I am a White-winged Dove, not to be confused with a Mourning Dove
White wings moved to our area (North Texas) a few years ago due to the conversion of their South Texas habitat (600 miles away) to farm land. They have adapted well to urban populations and have pretty much replaced the Mourning Doves. This fellow was watching the Blue Jay zoom in to the bird bath, he didn't fly away like the Robin and Mockingbird did, he was pretty calm through the whole affair!
It's interesting how nature adapts and shifts according to what we do to the environment. Seems the Mourning Dove population is fine with our woods and lawns because there's no shortage of them here!
Thank you for your great comments! The White-wings do have a beautiful call. It's a cooing sound, I love to hear them when I'm outside, especially in the mornings.
@milaniet If you have any friends who are bird hunters you might ask them. Hunters always know those things!
Nice image LouAnn. A few suggestions. For this shot do one of two things. Switch to shutter priority and change shutter speed to 500 or 1000. This will stop motion. Or switch to manual mode and get the area where the bird is in focus. The more depth of field you use (F5.6 or higher) you will have more chance of getting the subject in focus.....L.
@pickerandagrinner Thank you for your help! This fellow had been perfectly still then decided to ruffle his feathers when I snapped the photo. I appreciate your tips!!!!
@louannwarren We photographers of the feather flock together! Give manual mode a try. Think about what you want from an image in terms of motion and depth of field and exposure. Set to that. I find the process to be a great learning tool. You will shoot less but as time goes on the images will get better and better! Lou.
If your lens has a depth of field scale (most do not nowadays), use that to get the range in focus with the chosen aperture. That returns spontaneity to manual focus shooting. Turn and shoot and it's in focus. Zone focusing in manual is what many use for street photography to capture things quickly and discretely. Turn and fire!
A good lens with depth of field scale is the Nikon 50mm F 1.8D. It is inexpensive and sharp as a tack. I like to shoot with primes. They are light and for zoom, use your feet! The "G" lenses made today have no depth of field scales. You may have one visible on your LCD screen, but I venture what it will show is the distance to focus only, not the range in focus. I don't mean to be "preachy", I just love teaching about photography and you have a good eye for the craft....
Last comment. I think the old "D" lenses require a motor drive from the camera. The Nikon 3100 does not have one, so you will only be able to shoot the 50/1.8D in manual. Your G lenses likely have the motor built into the lens itself. The older lenses required power for focus from a motor built into the camera and that is absent from your model. A D7000 is a good camera to power older D lenses.
August 18th, 2017
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Thank you for your great comments! The White-wings do have a beautiful call. It's a cooing sound, I love to hear them when I'm outside, especially in the mornings.
@milaniet If you have any friends who are bird hunters you might ask them. Hunters always know those things!