Post Your Best Nature Shots!

[EdN]

It's Blue Heron Time! Taken on Wednesday 5D MkII, 300mm F4L & 1.4X, ISO 400, around 1/1250s or 1/1600s, f/6.3 or f/7.1. All images cropped.


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[Bill W]

EdN....nice pics.


Approximately how far from the subjects were you when you took the pics?


I have a rookery nearby and I can't get any closer than 150 yards to the nesting site.....the trees are surrounded by water.


I didn't get any I'd want to post after cropping and enlarging and other various CS3 tweakings.


My equipment; 40D, 100-400IS, monopod.


Regards


Bill

[George Slusher]

Bill:


If you can, borrow a Canon 1.4x extender and try it out or get one on eBay--or new ($290 at B&H). You'll have to focus manually, but you'll get a bit closer (560mm). The 1.4x extender is pretty good, but the 2x is a disappointment. With the 40D, like my 30D, if you use the 1.4x extender, it will turn off autofocus, as the maximum aperture will then be f/8. (There is a way to bypass that by taping over certain contacts on the extender, but I haven't tried that.)


The first and second below (they are the same image) were taken with a 100-400mm L IS plus 1.4x extender on a Canon 30D (f/9, 1/400 sec, ISO 100). I had the lens sitting on a bean bag (the Kirk Fat Bag) on the roof of my car. I had my left hand & arm on top of the lens (good super-tele technique). IS was off, but it probably should have been on. (The 100-400mm L IS should be turned off if it's on a tripod.)


This is a 100% crop (i.e., you're seeing the actual pixels, not scaled) to 800 x 600. It is difficult to focus, as you can see, but it got me closer to the nesting osprey. (I posted other shots of this bird and its mate earlier in the thread.) A less-than-perfect shot is better than no shot at all.


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Now, here's what the original image looked like, though this has been scaled to 800 wide.


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Last, here's a similar shot without the extender (not cropped, but scaled to 800 wide) so you can see the difference in size.





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[EdN]

Bill W


I think I was around 100 yards or so at closest to the Heron nest. The nests are in trees that are on a downward slope so the closer you get, the farther up you have to shoot. Also, have to shoot south into the sun most of the time.


I also used a monopod on the static nest shot. The 1.4X is actually pretty good but finicky to use. Handholding to shoot is not recommended even at high shutter speeds like 1/1250s. I couldn't get sharp pictures until I used a monopod, spent a lot of effort finetuning the manual focus, and bracing myself before shooting.


Airborne shots were hand held using AI Servo which did a reasonable job focusing on the bird.

[Rodger]

I know this is "The Digital Picture.com" So Im tentative posting this shot taken with a Canon AV-1 50mm 1.8 lens lol. It doesn't compare with most of the bird pictures on here but this is my personal best.


Post processing includes: sharpening, colorcorrection, and removing part of a house from the lower left-hand corner. Any advice on making the spot where I took the house out look more natural is welcome. I used mostly the clone stamp with a large brush, hardness at 0% with a little bit of the healing brush to make it blend better.

[Colin]

Rodger, that shot is superb.

[Rodger]

Thanks Colin!


Notice thesquirreldeath trap on the middle feeder. It's a piece of wood with nails sticking out of it (invention of my grandpa). The squirrels don't bother him anymore.. haha

[Bill W]

EdN;


Thanks for the info on your shots...they're even more impressive at that distance and they increase my interest in a prime telephoto.


Here are 2 examples (I wouldn't post except to use as comparisons to yours) because though (IMHO) they're interesting action shots, they're too far away (about 150 yards), hence lacking detail. My equipment for pics; 40D, 100-400IS, monopod and cable release, pp in CS3, cropped and enlarged to about 80%....any larger and they really start to break down.














Thanks


Bill

[Jon Ruyle]

Bill-


Those are great.


I'm not sure a 400mm prime would have helped your sharpness that much, at least not the f/5.6. (I'm not basing that on experience, but rather by comparisons of 1-1 crops of the 100-400 with the 400 f/5.6 on this website, so take it for what its worth).


More focal length would help. []


Jon.

[EdN]

Bill W:


Those are excellent shots. I know how difficult it is to get good ones because the ones I posted were the result of 326 shots I took that morning. It's really difficult to get the focus bang on as the AF is easily distracted with peripheral objects around the subject and adjusting focus manually while squinting through a tiny viewfinder without a split prism requires patience. And when you do get the focus, you better be still or else the shot is blurred. That's where I discovered holding my breath and the monopod. Reach is also an issue that I could use more of any time. And the mood of the birds. I'm ready to go back once the weather gets better again.


Hope to see more of your shots posted.


Regards.