How bad can they be?

My photos can be truly awful. These pictures of a hooded merganser at the Columbus Zoo were taken 14 seconds apart.

f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO 640

f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO 1400

Marine fish

I went to the Columbus Zoo last week. The black bears weren't out, there was no polar bear action, the brown bears were sleeping, and the songbird aviary was closed. So I went to the aquarium.

I tried to get a better picture of these guys...

unknown species

but they turned away right when I pushed the button.

 

That happened several times, and I wondered what the heck I was doing. I finally figured out that the fish were reacting to the focus-assist light. I never use a flash at a zoo because it's mean, but I hadn't disabled the focus-assist light, which helps the autofocus system in low light. I stopped bothering those fish.

I did get a few decent shots.

sohal surgeonfish

threadfin snapper

zebra shark

A spotted zebra? These sharks are brownish and have stripes when they're young. They turn grayish and lose the stripes as they mature. These sharks aren't mature, I guess.

pennant coralfish

Backyard bugs

Here are some bugs from around my house. I've always thought "bug" was just a colloquial term, but it turns out a true bug is a thing. I started out wanting only to take pictures, but I keep learning stuff, dang it.

summer azure butterfly

Blinded sphinx moth. Crummy picture of an interesting moth.

Large milkweed bug (a true bug!). It's not on a milkweed, but the missing gardener says the plant is related to milkweed.

large milkweed bug nymphs

thread-waisted wasp

spotted cucumber beetle

green bottle fly?

Monarch caterpillar, also not on milkweed. I think that's poop (frass) in the bottom-right corner.

I can get some good shots of bugs with the lenses I have, but I end up cropping-out a lot of the image. For example, the caterpillar represents about a fourth of the entire image. I'm happy with the used D7000 and telephoto lens I bought from mpb.com, so I'm looking for a used macro lens for closer shots of bugs. I dithered (not unusual) between two and had pretty much decided on one, but all disappeared from the store before I clicked to buy (also not unusual).

Cedar waxwing

The cedar waxwing is my favorite songbird. They're named for their interest in the berries of cedar trees and the red spots on their wings that apparently look like sealing wax. A previous post includes a shot that shows the wing nicely. All pictures are from the Columbus Zoo's songbird aviary.

Gathering nest material

Molting, apparently