June 3, 2012 - Frog at Riverbend Park, Fairfax County VA

June 3, 2012 - Frog at Riverbend Park, Fairfax County VA

This was taken on a hike - though it was a bit more like a walk in the woods than a hike - at Riverbend Park in Fairfax County, VA. Riverbend is one of a string of parks which can be found along the Potomac - it is traversed by a trail called the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail. I was with a couple friends - we drove out and parked, then headed north along the river. The trail here is well marked and generally flat. There are a few rises, but even for my out-of-shape condition, were a pretty easy walk. After one of these, we descended into a small glade with a large algae covered pond. There were several small wooden over looks at the water edge. We could hear the sound of many many bullfrogs and took a few minutes to grab some photos.

The above is one of several good ones I got. I also have a wide angle photo that I'm currently using as the background on my monitor at work. The above was shot with my Canon 5dII and my Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 zoom, at 300mm. The camera was set on Auto-ISO and picked 1600. Aperture was f9.0, shutter speed 1/250th. I rather like shooting with the Auto-ISO on some days - I still can/do assume control over the shutter and aperture, but it seems to help make sure I end up don't end up with as many blurry, long shutter speed shots. And, thankfully, the 5dII is pretty good as far as sensor noise, even at higher ISO's.

Yes, I do still believe in knowing what all the settings do, and I believe any photographer should know the relationships between aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, etc - but I also believe that there are times when the computer brain can do things better and faster than I can. I have no qualms about using some of the "auto" settings, if it will help me get more consistent results.