Jeff Lubeck

Capturing Kauai: Challenging for Supremacy of the Roost

If you live on the island of Kauai, Feral Chicken’s are part of daily life. There is no way to avoid it. If you are not familiar a good background on the storyline is [Kauai Chickens].

Throughout the day, we have one to four Roosters and two to six Hens (often with chicks) “living” at our property at any given time. The changing population and control of the Roost is fun to observe.

The current Ruler of the Roost.

The title for Ruler of the Roost is being battled at-present. The current occupant has the title since the middle of last Summer. He has held title without much contest since October. However, things are changing. Two males from a clutch of nine chicks that all survived to adulthood have stayed in the neighborhood. The battle for establishing a haram of hens is now in full play.

*** Jeff’s Thoughts and other Worthless Trivia ***

The images above were captured with the Nikon Z9 Camera and Nikon Z 400 MM 2.8 S Lens at ISO 800 1/4000s F4.5 at 560MM. The Lens is a prime lens that can be set to 400MM or 560MM at the flip of a switch.

I most likely could have shot an image such as this at a lower speed 1/2000 and F8 and ISO 400. However I was attempting to push the envelope a bit to establish where graininess starts to come into plane. There just was not any.

The shots were captured hand-held. I have the Nikon Z 800MM 6.3 S lens and and Nikon Z 70-200 S 2.8 lens with 1.4x and 2.0x Tele-converter as options. However this lens, with the option to flip effortlessly between 400MM and 560MM has me choosing it more often than the others when operating in this range. The lens is simply remarkable.

Capturing Kauai: The Native Hibiscus Premieres

Linda and I bought some hibiscus plants last year. The Yellow hibiscus is the state flower of Hawaii.

We planted a Pink Lemonade (native to Hawaii) and Kauaian Red (endemic to the island) in the front yard. Both are healthy. The Pink Lemonade flowers often.

Pink Lemonade hibiscus

However, The Kauaian Red, while appearing healthy and growing faster than the Pink had yet to flower. The staff at Kauaʻi Nursery & Landscaping Inc told us the plant was young and would take some time to flower.

It is flowering now.

This morning I took a picture of one of two flowers with two cameras – The Nikon Z9, and the PHASEONE XF IQ151.

I captured both images with a 35MM lens’. The Z35 S 2.8 on the Nikon and the Blue Ring 35 3.5 on the PHASEONE.

I captured both images in Manual (M) Mode with the same setting: ISO 400 1/400th F8. It was windy at the time of the capture (10MPH gusting to 20 MPH). Normally I would have shot at 50-100 ISO, 1/250th F8-F11.

The Nikon

The PHASEONE

Both images are cropped to 6 inches by 6 inches. The images were saved in the JPG format at 72 DPI. Otherwise, no changes or alterations were made.

I will state the obvious… no detailed comprehensive comparison can really be presented. Almost all computer screens can only display to 72 DPI and in 8 BIT Color. WordPress (the software for publishing this site) converts all image color to the sRGB 2.1 scheme. In short, the images shown above are nowhere near to representing the power of both cameras. However, is is still fun to see how each performs in a directional sense.

Note:

The Nikon Z9 captures images in 35MM format at 45 Megapixels in 14BIT Color in Adobe RGB.

The PHASEONE IQ4 151 captures images in 4×5 Format at 151 Megapixels in 16BIT Color in FULL GAMUT RGB

Capturing Kauai: Focus on One Bird and Getting Another

On this day, I am attempting to photograph wild birds in the Alakai Wilderness on the Island of Kauai. My trip will take me along the high ridgeline of the Pihea Trail and down into the Alakai Swamp. The terrain is remote and otherwise demanding. Especially, for someone hiking with 40 lbs. of camera gear on their back. The conditions are made a little bit more challenging as the winds become 25-50 MPH, about 30 minutes into the photo-shoot. Luckily, this is my home turf. This is not to say that covering 4+ miles and 1,500 vertical feet of change of travel starting at 4,000 feet elevation is easy for anyone. However, the travel route is well-known to me. I’ll be honest, I like the condition and situation.

The Apanane.

I am hoping to capture an image of any of the birds in this habitat. The Apanane is one at the top of the list. I am prepared to sit for hours in the hopes of getting one decent shot.

I see the bird a number of times, but do not capture a decent image. I decide to hike back up and over the ridgeline and head home. About 1/2 way back up to the ridgeline, the situation changes suddenly – materially. My subject is a bird. However, it is mechanical in origin.

At first I think the Helicopter is one associated with tourism. However, the Helicopter, if tourism is its nature, would be moving decidedly to my left – such as to show the Na Pali Coast and the Kalalau Valley to its occupants. No such movement occurs.

The Helicopter appears to be hovering over and tilting upwards and downwards for a view of the floor of Alakai Swamp below me. The Helicopter leaves and returns to the same area three more times.

View of Kalalau Valley from Pihea Ridge

Once at the ridgeline, I capture an image of the Kalalau Valley and head back to the truck for the trip home.

*** Jeff’s Thoughts and Other Worthless Trivia ***

My friend Jack Takemoto looked into the bird. Here is what he found:

Airborne Hawaii

Capturing Kauai: Challenging for Supremacy of the Roost

Capturing Kauai: The Native Hibiscus Premieres

Capturing Kauai: Focus on One Bird and Getting Another

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