A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

[Cathrine Stephansen]

Today was the first day that brought the temperatures above zero for long enough for the snow to start melting. I have been feeding some feathered friends all winter, so I decided they could repay the favour by modelling for me and the new 300 mm 2.8.

I love blue tits, they are so unbelievably cute. In Norway we also call them Swedes, because they are blue and yellow.





I have also been feeding a band of tree sparrows this winter. It's been a long one, and I'm glad to notice that they are still numerable.

This one wanted me to quit pointing that black thing and refill the seeds in stead.


Please??? More nuts??


The light was very strong and very low, so they were backlit. But light is something we don't complain about at this time of year!

Quite pleased with the 300mm, but I think I have to fix some focusing issues with the E5 with telelenses.

[Ellie]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Yay! You've got some nice sunshine. I hope it melts your snow really quickly.

Lovely pictures too.

[Cathrine Stephansen]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Thank you, Ellie!

[StephenL]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Beautiful shots. Disappointing thread title.

[theMusicMan]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Lovely shots Cathrine. We have a few Tree Sparrows here but they are fast becoming a rarer species to spot. I saw a few last year in some open woodland, but couldn't get close enough to get any shots.

[Melaka]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Are those your first pix with the 300?

[Danny]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Lovely, my kind of shots, glad spring is on the way

[OlyPaul]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Love the first shot, a great capture Catherine, blue tits are my favourite bird in my garden followed by long tailed tits. I've never seen a tree sparrow in my garden, plenty of house sparrows though.

[Cathrine Stephansen]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Are those your first pix with the 300?

Yes, they are! Awesome lens. I used the tripod and loosened the ball head so I had some support but still could move the camera. I found focusing a bit difficult, I think it might be an E5 issue, as I had similar problems with the 50-200mm and 1.4 converter, but when I check it with the Spyder lenscal, it seems ok. It might only be sharpness filter settings on the camera that I need to get used to, because all of these seem to be without detail and slightly soft focus when I look at them on the camera screen, but going through RAW conversion and PS they needed very little sharpening. But very frustrating while shooting, when I think it's a complete failure and give up, only to find they were ok afterwards. Well, better than the other way around, I suppose!

It's going to be heavy on a boat during fieldwork though! My own 50-200mm will still be going along on full work days for hand held shooting from a boat!

[Cathrine Stephansen]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Love the first shot, a great capture Catherine, blue tits are my favourite bird in my garden followed by long tailed tits. I've never seen a tree sparrow in my garden, plenty of house sparrows though.

I live close to the woods, and the gardens here are large and bushy, I think the tree sparrows like that. They seem more shy than house sparrows, I haven't got any of those here, although they are probably more common. I only see house sparrows down town. Blue tits are cute, but quite fierce, they hold their own against bigger birds

They are all shot on a set of twigs where they land before going to the feeder.

[Cathrine Stephansen]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Beautiful shots. Disappointing thread title.

Well, it's still quite cold at 3 plus!

[Barr1e]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Well, it's still quite cold at 3 plus!

Agreed.

Nice shots.

Regards. Barr1e

[Wee man]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Great shots hope you enjoy the new lens

[photo_owl]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

Yes, they are! Awesome lens. I used the tripod and loosened the ball head so I had some support but still could move the camera. I found focusing a bit difficult, I think it might be an E5 issue, as I had similar problems with the 50-200mm and 1.4 converter, but when I check it with the Spyder lenscal, it seems ok. It might only be sharpness filter settings on the camera that I need to get used to, because all of these seem to be without detail and slightly soft focus when I look at them on the camera screen, but going through RAW conversion and PS they needed very little sharpening. But very frustrating while shooting, when I think it's a complete failure and give up, only to find they were ok afterwards. Well, better than the other way around, I suppose!

if you are only shooting RAW there could be a missmatch between the display properties and JPEG - I would have thought that Oly would have sorted this by now as it's been highlighted many times.

then again it might be the camera settings and their impact on the embedded jpeg for the lcd

either way it's the first time I have seen a reference to it on the 5

[Cathrine Stephansen]

Re: A promise of spring - Norwegian tits

if you are only shooting RAW there could be a missmatch between the display properties and JPEG - I would have thought that Oly would have sorted this by now as it's been highlighted many times.

then again it might be the camera settings and their impact on the embedded jpeg for the lcd

either way it's the first time I have seen a reference to it on the 5

I only shoot RAW.