Looking at a parent Great Egret and 3 Nestlings in the nest and 2 other Great Egrets from the nest behind (at least one of the 2 is a Nestling).
Cropped; tripod mounted 100-400mm GM set to 336mm and A7rIII; silent shutter.
ISO 100, f5.6, 1/1000 second.
Exposure corrected -0.29 Stops.
May 11, 2019
At Gatorland, Orlando or Kissimmee, FL.
The Sigma 14-24 / 2.8 Art is an almost perfect zoom, at least as good as the corresponding modern fixed focal length lenses. Very good at any focal length at the full aperture (sharpness, contrast and color reproduction). Remarkable on stopping down by 1-2- 3 aperture values.
The photos are taken in a beautiful, old monastery in Broumov (Czech Republic).
Tree-side food transfer from the male, left, to the female that brought the mouse to their nearby nest to feed the chicks afterwards. FYI, I did clone out some twigs, branches and leaves.
Since I sold my entire Mamiya 7 system that I shot *everything* with for almost 20 years (except birds!!) to get into the Sony/CaptureOne system two years ago, I sometimes miss fine grain in an image, so I put it back in
Kierzkow wrote:
I could not agree more with you.
I took several shots of the Aletsch Glacier with my then-brand-new Sony A7R.
Boy, how I loved that camera! I also had many Zeiss Contax C/Y lenses from the 80s and 90s, among them - the 35-70/3.4.
Because of a strict Covis-19 lockdown in Switzerland, I went back to my old A7R, old lenses, and old shots and reprocessed some of them. Much to my surprise, the results were very appealing to me, and, it seems, to this thread's participants.
Conclusions? Go back to the old shots from time to time, look at them with a different eye, and reprocess some with new tools and more extensive knowledge and experience.
However, there is even a more critical conclusion. Never say never (sorry I just did it), but I will buy neither a new camera nor a new lense. Sony A7R and A7Riii are all I need. The same goes for my lenses.
The new stuff only gives me a headache because I am a slow learner, and its usefulness is usually marginal to me. I should concentrate on taking photos.
Henryk, indeed, although digital cameras have improved a lot in the last years, even photos from my old Canon 20D stand up well with time, and I too have gone through old files while sheltering from covid. I also have the a7Riii and would never need a new body again, as long as they keep making batteries...that is hardly a "sacrifice" camera, however. It is amazing. I just wish that I had enough hard drive space to keep up with its large files!!!
On lenses, I have far more than I will ever need and have liked nearly every lens that I have ever owned...often sad a year or two after selling one, when I see photos from it again.
Making time to shoot is a much stronger correlation with getting good photos than the gear is (just don't tell my wife).
Grenache wrote:
Henryk, indeed, although digital cameras have improved a lot in the last years, even photos from my old Canon 20D stand up well with time, and I too have gone through old files while sheltering from covid. I also have the a7Riii and would never need a new body again, as long as they keep making batteries...that is hardly a "sacrifice" camera, however. It is amazing. I just wish that I had enough hard drive space to keep up with its large files!!!
On lenses, I have far more than I will ever need and have liked nearly every lens that I have ever owned...often sad a year or two after selling one, when I see photos from it again.
Making time to shoot is a much stronger correlation with getting good photos than the gear is (just don't tell my wife).
Cheers,
Jim ...Show more →
Thank you for your reflection, Jim.
I agree that digital cameras have greatly improved, but these improvements can be genuinely appreciated and fully taken advantage of by a relatively small group of top-notch photographers.
The same goes for new lenses, which can produce pure magic in skilled hands and under the right conditions. However, most dedicated amateurs and semi-professionals probably reach the summit of their technical capabilities with whatever they already have.
A very narrow and difficult path leads to an even higher artistic summit. Only those with real talent, training, perfect planning, and timing will ever get there.
