Digital camera's have brought many new and exciting innovations to Photography, that sometimes I think just gets confusing. We can now shoot B&W change our ISO's up to 3200 without having to change film. We have IS/VR available to us, as well as having multiple auto focus modes built into our camera's.
Sometimes all these nice features just will not work in getting the capture that you want. Now don't get me wrong, I use these features when I think it will benefit me, but I limit my ISO to the lowest setting for the best detail and most of my lenses do not have IS/VR on them.
Both of these were taken using a 600mm on a tripod. No IS/VR and both were taken by manually focusing.
The first one is of a flock of blackbirds at the Bosque. If you have ever watched these little fellows you know how quickly they change direction in flight. I spent a couple of hours following them with my camera trying to determine the best method to capture them and the area that would make them stand out the best in the picture. Auto focus just couldn't keep up with them, so manual was the only way to go. It was mid day and the light was strong, so I could get a nice DOF using a smaller aperture and still be able to use an ISO of 200 (lowest setting for the D2h). http://www.natureinphotos.com/images/Bosque/_DSC0159Blackbirds.jpg
This next one was just as the sun was rising. The light level was very low, which makes auto focus a little iffy, so again I used manual focus. Fortunately the subject was very static and I was using a Kodak 14n with a ISO setting of 80. The shutter speed was 1/20 sec, a long exposure for that size of lens with no IS/VR. http://www.natureinphotos.com/images/Bosque/A3232-Contemplating-Sunrise.jpg
I am not saying that my photography is great or my techniques the best. These are just a couple examples that show you want can be done with any camera if you just take the time and think the shot through. Either of these could have been taken with a 300mm, the heron probably would have needed a 1.4TC along with the 300mm.
Three great shots there. I think that the first one is special, though. It really has a three dimensional look to it. Did you do any special post processing to get that separation of birds and background, or is that all in-camera?
Not sure what happened to the crane, though. Looks like he got his foot shortened by a bit. Looks like he's giving you the big "4" sign with his legs.
That first shot is quite amazing, as if the birds are on some focal plane that doesn't quite exist in that landscape. I can see where you would have to manually focus with so many subjects, and you did it perfectly.
ronbo wrote:
Three great shots there. I think that the first one is special, though. It really has a three dimensional look to it. Did you do any special post processing to get that separation of birds and background, or is that all in-camera?
Not sure what happened to the crane, though. Looks like he got his foot shortened by a bit. Looks like he's giving you the big "4" sign with his legs.
Thank you Ronbo! This is straight from the camera, so to speak. I shoot raw with no sharpening. My process on this was to set the sharpening to Normal in NC, then set the black point in curves and adjusted the contrast a tad and that's it. The background seperation is due to the large distant to it from the birds.
If you have ever have followed some of THicks post about his lack of PS skills that pretty much describes me as well. We are both Putz's when it comes to that. Another thing Tom and I have in common is that we are both anal when it comes to compostion. Actually I have shot with Tom before and I believe he may be more anal than me in that department.
As I mentioned in my post, I literally speak hours panning these birds, making adjustments to my setup and using the preview feature on the camera before taking any pictures. That is one nice thing about the Bosque, there are so many of each type of bird that you can take your time to create a capture.
dennislrz wrote:
The first one is unbelievable! I think you posted one just like that last year correct? Anyway terrific shots.
Thanks Dennis! Yes this is the same one. I have been running a series from last years FM meet there so that people that may be interested in visting the Bosque this year might get an idea of what is there. Stupid me forgot to mention it in this post. I have been reading some post where people have been asking about shutter speed, IS and ISO's so I was trying to combine the subjects in this post.
gerov wrote:
beautiful shots Gary. The lighting and color on the first two are just wonderful.
love the bird giving the bird on the last one....
Bingo we have a Winner! The bird is giving me the bird. I have zoomed in on it to try and figure out what the heck was going on. The best I can tell is that his toes were closed and covered with a lot of mud which makes it looks that way and it was extremely muddy there.
rcarboni wrote:
That first shot is quite amazing, as if the birds are on some focal plane that doesn't quite exist in that landscape. I can see where you would have to manually focus with so many subjects, and you did it perfectly.
I love the capabilities of auto focus, but until they get it to read my mind I will have to stick with manual when needed.
Laura Hughes wrote:
Beautiful shots and informative commentary.
Thank you Laura! I guess I am just an Old Dog from film days and manual lenses, the hard part is learning all this new fangled stuff that is now available to us.
We can now shoot B&W change our ISO's up to 3200 without having to change film. We have IS/VR available to us, as well as having multiple auto focus modes built into our camera's. 