Pa Grand Canyon

The Pa Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places to visit whether it is spring, summer, fall or winter. It takes me back in time and refreshes my memories of the outdoor lessons taught to me by my grand father and father. The above image is actually a composite of 25 individual photos taken at Leonard Harrison Lookout.  The shots were taken from a tripod and 5 shots were taken at each position due to the lighting that day.  The tripod head was rotated to overlap individual views so the panorama could be made.  The composite file is 396MB and the native print size is 20 inches by 60 inches and will print up to 40 inches by 120 inches.  We are going to print and frame one at 20x60.

 I look forward to going back in the fall and winter to repeat the process.

This view of the canyon is missed by many.  It is along the west rim looking north, but one has to leave the vehicle and walk to this look out.  It is my favorite view of the canyon as it shows the meandering Pine Creek and the rail trail as well as the structure of the mountains and leaden valleys.


Until next time


Jim Borden

Warbler Migration Time

Magnolia Warbler

Joan and I enjoy spring.  It is a refreshing time and it is also a time when new life comes to the fields and woods. We look forward to little outings to listen to, view and photograph the warblers.  We had a great week in the Pine Creek Valley of North Central PA last week.  We enjoyed birding, kayaking and fishing and we were also treated to the annual insurgence of yellow swallowtail butterflies. 

The Magnolia Warbler pictured above likes marshy areas and seems to like coniferous trees.

We always enjoy hearing the Black Throated Blue Warblers along the rim of the Pa Grand Canyon. This tiny bird is hard to spot but sure has a hearty song.

Black Throated Blue Warbler

The bushes along hedgerows and the shrubs and bushes along Pine Creek and the Pine Creek Trail seems to be filled with the Common Yellow Throat and the Yellow Warbler. 

Common Yellow Throat

Yellow Warbler

The young sycamore trees along the Pine Creek Rail Trail at Rattlesnake Rock abounds with American Redstarts.  Below is a female American redstart.

Female American Redstart

The Northern Mocking bird is a sassy bird and it carries on forever with its mimicking songs

Northern Mockingbird

The little Black ad white warbler is a joy to listen as well as watch go up and down trees-it was once known as the Black and White Creeper. 

Black and White Warbler

The butterflies are always a joy to watch flit from flower to flower.  It is often hard to get images of them that are large enough to print as large prints.  Using a 600 F4 lens with three extensions tubes on it allows to stay back far enough not to scare them-yet close focuses so that a sharp image can be achieved. 

yellow swallowtail

Until next Time

Jim Borden

Spring Warbler Migration

It is that time of year again that many of us look forward to.  The songs of birds filling the air and the springing of vegetation.  The spring warbler migration has begun in outs area.  Over past two days we have seen many White Crowned sparrows, song sparrows, chirping sparrows, Baltimore Orioles, Indigo Buntings, Brown Thrashers, Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows and Carolina Wrens.  We will be working hard this week so that we can take off the week of May 13 for sping birding

Enjoy

Jim Borden

Loon and Mergansers

Joan and I spent this past weekend in the Pennsylvania Pine creek Valley.  WE had a good time as always.  We saw 6 different eagles, lots of geese and new born goslings as well as numerous mergansers. Hills Creek State Park Lake had 4 Common Loons on it.  Two had breeding plumage and two were still in winter plumage.  We were also fortunate enough to see two Green Herons but they evaded picture taking.

The unique experience we had was witnessing a female Merganser swallowing about a 12 inch trout.  I knew that mergansers were known to be avid fishermen-but had not realized how large a fish they would swallow.

Until next time

Jim Borden

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Long Lens Support

Nikon D23s, Nikon 600 f4 with Borden Accuracy Long Lens Support

I have been trying to determine the factors in improving crispness of images while using long lenses.  there are a number of articles out there describing how to hold lenses to get best performance.  Looking at the long lens it often intrigued me why they are built with such a cantilevered load.  The very design is prone to rapidly transmitting vibrations.  Some other manufacturers have support bars and wheel support shysters.  However, they entail a number of clamps, bars and layers of clamping.  It significantly increases height as well as weight.  The increased height is not conducive to getting crisp images.  My friend bob Adamowicz and I spent a considerable amount of time last year analyzing the situation.  I built some prototype units for he and I to use to debug the system.  As a result of that prototyping, I was able to design and manufacture a low design foot with support bar for the Nikon 600 and the Canon 600.  I am still working on the details of the Canon 500 and Nikon 500.  The units are built with direct replacement feet so no multiple layering of plates is required. 

Testing the units with the FoCal software has revealed that reduced IQ variability is achieved using the support. The above unit is not yet anodized.  The final production models will be anodized black.  We expect to be ready to take orders by the end of May.

Jim Borden

http://bordenphotography.com

Update: The units are in production and sales are being handled by naturescape.net 

Bluebird and Lens Calibration

Nikon D3s; Nikon 600 f4 with 1.4tc F6.3, 1/800 ISO 320 Better Beamer +2

I spent some time with Joan last week calibrating her camera body and lens.  We also calibrated it with the 1.4 TC mounted.  The calibration was done using FoCal Pro Software. The lens and camera body calibrated quickly and with very low variability in focus performance.  

Here is a graph of the calibration results. X Axis is AF Fine Tune setting (would be MA setting for Canon), Y Axis is quality of image. Note the very tight variability around the curve for the multiple shots taken at each setting.

The 1.4 TC never quite calibrated as the lens with the 1.4 TC mounted is still back focusing when the MA is set at -20.  The TC will be going back to Nikon for Warranty repair.  However, it provided us with an opportunity to demonstrate how some folks work around not having their lenses calibrated with their camera body.  Joan took the above Eastern Bluebird picture with the TC mounted and she took it at f6.3 at a distance of 50 feet.  So, she had a depth of field of about 5 inches.  Notice how the branch behind the Bluebird is in focus and the branch in front is not. Admittedly this technique works-but it is a compromise as the lens can not be used successfully wide open. I believe that is why there is so much talk about having to find the sweet spot f stop for a lens.  What is actually being done is compensating for not having a lens and camera body calibrated for the focal plane. 

Here is a graph of the FoCal Results for the 1.4TC plus 600 lens:

You can see that the lens is just starting to get lower variability and that the focus is starting to get closer to being on plane at the -20 MA setting.   Bottom line is that the FoCal Software was instrumental in determining what the issue was with this TC and we now have quantitative info to give Nikon to demand repair. 

On Saturday, our friend Bob Adamowicz from Massachusetts visited to problem solve some issues with his wife's Nikon Camera and Lens.  We used FoCal to help problem solve and resolve the issues.  He and I also tested the Long Lens Support System I am manufacturing and we determined that it improves variability of focus  (pictures and a dedicated post coming in near future). 

We also did some tripod testing and will be writing a separate post about the details.  This type of testing really helps debunk some myths about tripods, leg extensions and mounting systems. 

Until Next Time.

Jim Borden

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Ducky Weekend

Saturday was a beautiful day.  Went out early in morning to listen and watch for turkey gobblers.  They did not cooperate, so I went to some favorite spots while sun was still low in the sky to see what waterfowl I could find.  I was blessed with three wood ducks and a Common Loon.  This is closest I have ever been to wood ducks.

Early Morning light resulted in a blue cast to the loon.

Until next time

Jim Borden

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