21st Annual Memorial Day Concert - Dress Rehearsal

Actesses A.J Cook and Blythe Danner

Actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna

Lionel Richie

Margi & I headed downtown for the dress rehearsal of Sunday's 21st Annual Memorial Day Concert, on the west lawn of the US Capitol. Turned out to be a gorgeous evening with no humidity. Many of the actual performers skipped the rehearsal, like Brad Paisley, Kelli O'Hara & Yolanda Adams, but here's a few images of those that did appear.

McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area

All images: Nikon D3S, 200-400 AFS-VR

I was up early this morning, so around 5:45 in decided to head over to McKee-Beshers Wildlife Refuge to shoot Blue Heron. It's still early spring, and the water levels are not very high in the swamps, so naturally I didn't see one...It's so quiet out there, all you hear are the birds and frogs screaming, and I mean SCREAMING. One day I should record the sounds, it's eery loud...Came across the family of Geese, and PaPa Goose wasn't very happy with me being there...We had words, but all he did was stick out his tongue and hiss..Saw these birds with blue backs, and had to fire off some frames, turns out they are Tree Swallows (thank you Moose)

Central Park North, NYC

Nikon Coolpix S8000

Nikon D3S, 16 2.8 Fisheye

Nikon Coolpix S8000

Nikon D3S, 70-200 2.8 AF VRII

Nikon D3S, 16.28 Fisheye

Walked the northern end of Central Park yesterday with Moose Peterson for an Adorama/Nikon all day workshop. We had a blast from 8:30- 4:30, starting at 105th & 5th, and made our way down to 81st & Central Park West. Great group of people with lots of enthusiasm & great questions all day. Northern Woods, the forest where the waterfalls is, is a truly unique place, as you'd never know that you're smack dab in the middle of New York City. Moose's wife Sharon, Stefanie Cross (Moose's Asst) were with us as well as Nikon's Mike Lopez & Chris Knapp . It's not only a fun day, but educational as well, always learning how to fine tune the craft.
Besides the D3S, I was doing some shooting with the new Nikon Coolpix S8000. Awesome images, incredibly sharp, and easy to carry, gets my 5 star review.

Woody is at it again!

So, I'm working in my home office, and I look out, and who do I see? My friend, Woody Woodpecker...Kinda funny, he looks at me through the window, and starts to sing/chirp. As soon as I stand up, he takes off, so in order to capture him, I have the D3S w/ 200-400 mounted on the Flashpoint CF Tripod aimed at him. As soon as he lands on the branch, watching the window, i hit the shutter and fire off 40+ frames to get him.
Kinda fun toying with the bird...btw, the holes he making in the dead branch are leaving piles of wood chips on the ground, and the hole is perfectly round, quite amazing!