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





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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





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Kingfisher


This is a very large crop but it is my first image of this species....it was fishing in a small lake close to my home but while I was there it never got very close


1D3


420mm


1/2000


f/5.0


iso 1000


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Nice Kingfisher shot. Ive been trying to get a good photo of one of them for a long time and have yet to accomplish it. They are very difficult birds to photograph, very skittish and never sit still long.

Since I just posted to the Zoo thread, I figured I'd put this pic here. It's my favorite bird (and zoo) shot from a couple of years ago. I check "bird shot" off my list after this one. It's from the Southwick Zoo, somewhere around Boston.


XSi 24-105 F4L @ 70mm 1/60" f4 ISO320


http://jimslamepics.smugmug.com/Webs...b/0/L/78-L.jpg

Beautiful bird and interesting preening pose, well done Jim. You managed a natural background which almost seems impossible in a Zoo for me!

Back lit Great Blue Heron at sunset.....


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1D3 420mm ISO 1000 1/2000 f/5.0





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Joel, You just raised the bar another three notches----Dang you--:) Gorgeous shot.

I put some natural perches up today. All that came by my feeders were chickadees. I liked the composition on this one, but some camera-shake is evident when viewed at higher magnifications. Canon 40D, 400mm f5.6 (@f6.3), 1/500s, iso 320, manual flash on full power.


http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6238/...abc253be_z.jpg

This page has all great shots. I love the detail that we get to see on this thread. It kinda shows me what my camera is capable of producing... hopefully some day I can manage to get shots like these.

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Wow great shots everyone.


Joel - +1 for stunning shots


Jim - love the pose too and specular highlights


dsiegel and adrian - great profile poses.

Fantastic shots everyone!! I can see why I rarely post in this thread anymore!


This one definitely isn't in the skill level shown above but it's not too bad for being quite a crop ...





http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6215/...cd363a01_z.jpg

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Originally Posted by ddt0725

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Really nice Denise. The light is gorgeous! Close to the "Golden Hour"?

Love the details and pose, looks great even though you say it was a large crop....well done Denise!

40D


700mm


iso 500


1/160


f/5.6


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There's no way i'm going to compete with all of these shots that have been coming up lately, way too stunning for me.


So instead i'm now being silly:


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damn, animated .gifs don

That lens baby is a cool effect, neat idea!

!D3


500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC


Hand held from my vehicle window


iso 1000


f/7.1


1/200


no flash but probably needed it, very overcast here today so the contrast was not as good as possible with better light.


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Back yard, gloomy day but had to try out the 500 f/4 anyway


1D3


500mm f/4L + 1.4TC + tripod with wimberly head


1/60


f/5.6<span style="white-space: pre;"]


<span style="white-space: pre;"]ISO 500


580 EX II + Better beamer ETTL @ -2 1/3


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That 500mm has some nice background blur on it. I

Joel - The detail you can get is amazing. The seperation from the background on the Morning Dove is cool.

Joel, no doubt it

Great work as usual Joel, love that dove shot, congrats on the lens.


Steve

Thanks to all for looking and commenting....I am very happy so far with the 500....got it from Adorama and it is pristine.


JJ, you

Just a test upload:

http://rwilliamsimaging.com/img/s2/v1/p375036360-4.jpg

Hmm, 800 may be a little wide for the new format?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bob williams

Hmm, 800 may be a little wide for the new format?

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Yes it does need a horizontal scroll bar now. Perhaps 640p wide? Would be nice for the Flickr users among us;)
Ps: nice shot with great detail!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sheiky

Yes it does need a horizontal scroll bar now. Perhaps 640p wide? Would be nice for the Flickr users among us;)
Ps: nice shot with great detail!

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Thanks Sheiky---640 sounds about right