Waterfowl

Steve Cavigliano · December 15, 2004

Hello all,
I've been admiring Harry's super heron shots, so I took a long lunch and went to a nearby area with water to try my luck. It wasn't a great day lighting-wise. The sky was gray and the light was flat. Borderline lighting for the Bigma. So I used a 70-200.

Egret
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37521161
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37521274
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37522786

GBH
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37521834
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37523596
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37521036

Sorry for the links. I will be getting a smugmug account soon, Then, hopefully, I'll be able to embed images :-) Also, please excuse the number of images I linked. I don't post images very often, but boy when I do

Comments/criticisms always welcome,

Steve

Andy · December 15, 2004

hey these are really nice!

congrats on some fine work, steve... see you tomw afternoon

ehughes · December 15, 2004

Great shots Steve,

My Favortie is
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/37521161

ginger_55 · December 15, 2004

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Hello all,
I've been admiring Harry's super heron shots, so I took a long lunch and went to a nearby area with water to try my luck. It wasn't a great day lighting-wise. The sky was gray and the light was flat. Borderline lighting for the Bigma. So I used a 70-200.

Sorry for the links. I will be getting a smugmug account soon, Then, hopefully, I'll be able to embed images :-) Also, please excuse the number of images I linked. I don't post images very often, but boy when I do

Comments/criticisms always welcome,

Steve

WOW

I would have been ecstatic with just one of those shots. I do have a few favorites, don't remember which. I love the crispness of the eyes.

And the birds in flight are fantastic.

ginger

Thiago Sigrist · December 15, 2004

Steve,
those are lovely, lovely shots.

I think Ginger says it all: the birds in flight are *really* amazing. And I dig the subject sharpness combined to a soft, unobtrusing background. It works so great!

Heh, Santa (that is, me) will probably get me a lens in that range very soon, Saturday or so. If I manage to take pics as nice as these, I'll be glad.

More importantly, did I tell you it's incredibly cool to have you here at dgrin? :-)

Thanks so much for sharing!

Take care!

-- thiago

gubbs · December 15, 2004

Cool shots Steve, I really like this (the egret in flight) one, which 70-200 are you using??

John Mueller · December 15, 2004

SWEET

But hey,they dont look like no stinkin winged rats

fish · December 15, 2004

Nice tight action shots. great!

Harryb · December 16, 2004

welcome to the bird butt club
Hey Steve,

I see you managed to get a fine butt shot of both the heron and the egret.

I have a few hundred of those. They always manage to give you that shot once they get tired of modeling for you.

Nice job on those shots especially the egrets. They are not easy to shoot. You really have to watch your exposure or you will blow out the feather detail. You did real well considering you were using a Canon and not a Nikon.

Harry

Michiel de Brieder · December 16, 2004

Steve:
This one:

Really stands out!!! I think it's awesome!!! And just to show that embedding is easy from pbase

just add

after it

Thanks for sharing, amazing shots!

Steve Cavigliano · December 16, 2004

Thank you Andy, Ed, Fish and Ginger :-) I really enjoy watching and shooting these big birds. To the point that I have almost driven off the road, while tracking them, when they fly over while I'm behind the wheel :lol I do the same thing with hawks and eagles on the freeway lightpoles :-O

Steve

Steve Cavigliano · December 16, 2004

Thiago Sigrist wrote:

those are lovely, lovely shots.

I think Ginger says it all: the birds in flight are *really* amazing. And I dig the subject sharpness combined to a soft, unobtrusing background. It works so great!

Heh, Santa (that is, me) will probably get me a lens in that range very soon, Saturday or so. If I manage to take pics as nice as these, I'll be glad.

More importantly, did I tell you it's incredibly cool to have you here at dgrin? :-)

Thanks so much for sharing!

Take care!

-- thiago

Thiago,
Good to see you here too buddy

We have the creme de creme here at dgrin

Everyone is just sooooo nice.

I hope Santa brings you the lens you want (since you're Santa, he better...lol) and that you enjoy it as much as I do my long lenses :-) As I wrote in Harry's eagle thread, don't expect too much. You will still have to get pretty close to birds/wildlife to lay enough pixels on them. But, the results are just gravy. The chase (figuring out how to get close enough, with the best lighting angle) is the most enjoyable part, IMO

Thanks for the comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano · December 16, 2004

gubbs wrote:

Cool shots Steve, I really like this (the egret in flight) one, which 70-200 are you using??

Thanks Gubbs :-) I like that one alot too. Those shadowed wingtips really contrast with those bright wings. I was using the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8. I really like it and for about 40% the cost of the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS, I think it's really close image quality-wise.

Thanks again,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano · December 16, 2004

MHJS wrote:

SWEET
But hey,they dont look like no stinkin winged rats

....this was one of my lucky days. At first I thought it was going to be another winged rat, commorant and Canadian geese days. Fortunately I found these two fellas (ladies). Although, there's really nothing wrong with shooting gulls (with a camera I mean :lol ) They can make for some nice subjects. Especially, in good light.

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/36614091

Thanks again,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano · December 16, 2004

Harryb wrote:

Hey Steve,

I see you managed to get a fine butt shot of both the heron and the egret. I have a few hundred of those. They always manage to give you that shot once they get tired of modeling for you.

Nice job on those shots especially the egrets. They are not easy to shoot. You really have to watch your exposure or you will blow out the feather detail. You did real well considering you were using a Canon and not a Nikon.

Harry

@ the Bird Butt Club. Not only am I a member, I'm the President :lol

Harry, when you're as homely as we are, you have to expect those birds to hightail it when we get too close

They may have pea-sized brains, but they aren't stupid....lol Ideally this is a two person job. One to scare them into taking off and the other to be stationed so they can get side shots of the flight...lol Seriously, they are so beautiful when I'm finished taking static shots of them on the ground, I feel guilty moving towards them so that they'll take off. Sort of like I am breaking a tacit trust

You know like "I sat here and let you take all those shots of me and this is how you repay my kindness?" Does it sound like I am thinking a little bit too much? :lol

Yep, those egrets blow out at the drop of a hat. I made sure I was set for -2/3 of EV comp and I also shot in RAW, to give me a bit more exposure flexability. I'm really happy with the way the 20D handles highlights. It ain't no Nikon, but it'll do

Thanks for the comments,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano · December 16, 2004

Michiel de Brieder wrote:

This one:

Really stands out!!! I think it's awesome!!! And just to show that embedding is easy from pbase just add after it
Thanks for sharing, amazing shots!

Michiel,
Thank you and that one is one of my favs too. I like the way the back feathers stand out, the position of the wings and how the dark right wingtip contrasts with the water :-)

My problem embedding is that none of my pics are 117kb, or smaller :cry I seldom use "Save for Web" because I don't like to lose the EXIF data. All my pics are usually about 400-600kb. I think that if you have a SmugMug acct, you can direct link any size pic. I have d/l'd a few pics that Andy has posted here (just to check the size) and they were around 400K. So I am surmising that SmugMugger's (that sounds illegal....lol) don't have the 117kb limit. Either that, or Andy gets special treatment

Thanks again for your comments,
Steve