I shoot RAW pretty much exclusively, but have setup a preset in Lightroom that gets them in the "ballpark" pretty quickly. I agree jpegs look pretty damn good straight out of the camera, but I really don't want to have two files to deal with and Lightroom handles them in a somewhat stupid way -- by default it'll just hide the jpeg, or you can import it as a SEPARATE image which gives you doubles of everything. If I can figure out a better way to handle them I'd prefer RAW+L...
But RAW is unbeatable when you need it. I screwed up the exposure on the bird above and that is ISO 800 pushed +1.5EV in post processing.
That's cheap!!!! I just spent $300 on some grad neutral filter system 77mm and 82mm with interchangeable mounts when I could have gotten your tripod instead! Haha! Next paycheck.. Can you send the link Ping? I wanna check it out. Thanks! And great shots too buddy!
Well, the tripod legs were around $150 so I didn't add that in. The legs are Slik Pro 700DX. So figure around $350 for everything.
Here's the 393 from Adorama, $193 shipped. I think buy.com has it for $179 but for no explained reason my order with them was canceled so got from Adorama instead. http://www.adorama.com/BG3421.html
By the way, the above appears to be a green heron. So I got something new!
The closest match I could find in my western Sibley bird guide is a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron, however from the single image there are some markings absent that would confirm the ID; specifically light dots and thin lines on the wing feathers similar to those on the throat. The scale is a little hard to judge, but compared to the height of the grass he/she looks to be about 18 -24 inches tall. They do migrate to the Georgia area during Summer, so that is another possible confirmation too.
Hmm, you have sent me down the right path I think... looks like an immature night heron of some sort from what I see on my image searches. I'd say he/she was right around 18" tall. Definitely has those heron eyes. This was shot on Hilton Head island earlier today if that helps.
Could it be a young black crowned night heron perhaps?
pingflood wrote:
Hmm, you have sent me down the right path I think... looks like an immature night heron of some sort from what I see on my image searches. I'd say he/she was right around 18" tall. Definitely has those heron eyes. This was shot on Hilton Head island earlier today if that helps.
Could it be a young black crowned night heron perhaps?
Well looking closer there are some other indicators which still point to the yellow crowned (YC). The YC has a dark beak, where the black crowned (BC) would have some yellow in it. The YC has long legs with leg feathers which do not come down to the knee joint, where the BC has shorter legs and leg feathers which do come down closer to the knee. The wing spots and lines on the BC are larger/wider than those on the YC which are nearly absent on the bird you captured (could be the lines and spots are there, but due to lighting may be less evident). The body of a BC would be lighter in general than the YC (more buff color in the head and body). I could be completely off course, it might be the super rare ebony-billed charcoal lawn-heron
Some kind of hawk? Not the best shot but my first. Wife has ok'd the acquisition of a 50D to dedicated to my 400. I am getting increasingly frustrated with the AF performance when I stick the 1.4x on it -- my 20D locks faster and hunts far less with the naked 400 than my 1Ds2 does with it and the TC. I'll glue the 50D to the 400 and the 24-105 to the 1Ds2. Can't think of a much better combo.
The first bird is done really well........no evidence of postprocessing which I like to see. The background is, well.....it is what it is.
That bird is a seldom encountered cross-breed between Bald Eagle and Caracara.
Willamette wrote:
Well looking closer there are some other indicators which still point to the yellow crowned (YC). The YC has a dark beak, where the black crowned (BC) would have some yellow in it. The YC has long legs with leg feathers which do not come down to the knee joint, where the BC has shorter legs and leg feathers which do come down closer to the knee. The wing spots and lines on the BC are larger/wider than those on the YC which are nearly absent on the bird you captured (could be the lines and spots are there, but due to lighting may be less evident). The body of a BC would be lighter in general than the YC (more buff color in the head and body). I could be completely off course, it might be the super rare ebony-billed charcoal lawn-heron ...Show more →
Well, I bow down to your superior knowledge. I can barely tell a heron from an egret so the best I can do is extensive googling at this point! Thanks!
Pingflood, great capture on that chicken hawk I cut myself looking at that first one. Were those taken with your new gimbal rig? I'd be interested in your general impressions of photos before the rig and those after. I'm considering either a similar setup or a homemade Bushhawk to try and improve stabilization when tracking. Did you also try a Bushhawk prior to the gimbal rig?
The legs are Slik Pro 700DX. So figure around $350 for everything.
