Post your best bird shots!

[Dave Throgmartin]

Song bird in flight pictures are tough, but here are a couple. Both are taken with 60D, 70-200 f/4 L USM, and EF 1.4x II teleconverter.

European Starling


2013_02_03_3133_upd by dthrog00, on Flickr

Sparrow


2013_02_03_3107_upd by dthrog00, on Flickr

Thanks for viewing.

Dave

[Joel Eade]

Song bird in flight pictures are tough, but here are a couple. Both are taken with 60D, 70-200 f/4 L USM, and EF 1.4x II teleconverter.
Dave

You are so right....I have tried it in my set up before, very very difficult. They are small and move very fast with unpredictable flight paths usually. Plus, in my yard, there is no way to see them coming from a distance. That makes it double tough to acquire focus. I might try this spring with a remote trigger and multiple flashes, sort of like hummingbird shots. I have seen some images like this and they are impressive when you get it right.

[canonclix]

+1 Thanks for sharing the great shots! Over the last few days, I spent several hours trying the same thing...and didn't end up with anything nearly that nice Dave.

Joel - I am always in awe of your photos too, I was curious if you would share how close (physically) you are to the birds like the blue bird for example. Of course, I understand if you prefer not sharing any secret recipes!

Thanks, Brian

[Joel Eade]

+1 Thanks for sharing the great shots! Over the last few days, I spent several hours trying the same thing...and didn't end up with anything nearly that nice Dave.

Joel - I am always in awe of your photos too, I was curious if you would share how close (physically) you are to the birds like the blue bird for example. Of course, I understand if you prefer not sharing any secret recipes!

Thanks, Brian

Thanks Brian, appreciate the kind words. I have no big secrets however. I actually wrote a detailed tutorial here on this site explaining my set up with text and pictures. The shots I took in the last few days are from around 15 to 20 feet from the subject. I stay hidden with a camo blind and try not to move the lens around very much and when necessary I move very very slowly. Generally birds are extremely sensitive to sudden motion and will instantly flee in many cases, some are more tolerant than others. See if you can find my tutorial.

[Joel Eade]

Brian here is the link to the tutorial

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/P...etup-Tips.aspx

[Dave Throgmartin]

The starling isn't in perfect focus, but I was thrilled with the sparrow shot. Both of those are the bird taking off from my perch. They land and take off fairly regularly so I tried some shots anticipating when they'd leave. Those two worked one. Many others did not!

Dave

[canonclix]

Thanks again for the helpful information and the great tutorial. I suspected that you were able to get fairly close. This is an example of one from the weekend - I am trying to decide if 600mm would provide the framing I like (I borrowed a 400mm and added a 1.4x for this shot - 560mm). The camera was probably about 12ft from the bird - and I still felt it needed to be cropped.

This is the version with cropping and minor LR and NIK adjustments.

[Dave Throgmartin]

Fantastic dark-eyed junco!

I have a perch setup and take pictures through glass that overlooks the deck. I haven't found the glass to soften the image.

Dave

[Joel Eade]

Thanks again for the helpful information and the great tutorial. I suspected that you were able to get fairly close. This is an example of one from the weekend - I am trying to decide if 600mm would provide the framing I like (I borrowed a 400mm and added a 1.4x for this shot - 560mm). The camera was probably about 12ft from the bird - and I still felt it needed to be cropped.

This is the version with cropping and minor LR and NIK adjustments.

I can tell you that when it comes to birds, more focal length is better in almost all cases. Getting closer is better as well. In this case you will notice that even though you had to crop a little the image quality did not suffer....that's what more focal length and getting close will do!

I think what it boils down to is that the longer focal length combined with close proximity gets you more pixels on the subject and hence better IQ. I would love to have the version 600mm. I think that lens with the option of using teleconverters is probably the best and most verstile kit for bird photography that you could have....it's very pricey however

[Dave Throgmartin]

Here's one of a juvenile bald eagle attempting to take a fish away from a sea gull. Notice the US flag in the background. (note the eagle did not succeed)


2013_02_09_3145_upd by dthrog00, on Flickr

Thanks for viewing.

Dave