Gary - nice owl! Are the they nesting already or was she just hanging out? I know where a nest was and I missed out last year - don't want to make the same mistake twice lol
These are all stunning shots!! I am especially impressed with the ones taken with the 1.4TC!! I have tried on numerous occasions to use the 1.4TC on my 500 and can not for the life of me get a decent shot.
You guys have shown it can be done. Now I just need to figure how how
jmcaverly wrote:
Impressive group of images from everyone. I think Scott should sell me his 400 so that I can shoot baseball this spring and he could upgrade to something longer. By the way Scott, I am birding with the 300 that I bought from you.
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
It's a tough decision for me to make on selling the 400/2.8 for the 500/4.The 400 is so darn sharp and fast for field sports, I know I would miss the speed of the 2.8, but I'd also love to have that little extra reach.
If I could afford it I would just buy a 600/4 to go along with the 400/2.8.
birdied wrote:
These are all stunning shots!! I am especially impressed with the ones taken with the 1.4TC!! I have tried on numerous occasions to use the 1.4TC on my 500 and can not for the life of me get a decent shot.
You guys have shown it can be done. Now I just need to figure how how
Birdie
Have you tried micro adjusting for the 1.4TC? I know it is very important with the 500/4 to do the micro adjust for the TC.
If you head over to Naturescapes.net and check out some of the posts from E.J. Peiker you will see that the 500/4 + TC 1.4x will need an adjustment almost always.
E.J. offers a service for fine tuning and has done many Nikon 500/4's, and that is his long lens he uses.
Steve Perry wrote:
Gary - nice owl! Are the they nesting already or was she just hanging out? I know where a nest was and I missed out last year - don't want to make the same mistake twice lol
Hi Steve! Yes, GHOs are nesting right now around here. It's early so their just beginning incubation of the eggs. There are several active nests in my area; I would think they are also nesting in OH.
Gary Irwin wrote:
Hi Steve! Yes, GHOs are nesting right now around here. It's early so their just beginning incubation of the eggs. There are several active nests in my area; I would think they are also nesting in OH.
Cool, I think they probably are around here as well. I looked at someone's else photos taken of the owlets last year and sure enough - the date was April 4th. I've gotta get down there and see if they came back to the same nesting area (it's in an old tree, so I'm hopeful )
Do any of you know how the sharpness of the 500/4 AI-P compares to the 500/4 AFS VR at infinity-type distances?
I can't nearly afford the VR version, but I'm trying to swing the AI-P version for long distance landscape-type shots.
Curiosity made me look... there is some amazing photography displayed throughout. I'm with DennisC... I think I'll sell it all and let the good photographers play
Amazing display of talent throughout!
regards,
bruce
Have you tried micro adjusting for the 1.4TC? I know it is very important with the 500/4 to do the micro adjust for the TC.
If you head over to Naturescapes.net and check out some of the posts from E.J. Peiker you will see that the 500/4 + TC 1.4x will need an adjustment almost always.
E.J. offers a service for fine tuning and has done many Nikon 500/4's, and that is his long lens he uses.
Thanks Steve. I have tried micro adjusting with Lens Align . With the TC I came up with -20. I am going to try again with the Dot Tune method that was posted here. I have even sent my TC to Nikon to check .
I am definitely going to check out the E.J. Peiker posts and look into his service. Thanks for letting me know about this.
You do realize any decent person with even a modicum of humility would have deleted these images straight away. Good gosh… on its best day, reality isn’t this crisp.
You guys suck in the very best way.
Inspirational. And soooo aggravating. Thanks for sharing.
birdied wrote:
I have tried micro adjusting with Lens Align . With the TC I came up with -20. I am going to try again with the Dot Tune method that was posted here. I have even sent my TC to Nikon to check .
I am definitely going to check out the E.J. Peiker posts and look into his service. Thanks for letting me know about this.
Birdied, all of my camera/lens/TC14EII combo's have required an adjustment in the +5 to +15 range or there abouts. The TC14EII requires more adjustment that my TC17EII for some reason. A -20 adjustment suggests to me that something's just not right. You might need to send your camera, lens and TC to Nikon for a checkup.
Birdied, all of my camera/lens/TC14EII combo's have required an adjustment in the +5 to +15 range or there abouts. The TC14EII requires more adjustment that my TC17EII for some reason. A -20 adjustment suggests to me that something's just not right. You might need to send your camera, lens and TC to Nikon for a checkup.
Thanks Gary. I guess that will be the next step. The 500 bare is stellar, but something definitely happens when I put that TC on.
When you do the AF tuning, you can get a more coarse adjustment by working with the Default adjustment which will give you a bit more room to AF adjust sometimes. For instance if you use +2 Default and +16 AF, it may be similar to +0 Default and +20 AF. The only problem is Default is for the camera and therefore global so it will be applied to all AF values.
DennisC wrote:
WOW! Stunning images. (I think I'll throw my photo gear in the trash now and go sit quietly in the corner)
OwlsEyes wrote:
Curiosity made me look... there is some amazing photography displayed throughout. I'm with DennisC... I think I'll sell it all and let the good photographers play
Look, I know y'all are kidding... but still, let me take just a moment to suggest quite the opposite tactic: come play! There's a lot more "f/8 and be there" than extraordinary talent to most good images -- Steve's polar bears being an obvious exception to the rule, of course. And while most of us will neither reach true artistic greatness nor win fame and fortune in photography, we can either make a pretty good living at it or just enjoy the bejeezus out of it, as best fits each of us.
If you do happen to believe that one of us is getting images that you cannot get today, with your current tools and level of skill, then by all means ask. Or go shooting together. I've seen Steve put a ton of effort into helping others learn to do better. I'll gladly help answer anyone's questions if I can be of service. And FM is full of people who think the same way. So ask a lot, shoot a lot, and you'll amaze yourself with how quickly you can grow into what you used to consider images beyond your reach.
Never be discouraged by a beautiful image. Study it, revel in it, be inspired by it... and then go enjoy your shooting even more knowing that this kind of image is out there and can be shot by anyone who puts enough time into learning and getting out there to find the shot.
The capture was a piece of cake. Aperture priority wide open, ISO high enough to get a good shutter speed, pan with the airplane, shoot. He was approaching at an angle but not too far from head-on, so panning was easier than usual. And because of the very gray day and low clouds, he was closer to the ground than usual. Anyone standing next to me could have gotten the same shot. The fact that I clicked the shutter in the half-second it takes that condensation cloud to form and then dissipate is more luck than skill... I've been trying to get that shot for years.
The secret to getting that shot? Being there, and the fact that I've been trying to get that shot for years. Nothing else. It was 50F, windy, low clouds, close to 100% humidity, a slight drizzle at times... an utterly miserable day that made a great argument for staying inside. On such a day, one can be almost certain that the images are going to suck: no contrast, no real distance, no vertical component... but there's a slight chance that the weather will give you that one sunbeam, or dramatic backdrops, or something that'll make a great image.
And I'm stubborn. So I stayed out there, along with a bunch of my friends and fellow shooters. And that one shot was worth the whole trip. But it's not skill, mostly... it's stubbornness and enjoying even the process of trying to get the image as much as the final image itself.
Geeze way to go Rodolfo, you just gave away the secret
I can't speak for every photographer, but what people don't see of my work is the thousands of lackluster shots and all the hours and days I spend NOT getting anything worthwhile (in fact, the bad days outnumber the good by an embarrassing margin).
Like you say, you gotta come out and play! I know it seems like the more I'm out, the luckier I get
