River Alsorts!

[Bevb]

Just a few shots of various birds that were down on the river where i walk the dogs today, the sun was out the wind had died down and things were getting lively.
Image 1. Cormorant.
Image 2. Curlews
Image 3. Shell Duck
Image 4. Gull
Image 5. Kestrel.

The Kestrels here are no where near as colourful as the other ones posted here.

[Knight]

Must be nice to be able to take a walk and see such a variety of Birds , all keepers Bev

[Bevb]

Thanks Knight, just a coincidence today i think, sometimes theres nothing at all about, just right time, right place.

[Copy_Kot]

These are all very good Bev, I especially like the curlews.

[paulnj]

That eurasian kestrel is quite nice.

[Bevb]

Thanks for looking and commenting Copy & Paulnj.

[terryger]

those are soem excelent flight shots. panning a big leans and keeping teh bird in focus is a skill in itself. the capture is frosting on the cake.

well done!:thumbsup:

our kestrals may be more colorful but are no less hard to catch in flight. that was a feat in itself!

[Bevb]

Thank you terryger, appreciate your comments.

[Loupey]

Great in-flight shots as usual :thumbsup:

Love the Shell Duck - great sharpness in the head and feet (the only two parts which should be for this pose IMO) while achieving an almost surreal amount of blur in the wings. Great job!

[WesternGuy]

Hi Bev. I am a bit of a noobie when it comes to bird photography and hope to visit here often to learn what I can from those with more experience. Would you care to share with us (me!) what equipment, exposure etc. you used for these great photos. I am assuming you have some setting that allows you to pan with birds in flight. Thanks.

Regards,

WesternGuy

[Bevb]

Thanks Loupey i have to put my hands up on this, not manual mode! but funny because i went straight for the focus ring, but too late to change as id miss the moment, the Shell Duck was the first picture taken. that morning.

Westernguy thanks for your kind comments, the equipment i used here was the Canon MKllN with 100-400L f4.5-5.6 plus the 1.4TC and as you can see quite a slow kit when together, especially on an overcast day like it was, the settings i used for the Shell duck image, were the lense was open to 475mm SSpeed 1/160 @ f14 ISO250. I could of put the ISO up but im very reluctant as usually with this combo handheld, and panning, pictures tend to be a bit soft, so the max SSpeed would be 400.
I find it depends on what you want from your picture ie a bird, if you want motion (ie blurring in the wings) use a slower SSpeed i go by, if my lense is open to 400mm i will use a SSpeed around 100/160, but if i want a static subject (No blurring) i would use anything from 500/1000 (depending on weather cond).
But this always depends on your lense focus length, what i always remembered when i was learning was whatever your Max focus lenght on your lense (say 200mm) you need the SSpeed at approx 400 (double it) for no blurring on moving subjects, if you want blurring anything under half of that, 200 and below.
As for the panning, well this comes with practise, keep elbows in, and move with the subject, if you can start with slower moving birds, ie swans, geese etc.
I hope i have'nt garbled on too much and its been some sort of a help, but stay with us at the forum as there are great people here who will give you all the help you want, and no matter how silly you may think a question is, ask it as there is always an answer.
But the main thing to do is practise, practise, practise!!

Bev.

[WesternGuy]

Thanks Bev. I appreciate the insight. I hope to acquire a D5 with the EF 100-400 L IS in the next week or so. It is still winter here, regardless of what the calendar says. Depending on the position of the Highs and Lows we get what are called upslope conditions against the mountains with the warm air off the Pacific overriding the cooler (colder?) Arctic air. This gives us snow, not much at anyone time, but until the H and Ls move east, we get this 2-5 cm of snow a day and it has been doing this for the last 4 to 5 days. Hopefully, when this passes, (supposed to be 15C on Sunday) the birds will start to return and I can get out into the surroundings, both city and wilderness and give these a real testing. If (when) I can figure out how to post here, I shall try and post some of my better shots for C&C.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

[Bevb]

Thats great news WesterGuy! hope you have fun with the new Kit, (thats what its all about really) and hope that snow goes soon so we can have a look at some of your images.

Im off on a 4 days break now camping by a favourite river of ours in Thetford Forest, so hope to get some good pictures, the birds are going frantic here (spring is in the air!!), so fingers crossed.


Bev.