Post your best bird shots!

[Jayson]

Robin with an itch!

[ddt0725]

That is so cool. What a great shot. Is that with the new Sigma?

Thank you! No, that one was taken with the Canon 135mm.

[Joel Eade]

Nice Robin images Denise and Jayson!

We've has some rain and overcast here ... this is a wet Summer Tanager

1D MKIV
700mm
ISO 1600
f/5.6
1/250

[ddt0725]

Nice shot, Joel! Your lighting is spot on! Sure looks like you get pretty much every variety of songbirds in North America in your backyard! All I ever really get is cardinals, sparrows, finches and chickdees and the only ones with much color are the male cardinals and goldfinches!

[conropl]

A couple Blue Herons from a kayak trip this moring:


Blue Heron by westmichigan, on Flickr

I wish the legs were not cut off on this one, but it was unavoidable with the angle I was given. I posted it because I liked the way he puffed up his head feathers (it went punk rocker on me).


Blue Heron-3780 by westmichigan, on Flickr

[Kayaker72]

Ummm....WOW.....

Both are great but I especially like #1..great lighting and color.

[Joel Eade]

Nice shot, Joel! Your lighting is spot on! Sure looks like you get pretty much every variety of songbirds in North America in your backyard! All I ever really get is cardinals, sparrows, finches and chickdees and the only ones with much color are the male cardinals and goldfinches!

Thanks Denise, I have been consistently feeding them for several years and my house backs up against about 5 acres of woods and then farmland all around us so we have alot of wildlife close by.

[Joel Eade]

A couple Blue Herons from a kayak trip this moring:


Blue Heron by westmichigan, on Flickr

I wish the legs were not cut off on this one, but it was unavoidable with the angle I was given. I posted it because I liked the way he puffed up his head feathers (it went punk rocker on me).


Blue Heron-3780 by westmichigan, on Flickr

Very nice, I like the softer light on the 2nd one. They are both posing nice for you.....so often they seem to look away and you got a good head angle on both!

[conropl]

Brant and Joel:
Thank you. My wife and I saw a lot of Herons today, and it is nice that you can get a little closer without bothering them if you are in a kayak. But today was tough hand holding in choppy water. It took a lot of shots to get a good one.

Joel:
You are correct, the second one was in the early morning shade. So it was a more evenly lit. Unfortunatley, that meant the shutter speed was pretty slow. He kept grabbing one fish after another, but with a slow shutter I could not get a good shot (shot w/o motion blur) with a fish in his mouth. I got several, but he was moving to much.

[Joel Eade]

Brant and Joel:
Joel:
You are correct, the second one was in the early morning shade. So it was a more evenly lit. Unfortunatley, that meant the shutter speed was pretty slow. He kept grabbing one fish after another, but with a slow shutter I could not get a good shot (shot w/o motion blur) with a fish in his mouth. I got several, but he was moving to much.

I understand your dilemma....with a bird fishing right in front of me I would have had to try pushing the ISO way up to get enough shutter speed ... might not have worked in terms of getting too much noise but I am finding that for internet presentation and even small prints (4 X 6 ) I can get decent results even with ISO 0f 6400 as long as I am not underexposing. Some fill flash can help get you a little more shutter speed too but might be unweildy using a better beamer from a kayak