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Archive 2014 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques

  
 
mark fadely
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Disclaimer: The title of this thread is in no way meant to demean or harm actual Geeks.


I wanted to share a story about a recent lucky shooting day I had.

There isn't that much discussion around here about positioning techniques to get closer to the subjects we shoot. Most of the shooting talk revolves around gears as Peter (Petkal) so endearingly refers to his cameras and lenses. After all this is the Canon Gear board. This topic came up when I spoke with Peter in the “Canon Big Whites - Pick 3” thread. BIF shooting is my thing and I like to travel light with a 400 5.6 being my main birding lens. It has been tempting over the years to go for a 500 or 600mm lens but portability and practicality have prevailed. A couple of weeks ago I took a vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I am mostly a bird-in-flight shooter so that means always being on the lookout for good spots with birds in the air. I arrived at the beach resort and shot shore birds for the first couple of days of my stay. I am not too keen on taking birding tours where you are with a group and the guides often don't put you in front of really good in-flight photography opportunities. When on these vacations I usually try to find a local cab driver and then pay him to drive me around for a few hours in search of in-flight birding.

On the third day in Puerto Vallarta I found just the right cabby who knew some good birding spots. He only charged $25 per hour too. Surprisingly he took me to a restaurant, surfside in the middle of the city boardwalk. It's funny; you just never know where your best shooting may happen. Anyway, we sat down and I bought the cabby (Jose) lunch and a beer. The restaurand was right on the beach with a cabana and plastic tables and chairs. As we are sitting there he says, "See that fisherman there with the net?" Right in front of us is a local fisherman hauling a fine net out of the water and the cabby says, "be ready because the fisherman is going to throw out the small fish onto the beach and just keep the large ones. When he tosses those small fish every kind of bird here is going to swarm the area." This was an exciting moment and I got my MKIV with 400 5.6 all set in manual mode and ready to shoot and I sat it on the table and waited.. I’ve learned to use manual exposure in this situation and for black birds I use my lowest shutter speed which is usually 1/1250th. Then as I target other birds I just adjust the shutter speed wheel accordingly. For brown or medium color subjects the wheel goess up one click to 1/1600th, and then for white birds the shutter goes up two or three clicks to either 1/2000th or 1/2500th. This works a lot better for me than AV mode with EC adjust. Just then the fish were released and the Puerto Vallarta birds' aerial performance began. It was awesome and I was totally prepared for it. It was the most active 15 minutes of shooting I’ve ever had. There were 25-50 birds in the air right in front of me for over 15 minutes! Here is a list of the birds that showed up.

Frigate bird
Pelican
Cormorant
Tern
Snowy Egret
Gulls of course
Blue-footed booby

The great part was that many of the shots were so close that the birds covered the whole frame of the image. Amazing times, and it just goes to show that a little planning goes a long way in getting good shots.

Here is a shot of the beach area right in front of the restaurant where the fisherman was. You can still see many birds in the air and this was after the feeding frenzy was over.

http://markfadely.smugmug.com/photos/i-BDFqL7S/0/XL/i-BDFqL7S-XL.jpg


This is me(L) and Jose the cabby at the table. Thanks again Jose!

http://markfadely.smugmug.com/photos/i-48W7Vgp/0/XL/i-48W7Vgp-XL.jpg


And heres a few of the shots from only a 15minute session.

All with a MKIV, 400 5.6 @ f5.6 and iso160, and 1/1250th - 1/2000th

Thanks for reading,

Please share your ideas and techniques that allow you to “get the shot”.

Mark

http://markfadely.smugmug.com/Nature/Birds/i-qtmnc3m/0/XL/CF1I1691-l-XL.jpg
http://markfadely.smugmug.com/Nature/Birds/i-HVW7Wc6/0/XL/CF1I1423-l-XL.jpg
http://markfadely.smugmug.com/Nature/Birds/i-6qpXmrM/0/XL/CF1I1928-l-XL.jpg
http://markfadely.smugmug.com/Nature/Birds/i-DkDpVdt/0/XL/CF1I1470-l-XL.jpg



Feb 19, 2014 at 10:58 AM
arbitrage
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


This post should be voted Thread of the Week if there was such a thing on the Canon board Post it over in N&W and we will make it TOTW just for the info alone and the food for thought!! Also the images are great and really shows how good light, closer to subject and your M mode skills got you some super quality shots that would stand up against anything shot from a 600II or 500II or any of the big whites.

TFS
Geoff



Feb 19, 2014 at 11:02 AM
Monito
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


One of the most important techniques for making great photographs is being "there" with a camera, wherever "there" is. That means of course getting up early when necessary, and walking or driving as necessary.

Sometimes sitting down for a delicious lunch is necessary, as the OP shows!

The famous saying is "f/8 and be there".



Feb 19, 2014 at 11:12 AM
Gunzorro
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Great stuff, Mark!

Preparation and planning are at least half the battle.

Monito -- I'll add my paraphrase to that: "f/8 and be aware!"



Feb 19, 2014 at 11:23 AM
Jefferson
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


... ... IMHO

Jefferson



Feb 19, 2014 at 11:25 AM
PetKal
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Thanx Mark, a great story and very fine pictures.


Feb 19, 2014 at 11:26 AM
kaycephoto
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


thanks for sharing! great shots


Feb 19, 2014 at 12:06 PM
Doctorbird
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Very engaging story Mark with great accompanying graphics. Ever so often I'm tempted to pull out my 400 f/5.6 again, but my crop camera was inherited by my daughter while I await the newer version.

Interestingly I shoot mostly in manual mode in precisely the same way as you describe.

Db



Feb 19, 2014 at 12:07 PM
Focus Locus
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Not only great pictures... #2 is especially startling... but what a wonderful write up. I liked how you explained your reasoning for your simple, but masterful, techniques. I like how you showed us a snapshot of the context of the environment that you were shooting in, and even included Jose.

I must confess I'm a bit jealous of Jose. After investing over $125K in "gears" over the years (without ever having purchased ANY of the big whites over 400), I still make less than $25 an hour while living in the most expensive area in the US, and the people who pay me are not nearly as happy to do so as you were to pay Jose. Makes more sense to move to Mexico, buy a nice cab for $12K, and drive you around where ever you want to go!

Again, very nicely written presentation, with fantastic photos to back up your point.



Feb 19, 2014 at 12:28 PM
Cicopo
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Many years ago I stayed at a campground in the Florida Keys. It was a very popular place for fishermen & it had a big cleaning station which worked every bit as good as your net fisher did for drawing in the birds. I shot lots of photos there but they were with a film camera (Canon A-1)


Feb 19, 2014 at 01:39 PM
Davis B.
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Cool story and mighty fine bird shots, Mark, And on top of it all I learned a way to shoot.
BTW The 300 is doing mighty fine.



Feb 19, 2014 at 02:19 PM
onegreatcity
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Love the story and the images Mark, thank you.


Feb 19, 2014 at 02:52 PM
IndyFab
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Thanks for sharing

Can you elaborate a bit more for your, reasoning that has led up to you shooting black birds at
1/1250th. For brown or medium color subjects the wheel goes up one click to 1/1600th, and then for white birds the shutter goes up two or three clicks to either 1/2000th or 1/2500th.

Great results, not questioning it, just would like to know (learn) at bit more about it.



Feb 19, 2014 at 03:25 PM
mark fadely
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


arbitrage wrote:
This post should be voted Thread of the Week if there was such a thing on the Canon board Post it over in N&W and we will make it TOTW just for the info alone and the food for thought!! Also the images are great and really shows how good light, closer to subject and your M mode skills got you some super quality shots that would stand up against anything shot from a 600II or 500II or any of the big whites.

TFS
Geoff


Hi Geoff,

Thanks for such a warm reception on this. I think it would help a lot of people if more information was provided on some posts so I thought I would share this. I had the idea in mind when I sat down at that beach side table and that's why I took a couple of shots with my phone to show the scene.

I'm not sure about posting in the N&W forum though, I don't want to double post. Maybe I should have put it in there to begin with but the spirit of what I'm trying to relay is mostly gear related.

Mark



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:28 PM
mark fadely
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Monito wrote:
One of the most important techniques for making great photographs is being "there" with a camera, wherever "there" is. That means of course getting up early when necessary, and walking or driving as necessary.

Sometimes sitting down for a delicious lunch is necessary, as the OP shows!

The famous saying is "f/8 and be there".


F8 and be there is so true! You do have to be there and that's most of the battle with BIF photos. It's even more difficult if you are new to the area. So when all else fails, go have a beer and some enchiladas, lol.

Mark



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:34 PM
mitesh
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Mark,

FWIW, there are often people posting on N&W who are seeking tips for improving their BIF results. Some of them don't shoot Canon, and some may not visit this board. For the benefit of those people, I would encourage you to post this over on the N&W board. It's a great resource and your time and effort would be appreciated by even more people!



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:36 PM
mark fadely
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Gunzorro wrote:
Great stuff, Mark!

Preparation and planning are at least half the battle.

Monito -- I'll add my paraphrase to that: "f/8 and be aware!"


Thank you Jim,

Monito makes a great point about just being there. We don't get any shots sitting behind our keyboards, you have to actually go out into the field.

Mark



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:39 PM
mark fadely
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


Jefferson wrote:
... ... IMHO

Jefferson


Thank you Jefferson. I like your frosty mug salute and I guess I should clarify. The cabby was drinking a Corona and I was actually enjoying a new-to-me popular Mexican drink called a Paloma (Tequila and Kas-a lemon/lime soda). Mmmm, I can taste it right now!

Mark



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:43 PM
mark fadely
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


PetKal wrote:
Thanx Mark, a great story and very fine pictures.


Thank you Peter, I hope some people can gain something from it. I will post this in the N&W forum too. Thanks for your encouragement.

Mark



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:45 PM
mark fadely
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Gears, Geeks, & Techniques


kaycephoto wrote:
thanks for sharing! great shots


Thank you Kayce, I appreciate that.

Mark



Feb 19, 2014 at 04:46 PM
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