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<\/p>\nI didn’t find many birds yesterday but I may have found a solution to one of my most vexing problems with bird photography.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning, after a long drive in the dark to get to my shooting location, I started worrying about the soft photos I was very likely to get in the unusually cold temperatures. I shoot from my pickup so when I stick my lens out the window and the warm lens meets the very cold air, differential contraction of air and\/or glass typically causes my photos to be soft, to very soft. Drives me nuts!<\/p>\n
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About three minutes before the sun came up over the mountains to the east the outside air was 14\u00b0 F. so I had good reason to worry (it was really 7:26 AM, not 8:26 – I’ve driven so little lately I haven’t yet reset my clock after the recent time change.)<\/p>\n
And yes, that’s dust on my screen and dash. When you drive as many dirt roads as I do, dust comes with the territory. If I don’t clean the interior of my pickup until spring I’m thinking of planting potatoes on my dashboard. While I’m out shooting, snacking on raw spuds rather than chocolate donuts would be healthier. I’d just need to remember the salt.<\/p>\n
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I was alone (no one shooting from the back seat to freeze to death) so I decided to try a new strategy to keep the front of my lens cold and hopefully prevent soft shots. My lens, with camera, lens hood, teleconverter and adapter attached, is 26″ long so I realized that I could roll my window a little more than halfway down and place my camera on my lap at an angle so the end of my lens stuck outside the top half of my window. That would keep both my front lens glass and the air inside my lens hood cold, at the same temp as the outside air. Once I’m at my general location I’m driving very slow on deserted, mostly dirt and gravel roads so doing so would be safe.<\/p>\n
So that’s what I did for the first 2+ hours after sunrise until the temps warmed up significantly. I kept the interior temp of my pickup as cold as I could possibly stand it but the front glass of my lens, and the air inside my lens hood, were the same temp as the outside air.<\/p>\n
The results were highly encouraging.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-2713-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-2713-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I didn’t find many birds but the ones I photographed were sharp to very sharp, without exception. This photo is typical. It was taken exactly one hour after sunrise when the temps were still in the teens and it’s sharp enough to cut your eyeballs. As were the other photos I took of this immature Red-tailed Hawk. In fact, all the photos I took yesterday morning that should have been sharp, were.<\/p>\n So I’m encouraged. This strategy won’t solve the problem of distant, shimmering heat waves or atmospheric disturbance caused by heat reflected off of asphalt roads but it appears to work well with differential temperatures between my lens and very cold air.<\/p>\n Now I need to work on strategies to keep myself warmer inside my pickup as I’m driving with the heater turned almost off and my window open. I’ll tell you what. I was chilled to the bone so the long drive home sure felt good with the heater cranked up and the window closed.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – Want some good news this morning? Check this out<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I didn’t find many birds yesterday but I may have found a solution to one of my most vexing problems with bird photography.\u00a0 (2 photos)<\/p>\n