Show your Bird Portraits

[Northstar]

California Brown Pelican taken with a Canon 7D, 70-200 2.8 IS II, 580 EX II flash and a Better Beamer flash extender, 1/1600th at 2.8 with flash on high speed sync. 

Sadly, my whole bag of gear was stolen shortly after this with almost $18,000 lost and no insurance.  I had sold everything to buy a sailboat and do an adventure travel show from LA to Australia over 6 months and shoot a ton of still as well.  The theft kind of killed my budget and after a few more setbacks, I had to bail on the trip.  Anyone want to buy a boat?

Still don't have another camera and almost throw up when I think of my gear, see shots I want to take or people with their cameras. So pretty much constantly.  Protect your gear and make sure you have proper insurance when traveling.

Sheldon (Jon) Charron

John...sorry to hear that news...I feel for ya.   I'm going to take your advice about the insurance.  Thx.

[extremeinstability]

There's some seriously crazy stuff in here!  That Heron with the squirrel, what the hell lol.  And the Cormorant with the too big Pike. 

I'm not a birder at all, but have spent too much time and money trying to get eagle vs goose shots, as well as just tons of geese stuff.

Rented 600mm + 1.4x on my old XSi(great combo I know lol).  400 ISO 1/1250th F5.6  This eagle was cool as hell.  Had two different colored eyes.  It was pretty hard to watch them take live geese but it made me really really want close shots of it at the same time.  All I got of live action was small crop sorta stuff.  Threw a grand of rental time at it in 2009 with that rental.  Wasn't worth it in the end. 



In 2010 tried the eagle vs goose idea again but with a rented 800mm this time.  Another chunk of change for shots that didn't happen.  A person would pretty much need open access to go anywhere in the refuge(Squaw Creek NWR) since they all love to be out in the middle(sticking a 1.4x or 2x on that 800mm in the cold and shooting so level/across the ground...was highly pointless thanks to air compression and heatwave distortions).  In 2009 that time I drove the 2hr there and 2hr back deal 11 out of 22 days trying.  But anyway, mostly just came away with some telephoto geese stuff in 2010 with the 800. Rented a 7D with it that time.  Eagle counts just largely sucked.  Some geese poo.....


The best show there really isn't portrait related but absurdity related for geese numbers in the over 1 million range...  I'd just click this one as it's screen saver size to get some idea.  http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/bg-f8658.jpg  And that's nothing.  That goes left and right of that a good ways like that.  Probably not many other locations on the planet where you can get 1.4 million birds crammed into this small of an area of water. 

Birds isn't what I do really, but there have been some cool sights at that refuge over the years and who knows how many drives there.  http://www.extremeinstability.com/birds.htm

[LSV]

I wanted to share an article with great birds pictures: http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2012/10/18/bob_croslin_photographs_injured_birds_as_if_they_were_human_models.html

[GuyF]

All shots: 40D and 300mm f2.8 IS mk1.

During a falconry display there were 3 or 4 gulls mobbing the eagle which didn't seem to get too stressed. The shot kinda makes it look like a well-trained stunt team 

The shot of the cygnet was just dumb luck - hey look ma! I can wheelie!

Guy...fantastic shots.   Really like the second and third..in the second, it looks like the eagle is about to catch the gull, did it?

Hi Northstar,

The strange thing about the eagle getting mobbed was I thought it would fight back in some way. You'd think the gulls would realise you should avoid anything with a hooked beak and talons the size of your head! The eagle just seemed to ignore them. I spoke to the handler about it and he said the eagle will get stressed if the mobbing goes on too long. I asked if it ever fought back but apparently not. The handler did mention that it can get quite exciting for spectators (especially children!) when one of his raptors decides to pluck a smaller bird out of the air and start feeding on it. Hey kids! Nature in action!

For the third shot I had to airbrush out the crummy perch it had just taken off from. The metal stand covered in fake grass looked dreadful. Things aren't helped by the bland background - Scottish skies in August are often fully clouded over. 

Some more shots attached:

[dave]

A couple from around Australia's Northern Territory:

[rpt]

A couple from around Australia's Northern Territory:

Lovely pictures dave. What did you shoot them with?

[dave]

A couple from around Australia's Northern Territory:

Lovely pictures dave. What did you shoot them with?

Thanks!

They are a year or so old, so I think a 550D/T2i

First one was a 70-200 f4 non is

The other two were with the 400mm 5.6 prime - great lens for the price, but large minimum focus distance and slow aperture combine to make it fairly challenging to use. Fortunately in the tropics here, there are plenty of birds for practice.

[rpt]

A couple from around Australia's Northern Territory:

Lovely pictures dave. What did you shoot them with?

Thanks!

They are a year or so old, so I think a 550D/T2i

First one was a 70-200 f4 non is

The other two were with the 400mm 5.6 prime - great lens for the price, but large minimum focus distance and slow aperture combine to make it fairly challenging to use. Fortunately in the tropics here, there are plenty of birds for practice.

Thanks. We have the bee eaters here in India too. The tails here seem to be longer...

[LSV]

Osprey showing off a striped mullet

[Sad_Dave]

Well i don't have all your lenses and stuff but made some shots too.
Anyway after looking at allthese beautyful brirds i know i have to spend mor time outdoors.
Thanks all.

[rpt]

LSV, Sad_Dave, lovely photographs. Could you share shooting details, camera, lens, settings etc?
Both the Osprey and the Eagle look magnificent.

[LSV]

rpt, thanks. I used a 60D and EF 100-400mm, Aperture priority f/8.0, 400mm, 1/500s, ISO auto 200. I still only shoot in Jpeg, a little embarassing, but I'm a beginner and too lazy to deal with RAW.

Here's another one, heavily cropped, same settings except ISO 320.

[Northstar]

All shots: 40D and 300mm f2.8 IS mk1.

During a falconry display there were 3 or 4 gulls mobbing the eagle which didn't seem to get too stressed. The shot kinda makes it look like a well-trained stunt team 

The shot of the cygnet was just dumb luck - hey look ma! I can wheelie!

Guy...fantastic shots.   Really like the second and third..in the second, it looks like the eagle is about to catch the gull, did it?

Hi Northstar,

The strange thing about the eagle getting mobbed was I thought it would fight back in some way. You'd think the gulls would realise you should avoid anything with a hooked beak and talons the size of your head! The eagle just seemed to ignore them. I spoke to the handler about it and he said the eagle will get stressed if the mobbing goes on too long. I asked if it ever fought back but apparently not. The handler did mention that it can get quite exciting for spectators (especially children!) when one of his raptors decides to pluck a smaller bird out of the air and start feeding on it. Hey kids! Nature in action!

For the third shot I had to airbrush out the crummy perch it had just taken off from. The metal stand covered in fake grass looked dreadful. Things aren't helped by the bland background - Scottish skies in August are often fully clouded over. 

Some more shots attached:

nice shots Guy....have you tried the 300 2.8 w/ 2x extender?

[Northstar]

Osprey showing off a striped mullet

very nice lsv!

[revup67]

After a two hour hunt, I fel very fortunate to get this male and female perched. Fell in a swamp and trapesed around for awhile until they were within reach...just wonderful


Two Bald Eagles (Male and Female Adults) - Manasquan Reservoir, NJ by Revup67, on Flickr