Post your best bird shots!

[Joel Eade]

[QUOTE=JJphoto;71326]@Joel, this 2XTC III does seem work very well, did u crop this shot? u make me thinking get one!
QUOTE]

It is cropped slightly... I removed maybe 20-30% of the original frame. The 2X TCIII does provide much improved IQ compared to the old version. It requires really good light so you can stop down some for optimum performance.

[Joel Eade]

Young Wood Duck Drake

1D MKIV
500mm
ISO 800
f/4
1/2000

[ddt0725]

All those shots are great Bob and lucky, lucky you to get a shot of a rare find!!

[bob williams]

Young Wood Duck Drake

Joel, Stop it--your killin me---wellll, just a little. Another super shot.

I have gotten to where I really like these "up close and personal" bird portraits. There is just something about them that zings---and this one is no different. It Zings.

[Steve U]

Gorgeous duck Joel.
Nice series Bob, another vote for that trendy quail from me, like the fascinator on the head, must be going to the races.

[conropl]

Young Wood Duck Drake

1D MKIV
500mm
ISO 800
f/4
1/2000

That Wood Duck is great, but the reflection of the eye in the water really pushes it to the extreem. Wow!

[Joel Eade]

Thanks Bob, Steve and Pat ... I do enjoy making "close up" portraits of the birds and we arrived at McNeeley Lake for the last "golden" hour of daylight which really helped.

[bob williams]

Wow, 4 days since anyone has posted in Birds; that must be a record---what did you guys do with your weekend? As for me, the bride and I took a trip to the mountains for some R&R and a little picture takeing in hopes of finding some bear, elk, dear etc. During our search for the big game, I kept seeing this blue bird with a black head and crest flying around, I had never seen this bird before but found him very ineteresting and photogenic---if I could only get cloes enough for a shot. As things would have it, We saw lots of elk and a couple of very big bulls, but....... by the time we saw them, they saw us and the shot was gone. No bears, and only a couple of deer. So, Last night I was packing up the truck for the trip home and I was somewhat dissapointed becuase I couldn't return home with a single shot of wildlife. So, I decided to try and call in this bird I had been seeing throughout the trip. Just outside my cabin, I pulled out the smart phone with I-Bird on it and hooked up an external speaker and and began to call him in. Almost immediately he came to a nearby pine tree, and made several passes near the speaker I had set up. Well, This motivated me to set up my gear and see if I could get a shot or two. As luck would have it, Once I set up my camera, all the birds went quiet. But, I endured and called for almost two hours, and just about the time I was ready to give up, guess who shows up?

Steller's Jay
7d, 500, flash and better beamer
ISO 400, 1/250th, f9
and a little ps work to remove branches, etc

[Joel Eade]

Gorgeous Bob! Cool lookin' bird, I have never seen one. I did not work on birds this weekend ... it is so hot and humid here now it's not much fun sitting outside and actually the bird activity drops off as well. We do have a nesting pair of Northern Cardinals in a Japanese Maple right in our living room window but they are up high and very concealed by foilage. We are watching them come and go ... don't think eggs have hatched yet. We have a few Ruby Throats coming to our feeders but I have been too lazy to set uo for them yet. I am going to Louisville tomorrow to help my friend shoot a summer basketball camp sponsored by Rijon Rondo. Nice to see you had weekend getaway with your "better half"....tell her I said Hi!

[bob williams]

Thanks Joel, It was a lot of fun actually calling him in---Thanks for the tips and the coaching. Good luck with basketball camp, that sounds like fun as well. Let us know how it goes.