MedicineMan404 wrote:
thanks Hatch. Have you been before? You'll love it. So much more than cranes and geese. I'm just lucky my task master/she-boss allowed me three days there.
Fingers crossed you have good weather. A friend went a couple of weeks ago, 12 hour drive, but only had 4 hours in the park before it was closed due to huge snow storm. When we were here last month it was bone cold in the morning 16-18F, but by afternoon I was in shorts at 54F.
We made the trip The weather held out.. and it was an amazing time!
I need a longer lens... the 300mmPF+1.7xtc did a great job... but the 500PF would have been very nice to have.
A rare occasion when I photographed a duck....as you can see from the ISO, keeping shutter speed up was an issue if I wanted to keep it sharp as it swam by.
Eric
Camera Nikon NIKON D500
Lens AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR
ISO 8000
Focal Length 500.0 mm (750.0 mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure Time 0.0008s (1/1250)
Camera Nikon NIKON D500
Lens AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR
ISO 8000
Focal Length 500.0 mm (750.0 mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure Time 0.0008s (1/1250)
If you keep practicing Eric, 1/400 or less can easily handle a swimming duck!!
arbitrage wrote:
If you keep practicing Eric, 1/400 or less can easily handle a swimming duck!!
Thanks, I'll remember that unless the gum disease makes me forget!
Eric
MedicineMan404 wrote:
I'd just like to get close enough to a swimming duck.
I think you guys are using camo kayaks?
In my experience, ducks are easier to get close to on land than on kayak. There are a couple species I've managed to get fairly close to on kayak like Harlequin duck and Mergansers but otherwise all my successful duck shots have been on land. Choosing good locations where the ducks are used to people (like in parks where kids feed them) is the best bet. Back in the Yukon there weren't many spots like that and ducks were always a frustration. Where I live now there are a number of locations where it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Loons (and grebes to a lesser extent) are extremely tolerant of a kayak and the best loon shots out there are usually from some sort of boat.
Kids had been feeding them, there's a walkway beside the river. Camera was resting on the walkway.
arbitrage wrote:
In my experience, ducks are easier to get close to on land than on kayak. There are a couple species I've managed to get fairly close to on kayak like Harlequin duck and Mergansers but otherwise all my successful duck shots have been on land. Choosing good locations where the ducks are used to people (like in parks where kids feed them) is the best bet. Back in the Yukon there weren't many spots like that and ducks were always a frustration. Where I live now there are a number of locations where it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Loons (and grebes to a lesser extent) are extremely tolerant of a kayak and the best loon shots out there are usually from some sort of boat....Show more →
I set out today to try and capture small birds in flight... and this is what I got... none in flight but a bunch of these perched on a branch Small birds are erratic! by Ken L, on Flickr
Thanks, interesting to see such a "bad" shot. The contrast looks a bit low and the bokeh balls are "busy", but nothing really bad. This is reassuring because I frequently need such shots with specular highlights from sunlight reflecting on the water
The weather held out.. and it was an amazing time! 
