Bird of the Week Challenge - 5th January: beginnings

10 posts / 0 new
Last post
Holly
Holly's picture
Bird of the Week Challenge - 5th January: beginnings

happy new year everyone! This week lets look at beginnings! It could be the front of a bird, the first photo you have on file, the first photo of 2015, a bird at sunrise - lots of possibilities...

 

 

pacman
pacman's picture

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday and Happy New Year to one and all - a good topic to start 2015

My first overseas bird photo was a Northern Mockingbird in the West Potomac Park (I seem to recall from Oct '11), Washington DC

Peter

Reflex
Reflex's picture

A good begining to the year on Sunday afternoon at North Stradbroke Island...check out the talons on this beauty!

It was a family day out so I only had my 70-200mm lens with me but as luck had it my 2x teleconverter was in the car. I have read that teleconverters don't work well with zoom lenses but this came out okay.

Samford Valley Qld.

Chris 333
Chris 333's picture

Wow! those really are awesome talons Reflex.  I don't think I'll be putting my hand up to be reincarnated as whatever it preys on with those.... ;-)

Good to hear that your x2 teleconverter works OK. Looks great in the picture. Does it restrict anything - such as autofocus at certain apertures?

 I bought an inexpensive  x1.4 sigma teleconverter a couple of days ago and, like you, found the results to be a lot better than I'd feared. It doesn't seem to have any downsides on my 70-200mm  Canon zoom (cheaper 1.4 version, with no IS). But on a Sigma 120-400mm I mostly have to use manual focus with the converter. Oddly enough, not always though.

On the same day (last Friday) I also lashed out on a 7D Mk2 body, having read that they handle high ISO pretty well, and generally have some improvements in tracking, burst speed etc. So this was my first test photo after eagerly rushing outside when I got home and snapping the first thing I saw.   

It's an unremarkable hand held picture of a bronzewing in fairly poor light conditions and I've also cropped it right down to 15% of its orginal size to get a good look at how noisy it might be. And absolutely no post processing improvements have been done - i.e. no sharpening, no noise reduction etc

However, it has been hugely reduced (to about 167k) for posting.  What was interesting to me was the ISO setting - 16,000. Yes, sixteeen thousand, compared to my old camera which struggled at anything much above sixteen hundred.  I'm sure that owners of 5D Mk3s and 1DXs would be smiling at this, but to me it was a big step up into new territory.  

I'm still working through all the complexities. And the more options you have to fine tune settings the more permutataions and combinations there are of stuffing up. I'm already finding many of them... But overall I've been very happy with it. The light here is always dappled and awkward, so a more powerful tool is very welcome. Now all I need to do is improve the skill aspect..

New Beginning. New Year. New Camera. New Smile.

pacman
pacman's picture

my first new tick for 2015 was a Banded Honeyeater

I will do a thread on my short (3 day) New Year trip to Julaten, FNQ shortly - 29 new ticks over the 2 travel and 3 birding days

Peter

rawshorty
rawshorty's picture

To start the new year i had to go out and get a shot or two of the Powerful Owl.

Little bugger even shat on me surprise

Wish me luck with the lottery ticket i bought laugh

Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua)-9939 by rawshorty, on Flickr">[/url]Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua)-9939 by rawshorty, on Flickr

Shorty......Canon gear

Canberra

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/ 

Reflex
Reflex's picture

The begining for three Rufous Whistler chicks ........

Samford Valley Qld.

rawshorty
rawshorty's picture

To begin a game of golf, first you need a ball.

Australian raven (Corvus coronoides)-1584-2 by rawshorty, on Flickr">[/url]Australian raven (Corvus coronoides)-1584-2 by rawshorty, on Flickr

Shorty......Canon gear

Canberra

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/ 

robwill
robwill's picture

To begin a meal one must first get to the contents of the bag.

Crow eating take out. by robwill4, on Flickr

Rob. 

Reflex
Reflex's picture

The body is begining to grow to match its feet.

Samford Valley Qld.

Topic locked
 and   @birdsinbackyards
                 Subscribe to me on YouTube