Show your Bird Portraits

I love the 4th image ejenner! Exquisite!
ejenner said:
I guess this thread has developed from a 'portrait only' to include BIF. I'm stoked to be able to contribute, up until now 95% of my shots have been in the Denver Zoo, but this month I got a 7D primarily for shooting kids sports.

It may be the most expensive $850 I've ever spent because the 70-200 f4 IS is the longest lens I have. The last 3 were with a 1.4TC.

First one was taken a couple of years ago from a bedroom window. The others recently at Ferril lake in Downtown Denver.

#1. hawk? sorry my expertise is still minimal (EDIT: just found a picture, I think it might be a Young-ish Cooper's Hawk). T1i, 70-200 f4 IS @ 200mm f4 1/30s ISO400 (got lots of blurry shots)
#2 BCN Heron. 7D 70-200 f4 IS + 1.4TC I @ 280mm f5.6 1/6400s ISO:800
#3 American White Pelican f5.6 1/2500s ISO:400
#4 Snowy Egrets jostling for the prime spot, f5.6 1/1000s ISO:800 (probably had a polarizer on)

Still trying to figure out the best combination of shutter speed and ISO for BIF shots, but tending towards ISO:800 because with NR the noise is manageable and my tracking needs work.
 
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A few more shots of my heron fishing partner from today. I've neglected him for the past several days, but today he was patiently waiting for a long while on my chain link fence, so I caved. I've wasted several loaves of bread on him in the past week or so, but today he finally caught another fish. Word about the free food is getting out. Eight ducks swam up to us and consumed another loaf of my bread and interfered so much with the heron, he finally left.
 

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Since this thread started off as bird portraits, here's a family portrait.

Duck shots added too for the heck of it.

5D3 and 300mm 2.8 IS
 

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Serendipidy - thanks, maybe I'm not practised enough but I find birds in flight are so hard to do well. I wonder how many keepers the real professional guys get from a trip. No doubt they have a way higher hit rate but it would be nice to know they miss shots too!
 
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GuyF said:
Serendipidy - thanks, maybe I'm not practised enough but I find birds in flight are so hard to do well. I wonder how many keepers the real professional guys get from a trip. No doubt they have a way higher hit rate but it would be nice to know they miss shots too!

BIF are difficult to master...I'm still trying to learn how to do it well. Good equipment and practice is what I have deduced from this forum. Your shots are well on the way. :)
 
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TWI by Dustin Abbott said:
GuyF said:
Since this thread started off as bird portraits, here's a family portrait.

Duck shots added too for the heck of it.

5D3 and 300mm 2.8 IS

The lighting in the "family portrait" is exquisite. Very intimate

Thanks for the comment. I have to thank nature for the lighting, I just stood there and pressed a button!

The original image was a crop of the image below as I thought it maybe worked better.

Regards.
 

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