Finch feeding & a locust.

[Paulg1]

The finch's are loving the sunflower seeds:

And the locust was loving the sun the other week (or it might have been ill, it didn't move for a while - I would have taken more but I think my 410 was about to overheat)

Glad to see the UK having 30+ ,blue skies and good light = ideal for the 70-300.

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Paul

[sponner]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

No1 - wow!

Can I ask was that handheld? What focal length were you at?

I am curious how you achieve such stunning results.

[David Morison]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

Love the locust shots, confirms the 70-300 as a stunning lens for macro.

David

[Wee man]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

super shots great close up.

[timmypreston]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

The first finch and last locust shots are superb!

[Paulg1]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

Yes, had a fun afternoon sweating my **** off. Started in the shade on the terrace then moved upstairs to the roof, kneeling by the balcony overlooking the sunflowers. Hand held but I tried resting the lens on the balcony.
Aperture Setting, I always have the camera set to Aperture Mode.
300mm,
1/500 (I try to get the shutter at 640 2x 300mm focal length to avoid camera shake but guess I got away with it this time)
F/8 - Apparently the sharpest aperture for this lens
ISO200 ( Could have raised this to 400 to up the shutter speed but as resting the lens thought I'd try lower ISO - low ISO+better quality, less noise)
(I'm sure I could have got the same result on full Auto but trying to take on board what everyone else says about , ISO, Noise, ShutterSpeed etc etc).

(The big pink flower in the bed is a rather large hibiscus, in case anyone's interested?)



The locust was on the terrace and I rested the camera on a cushion.

Also tried using the Unsharp Mask in Olympus 2, and a bit of cropping in Picasa.

Paul

[sponner]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

thanks for that, I wasn't sure if such results were possible with the longer zooms without a tripod.

[OlyPaul]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

Love the Goldfinch shots, so sharp and colourful.

[Falk]

Re: Finch feeding & a locust.

I am impressed!
I would love to see more Goldfinches but there are only very few and I never managed to get a decent shot of one. Yours are just great - and all the colors do fit real nice!

When I read the title though, I thought I was gonna see a Locust tree (Pseudoaccacia)! And was wondering what the meaning of

the locust was loving the sun the other week (or it might have been ill, it didn't move for a while

might be until I scrolled down ...

Seems as I learned something new today!?