Tag: Turkey Vulture

Five-Years Ago (24-February-2007) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey: Turkey Vulture Flying Past the Moon.

I was out in the backyard trying to get images of the birds wintering in New Jersey. I noticed a shadow, turned around and caught this turkey vulture flying past the moon.

Turkey Vulture soaring past the first quarter moon. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture soaring past the first quarter moon. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)

Sunday (09-October-2011) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

I saw this flock of Turkey Vultures warming themselves in the early morning sun. The local Turkey Vulture population has increased over the past several years. I think their major food source is deer killed by automobiles.

Turkey Vultures Morning Sun Perch. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/13, 1/640). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vultures Morning Sun Perch.Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/13, 1/640). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vultures Morning Sun Perch. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/13, 1/640). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vultures Morning Sun Perch. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/13, 1/640). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Morning Sun Perch. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/4.5, 1/320). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Morning Sun Perch. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/4.5, 1/320). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Soaring. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/4.5, 1/320). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Soaring. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/4.5, 1/320). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Soaring. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/4.5, 1/320). (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Soaring. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/4.5, 1/320). (David J Mathre)

Friday (12-August-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Soaring Turkey Vulture. This week Thom Hogan has been publishing reviews of Nikon “Exotic” lenses. By Exotic, he is referring to the big telephoto lenses: 200 mm f/2, 300 mm f/2.8, 400 mm f/2.8, 500 mm f/4, and 600 mm f/4. In the reviews, he really likes the 400 mm f/2.8. I have an earlier version of the 400 mm f/2.8 D II (before VR or VR II). I decided to take it out this afternoon. Rather than showing some more images of the local deer, I’ll share an image of a soaring turkey vulture. The image was taken hand-held (yes this is a heavy lens (4620 g, nearly 10 lbs) — and even heavier when you add-on the camera body). The image is cropped significantly as the vulture was soaring well above the house.

Turkey Vulture Soaring. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 400 mm f/2.8 D II lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/2.8, 1/2500). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture Soaring.  Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 400 mm f/2.8 D II lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/2.8, 1/2500). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5.

If the sky stays clear tonight, I will try some full moon images with this lens (alone and with the TC-E III 20 teleconverter), and some star-trails looking for Perseid meteor trails.

Four-Years Ago (24-February-2007) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey: Turkey Vulture and Using Focus Magic to Remove Motion Blur.

I often use Focus Magic to sharpen images. I prefer using this program since it uses a deconvolution algorithm to sharpen the image, rather than unsharp mask (USM). Here is an example where I used Focus Magic to remove motion blur. On the down side, Focus Magic has not been updated for some time and only runs as a 32-bit application. I can only use it as a plugin in Photoshop CS5 when running the 32-bit version of CS5. For this example I am using an image of a Turkey Vulture in flight (from four-years ago). I tried to improve the sharpness of the head, eye, and beak. The 2nd and 3rd image are 1:1 zooms of the head — first without removing the motion blur, and the second with the motion blur removed (350°, 9 pixels). The results are not perfect, but better than the original image. One of the reasons I do not delete images — new software can sometimes be used to recover and image that previously would have been rejected.

Turkey Vulture in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm Lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. Motion blur reduced using Focus Magic. (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm Lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. Motion blur reduced using Focus Magic. (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm Lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm Lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm Lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. Motion blur reduced using Focus Magic. (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm Lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. Motion blur reduced using Focus Magic. (David J Mathre)