and one with the Nikon TC-14E version III... at the time I did not had the setup calibrated and ended up setting it to +9 with TC
but because of the distance and small F8 aperture I don't think you wil notice front of back focus
arbitrage wrote:
Nice specimen to find on a neighborhood walk!! Wish I was so lucky. I've been using the PF at 700mm a lot...despite having to dial in an MFA value way more than I expected, it has been a sweet 700mm lens.
Geoff around here I can find 4 hawks a day but NO Anna's !!
Christian H wrote:
This is where the poor subject isolation of an f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm comes home to roost, as it were. If only they'd made it f/4 or 600 mm :-(
Boy, have you missed the point why most people buy and are happy with this lens.
Plus, a lot of people don't give a hoot about the background.
I'd think it would take a dedicated 'birder' from AZ or New Mexico to discern the difference.
Heck I've gotten pretty good with Red-tailed hawks but got seriously tricked by one of those too on the trip....ever heard of a Western Red-tailed Dark Phase? I'll get one posted up sometime in the near future.
Red-tail....underwing shots give it away as it has the dark bar on the leading edge of the wing between shoulder and wing tip...only red-tails have that...
Imagemaster wrote:
Boy, have you missed the point why most people buy and are happy with this lens.
Plus, a lot of people don't give a hoot about the background.
The fact that " a lot of people don't give a hoot about the background " is painfully evident in the majority of photographs that are posted here and on other sites. That's certainly not a good thing. Fact is, unless you pay critical attention to your backgrounds, you will never move on to the next step from mediocrity. A poor background will destroy an otherwise award winning photo quicker than a little blur, noise, or misplaced focus point any day of the week.
TO BE CLEAR; I'm not speaking specifically to images from this thread and when I say YOU, I don't mean (you-Imagemaster). Just speaking in general terms.
Just left the local shop in Houston, they have one in back which is going through the wait list, I can only assume they had quite a few come through their hands as I had received 2 from them. To add, I also put money down(not full payment) for my pre-orders.
Here's another Red-tailed Hawk.
I feel good about this shot, not about the shot but how it came to be. The day before while exploring Chaco Canyon from 1/4 mile away I spotted white-wash on the cliff face.
Found the hawk, shot him and will post that shot when I get to it, but the next morning found him again out and about and worked him for about an hour.
Actually I didn't find the hawk at first but the two Ravens dive bombing a tree down in the wash.
At first I thought wow another kind of hawk.....me getting tricked again by this highly morphic species!
So not just a Red-tailed Hawk but a Western Dark Morph
Got him flying too, will post that up sometime.
Forgot to mention I love these dark RTH variants. Not that I don't like our Eastern counterparts but dark morphs look way more hawkish!
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Here's another Red-tailed Hawk.
I feel good about this shot, not about the shot but how it came to be. The day before while exploring Chaco Canyon from 1/4 mile away I spotted white-wash on the cliff face.
Found the hawk, shot him and will post that shot when I get to it, but the next morning found him again out and about and worked him for about an hour.
Actually I didn't find the hawk at first but the two Ravens dive bombing a tree down in the wash.
At first I thought wow another kind of hawk.....me getting tricked again by this highly morphic species!
So not just a Red-tailed Hawk but a Western Dark Morph
Got him flying too, will post that up sometime.
Forgot to mention I love these dark RTH variants. Not that I don't like our Eastern counterparts but dark morphs look way more hawkish! ...Show more →
Nice shot. The branch behind the bird is in focus, the bird is soft. Either the camera grabbed focus on the branch, or your lens/camera is back focusing. Without your shot details, it's difficult to say.
If the branches are brighter than the bird, this can easily happen. Use of single point and holding the lens steady can help but ideally the background should be less bright than the subject so as to avoid the distraction.
Perfect? Ha! I don't care, I was just excited to get another hawk out west.
Here's the dark morph again, I just love the more serious look compared to our eastern RTH's
Nikon D500
500.0 mm f/5.6
ƒ/8.0 700.0 mm 1/2500 360
