Post Your Best Nature Shots!

Here are a few of my macro master pieces! Taken with a Minolta 50mm f/1.7 with and withouta 12mm ext tube. No post processing other than sharpening and resizing was done.


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Any comments are verywelcomed.


John.

Here is a hummingbird that visited a feeder in my backyard last month.


5D2 + 70-200/2.8L IS @ 200mm @ 1/250s @ f/8 @ ISO 100, manual flash.


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And here is a 100% crop, showing the feather detail around the head.


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Great work! If I could add anything I might add a little satruration, but mabye not. You could give it a try.


Overall love the pose, cachlight, background, eye contact,just a great shot. Keep up the good work.


John

Those aregreat wickerprints! Focus was spot on by the looks of things and that bokeh is delicious.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fast Glass

Great work! If I could add anything I might add a little satruration, but mabye not. You could give it a try.

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I think the saturation is perfect - looks very natural. Might need to calibrate your monitor John [;)] I have noticed in a couple of your shots that the greens are highly saturated. Then again, I'm at work sothismonitor might not be perfect either.


Keep up the good work.

Sometimes I like my pictures very saturated, but not all the time depends on the shot. How bokeh taste anyway?![:P]


John.

Thanks for the compliments... here are some more I took. It was a learning process to get the shots set up just right. Now if I had the EF 300/4L IS, I could probably get the bird in the frame without needing to crop... They're a lot of fun to shoot!


5D2 + 70-200/2.8L IS @ 200mm @ 1/200s @ f/8 @ ISO 160, manual flash. I think I set my flash-to-ambient ratio a little too high--he was approaching the feeder and when the flash went off, he clearly startled. At one point he came right up to me to investigate, hovered almost belligerently just a few feet away, then buzzed off. This one guarded the feeder jealously, chasing away all the other hummingbirds that dared to take a sip.


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Here is a 100% crop from the same image. He looks a bit disheveled because he'd been fighting off the competition all day.


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Some days later, I think I got more shots of the same bird, though I honestly can't be sure since I can't really tell them apart. But he behaved in the same territorial fashion. 5D2 + 70-200/2.8L IS @ 200mm @ 1/160s @ f/6.3 @ ISO 160, manual flash. By now I figured out how to get close enough to them to shoot near MFD. This time I got better exposure but the lighting direction wasn't as flattering. If I could just get my flash off camera and use an umbrella, this would be SOOO much better.


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And again, here's a 100% crop. You can just make out the tip of his tongue [:P] Makes me wish I lived in an area where other, more colorful hummingbird species are known to visit. I'd have a field day!


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Thanks again for looking [:D]

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I am having a tough time setting the image dimensions without warping the image =p[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.33.50/IMG_5F00_5504a.jpg[/img]

Wickerprints;


Nice captures of the HB.


I've tried a few captures w/a flash, but I wash out their eye and need to do quite a bit of PSing to bring the eye back.


What do you do to avoid over exposing the eye with "catch light"?


40D, 100-400 IS are what I use and sometimes the 580EX ll.


Regards


Bill

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Savannah Sparrow


40D & 500 f/4L IS, f/4, 1/2500, ISO 200


Thanks for viewing [:)] and commenting [:)]http://www.pscvn.org/members/308/10-...2-05-51_AM.jpg