Nikon WedNEsDAy PiC #53

Happy Holidays

My family’s 2009 Christmas card photo with my 4 kids
Two weeks ago in Vermont

Joey a senior at the University of Vermont
Jillian – a freshman also at the University of Vermont
Jamie – a junior at Preston High School
Janine a freshman at Preston

Wishing you the very best

for the coming New Year.

Merry Christmas

Joe Leotta

Nikon D300 AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

and thanks Jose

D300 / 50mm Fukuoka - Japan

Finally found some time to head out to the beach - captured this long-billed curlew flying towards me. D300, 80-400 VR at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/1600s, +1EV, ISO 500 (picked by AutoISO).

Hello Everybody,
I hope the Christmas turned out good for all of you.
Thank you Filip Lucin, Paul V. Gorky and Janne Kaakinen for your very kind words on my last week's photo. I really appreciate it.
Thank you Jose for all your work. I hope you will still be contributing to Nikon Wednesday. I love your photos.
My photo this weeks is from a wonderful shop full of all sorts of accessories, I seek those kind of places for getting my props for my early 20th century portrait styling, and this one is a particularly good find. This made my day and I now have two bags of new additions to my existing wardrobe. Bliss.
Nikon D700, 85mm, f/1.8 at ISO 800, 1/160s, f/3.5

Thanks for all you have done, Jose.

Tom M.

Goodbye Jose. Finally, for your last Wednesday thread, I managed to be awake at 2:42 AM (central time) - kinda ironic.

This image's supposed to symbolize harmony :-)

Jose - Muchas gracias de este fotografía. Please forgive high school Spanish from a very long time ago back home in Sweden. You have no idea how your choice of photo matters to me. Just the fact that you chose to dedicate it to me brings tears to my eyes. You are far too generous & I don't believe myself worthy... Now add that you chose a bird. :-) That puts a smile on my face. And finally.... on FredMiranda they would tell you how well you've chosen. They know how special Swans are to me. You really could not have chosen any better. I miss swans from back home. Swans are very rare in So. California. I love swans, & I'll take a Black Swan any day. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. :-) It's a wonderful photo. And I think Shun & Lex would forgive you for posting two this time. :-) Jose - Thank you again for all that you've done.
OK story for this week's photo. As some of you may have seen last week I had some of my equipment stolen. Long story very short. Due to luck on my part, the thieves were not too smart so the police in a sting recovered my Sigmonster & my tripods. Car repaired & equipment in tow I went out both Saturday & Sunday to shoot with a friend from Seattle who was visiting down here. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side. I did however get lucky enough to get a little golden light & that's what we want. I watched this GBH (Great Blue Heron) fish for at least two hours & after two hours this very large bird was rewarded.... With a fish smaller than the size of my tiny finger. What a meal for such a large bird. I was lucky enough to catch the GBH flipping the tiny fish in it's beak....
D300 paired with Sigmonster 300-800mm f/5.6 at 410mm f/8 1/640s - 0.3 EV A mode . I hope you'll enjoy...
Tiny fish saying Bye Bye to Jose

took this one last sunday....

Last Wed. pic for 2009 and more importantly, the last thread on Jose's watch - well done Jose Angel, this is a highlight of the week for so many. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Shun Cheung for his considerable efforts in 2009 as moderator and contributor to the the Nikon forum!

I'm still basking in the glow of processing photos I took from my recent trip to Lord Howe Island. This one a tri-pod mounted shot of the late evening sun glowing over the Jetty and mountains in the distance.