Show your Bird Portraits

[dolina]

Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) by Paolo Dolina, on Flickr

Thanks

OskarB
HenryL
jprusa
Maximilian
RGB49
becceric
tron
Click
AlanF
ISv

 

[Click]

Another beautiful shot. Keep posting Paolo.

 

[Lance vdv]

Blue Flycatcher, taken on our photo workshop in the Mara North Conservancy, Kenya

 

[Click]

Lovely Shot. Nicely done, Lance vdv.

 

[Lance vdv]

Lovely Shot. Nicely done, Lance vdv.

Thank you so much!

 

[AlanF]

I wasn't intending to do Swallows in flight today and had the R7 on the RF 100-500mm. The AF isn't as good as the R5 and I don't like a narrow field of view for very fast flying small birds. I zoomed out to 400mm, but still with a field of view of a 640mm on FF. Managed to get lots of shots though, showing the R7 is a pretty competent camera for BIF. @ISv can see this one is very light underneath.

 

[dolina]

I wasn't intending to do Swallows in flight today and had the R7 on the RF 100-500mm. The AF isn't as good as the R5 and I don't like a narrow field of view for very fast flying small birds. I zoomed out to 400mm, but still with a field of view of a 640mm on FF. Managed to get lots of shots though, showing the R7 is a pretty competent camera for BIF. @ISv can see this one is very light underneath.

View attachment 205275View attachment 205276

Alan is that using the Subject tracking and Eye control AF?

How is your keeper rate?

 

[dolina]

Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis) by Paolo Dolina, on Flickr

 

[AlanF]

Alan is that using the Subject tracking and Eye control AF?

How is your keeper rate?

I always use full screen with tracking and EyeAF for the R7 and R5 - keeping it simple. Acquiring focus and tracking these really fast small birds against a background is asking a lot of any AF. During the burst at 30 fps it strayed off in the middle. 30% maybe? In the air against the sky it's much higher and stays tracked.

 

[AlanF]

Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis) by Paolo Dolina, on Flickr

You have got me going! 10 years ago, I went on my first birding foreign trip, and it was in the Pantanal in Brazil with a great guide. Unfortunately, my lens was a soft copy of the original EF 100-400mm and it was on a 7D,and I was shooting only jpegs. So, stimulated by you I have gone back to them with the AI suite of Topaz, which has worked wonders on them. Here's a Grey-necked Rail.

 

[dolina]

I always use full screen with tracking and EyeAF for the R7 and R5 - keeping it simple. Acquiring focus and tracking these really fast small birds against a background is asking a lot of any AF. During the burst at 30 fps it strayed off in the middle. 30% maybe? In the air against the sky it's much higher and stays tracked.

View attachment 205277

That's awesome man. What was your previous EF body and how would you compare it to your R7 & R5 in that regard?

 

[dpc]

Cedar waxwing this morning. I added a bit of texturing just because.

 

[AlanF]

That's awesome man. What was your previous EF body and how would you compare it to your R7 & R5 in that regard?

My previous EF bodies were the 5DSR and 5DIV. I used the central 9 points for focus, and both acquired AF very fast and accurate. As long as I was fast enough to pan and keep the 9 points on them, they were great. (The Nikon D500 and D850 were even better and quite remarkable in group mode AF.) The big difference is that both the R5 and R7 will pick up and acquire AF if the bird is anywhere in the viewfinder and not just in the centre and will track to the edge if the lens allows it (the 800/11 focuses only in a central zone). The R5 will latch on before I even see the birds!

 

[dolina]

My previous EF bodies were the 5DSR and 5DIV. I used the central 9 points for focus, and both acquired AF very fast and accurate. As long as I was fast enough to pan and keep the 9 points on them, they were great. (The Nikon D500 and D850 were even better and quite remarkable in group mode AF.) The big difference is that both the R5 and R7 will pick up and acquire AF if the bird is anywhere in the viewfinder and not just in the centre and will track to the edge if the lens allows it (the 800/11 focuses only in a central zone). The R5 will latch on before I even see the birds!

On the strength of your observation I would have bought the R5 yesterday if I was still birding.

 

[AccipiterQ]

This is from one of the last birding trips I took before the birth of my daughter. I had no idea if I would still be getting out to birdwatch after she got here or not (I have been going just as much, it turns out, but at the time I wasn't sure). I wrote the following:

Before I headed up though I had one of my nicer birding experiences ever. I noticed parula in some low blooming trees calling, and then I heard the zee zee zo zo zee of a black-throated green, and realized it was RIGHT In front of me, maybe six feet? It dipped and jumped and hopped and foraged, taking a break every now and then to sing and mix its song in with the Parulas that were going. Completely oblivious to my presence, or just not caring. It hopped back a bit and I got some photos; prior to this it was too close to even focus on. Really though I just wanted to watch. I know that the birds don’t actually know how much we care about them, but I have made a concerted effort to get out a lot before the baby gets here, since I don’t want to miss any of your passing friends as they head north. Many of these birds we only get one chance per year to see, and you never know when your last time will be, so I stayed with the BTG as it foraged about in some of the small trees and bushes for quite some time. This tiny little heart in this tiny little bird carrying it across the world and up north. Safe travels my friend.

https://flic.kr/p/2ntNUBY

 

[dolina]

This is from one of the last birding trips I took before the birth of my daughter. I had no idea if I would still be getting out to birdwatch after she got here or not (I have been going just as much, it turns out, but at the time I wasn't sure). I wrote the following:

Before I headed up though I had one of my nicer birding experiences ever. I noticed parula in some low blooming trees calling, and then I heard the zee zee zo zo zee of a black-throated green, and realized it was RIGHT In front of me, maybe six feet? It dipped and jumped and hopped and foraged, taking a break every now and then to sing and mix its song in with the Parulas that were going. Completely oblivious to my presence, or just not caring. It hopped back a bit and I got some photos; prior to this it was too close to even focus on. Really though I just wanted to watch. I know that the birds don’t actually know how much we care about them, but I have made a concerted effort to get out a lot before the baby gets here, since I don’t want to miss any of your passing friends as they head north. Many of these birds we only get one chance per year to see, and you never know when your last time will be, so I stayed with the BTG as it foraged about in some of the small trees and bushes for quite some time. This tiny little heart in this tiny little bird carrying it across the world and up north. Safe travels my friend.

https://flic.kr/p/2ntNUBY

Did you attach your images using Bbcode or HTML?

 

[AlanF]

One more post of Barn Swallows. Yesterday, I had taken the R7, which is not my first choice for rapid BIF. This afternoon, I went back with the R5 + 100-500mm at the same time of day. It was definitely easier, and I got better shots. Here is one, and a gif of 28 shots from a 35 shot burst where in the middle I lost the bird as it was clipped by the edge of the frame but the tracking did not fail.

 

[Click]

Alan, you're the king of the gif. Well done.

 

[dolina]

Naked-faced Spiderhunter (Arachnothera clarae) by Paolo Dolina, on Flickr


Thanks

tron
jprusa
shire_guy
OskarB
dpc
AlanF
Click

 

[Click]

Another lovely shot. Nicely done, Paolo.