Midwest Shoot with gluwater, and a Chicagoland delurking suggestion

David_S85

Gluwater contacted me early this week and invited me to shoot with him, as he is learning his new 400 5.6 L along with the Tamron 1.4x TC. This is an awesome combo. This TC is so much more the better match for the 400 than Canon's own TC. You lose a stop, but can shoot tack sharp wide open at 5.6 and the 20D is only slightly slower focusing than native 400. And the 400 is very light.

Glu shot entirely tripodded, but I wanted to try it on my cam, with and without the TC. More on that in a minute.

We met at Fullersburg Woods in Hinsdale, IL. Amazingly, the sun decided to make an appearance -- the clouds disappearing the moment we strapped on our cameras. That never happens around here. I'm hoping that's a good omen for Utah in May.

I was focal challenged, as currently the longest lens in my arsenal is the Tamron 28-75 plus my own 1.4TC. Not enough for tiny birds in tall trees. Even with the bright sun, the landscape was rather flat today, so there wasn't much I decided to shoot. No matter, as I'm sure Glu will be by here soon enough to park his duck and squirrel close-up shots next. There was also some out of place colorful wild parrot hiding on top of a tree.

Here is gluwater causing a family of ducks great concern


At the end of the morning, he gave me the opportunity to attach the 400 to my cam. I also added my own TC, for a total of 896mm. Here is a 100% crop of a 2 inch bolt from across the river and about 250 feet away, out of cam and unprocessed. This was shot handheld at 1/3200th, but some other frames at 1/400th also looked solid, which surprised me since that's way below the 1/800th suggested shutter. OK, tripods are optional I guess.


Sure looks sharp to me! I also aimed one at my van in the lot across the street and could tell the tread depth of the tires I need to replace. I could detect no CA whatsoever, and 5.6 is as sharp as any of the mid settings. Truly an amazing hunk of glass. I want one!

Now... some DGrin business...
There's a few DGrinners in the Chicagoland area that we know of, but more of you need to de-lurk yourselves. Hey, where are you guys and gals? This is an invite to get a larger group together and go shoot something.
This thread is where local shoot suggestions are proposed.

gluwater

It was a pleasure meeting David today and hope to meet more people from the area in the future. The day started out dreary but all of a sudden we turned around and the sky was crystal clear. It would have been nice to have a couple little white puffy clouds in the sky but it was alright. The local ducks were where they always are but there wasn't too much besides that. A couple woodpeckers and other little birds that all seemed to stay behind enough branches to ruin most of my shots. So here are a couple I decided to keep and also a tree rat that was in a pack of about 10-15 scurrying about the trees. Hope you like and if you want to meet up we're just post away.

I did like this shot of a boring duck with bright orange feet and a nice reflection.

David_S85

We yelled at those squirrels outloud to pose just for Harry and they were more than happy to oblige.

That 400 has quite a reach alright. That's the same duck as in the deep background with my 75 above. Besides the elusive and shy parrot, the duck above was the most color we got. A day more suited for B&W.

Gluwater is going to be studying Nikon specs for the next two weeks cramming for what will no doubt seem like a beleaguering seige of Nikonians down in Florida. Might come in handy to pick up that local camera lingo where Canon is an unknown. Those big beige lenses are safe though, since not many of those shooters will be able to "borrow" any of your long glass from you.

It was great to finally meet glu - actually the first forum shooter I've ever met up with from here or that "other" forum I came from. With such a large populated area, there really should be more local meetups here. Plenty of quality places to shoot at.

gluwater

That's pretty cool that you got that pic of my taking a pic, it really shows it from a different perspective. I have enough problems remembering the Canon stuff, I really don't need to get into the Nikon stuff I wouldn't even know where to start. I'll leave that up to Harry. It would be nice to try out someones 500 though, but I don't think there will be any Canons that large there. I got my RRS stuff BTW. All I need now is my Better Beamer to arrive and to get an off camera shoe cord. This is what it looks like so far. The ring around the lens barrel is the Flash arm.

David_S85

Suweeet RRS stacking you've got going there.

Your better beamer might be found here. I finally found that thread and have replied to it near the end. What a riot that discussion is.

cyoung

Hi David and Gluwater, I'm also a fellow Chicagoan....well not really anymore..moved out to far far NW Burbs. With a 8 monther at the house..its hard to go out to shoot now! But as things settle down a bit, it would be fun to come out to meet other Dgrinners....although I'll feel intimidated with my newbie knowledge

Stormdancing

I'm about 5 hours S of Chicagoland.
Maybe down the road when things are a little more settled for me, I can join y'all in a shoot together. Sure would be fun.

DanielB

gahhh when you said midwest you got my hopes up:cry

gluwater

cyoung wrote:

Hi David and Gluwater, I'm also a fellow Chicagoan....well not really anymore..moved out to far far NW Burbs. With a 8 monther at the house..its hard to go out to shoot now! But as things settle down a bit, it would be fun to come out to meet other Dgrinners....although I'll feel intimidated with my newbie knowledge

Well technically neither David or I are actually in Chicago, wer're both in the suburbs also. I'm sure your little one is keeping you busy, but at least it gives you something cute to shoot at home. It would be great to meet you whenever you can find the time. You can post a meet you would like to set up or check for others in the Midwest Meetup Thread. You can subscribe to the thread so if someone posts to it you will get an e-mail. Don't worry if you think your a Newb at this, the best way to learn is to meet others. I only got my first Dslr less than a year ago so I really don't know much but it's still fun and to me that's what it's all about.