One ugly bird

Harryb · January 13, 2005

The Wood Stork ain't pretty but he is impressive. Their length is 35-45 inches with a wingspan of 65 inches.

Harry

John Mueller · January 13, 2005

But you made him beautiful Harry

lynnma · January 13, 2005

Harryb wrote:

The Wood Stork ain't pretty but he is impressive. Their length is 35-45 inches with a wingspan of 65 inches.

Harry

what lens harry? (I'm lens mad now) and it's a beautiful shot... his feathers are so crisp..

Andy · January 13, 2005

you have a lot in common with this bird

Harryb wrote:

The Wood Stork ain't pretty but he is impressive. Their length is 35-45 inches with a wingspan of 65 inches.

Harry

:roll

nice one, hary!

Ann McRae · January 13, 2005

Beautiful feather detail, great exposure and lighting, fab reflection. He may be a less attractive bird, but that is a great photo!

ann

Harryb · January 13, 2005

MHJS wrote:

But you made him beautiful Harry

Thank you very much John.

Harry

Harryb · January 13, 2005

Hi Lynn

lynnma wrote:

what lens harry? (I'm lens mad now) and it's a beautiful shot... his feathers are so crisp..

Ah, lens lust, I know it well. I used my current favorite lens ofr that pic, the Nikon 300mm/f4 AFS lens. I may end up selling my 80-400VR because I'm so happy with this lens. Thanks for the kind words.

Harry

ginger_55 · January 13, 2005

I think he is a beautiful bird.

It is either me or my lens, but I will never ever get a bird at a distance that sharp, and I can't justify the cost of the lens, ever, ever.........

Harry, I know about the lens. Now, do you hand hold it? What kind of tripod, if you use one? How do you prepare, do you focus manually? What do you use to focus on? The eye of the bird?

That is all I can think of now. But I keep thinking that I can at least get more out of the lens I do have. I finally thought, idiot that I was, to switch to manually focusing the other day. That did help.

I get a lot of bird into my viewfinder, but I don't think I got an eye that crisp except for the seagulls. Assuming I was using the same lens to shoot them, I mean I did not go out to shoot seagulls, so I was just killing time, so assuming I was using the same lens, they are crisp, as are the ever present pelicans. Do I just have to have my birds a few feet from me? Kind of defeats the purpose of a long lens?

ginger
Oh, the question is all in one paragraph above, the rest is "filler".

Ric Grupe · January 13, 2005

His mother would disagree with you!
Nice shot of an interesting fellow.

I'd like to see a close up of his head.

Glad to see you are back in the saddle.

Harryb · January 13, 2005

Hey Ginger

ginger_55 wrote:

I think he is a beautiful bird.

It is either me or my lens, but I will never ever get a bird at a distance that sharp, and I can't justify the cost of the lens, ever, ever.........

Harry, I know about the lens. Now, do you hand hold it? What kind of tripod, if you use one? How do you prepare, do you focus manually? What do you use to focus on? The eye of the bird?

This shot was handheld. I should have used a tripod but I still don't have my stamina back so I haven't felt like lugging it around with me. I shot it in aperture mode, with a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec at F7.1 with an ev adjustment of -0.7 (this was to prevent the white feathers from getting blown out). The high shutter speed helped keep the shoot sharp even though it was handheld. If I'm handholding I will try to keep the shutter speed no slower than 1/400 sec. If I have to up the ISO to keep the shutter speed up I make that compromise. On this shot there was compromise though as my ISO was 200.

I will usually try to focus on the shoulder of the bird. Once I get focus I will lock it in and then recompose the shot. I usually use AF unless I can't get a lock with AF.

I was never a big fan of primes until I got this lens. It is sharper then my 80-400. Very often zooms are not their sharpest at their further most reach. Also to keep them sharp you have to step down the aperture more than you would with a prime.

Finally when I shoot a shot I will take mutiple shots of the scene. I will review my histogram as I shoot and make adjustments as a shoot. I took around a dozen shots of this stork and then picked out the one I liked the best.

Harry

ginger_55 · January 13, 2005

Thanks for the info, Harry. I printed it, will put it in my backpack, until it is second nature.

When you say you autofocus on the shoulder, I assume that is like center weighted, or whatever they call it. My question is, when you say you "lock it in", do you mean that you hold the shutter thing half way down? I think that sometimes does not work and sometimes it does with me. Seems it might be that way with you, too. My blasted camera, when it is on autofocus, center weighted, it won't lock, I have the blasted thing prefocused, the bird does something cute like start to fly away, I push the shutter all the way, and the D camera has to refocus itself, back and forth, until it is hopeless as the subject is moving too fast. Doesn't that sound like fun. That is one strong reason I want another "body", camera I mean.

Also, I hate to admit it, but I checked my shutter speed last night, on the meta thing, shhh, don't tell anyone, it was quite slow, especially for the middle of the afternoon, I had the AV too high,@18, the ISO at 100 and the shutter varied from 30 to 100. I just ASSumed that the middle of the afternoon..........

Anyway, my question is: the exact method you use to lock your focus in and if you are using center weighted (if that is the correct term).

ginger

Steve Cavigliano · January 13, 2005

All Reet Harry!!!
You've taken another homely bird and made it beautiful

If you ever get into doing portraits, I could use someone with your skills

Very crisp shot, thanks for sharing it,

Steve

Shakey · January 13, 2005

Best Bird Shot I,ve seen in a long time.

Good one Harry

Tim

Harryb · January 13, 2005

Hey Ginger

ginger_55 wrote:

Thanks for the info, Harry. I printed it, will put it in my backpack, until it is second nature.

When you say you autofocus on the shoulder, I assume that is like center weighted, or whatever they call it. My question is, when you say you "lock it in", do you mean that you hold the shutter thing half way down? I think that sometimes does not work and sometimes it does with me. Seems it might be that way with you, too. My blasted camera, when it is on autofocus, center weighted, it won't lock, I have the blasted thing prefocused, the bird does something cute like start to fly away, I push the shutter all the way, and the D camera has to refocus itself, back and forth, until it is hopeless as the subject is moving too fast. Doesn't that sound like fun. That is one strong reason I want another "body", camera I mean.

Also, I hate to admit it, but I checked my shutter speed last night, on the meta thing, shhh, don't tell anyone, it was quite slow, especially for the middle of the afternoon, I had the AV too high,@18, the ISO at 100 and the shutter varied from 30 to 100. I just ASSumed that the middle of the afternoon..........

Anyway, my question is: the exact method you use to lock your focus in and if you are using center weighted (if that is the correct term).

ginger

I usually use matrix metering on my pics. The Nikon D100 has a "AE-L, AF-L" button on the back of the camera that is just to the left of the shutter release. I've selected that button from the camera's options to serve as my focus lock. Once I get focus I depress the button with my right thumb and that keeps the focus locked so I can release the shutter release and recompose the shot. It took awhile to get used to but I find it more effective.

I think I blow more shots due to not checking my settings than for any other reason. I blew a bunch of shots on the day I took this shot because I switched to spot metering for one shot and didn't change it back to matrix metering. I ended up with a bunch of blown out egret shots.

Harry

Harryb · January 13, 2005

andy wrote:

:roll

nice one, hary!

We do have a lot in common. We are both impressive and we both have large wingspans.

Harry

Harryb · January 13, 2005

Ann McRae wrote:

Beautiful feather detail, great exposure and lighting, fab reflection. He may be a less attractive bird, but that is a great photo!

ann

Thank you very much Ann.

Harry

gus · January 13, 2005

Harryb wrote:

Ah, lens lust, I know it well. I used my current favorite lens ofr that pic, the Nikon 300mm/f4 AFS lens. I may end up selling my 80-400VR because I'm so happy with this lens. Thanks for the kind words.

Harry

Harry i have done some research re this lens as im seriously considering a nikon..it looks the goods 'eh ?

http://bayimages.net/tech/equipment/nikon-300-f4-afs.html

Is it focus speed that you dont like with the 80-400 ?

.

Harryb · January 13, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Harry i have done some research re this lens as im seriously considering a nikon..it looks the goods 'eh ?

http://bayimages.net/tech/equipment/nikon-300-f4-afs.html

Is it focus speed that you dont like with the 80-400 ?

.

The 300mm/f4 is one fine piece of glass. Its light enough to be used handheld and its AF speed while not the fastest is quite good. I really like the 80-400 also but the 300mm/f4 is sharper and has better contrast in addition to faster focusing. I've been very happy with the 80-400 and I'ver gotten excellent results with it. Nikon dos not recommend using tcs with the 80-400 so its pretty much capped off at 400mm. With the 300mm I can use the 1.4,1.7 and 2.0 tcs and go past the range of the 400mm. The VR is great and I like the flexibility of the zoom but I would estimate that 90% of the time i use it at 400mm.

Since I also have the Sigma 70-200/2.8 I could sell the 80-400 and just buy some tcs for the 300mm/f4 and I would still have the same coverage as I do now with the 80-400. I'm about 75% decided to e-bay the 80-400.

Harry

Harryb · January 13, 2005

Hey Ric

Ric Grupe wrote:

Nice shot of an interesting fellow.

I'd like to see a close up of his head.

Glad to see you are back in the saddle.

I see what I can do about getting you a close up of a wood stork's head when I go back to Merritt Island. See how accomodating I am?

Thanks for the kind words.

Harry

Harryb · January 14, 2005

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

You've taken another homely bird and made it beautiful If you ever get into doing portraits, I could use someone with your skills

Very crisp shot, thanks for sharing it,

Steve

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the kind words about my stork. As for portraits forget about it. My portrait work sucks. Maybe I should make belive they are birds and see how that works out.

Harry

gus · January 14, 2005

Harry...now im just going to have to get a shot of our 'tip turkeys' we have here to show you what ugly really is.

Harryb · January 14, 2005

Shakey wrote:

Best Bird Shot I,ve seen in a long time.
Good one Harry

Tim

Thank you Tim.

Harry

Harryb · January 14, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Harry...now im just going to have to get a shot of our 'tip turkeys' we have here to show you what ugly really is.

Can't wait to see those shots. Lets see if you can out ugly me.

Harry

gus · January 14, 2005

Harryb wrote:

Can't wait to see those shots. Lets see if you can out ugly me.

Harry

You dont stand a chance Harry...i went to get a shot of one the other day as we were eating lunch in a park & one of my workmates said " mate people are going to think you some sort of sicko for wanting a photo of a bird that ugly"

One ugly bird

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