Better Beamer and Hawks

Steve Cavigliano

Hello all,
I was mentioning to Ian, that one of the things I liked about the Palo Alto Baylands is that it has a good sized raptor population. He mentioned that he was there last week shooting the helicoptors that were helping the workers string the high tension lines, on the towers. I told him I was there too, and had tried out the Better Beamer with the Bigma and gotten some good results. I told him about the really nice underwing shot I got of a nice big redtail, only to have the shot ruined by a large piece of one of the towers....lol Guess which one of these it was :lol


I am at a loss on this one. I don't know what kind of raptor this is :dunno I've seen lots of them around the Baylands, but can't ID it. :scratch



Adult Redtail


Adult Redtail


20D, Bigma, ISO800, F8, 1/2500-1/3200 and the Better Beamer in E-TTL


As always, comments are welcome :-)



Thanks for looking,
Steve

Ann McRae

Hey Steve

I just opened this post when my 10 yr old walked in and said
"That's a great shot!"
I gotta agree!

lovely

ann

pathfinder

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Hello all,
I was mentioning to Ian, that one of the things I liked about the Palo Alto Baylands is that it has a good sized raptor population. He mentioned that he was there last week shooting the helicoptors that were helping the workers string the high tension lines, on the towers. I told him I was there too, and had tried out the Better Beamer with the Bigma and gotten some good results. I told him about the really nice underwing shot I got of a nice big redtail, only to have the shot ruined by a large piece of one of the towers....lol Guess which one of these it was :lol


I am at a loss on this one. I don't know what kind of raptor this is I've seen lots of them around the Baylands, but can't ID it.



Adult Redtail


Adult Redtail


20D, Bigma, ISO800, F8, 1/2500-1/3200 and the Better Beamer in E-TTL


As always, comments are welcome :-)



Thanks for looking,
Steve

Steve - Excellent shots of raptors in flight. Something I've always wanted to capture, but in the days before AutoFocus and long glass a very challenging task. I never succeeded.

I think the first image is a juvenile Northern Harrier - possibly a female. The light ring of feathers around the neck looks like the images in Wheeler & Clark's Raptors of North America page 30.

ian408

Steve bigma Cavigliano wrote:

I think it might be a Northern Harrier. I was confused by the colour at first.

Out of curiosity, what's the "throw" with a beamer? It looks like it's open at
the top/bottom...

Ian

pathfinder

ian408 wrote:

Steve bigma Cavigliano wrote:

I think it might be a Northern Harrier. I was confused by the colour at first.

Out of curiosity, what's the "throw" with a beamer? It looks like it's open at
the top/bottom...

Ian

Great Minds Ian

ian408

pathfinder wrote:

Great Minds Ian

Yeah. I picked up "The Sibley Guide to Birds" for exactly that reason--I
miss ID'ed the bird first time around...

ian

pathfinder

ian408 wrote:

Yeah. I picked up "The Sibley Guide to Birds" for exactly that reason--I
miss ID'ed the bird first time around...

ian

We'll have to chat at Yosemite and compare lenses

Steve Cavigliano

Ann McRae wrote:

Hey Steve

I just opened this post when my 10 yr old walked in and said
"That's a great shot!"
I gotta agree!

lovely

ann

Ann,
Thank you and thanks to your 10 year old My wife liked it too. Even though I put it up last week, she saw it for the first time tonight....lol

Thanks for looking,
Steve

ian408

pathfinder wrote:

We'll have to chat at Yosemite and compare lenses

We MUST invite fish

Ian

Steve Cavigliano

pathfinder wrote:

Steve - Excellent shots of raptors in flight. Something I've always wanted to capture, but in the days before AutoFocus and long glass a very challenging task. I never succeeded.

I think the first image is a juvenile Northern Harrier - possibly a female. The light ring of feathers around the neck looks like the images in Wheeler & Clark's Raptors of North America page 30.

PF,
Thanks for the nice words and I appreciate the ID info. I thought the wing markings looked like a harrier, but I was looking online and I was really looking for the ring of feathers description.

Yep, catching a flying bird without AF (and AI Servo) is an exercise in futility, IMO. I was telling Ian that sometimes the Bigma's AF gets lost in the sky (when the subject moves out of the frame, or I lose it). You then have to point it at the ground or something close and contrasty, to let it get it's bearings. At 500mm and a 1.6 FOV, even bigger birds like hawks can whiz in and out of the VF very quickly. Add to that, handholding 6 pounds of camera and lens and shooting flying birds still has it's challenges.....lol But, I do know what you mean. One of my fav cameras was a MF Pentax Spotmatic II. Great camera, sweet 50mm 1.4 lens. But no good for tracking moving objects.

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

ian408 wrote:

I think it might be a Northern Harrier. I was confused by the colour at first.

Out of curiosity, what's the "throw" with a beamer? It looks like it's open at
the top/bottom...

Ian

Ian,
Thanks for the ID help. I believe you are right and I think PF might be right that it's a female Northern Harrier.

It's a couple pieces of thin injection molded plastic for sides (they fit around the head and are secured, not very well, with a velcro strap). A plastic fresnel screen, which attaches to the sides with velco, has ever expanding circular grooves cut from the center outward, Yes, no top, no bottom. But, it seems to really focus the light farther (thinner beam, longer distance). They advise not using it with any lens less than 300mm and to set the flash zoom to 50mm. As I told you, even in E-TTL, it fries anything 20 feet on in. But, it does seem to do well out to maybe 80+ feet. Next time, I'm going to put the flash in Manual, versus E-TTL, and use 100% intensity.

Thanks for looking,
Steve

ian408

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Ian,
Thanks for the ID help. I believe you are right and I think PF might be right that it's a female Northern Harrier.

It's a couple pieces of thin injection molded plastic for sides (they fit around the head and are secured, not very well, with a velcro strap). A plastic fresnel screen, which attaches to the sides with velco, has ever expanding circular grooves cut from the center outward, Yes, no top, no bottom. But, it seems to really focus the light farther (thinner beam, longer distance). They advise not using it with any lens less than 300mm and to set the flash zoom to 50mm. As I told you, even in E-TTL, it fries anything 20 feet on in. But, it does seem to do well out to maybe 80+ feet. Next time, I'm going to put the flash in Manual, versus E-TTL, and use 100% intensity.

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Mine was a female but there's no way I could sex a bird....one of my
motorcyle friends is a biologist and got this one ID'ed.



I do like what the BB seems to do for fill lighting and for $40, it's worth
a try. Did you upgrade the batteries in the flash? I have a Quantum
battery that's just the ticket.

Ian

gus

That Bigma certainly cuts the mustard steve....love your work mate

Harryb

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Hello all,
I was mentioning to Ian, that one of the things I liked about the Palo Alto Baylands is that it has a good sized raptor population. He mentioned that he was there last week shooting the helicoptors that were helping the workers string the high tension lines, on the towers. I told him I was there too, and had tried out the Better Beamer with the Bigma and gotten some good results. I told him about the really nice underwing shot I got of a nice big redtail, only to have the shot ruined by a large piece of one of the towers....lol Guess which one of these it was :lol

Hey Steve,

Very good shots there. I've been considering getting the better beamer. How is it working for you?

Harry

phyfer1

Beautiful

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Hello all,
I was mentioning to Ian, that one of the things I liked about the Palo Alto Baylands is that it has a good sized raptor population. He mentioned that he was there last week shooting the helicoptors that were helping the workers string the high tension lines, on the towers. I told him I was there too, and had tried out the Better Beamer with the Bigma and gotten some good results. I told him about the really nice underwing shot I got of a nice big redtail, only to have the shot ruined by a large piece of one of the towers....lol Guess which one of these it was :lol


I am at a loss on this one. I don't know what kind of raptor this is I've seen lots of them around the Baylands, but can't ID it.



Adult Redtail


Adult Redtail


20D, Bigma, ISO800, F8, 1/2500-1/3200 and the Better Beamer in E-TTL


As always, comments are welcome :-)



Thanks for looking,
Steve

#1 is majestic, great shot.

Steve Cavigliano

Humungus wrote:

That Bigma certainly cuts the mustard steve....love your work mate

Thanks Gus When you make it up to Yosemite, I'll let ya play around with it The Bigma I mean :roll

Thanks again,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

Harryb wrote:

Hey Steve,

Very good shots there. I've been considering getting the better beamer. How is it working for you?

Harry

Thanks Harry

I've only used it one time and that was in E-TTL mode. I think it worked decently, but I think I'll get more light using the flashes Manual full power setting. I hope to get away sometime this week to check it out. But, rain is in the forecast, so I might not be able to check it out until next week.

I do have to admit, the price is right. The set up is a bit flimsy (see my post to Ian), and I'm thinking of replacing the velcro strap with a wide rubber band. Last time I used it, when I pointed my lens downwards, the darn thing slipped off my flash head....lol

Anywho, stay tuned, more to come

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Steve Cavigliano

phyfer1 wrote:

#1 is majestic, great shot.

Phyfer,
Thank you very much I like that little glint in his/her eye


Thanks for looking,
Steve

LouBuonomo

Steve,


Nice raptor shots. I think the harrier could take a touch more USM to punch it up.

Some of us our club have done some beamer tests and have had better results setting it at 70mm. I also put velcro on my 550EX and the sides of the beamer. The band is a pain in the arse.

I tend to shoot with the 550EX in manual for most of the nature shots. I use and Incident meter to get an exposure read then using the scale on the lenes determine distance... then I set my flash strenght from there. I do use E-TTL sometimes.

Thanks for sharing the raptors !

Lou

Ric Grupe

This is a really...
...fine shot. I love the way he's looking right back through the lens at you!