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I've been reduced to going through some old shots recently as I just can't find the time to get out and shoot. This is a Pygmy Falcon from Kenya. toggle posted:Spring in Australia means it's fairy wren season Moon Potato posted:
Raikyn posted:Couple of smallish shore birds
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Oct 15, 2016 17:20
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InternetJunky posted:You really are the heron master. Great series of shot as usual.  gbh-smelt by Redwood Planet, on Flickr Lovely Pygmy Falcon shot, too. I was hoping to see one at the Sacramento Zoo earlier this year, but apparently they only bring it out for special events.
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Oct 15, 2016 20:25
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Some sort of vertibird
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Oct 22, 2016 03:04
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Father O'Blivion posted:Some sort of vertibird It's a nuthatch. Where are you/this bird? That would help narrow down the species.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:38
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Reckon that's a White breasted Nuthatch. Not other Nuthatch species is both so white and without a black eye stripe. (for once wikipedia has a table of id plates, not not a list of species names)
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Oct 22, 2016 22:32
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 Blue Jay by Steven Sarginson, on Flickr
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Oct 22, 2016 23:32
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The otter family that was frequenting Arcata Marsh's western pond seems to have moved on once the rains started, so more ducks and diving birds have moved in. Whenever a cormorant surfaces with anything larger than a stickleback, all the others swoop in to steal it. cormorant-sculpin 2 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr This guy made a quick getaway with his sculpin and managed to swallow it before the other cormorants caught up.  cormorant-sculpin 1 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr The Pied-billed Grebes are following the schools of sticklebacks in the pond.  grebe-stickleback 1 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr They get upset whenever the cormorants invade their fishing spots, and will take off running across the water.  grebe-water by Redwood Planet, on Flickr I've been seeing this bittern off and on for the past month, but it usually stays in some inaccessible parts of the marsh. The other day, he ended up right next to one of the few gaps in the cattails around his favorite pond.  bittern-head 1 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr An egret pretzel:  egret-twist by Redwood Planet, on Flickr Black Phoebe looking for insects:  phoebe-flight by Redwood Planet, on Flickr
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Oct 23, 2016 19:08
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It took a bit, but this Pileated finally got comfortable enough to come in to the feeder yesterday while I was hanging out outside.  Pileated Woodpecker 1 by Josh, on Flickr Pileated Woodpecker 2 by Josh, on Flickr
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Oct 24, 2016 06:10
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Banded Dotterel chick Pohowera, the banded dotterel by Marc, on Flickr
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Oct 26, 2016 04:22
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American Kestrels are returning to the Humboldt County coast for the winter. I was about to give up on the Mad River Slough Wildlife Area for the evening because a bunch of duck hunters were showing up, then this little lady was waiting for me back at the trailhead. kestrel-dive by Redwood Planet, on Flickr  kestrel-soaring by Redwood Planet, on Flickr  kestrel-hover by Redwood Planet, on Flickr
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Oct 27, 2016 04:30
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Great stuff on this page, as usual. I haven't had many opportunities to do any real birding in the past couple of months, but I did cycle out some gear in anticipation of the fall migrants starting to move in around here. Most drastically, I ditched my 7D. I bought it hoping to capture more action, but while it could find focus in some pretty split-second situations and was mostly adequate for birds in flight, that body was just a little too.. worn out, maybe? Consistent misfocus (even after running the gamut of possible AFM adjustment levels) and a lack of pixel-level sharpness on roughly 8/10 exposures seemed to indicate to me that the mirror box and shutter just weren't up to running an older Ultrasonic lens design (400L 5.6) in continuous focus / rapid-fire shutter applications. It didn't often give satisfactory results with relatively stationary subjects, either. Things seemed to degrade as the shutter actuation count got higher. I did hold on to the 400L for use with my 5DII, although unless I find a Canon APS-C camera that's worth it I might eventually let that lens go, too. I hardly use my 5D for anything in the field these days. Now I've gone out on a limb and acquired a Nikon AF 300mm f/4, primarily to use with an Olympus E-M10. I almost just got one of the EF->MFT smart adapters with electronic aperture control for mounting the 400L instead, but the smaller size, faster max aperture, and shorter focal length all recommended the 300 to me instead. (I have some reservations about how well the E-M10's IBIS system would handle an 800mm equivalent FoV, plus the greater DoF control afforded by the f/4 aperture was appealing. I'm planning to use the lens with a film camera, too, and it'll be able to engage the AF system.) So how is it? It's no Oly PRO 300/4, and the 16mm MFT sensor doesn't quite match up to those of the latest Sony 24MP APS-C cameras, but it's sharp enough. Detail reproduction is good all the way down to f/4, but contrast suffers and highlight fringing gets pretty strong at that point. Fortunately these are issues that ACR can mostly eliminate. And being able to carry around a 600mm equivalent lens, camera body, plus a couple of additional lenses all stuffed together in a little shoulder bag is pretty sweet. So is being able to hand-hold down to 1/320. It makes taking pictures in shady brushy areas way more feasible. Probably the biggest letdowns of using this adapted lens setup, as opposed to my old a6000 + 400L combo, are the EVF focusing aids. Focus peaking with the Oly is very rudimentary compared to the a6000; the outlining is too aggressive, and the EVF refresh rate drops significantly when it's in use. Digital zoom is more responsive, but it's easy to lose track of the subject when the minimum magnification level is already 5X. ... Well, that was a longer post than I planned on. I guess this is my mini review of the Nikon 300mm f/4. Following are some sample pictures so you judge it for yourself. These are all cropped just a little bit.  perching mockingbird05 by S M, on Flickr fledgling mockingbird03 by S M, on Flickr black vulture02 by S M, on Flickr
SMERSH Mouth fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 05:20
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I haven't been out a lot recently but this past Saturday was nice in Seattle. I found a juvenile Cooper's Hawk because of the crows circling it. I got in position just in time for the morning sun to shine directly on the bird, with dark clouds still in the background. Also getting better at getting small birds in-flight: 
Kenshin fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 05:29
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This is all around badass. Scrub jays are probably my favorite bird since they'll work for peanuts.  Edit: bonus scrubby non-jay fledgling 
Father O'Blivion fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 18:24
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It was a fairly nice morning in Seattle, and I got to really stretch the low-light legs of the 200-500mm + D7200 combo. Some color correction in Lightroom and bam, I've got some stuff I'm pretty happy with.   Bonus: of course the only in-flight hummingbird shot I got this morning had a flower in front of his bill. 
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Nov 6, 2016 23:45
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Some harrier action from the edge of Humboldt Bay: harrier-swoop 1 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr  harrier-shorebirds3 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr  harrier-dowitchers by Redwood Planet, on Flickr While the dowitchers were distracted by the harriers, a Peregrine Falcon swooped in to chase one of them.  peregrine-dowitcher by Redwood Planet, on Flickr The juvenile peregrine didn't catch anything but one of the adults grabbed a meal after making a low pass over one of the levees.  peregrine-dinner 1 by Redwood Planet, on Flickr
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Nov 7, 2016 03:03
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A smaller bird NZ Dotterel by Marc, on Flickr
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Nov 7, 2016 11:46
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I just returned from a pretty amazing trip to Falkland Islands and South Georgia. 20k pictures to slog through, so I'll probably be spamming pictures for a while. Hauling my 600 along nearly broke me but was totally worth the effort. I'm glad I ignored all the people who told me "you don't need that lens...the wildlife isn't scared of you and will just come right up" (which is true, but I still found myself shooting with the 600 for 90% of my shots). Start things off with some King Pengins      SMERSH Mouth posted:I haven't had many opportunities to do any real birding in the past couple of months, but I did cycle out some gear in anticipation of the fall migrants starting to move in around here. Most drastically, I ditched my 7D. I bought it hoping to capture more action, but while it could find focus in some pretty split-second situations and was mostly adequate for birds in flight, that body was just a little too.. worn out, maybe? Consistent misfocus (even after running the gamut of possible AFM adjustment levels) and a lack of pixel-level sharpness on roughly 8/10 exposures seemed to indicate to me that the mirror box and shutter just weren't up to running an older Ultrasonic lens design (400L 5.6) in continuous focus / rapid-fire shutter applications. It didn't often give satisfactory results with relatively stationary subjects, either. Things seemed to degrade as the shutter actuation count got higher. I did hold on to the 400L for use with my 5DII, although unless I find a Canon APS-C camera that's worth it I might eventually let that lens go, too. I hardly use my 5D for anything in the field these days. Kenshin posted:I haven't been out a lot recently but this past Saturday was nice in Seattle. I found a juvenile Cooper's Hawk because of the crows circling it. I got in position just in time for the morning sun to shine directly on the bird, with dark clouds still in the background. Moon Potato posted:Some harrier action from the edge of Humboldt Bay: Raikyn posted:A smaller bird
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Nov 10, 2016 01:32
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Holy poo poo those penguin pictures!!!
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Nov 10, 2016 19:09
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Can I just say I hate you! Who did you go with? Was it a general trip or one specifically for photographers?
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Nov 10, 2016 19:49
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Yeah those penguin pictures are great. Looking forward to more!
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Nov 10, 2016 20:23
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Thanks for the comments. The King Penguin colonies we saw were just massive (500k breeding pairs on one beach landing alone), but there was so much more to see as well. Here's a few more penguin shots to show the variety encountered. This was the only Macaroni we saw for the entire trip. I guess we were too early to see them come ashore for breeding.  Rockhoppers were only in the Falklands, but we found a couple of pretty good sized colonies. They are really cute but also really bad at keeping their eggs safe. Saw a lot of Skuas flying around with light blue eggs   Gentoos were mixed in on nearly every beach landing we did, but we only saw one large colony.  We visited only a single Chinstrap colony and that was from a zodiak only. The main colony of them in South Georgia got massacred by some avian disease a while ago  Pablo Bluth posted:Who did you go with? Was it a general trip or one specifically for photographers?
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Nov 11, 2016 01:20
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I am definitely interested!
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Nov 11, 2016 04:10
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I'd be interested too. Unfortunately its a few years before I'll be able to justify any more big trips (house improvements...) but the Falklands is high on my list, especially the King Penguins. I read Morris' blog on an irregular basis. He tends to over-tweak his images for my taste, plus from I've been told from people who have met him, I'm not sure I'd want to be stuck on a ship with him...
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Nov 11, 2016 10:20
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Cool penguin photos. I am jealous. Antarticta is high up on my to-do list. (or rather wish-i-could-afford list)InternetJunky posted:
Why is it the last year? Pablo Bluth posted:
He is a great photographer but he is like this stereotypical old dude who doesn't give a crap or need to give a crap. I saw some seminar with him and he was pacing back and forth so this guy sitting in the front row asked if he could not move towards the back rows, AM replied with "deal with it", hehe Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Nov 11, 2016 |
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Nov 11, 2016 11:11
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In terms of Falklands, the place is a dream for wildlife photographers. There's tons of different islands, with different colonies of animals/birds on each. The hardest part is getting there (once a week flight from Santiago or a once weekly flight from UK on a military plane). There's a flight service that can take you to most of the islands (http://www.falklandislands.com/product.php/19/24/air_service__figas_/138d7bf22947455d965251bf33087fc9), and you can arrange accommodation on a lot of the islands (they are all privately owned but a lot offer bed & breakfast type services). There was a guy beside me on the plane in who was going for two weeks to photograph the orcas going after sea lion pups on one of the islands, and he had arranged to stay in a spare room at the warden's station on the island. I definitely plan to go back at some point and will probably just book a few days on each island.Pablo Bluth posted:I read Morris' blog on an irregular basis. He tends to over-tweak his images for my taste, plus from I've been told from people who have met him, I'm not sure I'd want to be stuck on a ship with him... Ineptitude posted:He is a great photographer but he is like this stereotypical old dude who doesn't give a crap or need to give a crap. Ineptitude posted:Why is it the last year?
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Nov 11, 2016 16:19
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InternetJunky posted:who I guess were there with him as part of some instructional course. He is not a good instructor.
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Nov 11, 2016 22:52
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A few pictures of the eagles at Conowingo Dam in Maryland: _DSC7089.jpg by Tom Alberi, on Flickr  _DSC7153.jpg by Tom Alberi, on Flickr  _DSC7175.jpg by Tom Alberi, on Flickr
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Nov 12, 2016 23:39
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Much like Sparrows, Gulls make pretty good practice subjects. They're pretty tolerant of humans, they're active during the day and hang out in the open, and they don't move too quickly most of the time. I'm not calling these photos *good*, but I do feel like I'm learning useful supertele technique when I'm sitting on a riverbank below a dam shooting shithawks. SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 1 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 2 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 3 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 5 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 7 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 9 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr SD 173 Shand Dam Gulls 10 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr
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Nov 14, 2016 02:54
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Here are some Blue-eyed Shag photos. Their behaviour was really fun to watch except they pooped all over me, my wife, and our gear. I actually thought it was raining.      Saddamnit posted:A few pictures of the eagles at Conowingo Dam in Maryland: ExecuDork posted:Much like Sparrows, Gulls make pretty good practice subjects. They're pretty tolerant of humans, they're active during the day and hang out in the open, and they don't move too quickly most of the time. I'm not calling these photos *good*, but I do feel like I'm learning useful supertele technique when I'm sitting on a riverbank below a dam shooting shithawks.
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Nov 14, 2016 17:56
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*picks jaw up from floor* Those Blue-eyed Shag photos are incredible. I love the colors.
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Nov 14, 2016 19:19
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I've never seen shags photographed so nicely! What beautiful eyes. Can someone explain a little bit about ExecuDork's photos, and why some of them have a reddish aura around the gulls? Seems most prevalent in the third photo. Is that just a lens thing?
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Nov 14, 2016 22:02
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my cat is norris posted:I've never seen shags photographed so nicely! What beautiful eyes.
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Nov 14, 2016 22:09
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It's a 50-year-old lens: Takumar (old Pentax brand, back in the days when they couldn't decide if they wanted to be known as Asahi or Pentax or something else) 500m f/4.5 500mm f-4.5 (1 of 2) by Martin Brummell, on Flickr 500mm f-4.5 (2 of 2) by Martin Brummell, on FlickrIt's not multicoated and it does chromatic abberation like crazy. Yes, the most extreme examples are from the edges of the frame. The one landing with its wings out in a crucifixion pose was in the upper-left of the frame. It's also more noticeable with higher contrast edges; a white bird against a nearly-black shadowed concrete background is going to be pretty red/blue on its edges. I've seen too many posts here and on blogs and other places to count about how chromatic abberation is "easy to fix in post" but that's simply not true in this case. That crucifix bird already has the saturation of blue and red (and adjacent colours) turned down 30% plus LR 3.6 sliders for CA set to either -100 or +100. It's not nearly so bad under better conditions / better luck on my part. Old photo:  Western Grebe 2 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr
ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Nov 15, 2016 |
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Nov 15, 2016 04:28
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ExecuDork posted:It's a 50-year-old lens: Takumar (old Pentax brand, back in the days when they couldn't decide if they wanted to be known as Asahi or Pentax or something else) 500m f/4.5 Also, the results you get from that lens are incredible.
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Nov 15, 2016 04:41
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Yeah, no kidding. Amazing! Thanks for the explanation, too.
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Nov 15, 2016 17:18
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That lens is indeed a bitch.
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Nov 15, 2016 18:52
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What did that lens cost?
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Nov 15, 2016 19:43
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Rotten Cookies posted:That lens is indeed a bitch. Pablo Bluth posted:What did that lens cost? I *can* shoot this thing hand-held, but not well. I took the series of gulls shots sitting down and resting my hand under the tripod mount on my knee. I had left my tripod in my truck, foolishly. Focusing required some awkward fumbling, holding the lens steady with my left hand and focusing with my right while squinting through the viewfinder. I bought a cheap gimbal mount for $100 through dealextreme, it gets the job done. The prices I'm describing here are based on what I've personally seen for sale at various times and places - if you find a better deal, go for it! * I'm completely disregarding the cheap brandname-of-the-week 650-1300mm nonsense you can easily find on eBay. F/8 maximum aperture is unusuable, in my opinion. Those gulls were shot at f/8 but most of the time I can barely squeeze out 1/250s shots (TOO SLOW but I do it anyways because I'm dumb and I learn very slowly) at f/5.6. The CA at f/4.5 is amazingly bad - everything glows! InternetJunky posted:Also, the results you get from that lens are incredible. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Nov 15, 2016 |
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Nov 15, 2016 20:05
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And yes, they are very good pictures, I know you're up against a lot. I've done some awkward shooting without a tripod by having the lens rest on my knees, with my left hand doing focus and aperture. Not ideal. I also tried putting a cheap 2x behind it and just lol. Cropping does much better for me with that. As was said before, for the reach, no ring-bokeh, and price, this is great if you go in knowing the limitations. These remain probably the best shots I got from that lens. Being in the comfort of my own yard helps. Still got chromatic aberration, but I can deal with it. I haven't used my camera seriously in a while because of work, but I do live vicariously through this thread, and have hope that one day work will let up. Rotten Cookies posted:
Rotten Cookies fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Nov 15, 2016 |
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Nov 15, 2016 20:42
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It's a shame that either Tamron nor Sigma have released their 150-600 options in k-mount. Pentax do tend to offer a lot for their prices, but it seems to me that it's much harder to make a case for them for somebody who needs long telephoto options. It's a shame even their 150-450mm 4.5-5.6 is on the high side compared to what those of us on the Canikon dark side have to pay for the equivalents.
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Nov 15, 2016 21:49
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