Show your Bird Portraits

A week ago I noticed reports for the presence of Ring-Necked Duck on Oahu. Today I went there and I found her (female)!
Last year in December there was a report (from a tourist!) for the same species and I rushed there to see it - just to find an sub-adult Great Scaup! Disappointment! Not because the Scaups are common around but is seems the Ring-Necked is more rare and I already had a photos of both Scaups!
First two photos are of the Greater Scaup (to separate them from the Lesser Scaups you need the birds very relaxed (dpc?)!
After that the Ring-necked Duck! I have no idea how you can miss-ID a Lesser Scaup for a Ring-Necked Duck (adults I mean!)?! They are similar but from some shorter (depends on the lens but for 500mm I think even ~100 meters are OK!) distance it's very easy to ID!
After that just stuffing!


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A winter-plumage Slavonian (horned) grebe, taken yesterday. I'm still processing on-camera and in-phone so things like sharpening and noise are less finely controlled (especially compared to some power users of this forum!).

R6, RF 800 f/11, RF 2x extender. Handheld, 1600mm 1/800s, f/22, ISO 3200.

2Y0A2770.jpeg
 
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A winter-plumage Slavonian (horned) grebe, taken yesterday. I'm still processing on-camera and in-phone so things like sharpening and noise are less finely controlled (especially compared to some power users of this forum!).

R6, RF 800 f/11, RF 2x extender. Handheld, 1600mm 1/800s, f/22, ISO 3200.

View attachment 212775
Interesting bird.
 
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As I was waiting for the RF 200-800mm announcement, I went to a local park to have some fun with the 6D and my very old EF 70-300mm IS USM (Mark I). I know the lens is generally not the sharpest, but I think my copy is even a tad softer. Still, I do get some pictures I am satisfied with here and there.

IMG_8455.jpeg
 
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As I was waiting for the RF 200-800mm announcement, I went to a local park to have some fun with the 6D and my very old EF 70-300mm IS USM (Mark I). I know the lens is generally not the sharpest, but I think my copy is even a tad softer. Still, I do get some pictures I am satisfied with here and there.

View attachment 212789
Good shot and it looks sharp enough too me.
 
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Good shot and it looks sharp enough too me.
Thank you, Eric. Sharp enough is exactly what the picture is. I had to stop down to f/9 to get decently sharp pictures, but in all fairness, the low mp count of the 6D and me being focal length limited did not help. When the longest focal length isn’t enough, I try to capture so-called environmental portraits, which is what I consider this picture to be.
 
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Thank you, Eric. Sharp enough is exactly what the picture is. I had to stop down to f/9 to get decently sharp pictures, but in all fairness, the low mp count of the 6D and me being focal length limited did not help. When the longest focal length isn’t enough, I try to capture so-called environmental portraits, which is what I consider this picture to be.
It's exactly what we have to do sometimes. I was using the first non-L 70-300mm is and many of my photos look out of focus not only because it's was not particularly a sharp lens, but also my particular copy had a tendency to autofocus closer than it should have. I don't really understand the technical reasons or how I should have achieved correct focus with that lens (aside from focusing manually which was not possible for me with a dslr because have something like +7 eyesight and it changes a bit nearly as soon as I buy a new set of glasses). I found and posted a couple examples last year.
Without a doubt, your solution produces better photographs.
 
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Nice to get a clear, fairly close view of a redwing yesterday; sadly by this point I'd lost the light so was pushing the settings.

R6, RF 800 f/11. Handheld, 800mm, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 6400.

View attachment 212809
This ones quite impressive! For those people that doubt the usefulness of F/11, it displays a definite feeling of depth with out of focus foreground, in focus subject and surrounding lichen/ branches, out of focus background and an amazingly smooth distant blur.
 
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