While looking over my latest bird photos and marvelling at the better focus (even though the lighting was pretty poor), it occurred to me that perhaps I'm asking too much of a digiscoping rig (especially a homemade one like mine) when I try to photograph the herons on their tree out on the marsh.
I haven't measured it, but I'd say the heron tree is about 200+ yards away from the back fenceline. In contrast to this distance, Mrs. Cardinal and the mourning dove in my previous post were at the fenceline while I sat in my Adirondack chair--probably 20 yards away, max.
Might this be the problem?
I googled "digiscoping distance" and read some entries on stevesforum.com about this very subject. It seems I am being a little unrealistic in my expectations. One person who replied said she rarely tries to scope anything over 100 feet away with her 80-90mm objective (mine's an 80mm). So light-gathering is definitely an issue, especially at great distances (perhaps photographing in the afternoon/evening isn't such a good idea!), and I should increase my ISO to 800. Interesting. I'll have to try to make some adjustments in the camera settings.
I don't know whether I'll be photographing today; we're socked in under a solid cotton-batting sky of gray clouds. The weather's turned chilly, with lows last night in the low 50s. Kat noticed that the thermostat read 55 last night and decided we needed to turn on the furnace to warm up the house. In September!
As much as I love cool, crisp autumn days, I just don't know if I'm ready for the cold and the snow this year. I've been enjoying wearing shorts, plus we still have a lot of outdoor work to do. I feel a lot more tired these days, too. Not enough sleep? Too much stress? Trying to learn everything there is to learn in the whole wide world in record time? Who knows. I just know I feel more run-down, and I kind-of dread the thought of holding tight against winter's chill. Seems like just last week, we were putting away sweaters and coats; now it's time to get them out again. In no time at all, we'll be shovelling away the snow, digging out the car, sliding around on slick roads.
It sure was easier in Texas, where you just had to pull out a little jacket and hope it wasn't going to be one of those freak ice-storm years. I've experienced 80-degree Christmas days. Not exactly "Let It Snow!" but then you could still run outside and toss the football around at halftime of the Cowboys game.
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