March 2011

Living on the coutry side is different. Though we live just half an hour outside of Vienna it´s a completely different world. It´s biting cold. Not just in winter but also in spring and autumn. Even the summer nights are mostly chilly and cold. There´s lots of snow in the winter and sometimes in spring as well. There are no good restaurants, no cinema or theatre. There are no bars. There is nothing. So what is it that so many people want to live outside of the city? Jeremy Clarkson once compared the life of people with the migration of the salmons. People are born at the countryside, grow up, moove into the city, find a partner, breed and moove back to the country to die ( as they complied their purpose ).

Jeremy Clarkson lives at the country side too! But living outside a city has it´s good sides: There is plenty of green, fresh air, there is lot´s of space inbetween you and your neighbor. And there is wildlife in your backyard. I´m not talking about birds only. We started to feed this little fellow in the image after we have seen him first trying desperately to eat the fat dumplings and nuts ( in a plastic net ) that we hang in the trees to feed the birds. He also ate the apples we provide for the blackbirds. So we started feeding him with apples, nuts and guinea pig food. At the beginning we were able to see him sometimes in the morning or even during the day on weekends. But with the earlier sunrises we did not see him a lot anymore. My wife took an image with her Iphone but I wanted to have a better picture so I put the 4/70-200L on my Canon 500D and laid it on the kitchen desk. I wanted to be prepared. One morning I opened the door to check whether he has been here already just to look directly into his. I did not moove and asked my wife to bring me the camera. I was able to take a couple of shots before he walked away. He did not walk far away though. It seems that he waited for more. So we provided some apples in the middle of our backyard. Still hungry he came back and ate them all. I shot a couple of images through the window but the first couple of shots were better.

It was still very dark outside as the image was taken before sunrise at about 6am. So AUTO-ISO has chosen 1250ASA to keep exposure time short. I´m still impressed by the quality todays cameras are providing at such high ISO levels. Sometimes I have to think back when shooting Velvia ( at 40ASA ) was the only option for high quality shots. 100ASA slide films were a comprimise and anything above 200ASA was almost unbearable and best to be avoided. Today 200ASA is standard. And if till reaching 1600ASA you do not have to worry a lot. With full frame cameras that is even better. My first DSLR ( Nikon D1 ) was different. 200ASA was the base ISO and 400ASA was OK too. Everything above waa not an option if you aimed for quality. The compact camera I´m using today ( Sony NEX5 ) produces very clean images up to 1600ASA. These are wonderful times for photographers that want to work with available light only.

If you are wondering whether the little roebuck in the image is insured ( we thought so first ). It is just the change of coat.

setting main shot: A-Mode, 1250s@f4 and AUTO-ISO ( 1250ASA )