Communal Bird Photography Thread

[MJ224]

Red Kite

Long shot again, and a composite (my) sky

by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[BDennis]

A nice shot with the cloud patterns behind!

[MJ224]

Thanks Bill. Two shots on two days almost in the same place..:-)

[BDennis]

Whoopers Swan headshot at WWT Welney. 150-400mm F4.5 with MC-20 and 1.25x internal TC engaged, subject distance about 20m with slight crop of image to 4502px wide. Trying out the lens with Olympus on one of their events (a copy which had been a bit beat up by Tesni Ward!)


Whooper Swans by Bill Dennis, on Flickr

[MJ224]

That works well Bill. Was the resulting shot a 1000mm? Do you think the big lens is significantly better??

[BDennis]

Yes it was at 1000mm - I tried it with both the x2 and x1.4 TCs I had with me and the internal x1.25TC possibly not in all combinations - still working through all my photos I took. I did wonder why I put the 1.4x TC on for this shot rather than just flick the switch for the internal one but I had mounted the MC14 TC to try it with that after I tried the MC20 TC. I liked the lens, it was lighter than I expected. The zoom ring has a light touch which is nice. I like the flexibility of this lens with the built in TC and zoom. The shots I got with this big lens have a better quality feel to them than what I got with my 300mm on the day but the light was constantly changing and it is very subjective. I’m tempted by the lens. I thought the 150-400mm would be too heavy for a wildlife lens for me to take out and about on reserves but having had 2 hours use of it hand holding it on this event my mind is changed!

[Phill D]

Interesting that Tesni gave it back .

[blackfox]

after a long covid induced wait finally got a owl in flight again .lifted my spirits no end
times they are a changing by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[BDennis]

Lovely shot, nice background too

[JeremyB]

I'm not at all surprised it lifted your spirits! A beautiful owl, in flight, sunlit and in focus - if that's not uplifting, exciting and inspiring, I really don't know what is.

[griffljg]

Rainbow bee-eaters

I heard that there were a few rainbow bee-eaters flying around at the Sir John Chandler Park, on the Brisbane River to the west of the CBD and decided to go out and take a look. All photos were taken using the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk III with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS lens. With the largest aperture being 6.3 at 400mm, I decided to use shutter speed priority and use speeds of between 1/1000s and 1/2000s, while using Auto ISO to take care of the need for light. Fairly predictably, most of the photos had the lens wide open with a very shallow depth of field and ISO over 1000.

With a very shallow depth of field giving a creamy bokeh and high ISO, I realised that noise would be a bit of a problem. I fed all the photos through DxO PureRAW, before processing them further with Capture One Pro 21. Cropping to suit.

I used "ProCapL" to photograph the birds taking off and discovered afterwards that my shutter speeds weren't quite fast enough. - Something to play around with next time.


Rainbow Bee-Eaters (with prey)

1/1600s, f/6.3, ISO 1250, Focal Length 400mm

Rainbow Bee-eaters by Laurence Griffiths, on Flickr

Rainbow Bee-Eaters (without prey)

1/1600s, f/7.1, ISO 1250, Focal Length 400mm

Rainbow bee-eaters by Laurence Griffiths, on Flickr

Rainbow Bee-Eater

1/1600s, f/7.1, ISO 1000, Focal Length 400mm

Rainbow bee-eater by Laurence Griffiths, on Flickr

Rainbow Bee-Eater taking off

1/1000s, f/6.3, ISO 1250, Focal Length 400mm

Rainbow bee-eater taking off by Laurence Griffiths, on Flickr

1/1000s, f/6.3, ISO 1250, Focal Length 400mm

Rainbow Bee-eater taking off by Laurence Griffiths, on Flickr

[Phill D]

Beautiful shots of some lovely birds Larry.

[BDennis]

Love these birds, great shots - thanks for sharing.

[Barr1e]

Thanks for posting these - I like all of them especially the first.

[MJ224]

Nice set Larry. I try to use 1/1250 as a minimum, but often that's not fast enough. More like 1/2000 and less if you have the light....

Lovely birds..:-)

[griffljg]

Thanks Mark. Looking at the amount of blur in those photos of the birds taking off, I am convinced that 1/2000 might have to be my next starting point.

[blackfox]

more barn owl shots
any voles a goal by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[blackfox]

overpool by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[blackfox]

pink footed geese
leaving ! by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[blackfox]

incoming grey heron
the landing stage by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[blackfox]

and a barn owl illuminated by the setting sun
the landing stage by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[Walti]

Unusual Owl 😜

[blackfox]

We all have oops moments 🤩🤩

[blackfox]

barn owl backlit
tiny toes by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[blackfox]

marsh harriers from Monday
sky-dancers by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

the searcher by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[blackfox]

stonechats
the klingon by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

look right by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

the nosey bird by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

[MJ224]

Under attack..