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There's not one of these that wouldn't look like poo poo printed, but I guess they're ok for web. Even when I'm close and they're dead-still I can't get anything sharp, it's just too dark by the time these guys come out. A girl at work is buying the 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 and says she'll let me borrow it; I'm anxious to see if I can get anything better with it. The fact that they even make a 400 f/2.8 makes me drool a little bit; jesus, the fun I would have with that plus a 1.4x extender.    Mostly I'm finding that bird photography is all about the heartbreaking and hilarious missed-it-by-that-much poo poo like this:  
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Jul 17, 2009 16:58
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:33 |
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Munchee posted:this exactly.
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Jul 17, 2009 19:13
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It aint exciting, but at least it's sharp: Caught a blue heron while using my 100mm macro.
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Jul 20, 2009 06:39
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It's not like I've got many opportunities to shoot a bald eagle, and when I do he's not only in an enclosure, but he's backed up right against the chain-link fence so I can't even hide it with bokeh. It's like I went for a photo but ended up with a political metaphor or something.   In other news these were all shot with my ancient (~18 years old) 70-300 f/4.5-5.6, and color me surprised but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I've had issues with this thing being fuzzy as poo poo wide-open at 300mm, but it was full daylight so I had decent shutter speeds. I know one of the girls who works the bird exhibit, I'd love to get inside someday and do some actual portraits of the birds.
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Mar 8, 2010 16:00
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Fists Up posted:I took this recently. Forgot what bird it is...Any help? Anyone in the Richmond, VA area needs to get his or her rear end to Pipeline Trail, downtown along the river. There are around 40 great blue heron nests in a concentrated area, and you can hardly turn around without bumping into them. They're everywhere. When you see four or five of them in the air at once they looking like loving pterodactyls, it's absolutely amazing. Took these with a rented 70-200/2.8 IS. In that first picture the white haze at head-level is gnats.    
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Jun 2, 2010 20:56
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Slo-Tek posted:Got eaten by a pelican today
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Jul 20, 2010 18:10
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Finally got a 70-200/2.8 IS, and it's everything I'd hoped it would be...except 280mm. Or maybe 400mm. I knew within an hour of getting it that my next purchase will have to be a teleconverter, probably a 1.4. I wish I had just a little bit more reach. Where's the bird, you ask? Top of the photo, center-right. I was already hanging my rear end out over the water to get this angle, I couldn't do any better without getting wet or scaring them both away. I never did get a good shot with both of them in the same picture, he stayed behind that bush and didn't come out until the beaver left.  But when he did come out, it was pretty cool. I live a block away from a park with a good number of herons (and a lot of beavers too, I'm noticing), it should be a pretty cool summer.
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May 5, 2011 18:13
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HPL posted:The problem with teleconverters and L-glass is that L-glass is so loving good that putting a TC on it brings it down enough that it's a bummer. That and AF slows down too so forget about tracking fast-moving birds.
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May 6, 2011 16:52
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Every spring, great blue herons come to roost along the James River here in downtown Richmond, VA. According to a guy I met yesterday, if you get there around 6:30am you can really get some good shots, but drat...6:30 in the morning. Haven't done that in a long time. They're normally pretty fidgety when you get close but this guy was really cooperative.  
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May 12, 2011 21:59
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I'm going on a boat tour tomorrow morning in an area that's supposed to have gobs of bald eagles. My longest lens is 70-200 so I decided to do it right and rent the Tamron 150-600, and I've been playing with it for the past few days. Jesus is it fun. IMG_6090 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6205 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6168 by elymt, on Flickr
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May 8, 2017 16:12
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Pablo Bluth posted:Renting lenses should be illegal under the same laws other addictive substances are. I used to be the happy owner of a Canon 100-400. I then rented a 500mm f4 for trip to Finland. After that I never felt the same love for the 100-400. I now own a (used) 500mm and sold the 100-400. As much fun as a superlong prime would be, I think I'd have a hard time with it. It took me the first half of the boat ride to figure out that hey, shooting 600mm at something that's only 100 feet away and moving fast is really, really difficult. I learned to back way off to like 400mm, figuring it's better to lose a tiny amount of detail than crop out a goddamn wing, which happened too many times.
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May 10, 2017 20:28
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:33 |
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There's a guy that runs a two-hour tour up the James River on his pontoon boat - he caters it to birdwatchers and photographers. There are about ten bald eagle nests along that stretch of the river and the dude knows every one of them backward and forward - how many chicks, which one's been taken over how many times, whatever you want to know. What I didn't expect was that for each bird we saw he'd toss out a fish, which in most cases initiated a dive. Which...I would worry if the birds landed on his drat shoulder or something, but they seemed to just be enjoying a free meal, I don't know what the ethics are on feeding wild birds. I rented a Tamron 150-600 and it was a ton of fun, I want one. Hard to use at 600 (no surprise) but nice as hell to have the option, especially being hand-holdable.  IMG_6769 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6679 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6473 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6899 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6903 by elymt, on Flickr  IMG_6876 by elymt, on Flickr
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May 10, 2017 20:40
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