06-27-12 – Birds 2: Boid Watching

Well I guess I should just not take pictures of Birds for Farktography anymore. Definitely not feeling any love for my shots this week. Did I really suck that bad with all three?( you can be honest it won’t hurt my feelings anymore than having my pictures completely being ignored.) I expect to wear out my thumb again this week. So at least my pics will have 2 votes each. lol

Honestly, bird photos where the bird does not make up the majority of the image don’t have a lot of visual impact. Your shots are more landscapes that happen to have birds in them rather than portraits of birds. If that makes any sense.

Yeah that makes sense. I just cant seem to get much closer than that around here and cropping enough to make the bird the main thing made the picture tiny. Basically I need a better zoom lens than the EFS 55-250 1:4-5.6 I currently have.

Edited twice for punctuation.

Yeah that makes sense. I just cant seem to get much closer than that around here and cropping enough to make the bird the main thing made the picture tiny. Basically I need a better zoom lens than the EFS 55-250 1:4 5.6 I currently have.

Edited for punctuation.

To do “serious” birding, one needs at least a 300mm on a APS-C, 400mm on FF, an extender doesn’t hurt either. Naturally, the five thousand plus dollars for such lenses tend make that a little…ah, daunting.

All of my entries were shot on my 70-200 f4L, but I cheated: I went to shows and zoos where I could get up close and personal with the birds. I enjoy photographing birds, it’s challenging and the results can be stellar, but the whole endeavor is far out of my price range I couldn’t see it with the Hubble.

2 of mine are zoo shots and the hummie was taken out of the window in my camper.

To do “serious” birding, one needs at least a 300mm on a APS-C, 400mm on FF, an extender doesn’t hurt either. Naturally, the five thousand plus dollars for such lenses tend make that a little…ah, daunting.

Seriously? //I gotta start looking at extenders for my lens; I’m at 480mm equiv APC, and if I could just bump that up to 960…no coffee that day….need a steady hand from on far.

All of my entries were shot on my 70-200 f4L, but I cheated: I went to shows and zoos where I could get up close and personal with the birds. I enjoy photographing birds, it’s challenging and the results can be stellar, but the whole endeavor is far out of my price range I couldn’t see it with the Hubble.

Siriusly? //I gotta start looking at wide angle-close lenses; I’m at 24mm equiv APC, and if I could just bump that down to 12…I’ll need coffee that day; need quick reflexes from up close.

You guys are all wrong. I do all my work with an SE 11? rock pick. M. C., haven?t you watched Shawshank Redemtion? That guy hammered through a prison with an SE 11. Sure it took a few years, but anything you really love doing you?ll be doing for years. Just because something is newer, doesn?t make it better

To do “serious” birding, one needs at least a 300mm on a APS-C, 400mm on FF, an extender doesn’t hurt either. Naturally, the five thousand plus dollars for such lenses tend make that a little…ah, daunting.

That seems to be true from what I have seen. Remember, teleconverters don’t work with many of Nikon’s lenses and you lose 1-2 stops when using one which causes you to lose auto focus on cheaper lenses. I’ve been looking at upgrading but it would be about $3k for a 70-200 f2.8 + teleconverter, which wouldn’t gain much as far as range goes. The Nikon 300 f4 isn’t insanely expensive but it lacks VR. Another option would be the Bigma, but that’s not cheap either. It would really get some range on my crop sensor though.

Alternatively I could just work on being more stealthy and getting closer, but in many cases that’s not possible.

For Fellow Canonites, the 2X EF is only five hundred, full autofocus and metering. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/732111-USA/Canon_4410B002_Extender_EF_2X_III.html

Not bad considering at all compared the 400mm

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/239654-USA/Canon_7034A002_Telephoto_EF_400mm_f_4_0.html

at seven grand

of the 600mm
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/754508-REG/Canon_5125B002_EF_600mm_f_4L_IS.html
clocking in at 13 grand!

It really depends I guess on what kind of Boid shooting you’re going to do. I am in love with my Sigma 100-300 F4 (got it new for $700, they are discontinued and becoming hard to find), but that under the bridge shot of Cliff Swallows was really pushing it. There was plenty of full afternoon sun coming in from the sides and I was still shooting at ISO 1600 to get shutter speed high enough.

I can afford f4 long glass, f2.8 long,.. well maybe I’ll hit that lottery some day.

Wow, my first win! Thanks for the votes everyone. There were so many beautiful entries.