Friday was a nice day off to do some shooting out in the wetlands with the A580 again, and get some good workout with the 300mm F4 and 1.4x TC for 420mm optical...it was a very good day of mixed light and lots of diversity: A rare bug shot from me...this dragonfly was a lovely color of blue: Green heron - light was mixed and he was in shadow, so ISO500 used: A juvenile black-bellied whistling duck, ISO800: A belted kingfisher flying quickly through the sky: Great blue heron flying by: Despite the bit of green on the wing, this is called a blue-winged teal, ISO640: A tricolor heron and his reflection: Cormorant flying towards me with heavy backlighting, ISO500: Anhinga makes a catch, and tosses it up for the swallow: Birds of a feather flock together...but sometimes birds of other feathers flock together too. ; I was shooting the egret on top, but he was flying in tight formation with some ibises, so the one on the bottom who is out of the focus area was in the shot too: A backlighted osprey flying directly overhead:
the dragon fly shot is awesome Justin. that lens does great macro and you got a kingfisher. that is one tough bird to get. very very skittish here. I cannot get closer than about 25 yards. Love the green heron. have only gotten a shot of one once here and the same with the tricolor. actually this was the first year I saw either at Forsythe . I had the 300F4 for a bit and loved it but returned it to help pay for the 200-400. I want to get the 300 again one day. ; easier to lug around and hand hold. would be nice if they added VR to it
Some great stuff Justin! I love that dragonfly shot and the one with the egret and the "ugly bird," eh I mean ibis.
Thanks Howie - the kingfishers are extremely hard to get here as well - those are some extreme crops, but at least he was good enough to fly back and forth between two trees, each time flying over the wetlands looking for fish to grab - his high chattering makes him easy to find, then it's just a matter of getting ready for his next pass and pan along with him. ; I still haven't had many opportunities to shoot one sitting at ease at any reasonable distance. ; For us, all the heron varieties are very common, and tricolors and greens are very easy to shoot - tricolor herons often fly up onto the boardwalks and handrails and hang out just a few feet from people. Thank you John. ; Yeah, we have a few ibis here - this one wetlands spot actually has some rather shocking numbers of them - as in, thousands - they come in vast clouds and waves each evening from all over south Florida to roost for the night.
Thank you. Yep - 420mm is my normal shooting lens range - though I think he and I can both draw a tie at 500mm if we brought out our longest reach lenses. ; Maybe someday I can track down one of those 600mm F4 APOs I've been lusting for - with the 1.4x TC, that would be a nice 840mm plus crop factor. ; Though more expensive than the lens itself would be the Sherpa I'd need to haul it around for me.
I sold my tammy 200-500 Justin. If I need more reach I put a 1.4 on the 200-400 .that gives me 840mm at F5.6 with the crop. I lust after the Nikon 600F4 but that is one big expensive beast. I can hand hold the 200-400 this was hand held using the 1.4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ac209/6344 ... hotostream
I didn't realize you unloaded the Tammy. ; I still have mine, though it gets less use since the 300mm is so nice at that length. ; I still find need for it occasionally when there's no substitute for maximum reach...I've even paired it with a 2x TC, but the quality goes downhill and focus is strictly manual, so I don't use it that way too often.
I think all of you taking these wildlife photos should send them to National Geographic. ; They are all brilliant!
