Thursday, February 24, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM
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House Finch, Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM, February 21, 2011
How did you do that?
I've been asked how I made the House Finch portrait I posted Tuesday. Here's what you do.
First, like me, go take a bunch of bad pictures.
Before throwing the whole bunch in the digital dust bin, try to salvage something.
Pick out the pictures where the camera was at least clever enough to focus on the Finch rather than the creosote bush he was hiding in.
Select the one picture with a decent expressive pose and some light in the eye.
In my case, shooting at the 8 frames per second the Canon EOS 7D is capable of gives me lots of pictures to choose from and aside from the huge disadvantage of having a lot of junk to wade through, the high frame rate does increase my chance of coming away with at least one picture sharp enough and composed well enough to do something with.
Cropping to a composition that works with the out of focus creosote branches.
When that doesn't work try reducing the exposure enough to leave just the over-exposed Finch lit.
Bingo!... add little sharpening, some noise reduction and a bit more cropping and call it good.
Night camp
Site 10 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM
- This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
- Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
- Click for Google street view
- Check the weather in San Antonio NM
Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ
1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.