Banding Day Photos: A Top Down View
From Rochester Falcon Watcher, Lou C.
Dana and I were asked to take banding day photos from on top of the First Federal building yesterday. Although the building is a bit too far away from a photographic standpoint (sort of like taking someone’s portrait from the other end of a football field), I couldn’t say ‘no’ to the opportunity because it afforded a unique view, looking downward into the falcon nestbox area, and would allow for some shots that offered a falcon’s view of the world. Cool! We got up there around 9:15 am. The wind was blowing and there was a large loud exhaust fan near the corner of the building where we had to shoot from so we had to scream at each other, but it still was a very enjoyable experience. We were joined by D&C staff photographer, Maria de Jesus. You may have already seen her pictures posted in the D&C, one of which included Dana. In addition there was a person from Channel 10 up on the roof with us.
One photographic challenge was to get my camera to focus on the flying falcons and not any of the objects behind them because we were shooting downward. I threw my camera into manual focus mode and used that for some of these shots. In other instances, I left the zoom pulled back to show a wider view. In addition, we only had one fly-by and when the falcon did come close, the camera wasn’t set to compensate for a strong backlight. I needed to do some Photoshopping to correct. I took advantage of the opportunity of being on top of the building by also taking some wide angle pictures of the surrounding area, looking north, south east, and west to view the city.
All in all, it turned out to be a beautiful day, especially since we topped off the experience with a trip to the Dinosaur Barbeque for lunch.
Attached is an album of pictures with this external view. It’s a day late, but better late than never! Click on my picture to view the album. Enjoy!
Lou
June 12th, 2010 at 6:24 AM
Enjoyed the pictures and commentary very much! Great job!
June 12th, 2010 at 8:17 AM
What a thrill to see all these photos! And the shots of the city from a Falcon’s view were terrific! Thanks to all the very talented Falcon watchers who provide us with photos that make the rest of us part of the excitement.
June 12th, 2010 at 8:28 AM
@Lou – Thank you so much for creating and sharing your awesome photo album with us! It was great to see the banding events from outside; all of the aerial shots of B&A were fantastic! Getting to see what downtown Rochester looks like from your perspective, as well as B&A’s was incredible. It’s been many, many years since I’ve been to the Rochester area. It was great seeing its beauty again!
June 12th, 2010 at 7:24 PM
Very beautiful, Lou. I am glad you shared it with those of us who are not registered with some service. I hope to visit Rochester in July and know what to look for in the way of landmarks.
June 13th, 2010 at 3:27 AM
Thank you so much for the most beautiful pictures, How gifted you are. The city scenes took my breath away and the process of removing the babies for banding was so great. Thanks again for your efforts and BRAVO to you all.