Holiday Gift Card Special – Conrads Chocolate Camera and Gift box

Not sure what to give? A Bergen County Camera makes for a great gift or stocking stuffer!

Order now online or pickup in store

In-Store
Free Conrad’s chocolate camera (Your choice either dark or milk chocolate) and gift box with your gift card purchase over $50.00 while supplies last for in-store purchase.

Online – Free Shipping
For free shipping mail orders will include a voucher for the chocolate camera for later redemption in the store.

Online – Paid Shipping
Should you wish the full gift box and chocolate camera option, please call the store 201-664-4113 for a shipping quote and delivery estimate.

While supplies last – limit 10 chocolate cameras per customer.

November Customer Spotlight – John Gidney

Welcome to our thirty-second Bergen County Camera Customer Spotlight. This monthly posting features a customer who’s made an impression on us. They might have grown in their understanding of photography, gained a mastery of the craft and / or have become a strong advocate of our way of doing business in the world of photography. During the next month you will see this customer’s images displayed on our digital signs in store, in our emails, blog posts and social media.  

John Gidney is our customer spotlight for the month of November. We hope you both enjoy and are inspired by this new addition to In Focus and look forward to your comments and suggestions. Below you will find a gallery containing some of John’s images.

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Car Show Assignment

Key Dates:

Watch our assignment video for full information – here

Deadline is November 6th
Review Webinar is November 12th at 9:30 am – register here

Area car shows:

October 1 – 4:30 -8:30 pm – Saddle River, Rindlaub Park – Rock and Roll Car show

October 2 – 12 – 4 pm – Tenafly – Cars, Cops, Coffee car show – Cafe Angelique – 1 Piermont Rd, Tenafly, NJ

NewJerseyCarshows.com has a great listing by month

Not in our area or just looking for more ideas – try googling local car shows.

Send images to focus@bergencountycamera.com All entries are due November 6 limit 1 image per participant,
Landscape Basics with Canon Webinar

Landscape Basics with Canon Webinar

Saturday September 24 at 9:30 am – Live only no replays

Free Registration

Landscape Basics: This class takes a look at Landscape Photography from a slightly different perspective. Gear, Lenses, and Filters are discussed before breaking into ideas such as capturing details, long exposure, adding people, times to shoot, black and white, and getting creative. We even discuss Lightpainting landscapes. The class closes with presentation ideas to make your images live on.
 
This class is for everyone, regardless of skill level, camera brand or type.

About Jeff Leimbach

Jeff Leimbach

Jeff is a professional photographer, graphic designer, Canon Product Educator, and KelbyOne Instructor. As an architectural photographer, Jeff photographs approximately 20 buildings and spaces a year throughout the US.

He has served as moderator for Photoshop World, Photoshop Seminar Tour for KelbyOne, and the Canon in Action Tour for Canon Live Learning. Other workshop experience includes staff instructor for Moose Peterson’s Digital Landscape Workshops and owner of The Digital Photo Workshops.

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Free Registration

Bird Photography: Grasshopper Sparrow

Whether on a backyard bird feeder or on the streets of Manhattan, you’ve likely seen a Sparrow. Many associate the term solely with the common nuisance species, the House Sparrow. These birds are known to nest in the eaves of homes. However, upon further inspection, one can start to note differences in the birds they simply call “Sparrow”. Nearly 50 species of Sparrow exist in North America. Of them, 19 can be spotted in New Jersey alone. Some are migratory, while others remain in the Garden State Year-round. Of the migratory species, one had caught my interest in recent years. The Grasshopper Sparrow.

Nikon D850, NIKKOR 500mm f/4G VR – f/4.0 – 1/4000 – ISO 800

About the Bird: 

Introducing, the Grasshopper Sparrow. This is not your typical backyard bird. Instead, this sparrow is highly habitat specific. The Grasshopper Sparrow is a grassland bird, preferring patchy meadows with little to no shrub cover. This allows this species to freely move across the ground. You heard correctly; this bird is primarily a ground dweller. Here, they forage and prey upon insects and such. True to their name, these Sparrows do eat plenty of grasshoppers, though they will also eat beetles, spiders, caterpillars, and such. Surprisingly, their hankering for grasshoppers is not what earned them their name. In fact, it is the grasshopper like song they emit. 

A buzzy trill, their song is much quieter than most common sparrows. It is also only when singing that these birds show themselves. From the top of a stalk, they make their presence known to rival males and potential mates. If all goes well, the singing male will attract a female and thwart intruding males. Then the nest making begins. Nests are located on the ground and usually consist of a mix of grass, hair and other fine materials. The nest is a typical bowl, though it is usually covered in a dome of dense vegetation, allowing access only from the side. Once completed, the nest can house about half a dozen eggs. Each egg is more important than the last as this species is in steep decline.

With an ever-shrinking habitat, the Grasshopper Sparrow is increasingly more difficult to find. Since the mid 20th century, its population has drastically declined. Populations have declined as much as 97 percent in New York State alone. This is mostly due to habitat loss. This is largely due to land development and vegetation succession. These occurrences lead to grasslands becoming smaller, fragmented and as a result, less favorable to the Grasshopper Sparrow. Luckily, this species responds positively to a number of human agricultural management activities such as scheduled mowing, grazing and controlled burns. The old practice of turning marshes into landfills has also had a surprisingly positive effect on grassland species. While detrimental to marshland species, most of these landfills were eventually isolated and capped. This created prime grassland habitat where species like Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark and of course, the Grasshopper Sparrow could thrive once again.

Grasshopper Sparrow on Milkweed – Nikon D850, NIKKOR 500mm f/4G VR – f/4.0 – 1/4000 – ISO 800

How I Got the Shot: 

With any wildlife photography, I recommend a starting lens no less than 300mm. A basic 70-300mm kit lens will suffice. That being said, if there’s one type of bird that pushes us to longer focal lengths, it’s songbirds. An APS-C, or “cropped”, sensor paired with such a zoom will provide some relief, though you’ll learn quickly if a longer lens is needed. I was shooting with a 500mm prime lens for most of my outings with these birds. I found this lens paired with a full frame DSLR just long enough to get the results I was after. I personally like some empty space in my images, but it’s a look that’s not for everyone. Someone equipped with a 600mm lens and an APS-C body would have gotten much closer results.

Next comes lighting. I always recommend shooting in the first hours of daylight or the last few with the sun either to my back or facing me directly. This varies on what effect I’m going for with my images. More often than not, you’ll want the sun on your back as it is in the image above. We call this shooting on “Sun-angle”. Shooting in these hours not only provides the most pleasing light, it also happens to be cooler, which in turn, makes for active wildlife. It’s also worth shooting when the sun isn’t visible at all. Overcast days provide soft, diffuse light that can be pleasing throughout the day. In fact, I prefer to shoot on these days for most other songbirds I photograph.

As this species prefers life on the ground, finding one in the open was quite the challenge. As luck would have it, this patch of grassland habitat harbored a number of singing males. This resulted in territorial skirmishes between neighboring birds. Once a male had successfully chased the intruder off, it would perch atop a grass stalk and sing. The height of the grass allowed me to crouch down and remain almost invisible from the height of the sparrow. As this is not a heavily visited location, the birds were not accustomed to human presence. I had to tread carefully. Once in position, I remained in the area for much of the evening. By sitting as still as possible, I managed to photograph three individual males.

As stated above, if there’s one time and place you want the longest lens possible, it’s here. Songbirds, especially these sparrows, are small and skittish. As stated above, I spent most of the shoot crouching along the fields edge to stay hidden. I also got low as to shoot from my subjects eye-level. Being at the same level as your subject is essential to engaging your audience. It’s scenarios like these where super-telephoto zooms are ideal. If the bird comes closer, you can always zoom out without moving and startling the bird. These lenses also tend to be lighter than their prime counterparts, although new mirrorless lenses as well as Nikon’s Phased Fresnel optics are narrowing the margin.

A major aspect I made sure to check before situating myself, was the backgrounds. I made sure to keep an eye out for bright objects in the distance. Any one distracting element can throw the whole composition off, and I try to avoid removing spots in post as much as possible. A wide aperture and the vast field ultimately made for a nice, smooth background. Remember, the farther away the background, the blurrier it will become. As long as you’re using a long lens, this occurs regardless of aperture.

Once I was set up, I could begin thinking about positioning the bird in the frame. If you’ve attended one of my focus sessions at BCC, you’ve heard me talk about the rule of thirds time and time again. This is for good reason. All too often I see images with the bird or animal smack dab in the middle of the frame. There is a time and place for this, but more often than not, it’s not ideal. By positioning the bird in the lower right third of this image, it gives a sense of space. The bird is singing into the emptiness of the frame, allowing the viewer to imagine what lies ahead. This empty space is often referred to as “dead” space. Learn to use it well, and you’ll be on the path to strong compositions. If you can’t do this in the heat of the moment, remember, you can always crop in post. The beauty of modern cameras is their resolution. You can crop with little to no image degradation. I would be lying if I said I nailed the composition in-camera every time. I crop most if not all of my images to some degree.

Nikon D850, NIKKOR 500mm f/4G VR – f/4.0 – 1/1600 – ISO 400

Lastly, always prioritize the well-being of your subject. Allow space for the birds to feed, sing, and go about their business uninterrupted. Don’t panic if you accidentally flush a bird. We’ve all done it. Learn from it and avoid doing so in the future. Where applicable, stay on designated trails and respect boundaries. Wildlife refuges and parks are riddled with trails and roads for authority and park staff use. Authorized personnel signs mean authorized personnel only. Do not enter. Where trails are narrow or simply do not exist, watch your step. Many animals, not just the Grasshopper Sparrow, nest on the ground and don’t shy away from leaving young on or near trails. Be careful, wear your sunscreen and insect repellent, but also have fun with it.

If you’re interested in learning more about my bird photography techniques and outings, click here for more. We will be adding in-the-field workshops to our website in the near future, so stay tuned. Sign up for our weekly newsletter for updates.

All the best,

Matt 

Online Focus Session – Sports, Summer Birding & Used Equipment

Online Webinar Saturday August 13, 2022

Join us for a 3-part online Focus Session. Well discuss the following:

Bob Gramegna – Used Equipment Update
Matt Malwitz – Summer Birding Update
John Currens – Summer Sports Photography
Plus your Questions

Free Registration
https://summit.bergencountycamera.com/talks/sports-shorebirds-used-equipment/

August Customer Spotlight – John Kingston

Welcome to our thirty-first Bergen County Camera Customer Spotlight. This monthly posting features a customer who’s made an impression on us. They might have grown in their understanding of photography, gained a mastery of the craft and / or have become a strong advocate of our way of doing business in the world of photography. During the next month you will see this customer’s images displayed on our digital signs in store, in our emails, blog posts and social media.  

John Kingston is our customer spotlight for the month of August. We hope you both enjoy and are inspired by this new addition to In Focus and look forward to your comments and suggestions. Below you will find a word from John, followed by some of his images in the gallery below.

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