Shitting birds, for n00bs, using camera

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Shitting birds, for n00bs, using camera

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InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Shooting against snow is a real PITA. Especially on a bright day with no clouds. Still, I think these came out ok...

# ¿ Mar 15, 2010 05:00

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:52

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Duck-filled pond and this was the best I could get:

# ¿ Mar 23, 2010 03:54

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

unleash the unicorn posted:

crossposting this from SAD because I've had this for ages and never did anything with it and now it actually turned out kind of nice I think

drat, that's awesome...looks like he's hitch-hiking.

The following picture is nothing great, other than it's the last photo I'll be taking with my Rebel XS now that I got a 7D.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2010 16:29

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

First bird with my new 7D

# ¿ Apr 13, 2010 05:28

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Here's a shot of a killdeer from last year:

It was actually in the middle of someone's driveway. They parked their car at the start of the driveway all summer to protect it.

Eggs are so hidden too

# ¿ Apr 14, 2010 18:58

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Looks like there's even ways to make the 1.4TC work with lenses like the 100-400.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2010 02:05

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

A few from yesterday:

And my first woodpecker-in-flight shot:

# ¿ May 2, 2010 17:02

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

diarrhea for girls posted:

If IS is critical to you though, the 100-400 can't be beat and you'd probably be best off just trying to make do with your current lens until you can save up for it. Not the most fun answer, but it might save you a couple bucks in the long run.

The real problem with the 100-400mm is that a few weeks after getting it you'll start eying the 500mm or 600mm primes next.

On another note, a couple of shots from yesterday...

# ¿ May 10, 2010 23:31

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Still completely lost when post-processing these types of shots.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Tree Swallow

Red-necked Grebe

# ¿ May 24, 2010 16:40

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

ExecuDork posted:

Where are you? Are you following me around? The last two weekends I've gone out shooting birds, and seen those three species both times.

I was in central Alberta (Buffalo Lake) for these shots. There was someone else there at the same time as me taking pictures as well...was that you?

# ¿ May 26, 2010 16:38

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Went salmon fishing in BC and taking pictures of the wild eagles turned out to be the highlight of the trip for me:

# ¿ Jun 5, 2010 00:02

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I know these shots aren't anything fancy, but I'm posting them because they're the first couple of shots I've taken with my new 600mm.

All are uncropped

For reference, here's where I was shooting from:

I love this lens.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2010 01:00

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

A few more eagle shots from last week. I could use some tips for post-processing on these...I first do some NR on the background only by first removing the bird via photoshop's Filter->Extract feature (which takes ages to properly outline the bird), but then if I want to do separate processing on the bird I have to go back in and reselect the bird all over again. I'm sure there must be an easier way to do this given that I already have a layer with everything but the bird.

(Wish I could figure out how to clean this one up a bit)

# ¿ Jun 8, 2010 17:37

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Few backyard shots with my new 600mm:

This thing is a beast for hand holding.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2010 15:58

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

orange lime posted:

From a while back, but Lightroom 3 does a miraculous job with NR. This is 30 seconds of futzing with the sliders, no masking or whatnot involved. It would be even more effective on a full-resolution version

[e] and don't use extract. draw the selection between foreground and background, duplicate the base layer, and with the selection active, create a layer mask for the top layer. Then just apply background stuff to the bottom layer and bird stuff to the top one. Done.

Wow, that's pretty nice NR for 30 seconds work. Guess I need to check out lightroom.

As to your second paragraph, I'm not sure what you mean by "draw the selection". I thought that's what I was doing with the extract feature. Is there an easier way?

Here's a male and female Mountain Bluebird to keep the pictures rolling in this thread:

# ¿ Jun 20, 2010 15:34

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Tongsy posted:

i don't think there's any way that photo can improve.

Agreed. Adorable shots.

Here's a jet-propelled coot to keep this thread moving:

# ¿ Jun 22, 2010 15:09

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Holistic Detective posted:

Getting a decent photo of a bird of prey the only way I know how, at a falconry display

Really nice shots. Is that an eagle in #2-3?

Finally got some decent shots from my kayak (with the down side that paddling around in a kayak with a 600mm and tripod apparently makes you a bit of a tourist attraction yourself).

1. Killdeer

2. American White Pelican

# ¿ Jul 2, 2010 19:56

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

A couple of shots from my kayak yesterday. Too windy and wavy to get my 600mm out there.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2010 17:35

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Here's a couple of shots of what I'm calling a Polish Crow, because aside from the gray feathers it acted and sounded like a crow.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2011 13:17

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

BetterLekNextTime posted:

I heard these guys doing their mating thing all spring last year but only was able to find one and that was nearly impossible to spot. I wish I had the opportunity to have them out in the open like you've captured. 70-300 sounds like a nice lens, congrats.

I went out today and stupidly forgot my tripod. A whole flock of waxwings came in to strip the last berries off the trees and my arms are now dead from holding my 600mm. This is one of the last shots I got, and my hands were very shaky at this point.

Waxwing by InternetJunky.ca, on Flickr

One more from yesterday:

Black-capped Chickadee by InternetJunky.ca, on Flickr

InternetJunky fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Mar 19, 2011

# ¿ Mar 19, 2011 01:51

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

BetterLekNextTime posted:

More raven photos! Not super sharp but kind of a cool perspective.

It's a shame that it isn't more sharp, as it's a great perspective.

quote:

InternetJunky- if you are in grouse territory again in the spring, look up the local wildlife office (Department of Game and Fish/Fish and Game/Natural Resources), and they may be able to direct you to a "public" lek to see the birds. The grouse are pretty tolerant of blinds (and sometimes vehicles as long as you are quiet and don't get out of the car). It's a pretty awesome to spend a morning on a lek if you get the chance.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to be trying out photography from a blind this year for the first time and grouse would probably be a good first target. I'll ask the local park rangers if they know where the best spots would be to capture this.

Few more pictures as things start to warm up finally around here:

# ¿ Mar 24, 2011 16:27

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Niagalack posted:

I do not know what kind of birdie this is. Hope one of you will tell me!

White-breasted nuthatch.

Niagalack posted:

These are my first bird pictures.

Congrats! Hope you hate money though.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2011 14:20

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Trying out a new image host so figured I'd post a picture I just processed that I took last year:

One more...think I might have posted this last year but I re-edited it and am pretty happy with it now:

Edit: Wow, that last one looks like crap. So much for this new host.

InternetJunky fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Mar 29, 2011

# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 01:09

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I haven't been in this thread for a while and I see I missed out on some great shots. I haven't been able to do much shooting as my 7D broke, but these are a couple I did manage to get before it got fried:

Despite these robins being everywhere, this is the best I've gotten of one so far (heavy crop):

Apparently these house finches are a giant problem spreading disease to other birds, but they're at least a bit more colourful than the boring sparrows that usually come to my feeder.

# ¿ May 21, 2011 18:28

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

It's been a while since I was able to go shooting.

Cowbird...first for me

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 03:39

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Finally got out with my big lens in the kayak.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2011 17:34

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Kayaking + photography is such a great combo for bird photography. If you sneak in without much movement the birds tolerate much closer human presence than normal. This is not a crop:

# ¿ Oct 23, 2011 16:49

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

BetterLekNextTime posted:

Can you see your reflection in the loon's eye?

It was a 400mm lens so I was still a good distance away.

Totally unrelated, but here's a shot from some trumpeter swans I was trying to sneak up on yesterday. They are crazy nervous birds.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2011 15:21

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

ExecuDork posted:

Getting a good photo, on the other hand, is a bit trickier - they seem to think any car that stops and a person gets out means somebody with a gun is going to shoot at them

I wish this was still true, but the unfortunate fact is that a lot of photographers have been baiting the snowys now with mice bought from a pet store in an effort to capture that iconic image of a snowy owl about to snatch its lunch from the snow. They are starting to see cars and humans as a gravy train and I know of at least one that was killed by a car last year probably as a result (and the discussion that followed regarding the ethics of what the photographers were doing was pretty heated as there's a good number of people who don't see anything wrong with it).

# ¿ Nov 28, 2011 17:38

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Winter has put a damper on any chance I have of capturing much more than backyard birds so I've gone through and tried to salvage some old shots.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2011 04:02

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

BeastOfExmoor posted:

Additionally, someone has been steadily dropping their price on a 100-400mm on my local craigslist for a month now. I could pretty much sell my 70-200mm F/2.8 non-is and buy this for only $100 more. Not sure why I'm even hesitant, honestly, since I shoot mostly birds/wildlife photos with the zoom already and rarely open it up to F/2.8 due to sharpness issues.

For what it's worth, I find myself saying "I rarely open up my 100-400 to F/5.6 due to sharpness issues". Under the right conditions I get some great shots with my 100-400, but I'd much rather have something like the 400/f5.6 if I was planning to shoot mostly at 400mm.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2011 00:36

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

BeastOfExmoor posted:

I've heard people say this before, but I just can't understand it. I would certainly be shooting a lot of 400mm, but not exclusively by any means. It would, end up being my only lens over 50mm (Tamron 17-50 and nifty fifty) and I'd miss an awful lot of range.

I'm not trying to talk you out of the 100-400, for what it's worth. I love mine, and use it quite often. You will figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the lens after a little while. All I was suggesting was that if you're going to be taking 90% of your shots at 400mm with the thing then I'd also start considering the prime.

You aren't going to buy the zoom and then regret it. Especially if you're able to get it for <$1000.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2011 15:21

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I went out with my new 135 and a bag of bird seed for a new year's walk:

# ¿ Jan 2, 2012 00:46

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

BeastOfExmoor posted:

You should. You probably know, but it's only a couple km from the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal. Plenty of other birds in the area as well, albeit slightly less easy to shoot than a stationary owl.

Are they obvious and easy to find? Any extra details you could provide would be most welcome! I've driven around in Alberta now for 2 weekends looking for snowys without luck. They are the top of my bucket list, so your post is making me consider an extended weekend trip to BC.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2012 17:04

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

ExecuDork posted:

Dude! How have you been so unlucky? Driving home from Calgary to Saskatoon I saw several hanging out in their usual spot on top of powerline poles - they're visible from kilometres away. Go east, south, or north from Calgary and find a tertiary highway with a line of poles next to it and just drive. You'll find some for sure.

I drove from Edmonton to Jasper, with a bunch of side roads in between, specifically looking for the trademark white blob on top of trees/poles and saw nothing.

Is there a time of day that's best?

I'm getting a little tired of chickadees. A snowy would be awesome.

From yesterday:

# ¿ Jan 7, 2012 18:08

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Went on a mission to find snowy owls again yesterday. Nearly drove into the ditch a few times because I was staring at the tops of trees and poles as I drove, but absolutely no luck finding any snowys

$30 in gas later I give you my only shot of the day, a poorly lit and horribly noisy grouse I spotted cleverly hidden at the top of a tree without any cover:

And since the current theme is squirrels I'll just repost my most recent squirrel shot.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2012 18:02

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

Mango Polo posted:

Hey bird shooters, I need a bit of advice. Early March I'm flying to Peru to spend a week in the jungle, but my current lenses are pretty much inadequate (d7000 with a Tamron 17-50mm and a Nikkor 70-210mm) for the task.

Most of my shooting will be from 75-100 meters away. The best option I've found so far seems to be the Nikon 300mm f/4 plus a TC-14E II, but I'm wondering how hand-holdable this would turn out without IS since I'll also be hiking trails a lot.

Are there any other lenses I might consider? that would not completely ruin me

I've been to the jungle in Peru and would highly recommend something that can do f/2.8 at least. Light was really poor, usually due to a combination of thick cover and/or humidity. I really wish I had something like my 135/f2 when I went.

This was a typical day:

# ¿ Feb 17, 2012 19:16

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

I went out on "Snowy Owl Hunt #8" this past weekend. Drove around 1,000 kms all over new territory without a single sighting. It's probably a good thing I didn't see any because I probably would have come home with ruined shots if I had. One camera wasn't on centre-point AF so I have lots of nice blurry bird shots, and my other camera was somehow off of RAW images and on lower quality JPGs.

I did manage a new species for me (red crossbill):

And I did find a hawk of some sort right at the start of the golden hour. It was gorging on mice (it caught a new one probably every 5 minutes).

# ¿ Feb 20, 2012 16:51

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

neckbeard posted:

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta. Took those shots in Leduc, which is a little suburb south of the city. The park is really good for shooting birds, 40 acres and half is light forest, there used to be a small lake in the middle about 50 years ago, so when the snow melts in the spring there's a lot of wetland and water fowl hang around (that's when you don't want to have a Doberman around)

Any chance you'd mind pointing out that park on google maps for me please? I usually go to the river valley but it's so busy there it's hard to sneak up on a lot of stuff as two seconds later some family with a loud dog will ruin everything.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2012 15:39

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:52

InternetJunky: May 25, 2002

neckbeard posted:

http://g.co/maps/ubmqm

directions from Edmonton: http://g.co/maps/va3my

The satellite view is a couple years out of date as they've done a lot of construction/expansion on the Black Gold Centre, the dirt road that connects off Black Gold Drive is now paved, you take that past the BGC parking lot to where those 6 vehicles are parked. Also, the multi-use path that's outside the dog park perimeter will take you along the edge of Telford Lake, there's a few hawks that patrol the field in between and tons of birds by the lake, especially in the spring, there's deer there from time to time as well.

Thanks! Hopefully those waxwings are still in the area. I've had no luck this year with them.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2012 17:16

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Shitting birds, for n00bs, using camera

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