Lytro: The future of bird photography?

Lytro has a new type of camera called a light field camera. The major advance is that it captures more information with each photo so that you can refocus the photos AFTER you take them. In the photos above, click on the closer blue jay, the farther one, and the railing to see the effects of refocusing.

While I post some fairly nice photos at times, I take many more blurry photos that I don't show anyone. Refocusing later gets around this problem.

Now, the camera isn't perfect. It only has a 8x zoom, which is too little for most bird photography. The resolution isn't very good. When saved as a jpg (rather than live image as above), they are only about 1000x1000 pixels which isn't ideal for printing enlargements. I'm sure future versions will get around these limitations, but Mike will continue to play with his new toy.

Blue Jays in the bird bath.

The bluejays are lovely to look at all year since their plumage is always a vibrant blue. While lovely to look at, we do often find them to be the bullies of the yard with their loud calls and obnoxious behavior. Babies are always cute, and even though they were making quite a racket, they were enjoying the yard and bath so much one day that even Chris couldn't help reaching for the camera.

Blue Jay

If a bird with these colors was rare, we'd drive miles to see it and post every photo we could take. When there are a dozen in your backyard, it's easy to overlook how beautiful the blue jay actually is.

Waterfall birds; chickadee and blue jay

Chris always enjoys when the backyard birds enjoy her waterfall.

Birding on Flip Flop Friday

We relaxed a bit on our dock on National Flip Flop day. Some cedar waxwings were catching bugs over the lake. The mother oriole was looking for food to feed the babies that we can hear but not see high overhead. Some turtles got into the spirit and sunned themselves on the float island.

Two Waxwings


Female Baltimore Oriole

Great Blue Heron flying overhead

Blue Jay in the water feature

Three Turtles relaxing in the sun

Winter birds: Tufted Titmouse, Goldfinch and Blue Jay

 

A heated bird bath, some nyjer seed, and some peanuts help the birds get through a cold winter. The backyard birds help us get through the winter.

Backyard Birds

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Wren blowing in the wind

Blue Jay

Junco

House Finch

Tufted Titmouse with a peanut

Northern Cardinal in the snow

Chickadee

What a little sunlight can do

 

 

 

 

It was nice to have a sunny day for a change. We got a few pictures of the usual suspects: a great blue heron, a cormorant, a turtle and a blue jay. Last year at this time we saw another blue jay "having a bad hair day." We guess it's a normal part of growing up. Just remember this the next time you are having a bad hair day!

 

Blue Jay

 

Sometimes we forget about the blue jay because he's so common. He really does have some stunning colors.

Winter Birds in New Jersey: Junco, Titmouse, and Blue Jay

 

 

 

Blue Jay having a bad hair day

This blue jay has been hanging around for about two weeks. We think he is one of three juvenile siblings whose nest was nearby, but the others all have nice crests.

Blue Jays eating nuts

Mike got the nickname peanut man in Brazil from sharing his peanuts with some spider monkeys. This weekend he left some peanuts in the shell on the deck railing. Some blue jays quickly discovered them, carrying them one by one to nearby trees to open and eat. Then something weird happened. A blue jay brought one of the nuts back, placed it on the railing and flew off. It had pecked a hole in it, but didn't get the nuts out. So Mike shelled it and some others and the bird came back. Not content with half a peanut, it stuffed several in its mouth, rearranged them and flew off. We also tried marconi almonds, and pistachios. They liked them all. Next week, it's hazelnuts.

Baby Blue Jays

We were out on a walk this morning when we encountered two baby blue jays under the watchful eye of a mother blue jay. Here are a few pictures. They hopped around a little and even flew (or wing-assisted jumped) from branch to branch on a small tree. The pictures are high resolution, so if you click on them, you'll see larger than life-sized details.

Blue Jay

Blue Jay