Show your Bird Portraits

[Jack Douglas]

Hi All,

Looking for a little feedback. I have a solution looking for a problem. I think this newly designed treepod will be very useful but at this moment I don't have a lens foot for my 300 F2.8 II. Do any of you have any advice before I order one from Jobu and also what do you think of this treepod idea?

As a much younger person I always dreamed of remote shooting from up in a tree but now I'm too old to shinny up a tree :'( Still the 6D WiFi leaves me with some possibilities.

The treepod has pretty fair leveling associated with strapping it to the tree and I designed a cup level to fine tune. Its arm has limited swing so that it's possible to get about 320 degree shots depending on the size of the tree trunk. More arm swing and it puts too much twist on the base and it shifts position (previous base design of some considerable hours thown away!). It's very rigid. However, with body weight bulling down the tree bark will give slightly but I don't think it's enough to respond to the weight of the lens and camera. The base can be inverted to allow for the opposite tree slope.

If you have any links to suggest, relating to similar (mis)adventures that would be great too. I'm returning to birding and wildlife from long ago with my Canon F1 and loving it.

Jack

 

[Click]

Thanks Jack for this good idea.

 

[Mr Bean]

Mr Bean and wopbv4,

Beautiful shots of two lovely birds. Well done.

Thanks Serendipidy. I must admit, looking at the splendid images posted in this thread (over the past few months for me at least) has certainly inspired me to go out and give it a go. With half decent equipment, a good mono pod and hours of standing....waiting....waiting.... it can pay off

 

[Mr Bean]

Eastern Spine bill....again. Sorry
But once the Correas finish flowering, he's off. This afternoon, both he and I managed to position ourselves better. No annoying twigs to get in the way. At the time of the pic, he was happily banging out a song, hence the open beak.
5D3 with 300mm f4 + 1.4x TC III. This time, with the help of a winter sun, I could stop down half a stop, which helped with the DOF. I find the 1.4x TC can take the edge off the sharpness (or affect the focus) just slightly. Stopping down even half a stop makes a difference.

 

[serendipidy]

Eastern Spine bill....again. Sorry
But once the Correas finish flowering, he's off. This afternoon, both he and I managed to position ourselves better. No annoying twigs to get in the way. At the time of the pic, he was happily banging out a song, hence the open beak.
5D3 with 300mm f4 + 1.4x TC III. This time, with the help of a winter sun, I could stop down half a stop, which helped with the DOF. I find the 1.4x TC can take the edge off the sharpness (or affect the focus) just slightly. Stopping down even half a stop makes a difference.

Another great shot...I like both of them

 

[DJD]

The portrait as envisioned by the pigeon when he commissioned the work...

The portrait as delivered by the hipster street photographer claiming to be a portrait artist.

Just a little humor.
Cheers,
DJD

 

[Click]

Eastern Spine bill....again. Sorry

Great shot Mr Bean.

 

[Mr Bean]

Thanks Serendipidy and Click

 

[amirosama]

Oriental Honey Buzzard
5DIII | 700mm | 1/1600s | F5.6 | ISO-500

 

[Krob78]

Oriental Honey Buzzard
5DIII | 700mm | 1/1600s | F5.6 | ISO-500

Nice images Amirosama! I love seeing Raptors that we don't have here in Florida! Thanks for posting!

 

[Krob78]

Practiced BIF again this afternoon. From advice I've received here, my capture/keeper rate is getter better. 7D, 70-200L f/2.8ii @ 125mm, 1/1250sec, f/5.6, handheld.

Wow! Like night and day from just a few weeks back! Great job Serendipity! These images stand out! Now to find this bird a nice lake background! Keep up the great work and congratulations!

 

[Krob78]

Eastern Spine Bill.
This ones been gorging on the Correas that are in flower in my backyard (note the yellow pollen on the beak).
5D3 with 300mm f4 + 1.4x TC

Fantastic image Mr. Bean! Outstanding!

 

[Krob78]

Thank you AmbientLight for your kind advice. I think you are right about FF since I was having a lot of trouble with the 7D obtaining focus and also keeping the whole bird in the frame. One day I hope to upgrade to the 5D3 or something similar in the future.

What lens are you using? I use a 70-300L with a 7D for birds in flight and would just use less zoom than buy a new full frame body. The auto focus of the 7D is more than adequate for sharp birds in flight when used with a fast enough shutter speed. If birds are flying laterally, it's hard to get a high percentage of keepers, but with the 7D's frames/second, you should get some. Do you use back button focus in servo? That change helped my "keep" rate a lot.

Hi CT John,

I started out using my 100-400L but I was usually shooting in the late afternoon and often it is overcast and cloudy then. The light was not bright and so I had low shutter speed and large apertures to keep ISO <800. The focus and IS on the 100-400 was not great. So I started using my recently purchased 70-200L f/2.8 ii for the f/2.8 focusing speed. I also was often too high on the focal range on the 400mm and the 200mm made me not zoom in so much which helped like you suggested. I have never tried back button focus (I'm an old guy who is very timid or slow to try new things) but I know I should learn that technique. Also, I need to practice panning skills. The heron was flying both laterally and towards me at the same time. I was using AI servo, expanded or manual select center zone AF, high speed continuous shutter, and AI Servo tracking sensitivity on "slow". Are those the correct settings to use? Thanks everyone for any advice.

Those settings look fine - I use auto select for auto focus most of the time, and my Servo tracking sensitivity on normal....not sure it that makes a lot of difference. I would recommend trying back button focusing because I think it's easier to keep that depressed while panning rather than half depressing the shutter release button.

AI Servo tracking on slow or "1" does make a difference. It enables the AF system to track the bird more efficiently and to ignore things that may pop into view or slight alterations in course. Auto select for BIF usually results in less keepers with my findings after 3 years with my 7D. Back button focus is excellent as I've suggested previously.

Also, I've found that once I MFA'd my 100-400mm the sharpness and accuracy went through the roof! Have you MFA'd you're lenses yet Serendipity? It made mine like getting a brand new lens for about an hours worth of work...

 

[2n10]

California Gull
7D, EF 70-300mm at 300mm, F8

 

[andres5d3]

5DIII & 70-200mm II + 1.4x III

 

[Click]

Oriental Honey Buzzard
5DIII | 700mm | 1/1600s | F5.6 | ISO-500

Great shots amirosama 8) I just love your BIF pictures. Well done.

 

[2n10]

Practiced BIF again this afternoon. From advice I've received here, my capture/keeper rate is getter better. 7D, 70-200L f/2.8ii @ 125mm, 1/1250sec, f/5.6, handheld.

Wow! Like night and day from just a few weeks back! Great job Serendipity! These images stand out! Now to find this bird a nice lake background! Keep up the great work and congratulations!

Bump your shutter speed to 1/2000 or 1/2500 and you should get even more keepers.

 

[serendipidy]

Practiced BIF again this afternoon. From advice I've received here, my capture/keeper rate is getter better. 7D, 70-200L f/2.8ii @ 125mm, 1/1250sec, f/5.6, handheld.

Wow! Like night and day from just a few weeks back! Great job Serendipity! These images stand out! Now to find this bird a nice lake background! Keep up the great work and congratulations!

Thanks Ken. Yup, the background sucks

 

[serendipidy]

Practiced BIF again this afternoon. From advice I've received here, my capture/keeper rate is getter better. 7D, 70-200L f/2.8ii @ 125mm, 1/1250sec, f/5.6, handheld.

Wow! Like night and day from just a few weeks back! Great job Serendipity! These images stand out! Now to find this bird a nice lake background! Keep up the great work and congratulations!

Bump your shutter speed to 1/2000 or 1/2500 and you should get even more keepers.

Thanks. I'll give it a try when the light is good. I don't like going over ISO 800 on my 7D.

 

[Click]

California Gull
7D, EF 70-300mm at 300mm, F8

Very sharp. 8) Well done.