Guess What I Found??? BIF

Phyxius

I still NEED a longer lens. The 70-200 is a GREAT lens, but not nearly long enough. I was actually only down at Jefferson Patterson Park on a whim. I had taken our old sliding glass doors to the dump that morning and ended up driving someone to a meeting at the park. I decided to hike around and see what I could see. Well, duh! BIRDS!

Most of these are close, if not totally, 100% crops.







I got quite a few "Evil Eye Stares"







This is the closest he got, I cropped it cause he looks like he's debating attacking me or um, you know.





Now that I know where they are I need to pick a better time of day and get a longer lens. : Sorry to post so many, but these are SOOOOO much better than the evil bald eagle pictures I got a while ago. :barb

Maestro

Wonderful BIFs. Most of the crops are still very sharp! What type of hawk is that? I don't have those kinds around my neck of the woods.

Harryb

Excellent osprey BIFs Marina. Good job on the exposure too. We all need longer glass.

Maestro

Harryb wrote:

Excellent osprey BIFs Marina. Good job on the exposure too. We all need longer glass.

That's an osprey? I guess I didn't recognize the white coloring.

Phyxius

Maestro wrote:

Wonderful BIFs. Most of the crops are still very sharp! What type of hawk is that? I don't have those kinds around my neck of the woods.

He's an Osprey. They've just returned to the area. I do know where there are some nests that had been empty all winter, but I saw them out this weekend. However, the nests are in the middle of the Patuxent River. The Benedict Bridge goes right past three man made nests, but the bridge is a tiny two lane deal with no shoulder.

The one I photographed (actually there were three flying around) were about 3/4 of a mile down a wood trail and then across a marsh and down the beach. I also scared a snake.

Oh, and around here Osprey are commonly called Seahawks and they were the mascot for my elementary school.

Phyxius

Harryb wrote:

Excellent osprey BIFs Marina. Good job on the exposure too. We all need longer glass.

Thank you : I cheated and did aperature priority mode instead of full manual. But I'll take credit As soon as I'm done paying off this lens and my video camera I'll get the Bigma.

ShepsMom

Christina, these are great images. I have 200 lens and always complain!! You did better then i, you have a great lighting, which i'm struggling with, and i usually have to crop at 100%. Great work!

Ann McRae

good work, Christina

I am still waiting for my first bif bigger than a finch! well, okay I've had a woodpecker and an owl but they weren't good bifs!

ann

Harryb

Phyxius wrote:

Thank you : I cheated and did aperature priority mode instead of full manual. But I'll take credit As soon as I'm done paying off this lens and my video camera I'll get the Bigma.

I shoot in aperture priority 95% of the time. All the pros I've met and done workshops with all recommend aperture priority. I will occasionally switch to manual mode once I get the exposure nailed in a scene in case I have to make minor exposure adjustments as the light changes (I find it easier to make fast adjustments in manual mode).

Skippy

Phyxius wrote:

I still NEED a longer lens. The 70-200 is a GREAT lens, but not nearly long enough. I was actually only down at Jefferson Patterson Park on a whim. I had taken our old sliding glass doors to the dump that morning and ended up driving someone to a meeting at the park. I decided to hike around and see what I could see. Well, duh! BIRDS!

Most of these are close, if not totally, 100% crops.
I got quite a few "Evil Eye Stares"
This is the closest he got, I cropped it cause he looks like he's debating attacking me or um, you know.

Now that I know where they are I need to pick a better time of day and get a longer lens. : Sorry to post so many, but these are SOOOOO much better than the evil bald eagle pictures I got a while ago.

Wow smarty pants, I think he likes you
Lucky he didn't crap on you he's giving you "that look"
Well congratualations on your BIF's girl ... Skippy
.

dbaker1221

great series well done

Phyxius

ShepsMom wrote:

Christina, these are great images. I have 200 lens and always complain!! You did better then i, you have a great lighting, which i'm struggling with, and i usually have to crop at 100%. Great work!

Marina,
Thank you! These birds made my day, they came ALOT closer than any other ones I've been around. Hopefully I can make it back out for a repeat performance. Now, if only I can get the hawks and bald eagles to behave as well. I still can't wait to get a longer lens so I'm not working with 100% crops.

Thanks Again,
Christina

HarryB wrote:

I shoot in aperture priority 95% of the time. All the pros I've met and done workshops with all recommend aperture priority.

That makes me feel better! Now, if only I was shooting in aperature mode today! I was down at the Tidal Basin shooting the Cherry Blossom festival when guess what I see?!?! A BALD EAGLE, I was so busy yelling "Hey, Loooooook" that I got one horrible picture since I was in full manual and had set up to shoot the very sunny washington monument. Oh well. C'est la vie...or something.

Phyxius

Ann McRae wrote:

good work, Christina

I am still waiting for my first bif bigger than a finch! well, okay I've had a woodpecker and an owl but they weren't good bifs!

ann

Ann,
Thanks! Wow, an owl?!?! I've seen like two in the wild, both times at night and they scared the crap out of me until I realized what they were. They were the big fluffy ones. Maybe we'll see an awesome bird or a dozen on the shootout!

Skippy wrote:

Wow smarty pants, I think he likes you
Lucky he didn't crap on you he's giving you "that look"
Well congratualations on your BIF's girl ... Skippy

HAHA, that's what I was worried about! I did catch a seagull "going" today. I got one horrible shot of the bald eagle. I'll hopefully get around to posting some images tonight. All of this recent shooting is getting me more and more excited for September!!

dbaker1221 wrote:

great series well done

Thanks dbaker!!!