# Weekend with Airic and Bernie (14 pics)



## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 1, 2006)

We hiked over to Whitby Ont., and had a blast all weekend with Airic and his wife Bernie, Canoncan came down to the lake for some photg stuff too.  My first day started at Lynnshore Conservation Area, and I was following a Barred Owl around for a few hours.  

Airic has already posted a few of this beauty, and here are a few more.  I lost this owl for a while, so I found a bird feeder to hang around, and collected a few shots of some other feathered friends too.

4 of us went out for dinner, along with Maria, and had a great time.. Bernie would not let go of Maria!  More pics in the Snapshot Gallery soon.

1  this is the first thing I saw when I went down Halls Rd.!  Too lucky!






2 It got a mouse shortly after, and I lost it in the trees, and caught up with it here...





3 It wouldn't budge from its perch here, so we took off for lunch, and a break from the snow.  I came back to the area, and hung around a popular bird feeder...





4





5  Most of these where shot at 1/125-200 sec @ F 5.6, @ 400 ISO.. brutal dim lighting,.. and as Airic says, the 80-400 mm Nikon VR lens is very cool.





6  A male Dowmy Woodpecker





7 A Northern Red Cardinal





8 Blue Jay





9  the Barred Owl scooted over here for a peek at mouse heaven!





10  Then, jumped to a nice fence pole for a bit..





11





12 Here it is setting its sights for a pole accross the road...





13  But it skipped down to another old fence post ..





14 and finally to the other side of the road, and slowly getting out of range.





I ran out of memory, and headed back to the hotel, to make sure Daisy wasn't toooo upset with me!

Thanks for looking~!!


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## woodsac (Jan 1, 2006)

Nice clear photos :thumbup:
I really like #12
I think it's the combination of the dof and how natural it looks.


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## terri (Jan 1, 2006)

All of these shots are just a joy to behold! Beautiful work, with beautiful subjects.  Love all that flying snow!

Always a treat to view your images, Raymond. Thanks for posting. :thumbup:


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 1, 2006)

Thanks Woodsac, and Terri!


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## M @ k o (Jan 2, 2006)

Awesome Raymond and outstanding focus !


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## LaFoto (Jan 2, 2006)

There is not one that I do not like!
Well, these are Raymond-pics, so how COULD there be one not to be liked!?!?!?

You have the coolest of lenses.
And "your" birds are so friendly. "Mine" only make me know they *were* there when I - inadvertantly, for sure! - make a noise upon approaching some part of _landscape_ and find them lift and fly away :roll:

And the only owls I ever get to see are those that cross the street at night when we rush by at 100 km/h --- they fly pretty low! Daring birds. I am surprised I don't ever see any as road kill. The bussards (which I get to see but only in that stretch of road where I can IMPOSSIBLY stop the car!) often don't make it... :cry:

Your lens gives you a wonderful DOF!
I really like 1 and 10 - 14 because of the DOF.

And I do love that close-up of the woodpecker!!! 
Red cardinals are beautiful birds, too!


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## doenoe (Jan 2, 2006)

Very nice captures indeed. Those look great, the Blue Jay looks really cool


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## duncanp (Jan 2, 2006)

great series you three porduce really good bird pictures, myfavourite has to be no 7 as the red body stands out so much from its surroundings


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## Digital Matt (Jan 2, 2006)

Love em Ray!  I gotta come up there.  I never see owls here in Ohio.


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## AIRIC (Jan 2, 2006)

What a great weekend we had despite the weather. You did an amazing job on the images and have kicked it up a notch from the last lens, especially with the poor lighting we had all weekend. The worst part of the weekend was keeping the snow off the cameras. 

Cheers,

Eric


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## mentos_007 (Jan 2, 2006)

:shock: aaaaaaaamazing...


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 2, 2006)

Thanks everyone!  It was a lot of fun, but wow was I tired last night!

Matt, please come up for a shoot some time soon, you are more then welcome.


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## danalec99 (Jan 2, 2006)

woodsac said:
			
		

> I really like #12


ditto! :thumbsup:


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## JonMikal (Jan 2, 2006)

#12! awesome! :thumbup:


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 2, 2006)

thanks guys, I like 12 best too...


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## Chiller (Jan 2, 2006)

Wow Ray....these are awesome.  I like #12 too.   With the snow in the back, it looks really cool.    Excellent stuff. 
  I snuck out to the marsh real quick yesterday, but I think the birds were still celebrating New Years.  Not much happening .  I ended up going to the lake, getting a few shots of the ice there.


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## Calliope (Jan 2, 2006)

I am always amazed by the crispness and detail in your photos.  Awesome shots!!  You caught two of my favorite birds:  Cardinal & Blue Jay.  #10 makes me wonder what the owl is thinking.  I like how he's looking up at the snow like "snowing again?"  Cool shots - absolutely beautiful!


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## JonK (Jan 2, 2006)

Wicked man!  you just keep gettin better and better. stunning and awesome bokeh on these shots. :thumbup:


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## wls3 (Jan 2, 2006)

Great stuff, snow falling adds to them.

Bill


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## JTHphoto (Jan 2, 2006)

i hate to be unoriginal but these are awesome, love #12 the best.  I love these owl shots, and in the snow too.  sounds like you guys had a good time!  thanks for sharing!  :thumbup:


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 2, 2006)

thanks again everyone for all of your very encouraging and inspiring words, Airic is a good friend, and we spend a lot of time comparing notes, and enjoying this great hobby together.  There is no doubt that TPF and all of you have made a really big difference in my abilities, and I owe you all a huge thanks!

I really think that what everyone does here show that photogs are a great bunch of people, and TPF is very much a first class forum.


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 2, 2006)

Digital Matt said:
			
		

> Love em Ray!  I gotta come up there.  I never see owls here in Ohio.



Thanks Matt.. you are welcome here any time.


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## AIRIC (Jan 3, 2006)

Raymond J Barlow said:
			
		

> Thanks Matt.. you are welcome here any time.



Yes Matt, any time you want to come up let us know and we will keep you busy with hot spots to shoot.

Eric


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 3, 2006)

here is one that didn't make the original tpf cut.. but it's not so bad..


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## Chiller (Jan 3, 2006)

Digital Matt said:
			
		

> Love em Ray!  I gotta come up there.  I never see owls here in Ohio.



  I know where all the good cemeteries are :lmao: :lmao:   Hope you can make it to Toronna one day. 


  Love the new addition.  Killer shot Ray.   I know my cheap monitor here at work does not show the detail,but this shot looks amazin.:thumbup:


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## doenoe (Jan 3, 2006)

and now i wonder why that didnt make it to the original tpf cut. It looks awesome.


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## Raymond J Barlow (Jan 3, 2006)

thanks you guys.. well, I liked the shot ok, it's just that I had so many favs in this shoot, and I didn't want to go overboard with too many pics.  and, so many of the owl.  here is one that Daisy liked a lot.. but, again, I felt the others were better.  I think I have about 90 good clear shots of this owl, it was just one of those days where everything worked out i guess.






thanks again!


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