GBH (3 shots)

Ric Grupe · July 24, 2006

These are my first usable captures of a GBH.....not that good.....I know, but I was glad to be able to be there and get them.

I'm finding that it ain't all that easy to hold still with the 300 f/4 with the 1.4 TC attached.:cry

Osprey Whisperer · July 24, 2006

Well done Ric. Nice to see you captured some GBHs.

ginger_55 · July 24, 2006

Hi, Ric! Cool, your GBH flew! Mine sit and look at me for hours, start to fly, look at me, and sit right on back down.

Pretty good shots, there, don't know what else you coulda done! They alway, or usually, fly "away". They are smart birds, but I don't know why they are not more photo friendly.

As far as holding. Well, people tell me you can't, or "I" can't. But I can, unless I am exhausted.
Or nervous.

My first usable sighting of a GBH would stress me into mega camera shake, motion blur, wrong settings, etc. Guaranteed.

So give it a bit, practice, lean on trees. If you lean on people, they have to stop breathing or they ruin the photo, I have found that out.

Above all practice holding. Hold onto the collar thing with the free hand, elbows in, probably all the stuff you are doing. Oh, don't you breathe either.

I used to use a 300mm with IS, now I use a 400mm w/o IS. I have used an extender on both. I don't remember a problem with the 300 (I was a year younger then, Andy said advanced age may have diminished my ability to handhold:D , no joke), anyway, there is more of a problem with the 400. And it doesn't have to do with handholding. With the extender on, it doesn't focus as fast. For me it is a choice between those sweet closer shots I can get with the extender on a standing still bird, and the easier AF I get w/o the extender. Lately, if I am aiming for a bird to fly, I have chosen to take the extender off.

I am kind of torn on the subject and I am often seen, if that is the right word, with the extender lying beside me as I kneel begging a GBH to just please fly.

Good luck and good shooting,
cool birds,

ginger