposited into my new lens fund. : )
Related posts:
- Bird Photography? Yes, I Can. So Can You. I’m not an idiot. In fact, I pride myself on being able to figure things out when I put my mind to it....
- Rio Grande Valley Festival Coming Soon! Apparently, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that showed up in central NY last week had a message for me: Get to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival!...
- Least Grebe at Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival ...
