Big Ugly and some from last weekend

jeff lapoint

Testing the new cheapo 1.4 TC today and came across this monster








They looked a tad soft to me until I caught the exif: the top 2 were at a shutter speed of 1/1000...not bad considering that with the TC I'm at 896mm and it was partly sunny at best. Hopefully these will only get better.


Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting with Ben, Angelo, and Brett. I felt like I got skunked pretty hard and after seeing how good their photos were I may have dragged my feet a bit in posting

Here's an unidentified raptor we got buzzed by. Not a good photo, but may be ok for ID sake.



Everytime I look at this shot I am just that much more tempted to start replacing my bacgrounds in PS...



Now I know what all the kingfisher fuss was about. This guy taunted me the entire day



Here's the kestrel I scared off before Angelo could get a shot of it (sorry dude)



For some reason, this was my favorite shot of the day



Getting skunked is not so bad if the company rocks Nice to meet you lads and I hope we can do it again real soon!

-j

bfjr

all good Doc

like big ugly and I see your following the Ben rule of chopping :lol4

Open invitation to you as well .......... gonna be at Sepulveda around 1:30pm tomorrow, I know it's a long ride for ya, but love to see you there if you can !!

GraphyFotoz

Great Shots!!
What cheapo 1.4?
I'm thinking about one myself!

jeff lapoint

bfjr wrote:

all good Doc

like big ugly and I see your following the Ben rule of chopping :lol4

Open invitation to you as well .......... gonna be at Sepulveda around 1:30pm tomorrow, I know it's a long ride for ya, but love to see you there if you can !!

If we keep doing the crop it becomes a style and we can call it art and make millions my friend.

Yeah that guy came right up on me so I tried to stay with the eye.

Tomorrow sounds great! I try to make and damn the traffic consequences!

-j

jeff lapoint

GraphyFotoz wrote:

What cheapo 1.4?
I'm thinking about one myself!

TY Graphy! I'm using the tamron 1.4x TC with the 400 5.6L. It makes the lens s l o w (f8) so you need to have the best lighting conditions to make it work out for you. Cheaper than a 500 though!

-j

Harryb

Good shots Jeff. I can see you been hanging around Ben. He must have taught you how to chop those wings off. Seriously the vulture shots are Ok, sometimes you don't need the whole bird in the shot.

Sometime you have to blow the sky to expose the subject properly and that works too as your shot shows.

Excellent set. Don't you just hate kingfishes. That's one evil bird.

Angelo

Hey Jeff, I was afraid to open your post titled "Big Ugly". I thought it might be a picture of me perched on that fallen eucalyptus tree.

These are all nice pictures. Don't worry about the BGs and that fave "flock" is cool!!!

If you guys are hitting Sepulveda in the "PM" I might ditch work early and join y'all.

dallas

Good shooting Jeff. They all look great, and impossible without the 1.4 teleconverter. I have heard the Tamron is very good, and was considering buying one myself. Now that I see some fine examples I'm not dissappointed in your results. Congatulations.

David_S85

jeff lapoint wrote:

TY Graphy! I'm using the tamron 1.4x TC with the 400 5.6L. It makes the lens s l o w (f8) so you need to have the best lighting conditions to make it work out for you. Cheaper than a 500 though!

-j

Are you using the black model? I thought that doesn't report aperture. Also heard it was the fastest to focus with over Canon's TC's or other options. I'm about to buy one.

jeff lapoint

David_S85 wrote:

Are you using the black model? I thought that doesn't report aperture. Also heard it was the fastest to focus with over Canon's TC's or other options. I'm about to buy one.

Black model indeed. It doesn't report the aperture to the camera so the exif will still say f5.6 in this case. You still technically lose a stop of light by the nature of the optics involved and everything is dimmer in the viewfinder and you get slower speeds regardless of what the camera *thinks* is going on.

The 400 was always good to me. With the TC on it is noticeably slower, but still very usable if you have mucho light. From what I understand it is faster than all the other options (taping/removing pins) for use when the canon TC wont AF (smaller than F 4 or 5.6-i forget..on non 1 series body). So far I havent been disappointed...

-j

jeff lapoint

Harryb wrote:

Excellent set. Don't you just hate kingfishes. That's one evil bird.

Thanks Harry. Sure am glad the forum's voice of reason is back. I can still hear Ben and Jeff chanting, "Chop off the wings!!!" and "Butt shot, butt shot, butt shot..."

The kingfishers are the devil. Like a little feathered unicorn cross bred with the attitude of a gremlin. Maybe the taxidermist has one...

-j

jeff lapoint

Angelo wrote:

Hey Jeff, I was afraid to open your post titled "Big Ugly". I thought it might be a picture of me perched on that fallen eucalyptus tree.

These are all nice pictures. Don't worry about the BGs and that fave "flock" is cool!!!

If you guys are hitting Sepulveda in the "PM" I might ditch work early and join y'all.

Nah, even that is below me. I think I'll hold those as collateral ...just in case. Remember, I do check in on the nikon cafe from time to time and I know of your collective evil plans to assimilate me

You're a blast to shoot with so I really hope you can make it tomorrow. Need me to fax over a "sick" note to work?

-j

jeff lapoint

dallas wrote:

Good shooting Jeff. They all look great, and impossible without the 1.4 teleconverter. I have heard the Tamron is very good, and was considering buying one myself. Now that I see some fine examples I'm not dissappointed in your results. Congatulations.

Thanks Dallas! Sure hope you can make it tomorrow

Angelo

jeff lapoint wrote:

Nah, even that is below me. I think I'll hold those as collateral ...just in case. Remember, I do check in on the nikon cafe from time to time and I know of your collective evil plans to assimilate me

You're a blast to shoot with so I really hope you can make it tomorrow. Need me to fax over a "sick" note to work?

-j

resistance is futile! and I have a shot of you that will bring you to submission. :photo

helmet155

You lucky bastages...out shooting pelicans at Sepulveda while I'm stuck looking at photo boards!!

Jeff nice images...I do like the pic of the marbled godwits flying with the gulls...

I'm hoping for a Sunday trip to Sepulveda, if not Sepulveda then Bolsa again...

ginger_55

Jeff, I see you got the vultures, too. At least you have some "respectable" raptors. I have given up on shooting raptors. If I see one, fine, I will shoot it, and I will go where they are said to be this winter, but I will never have them like some of you. But I have egrets! EVERYWHERE..........I shouldn't say that, they may disappear, too.

And I like your favorite shot, I love group shots of birds. Wish I could do them better.

Do you think your Turkeys are soft? They look good to me, sharp in the eye!

ginger