September is here and it is bearable outside in the day now. I go out hiking and often bring my camera to see what I can get. None of these photos are stunning, but nice enough to hit the shutter button I think. All of these photos were shot with a Nikon Z50, which is a light-weight and portable crop-sensor camera that I use for casual hiking. The photos aren’t as good as with a full-frame DSLR or similar, but this camera is half the weight and size as that so easier to carry around.
There was a butterfly hopping around from flower to flower seldom sitting still long enough for to get a photo, but I got a few. This one turned out best.
Next is just a close up of a purple wildflower that I like. It was very shaded here and I had to do a lot of work with noise reduction in this image. The focus depth is quite shallow so the greenery kind of blurs out, which I like.
There was some long grass catching the late afternoon sun and really picking up that golden light. I spent some time experimenting with the right angle to shoot this so get the golden glow in the grass and this was the best that I got. I was also trying to avoid shooting directly into the sun, which is just out of frame to the top. I have also tried to capture this effect on prickly pear cactus spines without much success. The yellow fence line in the background is a baseball field wall.
An interesting wildflower that I see every year about this time is the Leavenworh’s Eryngo, though people often call them purple pineapple because of the shape of the blooms. These look particularly nice at golden hour. On this day the sky was quite hazy due to the west coast wild fires I think, so the sunlight was kind of filtered by that.
And this bird catching a little late afternoon sunlight on his breast. It is a mockingbird, I think, but I could be wrong. I just liked the way it looked in the short tree catching the available sunlight through the hazy sky.
There is supposed to be a lot of rain coming this week so I don’t know when I’ll get to get out and shoot again. If I didn’t have this lighter weight camera, I probably wouldn’t have taken any of these photos because I usually only grab the DSLR when I am serious about shooting something. So, I am getting my enjoyment out of the Z50. Thanks for reading.
Jason Frels 
I really like these kinds of shots, taking a lot of them myself on my walks.
It’s like a very personal visual diary of things we see and find pretty, not about perfect artsy captures. Really love all of the shots in this post!
And I think I found the bird – not an expert but always interested and I’ve never seen a mocking bird with a yellow belly 😀
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-bellied_eremomela
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I first off just thought it was a mockingbird because of the long tail and the ubiquity of mockingbirds in central Texas, but I was wrong about that. I thought that the yellow belly was because of the setting sun, but if I look closely I can see that it does actually have a yellow belly. That make me think that it is a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, which also common around these parts and is known for having a long tail. The link in the wikipedia page you provided indicates a south African bird. I am no bird expert, in fact I don’t even know what you call a bird expert, but I have a little laminated bird guide for central Texas that I try to look through. They do seem to have a scissor-tail when I see them flying around the pond. I hope they catch a lot of flies.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
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Makes sense 😀 and I’d say an expert is someone who studied it more in-depth and not just being outside a lot, trying to learn about local flora & fauna.
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What is a crop-sensor camera? I feel doubtful that it senses corn and wheat and such, growing in the fields.
The camera does a good job, even though it isn’t your DSLR. I think I like the mockingbird photo the best.
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Yes, it is primarily designed for photographing crops.
Actually, the first digital sensors weren’t quite up to the size of a piece of 35mm film so there were a few formats created that were smaller and generally called crop-sensor. This is because the lens focal length is referred to in terms of 35mm film photography so with a smaller sensor you get a ‘crop’ of this focal length, as if you cut out part of a picture. Now there are full-frame cameras that have a sensor roughly the size of 35mm film. There also much larger film sizes and larger sensors, but everything seems to be referenced to the 35mm film specs. The crop sensor formats stayed around for the various manufacturers like Nikon, Canon, Fuji because some people like them. Wildlife photographers often like this format for the better telephoto options.
So, if I shoot with a 50mm focal length on a crop sensor camera, I get sort-of the effect of using a 75mm lens on a full-frame camera as I am using the center part of the lens. This is great for zooms but not for wide angles. The advantage of all of this today is that the crop-sensor gear is lighter, smaller, and cheaper. I got this camera because it is nice and light to carry around and still takes much better photos than a phone that has a truly tiny camera sensor. In digital photography, sensor size is just about everything.
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Wow, that’s one hell of a long explanation. I think I should have settled for the concept of photographing crops.
It sounds to me like there’s some complex math involved in figuring all this focal length stuff out. I noticed when I was researching cameras once, that the hype often referenced 35mm equivalency. It’s kind of strange how the film standard has sort of carried over into digital.
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You could just spend a bunch of money and get a full frame camera so you don’t have to do any conversion math. With a Nikon crop sensor you just multiply by 1.5 and that gets you close enough.
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Well, that sounds simple enough. A little painful in the wallet, though, thinking about spending a bunch of money. Either that or my hip’s acting up again.
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Probably your hip
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The Eremomela icteropygialis is an African bird. It seems you’ve captured a scissor-tailed flycatcher. I have a photo of one here that shows the color in the belly. There’s a link to more information at the bottom of my post. They’re migratory, so it won’t be long until they set off for warmer climes.
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I always enjoy your pictures. Nice to see the sights in your “backyard” 🙂
I like the close up of the purple flower the best.
I can see how the pineapple flower got its name!
No pictures of ravens??
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I don’t think ravens are common here.
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Thats Ok I prefer mockingbirds or the scissor flytails. 😉
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purple flowers are my favorite, so I liked seeing a couple of photos of some. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of a mockingbird…
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The bird posture is very sharp. Was that hand held?
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