Show your Bird Portraits

[Jack Douglas]

Osprey mates.

gbchriste ...Umm... are you real ?... or from this planet ?... can you, are you able, to make a bad image ?
Dont get me wrong, I'm luv'in your work.
I have only ever seen this quality come out of Large and Full format Film.
Actually, I think I know you, but the foreground at the bottom of frame adds a "?"...
Cheers !

@PropeNonComposMentis - I'm humbled by your compliment but trust me, I can definitely take a bad shot. For every good one I post there are at least....well, let's just leave it at that.

Even as much as I'm personally pleased by the compositional opportunity this shot presented, it has it's problems. I had a 70-200 on a full frame 5D3 so they don't come close to filling the frame, therefore I had to crop a bit. And just before the male swooped in to the nest I had turned a dial the wrong way and totally fouled up my settings so I was completely blowing the entire frame to pure white. I was right in the middle of getting my exposure settings squared away when I saw him coming toward the nest and had to shoot but I was still at f2.8. I focused on the nest but at 1:1 crop you can tell it's definitely not as sharp as it should be.

The foliage at the bottom of the frame is just the limitations of the geography where I was standing. There were the tops of shorter trees between me and them that were in the frame no matter what I did. And I was standing on a tiny point of land sticking way out in the water with really no place else to move for a different angle. His arrival at the nest happened so fast I really couldn't have moved to improve my angle anyway.

gbchriste, I've seen very nice shots of yours and was a little puzzled but this explanation clears up everything. Sometimes in spite of our best intentions it just doesn't work out that well. I too would have been every bit as enthused as you in getting the shot and equally disappointed it hadn't worked the way I planned. I have only ever shot an Osprey from further away and never been in a situation as thrilling as yours, at least not yet but I'm aiming at it in May.

Jack

 

[dcm]

Jon, I removed the lower swing arm off my Jobu and it works just fine given the lens mounts rotate. It works really great with the 300 2.8. A little less weight and bulk and easier to deal with.

Jack

I did the same with the Jobu Jr that holds my Tamron 150-600. The only issue with this approach is the lens centerline is offset from the center of the pivot base of the Jobu by 1.5". This doesn't cause me any problems that i am aware of. The Mongoose would appear to have a similar issue, depending on your foot height and barrel diameter. The RRS PG-02 mechansim allows you to compensate for foot height and diameter of the lens barrel.

 

[procentje20]

Had a nice morning walk through nature recently. Birds came so close I had to switch off the AF limiter on my Tamron.


Blue tit by Procentjetwintig, on Flickr


Eurasian wren by Procentjetwintig, on Flickr


European Robin by Procentjetwintig, on Flickr

 

[GP.Masserano]

Svassi in amore

Canon eos 7 + 100-400L

 

[GP.Masserano]

White Heron

Cinciarella

Red grouse of Scotland

 

[KeithBreazeal]

Got the 'evil eye' as I crept closer

Osprey fish lunch- looking at me by Keith Breazeal Photography, on Flickr

 

[Click]

Very nice series GP Masserano. Well done.

 

[Click]

Got the 'evil eye' as I crept closer

Great shot Keith.

 

[AlanF]

Who says the 100-400mm II is soft and the autofocus on the 7D2 doesn't work? Taken yesterday at Otmoor, near "the other place". And, I can't resist ratty taken with the 5DIII and 300mm f/2.8 II to show what sharp reallly is (I rushed out without the TC last week).

 

[DavidGMiles]

I recently had the massive pleasure of spending a bit of time in the company of some Great Grey Owls in Finland, expertly guided by Petri & Antti of Finnature, I have hundreds of shots to go through, but we will start with this one, a wild Great Grey Owl sits observing it's surroundings on the glistening snow

Canon 7DII coupled to a Canon EF 200-400 TC L lens, shooting in manual mode - spot metered - ISO 400 - 286 mm focal length - f4 - 1/5000

 

[AlanF]

Very nice. I just signed up to your site.

 

[Click]

I recently had the massive pleasure of spending a bit of time in the company of some Great Grey Owls in Finland, expertly guided by Petri & Antti of Finnature, I have hundreds of shots to go through, but we will start with this one, a wild Great Grey Owl sits observing it's surroundings on the glistening snow

Canon 7DII coupled to a Canon EF 200-400 TC L lens, shooting in manual mode - spot metered - ISO 400 - 286 mm focal length - f4 - 1/5000

Lovely shot, David.

 

[DavidGMiles]

Thanks (on both scores)

 

[jrista]

Bufflehead


This was a pretty distant shot, bit out of range even of a 1200mm lens. Constantly changing lighting burnt the highlights a bit as well...but, too tough to pass up an opportunity to photograph a Bufflehead. The bling bois of the duck world, these beauties sport a colorful, iridescent wrap of feathers to attract the ladies.


Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro2

 

[rpt]

Bufflehead


This was a pretty distant shot, bit out of range even of a 1200mm lens. Constantly changing lighting burnt the highlights a bit as well...but, too tough to pass up an opportunity to photograph a Bufflehead. The bling bois of the duck world, these beauties sport a colorful, iridescent wrap of feathers to attract the ladies.


Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro2

Nice one Jon.

 

[gbchriste]

Oddly enough we have a flock of Canada geese that has taken up permanent residence here on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast. They showed up a few years ago and just never went home. They are part of a large group of various aquatic birds that show up at the same spot every evening to be fed by a couple of ladies that come and throw out corn, fruit, old bread, etc. I know wild life purists would object but it does make them quite docile and approachable. This is shot with a 70-200 2.8L II. I cropped in to the frame a little bit but mainly for compositional purposes as there was just a little bit of dead space at the bottom right of the frame I wanted to get rid of.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Nice shots all!

Although a lot of the snow is gone I'm still stuck with nothing much so I resorted to chickadees again today for a break from my house repairs! There aren't even many chickadees showing up for treats. I'm guessing there are better treats out in the bush now.

gbchriste, there are so many C G that they've opened a spring hunting season on them up here in Alberta, so maybe just persuade all of them to stay in Florida!

Jack

 

[candyman]

The bullfinch, common bullfinch or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) - MALE


5D MKIII and 100-400 II

 

[Murilo_mms]

600mm /// f/8 /// 1/400 /// ISO 1250


600mm /// f/10 /// 1/400 /// ISO 2500


600mm /// f/9 /// 1/400 /// ISO 2000


600mm /// f/11 /// 1/400 /// ISO 1600

 

[AlanF]

Nice photos Jack. I have to take blue and great tits, our equivalent of chickadees, in these lean times. What camera did you use?