Show your Bird Portraits
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Blue Jays and Peanuts - The Fall Fiesta
Every fall, the Blue Jays return. Noisy, obnoxious, and incredibly beautiful, these birds seem like they belong in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea with all their colorful friends. They are also incredibly intelligent birds, extremely clever in finding and rooting out food, and particularly sneaky bastards.
I've spent the last couple of years "training" the Blue Jays that frequent my yard. They come when I play back Blue Jay calls from my WP8 Sibley guide, come when I tap peanuts on my deck, and seem to enjoy the game of "Grab the peanut before a photograph is made!"
The Scrub Jays are a little easier to capture photos of, they are a little more aggressive with the Blue Jays, and tend to get all the peanuts. This year, I managed to lure in a couple Blues, and with some a clever setup, captured a number of wonderful shots. There is mere moments to frame, focus, and shoot before they are gone. The 5D III's slower frame rate makes getting the perfect moment a little more difficult, however it's larger frame makes for a much more pleasing background.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS w/ Jobu Pro 2 Gimbal
Here are some shots of the setup used to get these images:
While I was snapping shots of the setup, my quarry showed up again, and grabbed a little more bait.
Every fall, the Blue Jays return. Noisy, obnoxious, and incredibly beautiful, these birds seem like they belong in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea with all their colorful friends. They are also incredibly intelligent birds, extremely clever in finding and rooting out food, and particularly sneaky bastards.
I've spent the last couple of years "training" the Blue Jays that frequent my yard. They come when I play back Blue Jay calls from my WP8 Sibley guide, come when I tap peanuts on my deck, and seem to enjoy the game of "Grab the peanut before a photograph is made!"The Scrub Jays are a little easier to capture photos of, they are a little more aggressive with the Blue Jays, and tend to get all the peanuts. This year, I managed to lure in a couple Blues, and with some a clever setup, captured a number of wonderful shots. There is mere moments to frame, focus, and shoot before they are gone. The 5D III's slower frame rate makes getting the perfect moment a little more difficult, however it's larger frame makes for a much more pleasing background.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS w/ Jobu Pro 2 Gimbal
Here are some shots of the setup used to get these images:
While I was snapping shots of the setup, my quarry showed up again, and grabbed a little more bait.
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jrista said:
Great shots, jrista!
Also interesting to see what your setup looks like, and how you lure them to come close. If you haven't tried it I can recommend finding various calls/song on Xeno-Canto (http://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Blue+Jay) - as long as it's not during breeding season playback is often ok.
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DominoDude said:
I have a lot of calls and songs on my phone, with the digital Sibley Bird Guide. I think I have audio for every bird that visits North America. The app is fully preloaded as well, so I can play bird calls anywhere, without an internet connection.
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Blue Jay Portrait
Close up crop of one of my Blue Jay shots from yesterday. I think yesterday may have been the last day for beautiful yellow leaves. I may be able to get some branches off my maple for a reddish background today. Fall is fading fast, really fast. Going to be a coooold winter.
Close up crop of one of my Blue Jay shots from yesterday. I think yesterday may have been the last day for beautiful yellow leaves. I may be able to get some branches off my maple for a reddish background today. Fall is fading fast, really fast. Going to be a coooold winter.
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jrista said:Blue Jays and Peanuts - The Fall Fiesta
Every fall, the Blue Jays return. Noisy, obnoxious, and incredibly beautiful, these birds seem like they belong in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea with all their colorful friends. They are also incredibly intelligent birds, extremely clever in finding and rooting out food, and particularly sneaky bastards.
The Scrub Jays are a little easier to capture photos of, they are a little more aggressive with the Blue Jays, and tend to get all the peanuts. This year, I managed to lure in a couple Blues, and with some a clever setup, captured a number of wonderful shots. There is mere moments to frame, focus, and shoot before they are gone. The 5D III's slower frame rate makes getting the perfect moment a little more difficult, however it's larger frame makes for a much more pleasing background.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS w/ Jobu Pro 2 Gimbal
Here are some shots of the setup used to get these images:
While I was snapping shots of the setup, my quarry showed up again, and grabbed a little more bait.
Really nice shots, the pictures have a lovely quality to them
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jrista said:Blue Jay Portrait
Close up crop of one of my Blue Jay shots from yesterday. I think yesterday may have been the last day for beautiful yellow leaves. I may be able to get some branches off my maple for a reddish background today. Fall is fading fast, really fast. Going to be a coooold winter.
Nice shots, good choice of background.
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Lovely pictures jrista! So were you sitting behind the camera in a bluff or did you use something like camranger?jrista said:Blue Jay Portrait
Close up crop of one of my Blue Jay shots from yesterday. I think yesterday may have been the last day for beautiful yellow leaves. I may be able to get some branches off my maple for a reddish background today. Fall is fading fast, really fast. Going to be a coooold winter.
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@rpt: Just sitting out in the open. I have a hair trigger finger and a great eye. It took a LOT of practice to get shots like this...realize, this is going on the third year I've tried. All my prior year attempts don't compare. With all the accumulated knowledge, I was able to nail it this year.
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Blue Jays and Maple Leaves
I tried to photograph the jays again today. This time with some maple branches in the background. The Jays refined their technique...they were even faster at peanut-theft this time! That left me hanging dry without a shot most of the time, and I only got one semi-decent shot out of the whole lot.
Even with my current skill accumulated from three years trying to photograph these beautiful buggers, I'm still not always successful.
It looks like a storm is blowing in. This may have been the last day I'd have an opportunity to get all the fall color. Id so, next year...I'll do better, be faster, and smarter, than the birds.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo BT3532LS w/ Jobu Pro 2
Just me, out in the open, wits vs. wits.
The rest of the time, I got stuff like this:
And this:
Ah, the orange would have made for such good contrast. Oh well. My maple had barely dropped a leaf until today. Now, a third of the leaves are on the ground, and it went from nearly 80°F to 40°F in a couple hours, and the low is 34°F tonight. It doesn't look like snow...yet...but winter is almost here.
I tried to photograph the jays again today. This time with some maple branches in the background. The Jays refined their technique...they were even faster at peanut-theft this time! That left me hanging dry without a shot most of the time, and I only got one semi-decent shot out of the whole lot.
Even with my current skill accumulated from three years trying to photograph these beautiful buggers, I'm still not always successful.It looks like a storm is blowing in. This may have been the last day I'd have an opportunity to get all the fall color. Id so, next year...I'll do better, be faster, and smarter, than the birds.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo BT3532LS w/ Jobu Pro 2
Just me, out in the open, wits vs. wits.
The rest of the time, I got stuff like this:
And this:
Ah, the orange would have made for such good contrast. Oh well. My maple had barely dropped a leaf until today. Now, a third of the leaves are on the ground, and it went from nearly 80°F to 40°F in a couple hours, and the low is 34°F tonight. It doesn't look like snow...yet...but winter is almost here.
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We had our first snow yesterday, which is early ... And the 7DII does not arrive until late November, which means any real testing with the long whites will be wet, cold and in dull colors, with most of the birds on vacation in the south ...jrista said:
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Another shot from the wonderful Canberra, a pair of Gang Gang Cockatoo's spotted today at the Botanical Gardens. I have been using a 70D, 100-400L, 1.4TC II combo for all my recent shots from Australia, so all have been handheld :-\
All the more reason to finally buy that 2XTCIII when I get home
All the more reason to finally buy that 2XTCIII when I get home
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Eldar said:
Yeah, winter is going to be a heavy one this year. At least I'm not an early adopter, so not being able to test the 7D II isn't a biggie for me.
Besides, in the close quarters of my yard, I like the full frame FoV and DOF.
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