A little backyard practice

[Xia_Ke]

wow, birds are much more cooperative in civilization...LOL Was able to get these at 135mm. Man, birding is a lot easier with AF too

[paulnj]

You're doing great! Keep practicing on the more common birds. To be honest getting close to a song sparrow is not hard, but it's not that easy either!

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Paul No, it not hard to get close to them. The challenge, and what made for good practice, was they don't exactly sit still either. It was good practice for making quick settings adjustments to compensate for running in and out of shadows. One step at a time right?

[Loupey]

To be honest getting close to a song sparrow is not hard, but it's not that easy either!

I think that's a great statement of wildlife shooting in general. Most casual shooters will try a few times and give up thinking it's really hard to get really close. But once you get past the "hump", you'll find getting consistently close to be not that difficult.

Keep practicing!

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Loupey I'm finding my biggest problem lately is adjusting to lighting and focus on the fly. I've been getting better at getting in closer to the birds but, my 300 is an oldie so it's manual focus and no metering. Getting better at focusing quicker but, find I don't always compensate enough for lighting. I guess that will all improve over time though. It was great getting a chance to shoot birds with my AF zoom lens like above. Making me cringe for wanting a nice 300mm f/2.8 AF lens so I can shoot faster

[Yarrow]

Cool shots.. The first one the bird really blends into the scenery.

I love the Robins. They crack me up. They are all over my yard running around instead of flying everywhere ...very weird, and I can get so close to them I can touch it.

[Xia_Ke]

... They are all over my yard running around instead of flying everywhere ...very weird...

I hear you...LOL Little buggers won't sit still. Wish I could say I could get as close as you can. Can't seem to do it. Squirrels yes but, the birds no

[Loupey]

...I'm finding my biggest problem lately is adjusting to lighting and focus on the fly. I've been getting better at getting in closer to the birds but, my 300 is an oldie so it's manual focus and no metering. Getting better at focusing quicker but, find I don't always compensate enough for lighting...

Keep challenging yourself and you will definitely improve! Don't fret about the lack of AF. Nothing I post in this forum is with AF either. Nor AE for that matter.

Practice the hard stuff - then everything else will be easy