Bike Trip Problems
Turtle on a log
The first usable photo after doing some infield Micro AF Adjustments
Well, let's start off at the beginning. I had planned this trip for the 1st of September. I was going to get out early, head down to the Evergreen Brick Works and shoot some photos of birds for the morning before taking the Don Valley trail along to Tyler's creek and attempt a river shot I've had in mind for a while.
I started the morning off a little later than I wanted and when I pulled my bike out, I found that my back tire was squishy (probably a slow leak) and my front tire was flat on the ground. Always what you want to find first thing in the morning.
I got the air pump and my patch kit and found the hole and fixed it, no big deal.
But as I was examining the tire I found so much glass in it. I could feel the shards as bumps on the inside of the tire. So I changed up my plan for the day and decided to go get new tires and do the photo trip the next day (September 2nd).
September 2 Photo trip day
I started the day off well, grabbed my stuff, and headed off with the plan to take some bird pics and try and record a short vlog as well.
On the way to the Brick Works, I set my GoPro up on the bike's handle bars and was trying to turn it around to face me and I guess something was too tight still and I snaped the finger mount attachment off. Note, it was a cheep mount but it worked when I tested it earlier in the week. I do carry some extra action cam parts but not this piece. Still, overall not that big of a deal. It did make vlogging much harder and I ended up not recording as much as I would have liked to, probably not going to make a full video about it, but I might make a short or probably just go back another day and try again.
But this was only the first mishap and I'm not even at the Brick Works yet!
As I was locking the bike up, I heard the summer camp.
Again, a mistake on my part. I thought they finished last week, and I didn't realize they went to labour day. Oops.
Not to be deterred from my days goals I set up, I got the camera out, put the 100-400mm on it, and tried to find a way to carry the GoPro around so I could vlog off of it and not need to hold it up the hole time. Walked around for a couple of hours, went to the place I normally find birds, and guess what - nothing. Didn't find what I was looking for.
Why was this? It could be because of the summer camp, it could be the mountain bikers that were going up and down the trail, or it could have been that I was later getting to the site only arriving around 9:30/10am. I didn't think much of the time since I've been to the same site in the past and have had luck. I might have just had bad luck that day and didn't get any bird photos.
I did how ever see a Blue Jay, a Grey Cat, a Woodpecker, and the local Hawk.
One of the Woodpeckers I saw
there were a few jumping between trees, this was the only usable image i got.
While walking back to my bike around 11:30, I decided to stop at the large pond by the main building and see if the turtles were around. They're just about always around and that day was no exception, there were 5 of them sitting on a log soaking up the sun rays, so I pulled the 100-400mm out and snaped a few shots. When I checked the shots on the back LCD I noticed that they were blurry. Weird, since I spend hours talking with a wild life photographer on Instagram who helped me set my lens up. But I wasn't in the best position, kinda crouched on one nee and using a slower shutter speed. Let's try again. I sat on the ground, took my bag off and used it as a camera rest, changed my settings up and snaped a few more shots off.
Guess what: blurry… all of them…
So now I'm going back in the camera settings, doing micro AF adjustments in the field. Honestly, it wasn't hard to do, I would have preferred to have got it right a few weeks ago when I did everything at home but oh well.
After 15 or so minutes of going back and forth between settings, I landed on -13 at the long end. I had it set to -7 but I guess that was wrong, maybe because I was shooting at 6.3 and this lens is a little soft at that aperture.
Blurry Turtle
Raw File - No Edits done
In Fucus Turtle
Raw File - No Edits done
Once my in-field lens corrections were completed, I got my turtle shots and decided to jump back on the bike and ride along the Don Valley trail. I stopped for lunch at my usual spot and searched for some compositions I liked. I found the usual ones and tried some things out but in the end, I didn't capture anything that I care to share. I did see another Blue Jay though!
This is kinda the end of the story…
I scouted out a few more locations and found some shots I wanted to try. I just needed to go at the right time of day. The evening golden hour would probably be best for a couple, and a nice cloudy day for another.
If you made it to the end:
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Thanks again and remember to have fun!