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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PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

This is an awesome thread. Thanks for making it Clayton! I'm a big fan of your work, and you regularly get stunning results.

I picked up a Sigma 135-400 from KEH for $170 a few months ago to take the edge off saving up for a 100-400L (which is looking more like a Christmas present to myself) and it's pretty good but you need to have a lot of light (it's sharpest at 11-16) but it's nice to have the reach.

Just a couple backyard birds here:

Highly annoying yet strangely endearing to me, there's a ton of Northern Mockingbirds that nest in the trees in my backyard and they've gotten pretty used to me and the camera. This one gets quite close.

Cardinals are just awesome. That's all there is to it.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2009 18:57

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:04

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Thanks guys!

I'm with Clayton, jhoc. I'd be terrified about getting the gear soaked. But it looks pretty peaceful there so I imagine there's not a huge risk. I imagine you're going to get some awesome shots with that setup, can't wait to see more!

Jadeilyn posted:

I tried to get lower down when I shot the ducks today. It's not easy since the lagoon is built with walkways that extend over the water, but the angle is definitely better.

I like it! Great lighting, and the lower angle definitely does help a lot. Although I'm pretty big into macro photography and while I'm not afraid to crawl around in the grass/mud for the right angle, it's taking awhile for me to get used to getting low for bird shots. It makes such a difference most of the time that it's worth it though.

edit: Top of page 2, so I gotta include a shot. Here's an unintentional birding shot:

There's an Owl chilling at the top of the largest tree. I was just going for the cloudless sky and didn't even see it until I was processing the shots on the computer a little while later. I've been watching for it ever since and I can hear it at night/morning but I'm not having any luck finding out where it's hiding.

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Jul 27, 2009

# ¿ Jul 27, 2009 17:37

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

It's quiet, too quiet!

I wish this was some sort of hawk or something, but I suppose a starling will work too:

# ¿ Jul 30, 2009 16:47

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

pistolshit posted:

That's some pretty fantastic composition, especially for an accidental shot. He fits perfectly into the eye line created by the stars.

Good complementary color use and tone too.

jhoc posted:

Very nice, what is up with the foreground light? Looks like a streetlight?

Thanks a lot guys!

jhoc, that's basically what it is. There's a Nissan factory just past those trees and they've got traffic going in and out all the time so there are a ton of sodium vapor lights lining the property. One of the last places I'd ever expect to find an owl!

jhoc posted:

Have been out on the water a lot this week and am missing focus like crazy, it is really starting to drive me nuts but my 210mm isn't nearly long enough so I'm stuck with this hit-or-miss 400. Had to trash a ton of (what I thought would be good) osprey and hawk shots because they were just out of focus.

Took me a minute to spot that white one, haha. Great catch! The composition is great, and if you're in the kayak for this one it really put you at the perfect height. I think that angle is right on. I've never noticed their eye color before, very cool!

edit: Baby Mockingbirds are now making their way to my backyard, and they don't shut up when they're hungry. At least they make good subjects though! I'm hoping to catch this scene again with proper lighting, as I had to crank the ISO and it doesn't look too hot any larger than this.

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Aug 4, 2009

# ¿ Aug 4, 2009 19:08

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Yourmomlovesme posted:

drat, I love action shots like that. Very nice catch!

Dread Head posted:

Testing my new ballhead and found this guy, never could get a good angle.

Is that with your crazy long lens you just got? Great looking shots, but this one stands out to me, I think it's the crazy looking feathers everywhere.

--

Keeping with the testing theme, I bought a Canon 200mm F2.8L the other day at a price I couldn't pass up, and there's nothing going on today so I figured I'd pester the birds out back while testing the lens. This is at F2.8 in horribly overcast conditions and it's still impressively sharp. I love primes:

# ¿ Aug 28, 2009 18:46

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Puffins are so awesome, you did a fantastic job capturing them! The Faroe Islands look tempting!

I continue my backyard bird extravaganza with bribery. Who wants a Grasshopper?

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Sep 14, 2009

# ¿ Sep 9, 2009 17:42

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Clayton Bigsby posted:

You photographed Nessie!

# ¿ Sep 14, 2009 22:29

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

SKULE123 posted:

Puffins, great bird or greatest bird? I really like how it's composed and the two blooms in front are really cool and not at all distracting thanks to the bright colors of the puffin. Great shot of this one!

GratefulHume posted:

This is excellent! Here are my sub par submissions:

The eyes on that thing are freaky! Haha. I can feel it looking into my soul!

A Blue Jay gathering some berries or something, which you can see it has quite a mouthful.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2009 18:11

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

I picked up a 2x Kenko TC to slap on my 200mm f2.8L and the results have been quite nice.

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Jan 2, 2010

# ¿ Jan 2, 2010 17:19

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Smidgen of Pidgeons posted:

I know he's in a zoo, but he's just so drat regal looking with that flag.

Zoo or not, that looks awesome haha. Great shot! :patriot:

# ¿ Jan 2, 2010 21:19

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Ric posted:

He knows he looks good. Haha.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2010 19:59

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

TheCaptain posted:

At 250mm this is about as close as I could get.

Nice shots! I have a hard time getting close to cardinals, they're quite skittish here and will bolt for the slightest of reasons.

It was 22 degrees out yesterday but that didn't stop me from laying on the ground trying to get some shots of a rather brave song sparrow.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2010 09:41

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

GrAviTy84 posted:

I shoot a D60 so I'm kind of limited in the lenses I can use while maintaining a level of ease of use. I have some MF glass, but the combination of no metering and my suckage w/ manual focusing means that my good shot yield is abysmal. Does anyone else shoot with the 55-200mm VR or similar? I was considering checking out the Sigma 70-300mm APO, also because of its 1:2 macro focusing ability, but I don't know if it's really worth it.

I can't give you specific advice since I'm a Canon shooter, but I have a 200mm prime and while it's a nice range some of the time, it still felt lacking when birding and I wasn't really happy until I picked up a 2x extender to get to 400mm. Hopefully someone has experience with that 70-300 and can say something about quality or mention something else. In the meantime here's a link to a bunch of samples with that 70-300 lens, and you can kind of get an idea what to expect at least. Currently page 2 has some bird shots, although it looks like it's mainly the Canon version. http://www.pixel-peeper.com/lenses/?lens=250

--
I've posted these elsewhere but forgot to include them here, so here ya go. Backyard bonanza continues!

# ¿ Jan 8, 2010 00:02

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

I had a cardinal that was more than happy to pose for me today:

# ¿ Jan 10, 2010 02:25

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

SKULE123 posted:

This post isn't exactly a bird picture, but I noticed a lot more flickr hits than normal today and was excited to see that a popular travel blog had picked my puffin picture of a couple of pages back for their photo of the day.

http://www.gadling.com/2010/01/09/photo-of-the-day-01-09-09/

Just wanted to share with my goon bird photo buds, since I probably wouldn't have submitted it without the encouragement from this thread.

Congratulations, that's an awesome photo!

# ¿ Jan 10, 2010 14:43

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

European Starling in flight:

Quick little bastards.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2010 23:43

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

fenner posted:

Very nice! As far as I know these things are tiny, must have been insanely hard to capture it, decent light too, just creeping in on his face.

Thanks fenner! Yeah those things are pretty tiny, it was flying directly at me in a short space and with pure luck the AF managed to follow it. I would have gotten a couple better shots but unfortunately I had my lens focus limit switch on 3.5m instead of 1.5m, aghhh

I like your shot! White birds are a pain to shoot, for sure. Yours looks good in B&W, and good detail on the beak. I also really like how it's facing with the slight downwards look.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2010 23:32

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Stitched/merged together three shots of this crow, since all I had on me at the time was my 400mm setup and I was way close because it was chowing down on some dead rabbit and it felt no fear.

Came out pretty well though!

# ¿ Jan 24, 2010 08:02

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

fenner posted:

e: I strive for the quality of your bird photos diarrhea for girls, my birds only look good on small size... I will just blame my lens for now.

Thanks fenner!

They look great to me and I'm loving the variety you've got going on! That one titled "Blue Hat" is awesome! That bright blue is amazing looking. I can't think of any birds around here that share that color. Great angle on that Crimson Rosella too!

# ¿ Jan 26, 2010 09:25

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Swans freak me out, they have no fear after months of being fed by hand and they'll get right up in your face about it. Haha. Great shots, Abbeh!

---
It's snowing here and that's my favorite time to go birding, here's a couple more cardinal-in-the-snow shots and a song sparrow that has turned my motorcycle shed into a giant bird house for the time being.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2010 20:53

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

I'm envious you were in Peru! That place is a birder's theme park. They've got more species of birds there than North America and Europe combined. Unfortunately I can't help you with the IDs, but I do like your photos!

--
This Northern Cardinal is quite used to me by now. I just wish I could get friendly with the jays. :mad:

# ¿ Feb 1, 2010 18:23

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

tiercel posted:

The only reason I could even take a guess was that related birds appear in Andrew Zuckerman's book Bird, which I just got for my birthday.

I keep meaning to pick that up, it looks fantastic. The shots I've seen that he has shared online are stunning.

---

Just another sparrow today:

I was _{| � |} close to getting some nice Pileated Woodpecker shots (those things are huge!) but while I was moving extra slowly to get into position it took off. Argh, I hate that. I'm going to have to go all out and deck myself out in camo next time, haha.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2010 23:30

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Slo-Tek posted:

Looking forward to those. Here is my "this close" picture. I walked half a mile into the sun to get a picture of this bird, and just as I rounded his tree, he took off. I took three pictures, this one, and two of his back.

10 feet and 1 minute more is all I needed. Didn't get it.

Aww man, that sucks! Nothing is worse than watching your subject fly away in the viewfinder. Leaves you feeling so empty inside.

That's still a nice photo, but I can imagine the shot you were after and man. :smith:

I hope you've gotten a second chance since then!

# ¿ Feb 4, 2010 00:23

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Dread Head posted:

PS, this site is great for looking for an ID. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/

Thanks a lot for that site! Definitely bookmarked.

---

Today was pretty awful with horrible overcast until the last hour or two when the sun finally decided to come out.
I think this Northern Mockingbird which has lived in my backyard for about a year got caught by a Merlin. :smith:

Less than an hour later:

At least the Merlin looks awesome, though!

Going to go buy a box of chocolates, a bathrobe, and a copy of "Circle of Life" by Elton John.
edit: false alarm, I'm watching my fat mockingbird buddy in the backyard right now. Guess it was some other sucka that got caught. :shobon:

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Feb 10, 2010

# ¿ Feb 10, 2010 01:40

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Field Sparrow:

While I would have much preferred to be eye level, I was sitting on some steps and this little guy landed 3 feet away and just kept getting closer and closer. I actually wished I had my macro lens, haha.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2010 21:48

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Turkey Vulture:

# ¿ Feb 21, 2010 04:22

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Nice shots Obviously Erratic! I like the colors of the birds. Might want to get rid of that ugly dust spot on the left side though.

Field Sparrow:

# ¿ Feb 28, 2010 05:45

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

I've been working like crazy these past few weeks so I haven't done much photographing aside from some random road snapshots, however I saw this bird haul across a really country/hardly traveled back road earlier today and glance at me before disappearing into the grass with his/her three offspring. Any ideas what species it is? I haven't seen one around here before:

I was in Monteagle, Tennessee.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2010 01:29

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Bahama.Llama posted:

Probably a American Woodcock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Woodcock

drat, that's some service. Haha. Thanks a lot! That definitely looks like it.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2010 01:34

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

TomR posted:

That is some service! Thanks for the link, I can never figure out what bird I'm looking at.

Here is a video of the killdeer doing it's broken wing trick:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_rintjema/4518942589/

This is neat! Cool to see it along with the photos. If I didn't know it was just for show I'd assume its wing was broken too. Tricky devil.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2010 16:51

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

orange lime posted:

That entire bird came out of an egg that size? Wow. It must have really been packed in there.

I was thinking the same thing, jeez!

Very cool series, tuyop! I'm enjoying it a lot. That setup is working really well.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2010 02:44

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2010 21:52

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

TheCaptain posted:

I know this is a lot but I had a really good bird day today!

Thanks bud! I gotta agree with you about having a good day with the birds! You got some killer shots. I'm really like the Blue Jay ones! The love story one is just :3:

There was a jay hanging out near my house today that waited until I put on a macro lens to get up close to a caterpillar, to show itself and then decided to pour some salt in the wound and landed about 3 feet away from me. Ugh! Jays are mean.

---
I picked up a Sigma 50-500 "Bigma" (the older one, not the new one with OS) last week and the weather is finally cooperating enough to let me bust it out on the birds. Here's a female Northern Cardinal that has been eluding me forever because she's very skittish. I got really lucky on this one being in focus before she took off. I have no idea what she was eating to get the green in her feathers, some gushy bug I imagine.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2010 04:28

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Tongsy posted:

drat, I wish I could get 1/10th as close as that to either of the Cardinals near my place. They always bugger off when I'm 100 feet away

I said the same thing in a post after TheCaptain posted some cool Cardinal shots and then a couple days later I was having all sorts of luck with'em! Getting a bird feeder or at least throwing a bunch of seed around on the ground in a certain area will get them sticking around a bit longer. Bribery gets you everything!

# ¿ Apr 30, 2010 16:48

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Slo-Tek posted:

Pestering the wood ducks again:

That duck looks so happy! I really like that one.

Bahama.Llama posted:

I don't have any bird pictures to share, but I thought I'd rub something in everyone's face.

I graduated with my undergrad comp sci degree. My parents for a present got me on a boat trip with Dr. Jerome Jackson through Ding Darling . Dr. Jackson is an ornithologist and an expert on Ivory Billed Woodpeckers. I can't wait to talk to him about birds

Haha, what a cool present! I'm definitely envious! When are you going? I expect a lot of photos from you. :arghfist:

---

After being grounded for 2 days due to some outrageous flooding rains, the birds were eager to stretch their wings.

I think it's the same Mockingbird that's going for this bug, unfortunately it wasn't as sharp as I wanted but I held onto it anyways because well, it's neat.

A cold Robin.

# ¿ May 4, 2010 04:17

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

BeastOfExmoor posted:

a beer and my camera.

What more can you ask for? Haha. Congrats on the house!

Good looking shots! I really should set up a hummingbird feeder some day, I've only seen a few of them in the few years I've lived here but they have got to be one of the coolest backyard visitors.

William T. Hornaday posted:

Click here for the full 1024x681 image.

This shot is really nice, great looking bird!

Good luck on the shooting this summer, scottch. I imagine things will be much easier!

--

El Diablo visited my bird feeder today:

# ¿ May 7, 2010 21:39

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

TheCaptain posted:

Tragedy has struck me today. I've dropped my EF-S 55-250mm IS telephoto the other day.

Aww man that sucks.

You probably already know about the site, but if not: http://www.keh.com is great for the longer telephoto lenses. Well, pretty much all lenses, but they do get quite a few of the longer ones in and they often carry a 100-400 for under $1k. There aren't any up right now for that price, unfortunately, but just keep watching. Takes a little bit of the sting out of saving up for one when you can get a little discount!

My birding lens upgrade path went like this: 55-250 IS>Sigma 135-400 (not a good idea, ignore this, it required like f/16 to be sharp)>Canon 200mm F2.8L with a 2x teleconverter (Kenko Teleplus Pro 300 DG)>Sigma 50-500.

The 50-500 is more like 50-460mm and isn't as sharp as the 100-400 wide open but stopped down a bit (f8-f10) it's nearly on the same level. It weighs about 4 lbs and the older (cheaper) version doesn't have IS but it's around $600/$650 on KEH from time to time so it's a really good deal if you don't mind carrying around what amounts to half of a bazooka. It's a LOT different than the 55-250 and can be used as a weapon in a melee fight.

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.

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 8, 2010

# ¿ May 8, 2010 02:18

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Bahama.Llama posted:

Well the boat tour lasted like an hour and we only hit up two bird spots , so I didn't have a whole lot to work with. Here are some of the better ones

I need to work on my post bad.

Aww, that bites. I bet that was the quickest passing hour! I really like these two shots though, especially that last one with the fish in midair! Awesome catch!

William T. Hornaday posted:

I need some feedback on the composition of this shot, but haven't yet worked up the nerve to post it in PAD yet. It feels a bit unconventional, but if Andrew Zuckerman can do it why can't I?

EDIT: I think I need to fix the exposure on it, for starters.

scottch pretty much covered it. I don't think it has to be brightened a bunch. I really like that the background isn't completely black, too.

--

I was going to open up the windows facing my backyard this morning and noticed a Cardinal feeding her baby bird, so I fired off a couple shots just as it was getting blown off the railing by a gust of wind, poor thing. Haha. It must have been alright though because it flew off with the mom at least.

The baby cardinal a little while later, no worse for the wear:

PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 17:26 on May 11, 2010

# ¿ May 11, 2010 16:49

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

Those last two are fantastic, TomR! Nice catches!

The weather here has been really crazy and just all over the charts lately, so I haven't been able to drag my gear out for long periods waiting for birds.

This young northern cardinal got caught on my deck during a heavy shower today and the look it's giving pretty much mirrors my own mood lately. Ugh!

# ¿ May 29, 2010 05:48

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:04

PREYING MANTITS: Mar 13, 2003; and that's how you get ants.

tuyop posted:

How do you guys identify birds? Is there a program somewhere or is it just a matter of reading a lot about birds?

This is a really handy site for that: http://identify.whatbird.com/mwg/_/0/attrs.aspx

Not all inclusive however and there are still some that stumped it so if you've got one really giving you trouble just posting a photo of it here or at one of the larger birder forums will net you a response from someone who has likely read a lot about birds.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2011 04:51

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

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