Not necessarily the most spectacular or rare birds, but one can't always be too picky when birding from their work desk.
Despite the bad lighting conditions of the past few days, I'm getting all I can out of my 70-300mm IS before it leaves tomorrow. I'll actually miss this little guy for its versatility. Then, the 400mm/5.6 should arrive
A friend and I inherited this dog for an evening - lost, wondering the streets. We connected with the humane society and were told that this dog is notorious for being an escape artist. Great looking dog...
5. http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r265/rosseau52/JasmineHusky1.jpg
I like the poses and composition of 1, but the background is pretty sloppy. 2 just isn't sharp enough. 3 and 4 are sort of boring, I wasn't sure how to shoot this animal in the conditions given.
Josh these might not be woow shots but not bad at all. #4 is a great portrait given the lighting conditions (all that snow around). I'm still hanging on to my 70-300 IS and it gives me decent results. My grief is that is too short and I'm losing AF since I always use it with a Kenko Tc on it. (see my current thread here on 1st page).
I'm upgradind for the 100-400mm IS or the 300mm F2.8 pretty soon (I hope).
When you get to reshoot #1 with your 400mm you'll be able to be able to get in closer and blur the background giving the exact same shot a little more punch and isolating one bird. (they're male H.Sparrows by the way - winter plumage)
Having never seen a real porcupine, I don't find those shots boring at all . Good luck with your new kit.
Fizzog - I changed the title... Thanks! I'm a pretty mediocre birder thus far - I'm working on it.
The porcupine barely even cared that we were there. I was probably 6 feet away from it. They're slow and I suppose their aresenal of quills allows for them to walk about this way. The dog was only a foot or two away.... It was pretty hectic. In this area, one of the most common things the vets do is pull quills from the faces of dogs.
Josh, sparrows can be great subjects. I have photographed 100's
when nothing else was available, But as with any small bird, getting close
is the best....not always a long lens, but physically close for best detail.
You will like the 400, especially with a 1.4X tc for 560mm.. Without IS, work
on technique and you will be amazed at what the lens and you can produce
I'm reluctant to stick the 1.4x tc on for the sake of IQ. Although, I doubt it would be the limiting factor in the set up (that would be me).
Currently I'm using a 1.6x crop body, so with the 400mm I "effectively" have 640mm without a tc. 896mm with a 1.4x tc! (is that right?)
Do most people shooting 400mm here use TCs?
Being a student, cash can be tight.... So, I think the next purchase will be a 40D. But we'll see.... I chose to get this new glass over getting a new body... I hope it was the right decision.
. Good luck with your new kit.