Just random Nikon P900 photos

WARNING: lots of photos mixed in with banalities. Nothing of importance. Best pass on this one unless you like lots of photos about nothing in particular. Also, beware; reverse psychology in use. 

It’s been a while since I did a photo dump. Just so people know, as of the first of the year I’ve shot about 1,500 photos with my Nikon P900 (some of those are videos). I’ve also shot about 2,600 photos with my Nikon D7000. And, of course, let’s not forget the Samsung Note 8 — another 1,600 photos (some of those are also videos).

I mention all that because I get a fair amount of pushback on the number of photos I post. As can be seen, I’m actually fairly restrained when it comes to sharing stuff I capture. This post, for instance, will only have forty-two photos . . . which, coincidentally, happens to be the answer to the meaning of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Right! Here we go.

That’s a photo from March . . . a similar photo was used for my Project 313 series. I’m continually impressed by the capability of the P900. What it does, it does well. That’s at an equivalent zoom of 2,000mm.

This next photo is snapped from the balcony of the condo we’re renting and is at an equivalent zoom of 857mm.

This is the only photograph in this batch that I treated to a bit of Topaz Impression Plugin . . . 

It just seemed appropriate.

I mentioned the zoom ability of the camera . . . here’s a photo (also from our balcony) at 185mm zoom of a finch perched on a palm tree. 

Here’s the same finch at a 2,000mm zoom . . . 

I would say that’s not impressive . . . in fact, I would call that shitty crappy.

On the other hand, as we move into April, I captured this impressive plant . . . 

We’d gone for a walk and noticed this tucked in a corner of an entrance to a condominium complex. Two things with this . . . one, the trunk of the plant looks like some sort of alien snake . . .

. . . and a trimmed root of a different tree reinforces the illusion by providing the semblance of a snake head . . . sort-of. 

I’ve shown a couple of gates in previous posts and on this same walk, I captured a few more. Before I show them, I’ll point out the quality of the above low-light captures. It may not be a long zoom (170mm equivalent 35mm zoom), but I’m happy with those photos. Click on any photo to open a larger version on a new tab or window. Sorry; I didn’t bother with a SmugMug gallery. 

Here are the gates . . . 

We now move into May and a few photos from a sightseeing drives we took with friends that were visiting for a few days.

So, there are more photos from those drives and they merit a couple of posts of their own. Eventually.

Most of the remaining photos were snapped from the balcony of our condo on a day when I felt the breeze was cool enough to warrant sitting out there. Not many days like that, I can tell you, so I made the most of it. Shot me some videos, too, but those are for another post.

So, these next three photos are lawn ornaments in the yard below the balcony. They belong to the owner that lives downstairs from us. 

Conditions were harsh midday sun with the occasional passing cloud. 

Now, I might have left you with the impression the P900 doesn’t do well with the zooming on distant subjects unless they are the moon. 

Here’s a series that might dispell you of that idea. Mind you, despite the cool breeze, there’s heat rising from the parking lot . . . and the bird is swaying in the breeze . . . 

What bird, you ask?

That bird. What? You still can’t see it?

Still a bit small, eh?

Here it is at full 2,000mm zoom.

Sure, it won’t win any awards . . . but, then again, I’m not trying to win awards. This impressive zoom comes in even handier when filming surfers (future post) and waves (also future post). 

Here is another example of the P900’s zoom . . . 

Again, that’s with the perch they were sitting on swaying in the wind. I can tell you that these photos are better than some of the photos I see in my current Birds of Hawaiʻi book. 

There’s a particular type of palm (which I can’t be bothered to look up) that has a showy bright red trunk . . . this is what it looks like.

By the way, all of these photos were processed using the Nick Collection . . . I’m still debating if I want to pay for DxO’s version of the package. They are promising future improvements and features, but right now the package looks the same as the free version. Plus, their other package — DxO PhotoLab — is essentially a competitor. I was hoping they would integrate the programs but so far they haven’t and they’ve not announced what plans they have for the software other than a vague Trump-like “you’ll see; big stuff coming; impressive stuff; bigly stuff you’ll be sure to love”.

I like the company so I might throw some money their way (once) to support their effort but if they end up going the way of ON1, I’ll forget about them too. 

Anyway, as I sat there, on the balcony, I kept looking around for things to shoot. People who can’t find stuff to photograph are just not looking hard enough. 

I’m partial to palm leaves both because of their geometry and lines but also for the colors they turn to as they age and die. 

As I was sitting there, a lizard was out hunting on the fence below me. 

Not exactly a handsome fellow . . . I think he was out looking for a mate as he kept displaying and vocalizing. 

That is an actual lizard and for them who don’t remember, this is what a gecko looks like:

Here’s what a photo looks like when it comes right out of the P900. This is a JPG file without any modifications. 

It might look a little bland but that’s because I tone down the camera’s default processing. I tone it down because I can always add sharpening, contrast, saturation, and change the white balance. It’s much harder walking something back once the camera plays with it. 

The last three photos are from a drive we took on Saddle Road. I’d been trying to catch a photo of an owl . . . well, any owl. As it turned out, there was one perched on the fence on the side of the road. I parked a decent distance away but I’d made a rookie mistake. The camera was still in the case in the back seat. By the time I retrieved it and fired it up, the owl had flown to a post about a third of a mile away (I checked on Google Earth). I snapped away at something I could barely see even at maximum zoom. These two photos are crops of larger photos. They’re shitty crappy but they’re the only photos I managed to get of the distant owl. I did get a video that I’ll eventually share (future post). The rising heat is what distorts the photo at long distances. I think the lens would do a better job in cooler and calmer air; that’s something one might consider when contemplating very long zooms or even shorter zooms and cropping really close. Atmospheric distortion is very annoying. 

That’s a Short-eared Owl (or Pueo), also known as Hawaiʻian Owl. 

The last photo is of an Erckel’s Francolin who — unlike the owl — posed for me atop the fence post. 

And, that’s it. I’ll probably do more frequent dumps like these since I hate letting photos languish in digital solitude. 

Here’s the gallery of the above photos. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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