Texas Hill Country

All macro photographers know wind as their number one enemy. While poor light can be coddled and shaped with flash and reflectors wind is more recalcitrant. Sure you can freeze a stem or two with a Plamp or line your friends up as a wind break but if there is enough of a breeze there is no way to get both the depth of field (small aperture) and frozen motion (high shutter speed) at the same time. That’s what happened to me when I was out in our relatives’ vegetable garden attempting to test out my review Olympus E-P3 PEN camera (aka Olympus PEN 3) and avoiding the work of berry picking. But that didn’t mean the fun had to stop…

In addition to all the great songbird photography we had during our Texas Hill Country photo safari we had a special treat when John Karger of Last Chance Forever, a raptor rehabilitation foundation, brought four magnificent animals to pose and even fly for us. As my friend know I’m very careful about any photography of captive animals. It’s easy for them to be mis-treated or bred for photography once money is involved. But Last Chance Forever works strictly with raptors they are trying to rehabilitate after some accident or mis-treatment (usually unintentional) by a well-meaning “pet” owner...