Yesterday in New Jersey

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I work from home and spend most afternoons from May thru September with my work laptop on our deck, working while waiting to see what critters come and go with a camera by my side. Smoke from Canadian wild fires has made that impossible the last two days, with yesterday's particulate levels topping the "Hazardous" end of the scale where I am in Northwest New Jersey. That didn't prevent me from making my way out there, first to photograph and then scare off this young male Black Bear determined to make us buy new bird feeders...

• Canon EOS R5
• 270.0 mm
• ƒ/5.6
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 6400

• Canon EOS R5
• 114.0 mm
• ƒ/4.5
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 5000

• Canon EOS R5
• 324.0 mm
• ƒ/5.6
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 6400

And later I decided to take what seems to be the obligatory "red sun in the sky" shot. To my surprise, however, when I zoomed in I could see sun spots, consistently placed in all shots. Last time I shot the sun it was the transit of Mercury and I had 16 stops worth of filters on there. This time only the sky was necessary.

• Canon EOS R5
• 363.0 mm
• ƒ/5.6
• 1/800 sec
• ISO 100

• Canon EOS R5
• 363.0 mm
• ƒ/5.6
• 1/800 sec
• ISO 100

 

[Kwazy]

That's a pretty big squirrel...

And I guess the only good thing about this air quality catastrophe is that photographers can do sun shots w/o specialized equipment huh!

 

[AKVet]

I had the same problems with the bears coming after my bird feeders too. I ended up moving them to my upper deck. Awesome photos!