December Sony/Minolta shots

Sony NEX 5N Anti motion blur at ISO 6400 18-50.

Howard, the black and white shot is terrific. Good work.

Almost all a850 + 35/1.4 & a900 + 85/1.4: http://www.rharris-images.net/2012/01/sarah-rich-wedding-photography.html

My december shoots concerned mostly cats. A couple of 'big cat' shots this time...

Another 'big cat' photo ;-)

Great photos Howard, I didn't realize the p110 lenses actually cover aps-c sensor dimensions! Rich, I love the entire sequence but especially the shots of the kids looking down the banister, and the wacky adult expressions with kids at the table.

The past five weeks or so got me a bit in overdrive after I stumbled by chance upon veritable local raptor paradise. Not in any of the protected areas that I've been frequenting regularly, where it's easy to see plenty of raptors, but not to get within point blank range of them. Instead, other individual birds from the same catalog of raptor species are more used to cars passing close by along potholed dirt roads in a stretch of dusty farmland and scrubby undeveloped tracts spread out right in between those same official parks & reserves. Even though that area is traversed by a busy freeway and littered with old tires, dismantled furniture etc etc.

Too many species to mention or show, and some were absurdly easy to crawl up to & click at from inside my truck. Northern harrier and white-tailed kite are the two species that have tricked me most and given me least luck before, and even here in these nondescript fields they still required the most persistence and endless car-crawling practice. But eventually even they came through - so here's a short sampler:

And the cream of the local raptor crop, plumage wise though not in their usual willingness to pose: four pairs of adult kites plus a few scattered fledglings hang out in overlapping sections of these dusty acres. After plenty of early morning attempts I figured out where each pair had its semi-predictable perches and where/when they tended to hunt. Eventually I managed to catch some of them in reasonably good light & wind etc.

Active hunting consists mostly of hovering and slow-motion pouncing, but it's especially tricky to catch on photo as they typically head into the wind whenever there's the slightest breeze... and more often than not local wind comes from the north, so they often have their backs turned to the sun & heads shaded or silhouetted for all or most of the hovering.

From about 11am till 3pm the adults seemingly just perch and laze about. In reality however they still keep a close watch on the ground for any signs of scurrying rodents and will occasionally stoop straight down from their sitting position onto any particularly risk-seeking vole.