Post your best bird shots!

So a duck (it looks like a male) and 6 little ducklings have taken up residence in my street, wandering around the gardens of a few neighbours. Yesterday they were on my front lawn, so I turned on the sprinkler for them, they had a great time mucking about in the mud-pool it created, and I had a great time capturing some of the action.


Then I had the idea to set my camera up on my gorillapod close to the ground, get out the RC-6 remote-control, and throw bits of bread just in front of the lens (alternatively Samyang 35/1.4 and 15-85)


This morning they were back, on my back lawn, so i set it up again, but this time did half with 15-85, and the other half with my new Lensbaby Plastic Optic (at f/5.6, with 0.42x WA adapter). had the TC-80N3 attached so just let fly with HSC.


This is my first-browse favourite photo, shrunk camera-jpg until i get to raw-processing and get more up (i'm a few months behind):


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Daddy beating the kids to getting the next bit of bread.

That is so cool!

Woo, thanks. Got a few more that look a bit better, gonna play with raw-converting and messing with the colours later (like more saturation, it is a lensbaby after all.
meanwhile, here's my morning's work, first attempts at focus stacking, one of the first shots with the 70-300. Focussed 3 shots individually on the front and back group, and the daddy.


Main problem was that they (and I) slightly shifted in between, so they don't quite line up, really noticeable at 50% where i've had to put in a blurrier bit to cover the fact the ducks shifted (or just have whitespace). Not much else I can do about it except hand-painting (or take more shots).


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.


Unfortunately, i'm not going to get any more shots of them looking all peaceful again. After 2 days of bread appearing in front of the camera, i've Pavloved them (if that's not a word it is now) so now they equate camera with food, as soon as they see me carrying it they come running...

And why not, a cute little one after playing in the sprinkler. 7D+70-300L


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Great Blue Heron


1D3


420mm


iso 1000


1/1600


f/4.5


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Excelent shots Joel!


My favorites are the second duck shot and the Heron.


I was wondering, how much do you use FPS and lighting fast AF for your backyard setup? If there are times when you don

Thanks John,


I don

Can

Another Mallard from my outing last weekend.....


1D3


300mm2.8L +1.4 TC


Manual mode


iso 1600


f/4


1/100


580 EXII + Better Beamer at -2 1/3 stops ETTL





[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/8463.343V8911.jpg[/img]

Another Mallard from my outing last weekend.....


1D3


300mm2.8L +1.4 TC


Manual mode


iso 1600


f/4


1/100


580 EXII + Better Beamer at -2 1/3 stops ETTL





[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/8463.343V8911.jpg[/img]