A Few More Birds from New Mexico

pathfinder

I have finally ( I think) finished post processing my images from Bosque del Apache.:D

If you will all bear with me just a little more, I have a few images I would like to share. I still am interested in suggestions for improvement in my images.

More BIF shots Both of these were shot with a 20D at ISO 800 with a 2x Telextender and a 300mm prime - Thought 'gus would like to see what can be done with a 2x extender on a 20D since he is the proud owner of one now too





A couple of sillouhettes perhaps...




And since Harry has shown is is OK to mix birds and other creatures, a curious quadriped from western Kansas

windoze

to me the last three are stunning...



troy

pathfinder wrote:

I have finally ( I think) finished post processing my images from Bosque del Apache.:D

If you will all bear with me just a little more, I have a few images I would like to share. I still am interested in suggestions for improvement in my images.

More BIF shots Both of these were shot with a 20D at ISO 800 with a 2x Telextender and a 300mm prime - Thought 'gus would like to see what can be done with a 2x extender on a 20D since he is the proud owner of one now too





A couple of sillouhettes perhaps...




And since Harry has shown is is OK to mix birds and other creatures, a curious quadriped from western Kansas

pathfinder

windoze wrote:

to me the last three are stunning...



troy

Thank you Troy. Your shots of your owls were stunning also. I am envious of the proximity you were able to have.

I take it you did not care for the BIF shots as much. Too busy? Or poorly composed? Or just not as striking as the more colorful last three?

gus

Great PF...some of the cleanest ive seen with a 2TC...very impressed.

Mate i have absolutely no possible idea which lens/s to buy. I am very taken by the 120-300 f/2.8 sigma thats for sure & i did find some sharp shots taken with a bigma also. I dunno. Am getting the 10-22 thats a must i think.
Im a big believer in using what you have in front of you to your advantage, not wishing after what you dont have.

Khaos

I have to agree, the last three are great! Very nice!

pathfinder

Khaos wrote:

I have to agree, the last three are great! Very nice!

Thank you Khaos for your kind words.
No one apparently wants to overtly critisize the first two. I am as interested in negatives as positive statements. I am glad you enjoyed the last three.

Colorful sillouhettes can be fun... Here is another...

bfjr

The last three as well for me. Nice very

The 1st two just don't hold my attention, not being able to show my own flybys cause I got zip the ones like Harry's (hate using his name so much ) he seems to fill the frame with them, just my 2.

gus

Whats to argue about PF ? Swinging a 300 prime with a 2TC in it ....i like them.

pathfinder

bfjr wrote:

The last three as well for me. Nice very

The 1st two just don't hold my attention, not being able to show my own flybys cause I got zip the ones like Harry's (hate using his name so much ) he seems to fill the frame with them, just my 2.

I agree that filling the frame with a bird in flight makes lovely images like Harry does so well with his new D2H.

Here I was deliberately trying to include the background of the orange and ochre brush as well as the light on it. The Birds have to share the stage with the backdrop - but it does make for a a slightly confusing image perhaps - It is not as easy for the viewer ti sort out as a single Bird in flight against the sky.

pathfinder

Humungus wrote:

Whats to argue about PF ? Swinging a 300 prime with a 2TC in it ....i like them.

Thanks 'gus, somehow I thought you might appreciate then and that a 2x and a good prime can be sharp enough to satisfy most viewers. How are things in OZ?

gus

pathfinder wrote:

Thanks 'gus, somehow I thought you might appreciate then and that a 2x and a good prime can be sharp enough to satisfy most viewers. How are things in OZ?

Same as every day mate. 82f with full sun (autumn...it does get boring) You are giving me a case for a 400 L f/5.6 with a 1.4 TC thats for sure.

ian408

PF, I am insanely jealous of your shots. All of them are compositionaly very
pleasing. The siliouettes are beautiful.

I thinkt the first two are a little OE though. The whites look a little blown
out. The wing tips look ok though.

I'm going for the sunset as my favorite.

Ian

System

awesome shots, path... especially love the last one - the quadriped thingy, lol i really like first two as well, although as you mentioned the background may seem somewhat confusing or distracting... kinda busy. would be nice to have the background slightly more oof (easier said than done eh? lol). well done regardless, and great samples with the 2x tc.
sash

pathfinder

ian408 wrote:

PF, I am insanely jealous of your shots. All of them are compositionaly very
pleasing. The siliouettes are beautiful.

I thinkt the first two are a little OE though. The whites look a little blown
out. The wing tips look ok though.

I'm going for the sunset as my favorite.

Ian

Thank you for your criticism re OE Ian. When I clock the RGB values the white right next to the red on the cranes heads does clock 255,255,255. I kind of pushed this here to help seperate the birds from the background somewhat. Maybe I overdid it a bit with final sharpening. The area that is completely white is very small, but there - I may try to redo that and see if I can improve on it.

Khaos

pathfinder wrote:

Thank you Khaos for your kind words.
No one apparently wants to overtly critisize the first two. I am as interested in negatives as positive statements. I am glad you enjoyed the last three.

Colorful sillouhettes can be fun... Here is another...

Fanatastic shot. Might I suggest cropping the bottom a little?

I like the second original posted shot. I think the first doesn't have enough bokeh and the background distracts me and keeps drawing me in, away from the birds. Thanks.

pathfinder

sash wrote:

awesome shots, path... especially love the last one - the quadriped thingy, lol i really like first two as well, although as you mentioned the background may seem somewhat confusing or distracting... kinda busy. would be nice to have the background slightly more oof (easier said than done eh? lol). well done regardless, and great samples with the 2x tc.
sash

Thank you Sash. You have a very good eye from the shots I have seen you post, so I take that as a very nice compliment.

I guess I could have tried to select the background and GBlurred it more, but I preferred to keep some detail of the background. I think I'll live with what I 've got for better or worse.

The antelope was fun! - We had driven all over Colorado and New Mexico - and had seen several, but if you've ever tried to photograph antelope you know that they can depart in a heartbeat, but none anywhere near close enough to photograph.

Then as we were entering southern Kansas from western Oklahoma late in the afternoon sunlight, here were these five antelope just on the other side of the railroad tracks along the highway. So I carefully pulled over and slipped out of the truck, and this little gal just stood there and watched me while she was sidelit by that glorious late afternoon lite. The monotone of the dry grass and the antelope and the light made the image for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I do. :

pathfinder

Khaos wrote:

Fanatastic shot. Might I suggest cropping the bottom a little?

I like the second original posted shot. I think the first doesn't have enough bokeh and the background distracts me and keeps drawing me in, away from the birds. Thanks.

I thought about cropping more of the bottom of the blue sillhoutte of the 2 cranes, but decided that I needed the negative space there. Maybe I will review that again. I'm glad you liked it.

I agree that of the two BIF shots, the second image with 5 birds is much better than the first. Seems like the 5 birds are better able to stand out from the background that just the three. But I kind of like them both just the same. They are more subtle than the highly colored silouhetttes, and I kind of like that I guess.

Thank you for your suggestions, Khaos - I find these kinds of comments very helpful to me.

Dixie

pathfinder wrote:

And since Harry has shown is is OK to mix birds and other creatures, a curious quadriped from western Kansas

Nice shot of the pronghorn antelope. You were lucky getting a chance at him on two fronts. First, they have better eye sight then any deer and can spot a person from over two miles away - and usually keep that distance between themselves and the person. Second, western Kansas is the extreme eastern range of the pronghorn antelope.

pathfinder

Dixie wrote:

Nice shot of the pronghorn antelope. You were lucky getting a chance at him on two fronts. First, they have better eye sight then any deer and can spot a person from over two miles away - and usually keep that distance between themselves and the person. Second, western Kansas is the extreme eastern range of the pronghorn antelope.

I know just how spooky pronghorns can be - you're right I was just in the right place at the right time. The range of pronghorn does extend into western Kansas and north to Alberta - Kansas even has a hunting season for them.

The only other shots I've ever gotten of antelope were when they were in rutt - they seem preoccupied then and I got a few frames but it was with a cheap travel zoom that did not do them justice.

Dixie

pathfinder wrote:

I know just how spooky pronghorns can be - you're right I was just in the right place at the right time. The range of pronghorn does extend into western Kansas and north to Alberta - Kansas even has a hunting season for them.

The only other shots I've ever gotten of antelope were when they were in rutt - they seem preoccupied then and I got a few frames but it was with a cheap travel zoom that did not do them justice.

I saw literally hundreds of them in Arizona during the five years I lived there and never got close enough to get any good photos of them. About the closest I every got was between a ½-¾ of a mile. With the lenses I was using back then they looked like ants crawling across the paper.

ian408

pathfinder wrote:

Thank you for your criticism re OE Ian. When I clock the RGB values the white right next to the red on the cranes heads does clock 255,255,255. I kind of pushed this here to help seperate the birds from the background somewhat. Maybe I overdid it a bit with final sharpening. The area that is completely white is very small, but there - I may try to redo that and see if I can improve on it.

I noticed the same thing on some of my egret shots I did. Using what you'd
consider a "good" white almost always results in the image needing to be
exposure corrected--darker.

Ian

Seamus

Great shots Pf, I really like the second silhouette .


Shay.

Seamus

Humungus wrote:

Same as every day mate. 82f with full sun (autumn...it does get boring) You are giving me a case for a 400 L f/5.6 with a 1.4 TC thats for sure.

apologies for the hijack Pf,

Check these out Gus,

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=53984


Shay.

gus

ta mate...just what i needed...another lens to look at.

---

if you want a highly versatile intermediate telephoto lens that can be handheld at relatively slow shutter speeds, can be used from a boat without a tripod, is superb for sports photography, makes (with the addition of an extension tube or two) a superb macro lens that offers lots of working distance, is fabulous for shooting tame birds and other wildlife, is a great safari lens, and, is a good lens for photographing birds in flight and in action, then the Canon 300 f/4.0L IS lens might well be perfect for you.

---

Harryb

pathfinder wrote:

I have finally ( I think) finished post processing my images from Bosque del Apache.:D

If you will all bear with me just a little more, I have a few images I would like to share. I still am interested in suggestions for improvement in my images.

More BIF shots Both of these were shot with a 20D at ISO 800 with a 2x Telextender and a 300mm prime - Thought 'gus would like to see what can be done with a 2x extender on a 20D since he is the proud owner of one now too

A couple of sillouhettes perhaps...

And since Harry has shown is is OK to mix birds and other creatures, a curious quadriped from western Kansas

Hey PF,

Great shots especially the silhouette shots. Very sweet.
Just because I mixed in one non-bird shot doesn't mean that we have to make a habit of it

pathfinder

shay wrote:

apologies for the hijack Pf,

Check these out Gus,

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=53984


Shay.

These bird shots are great! - I haven't seen this forum previously, but his hummingbird shots are outstanding and must have required more patience than I possess.

pathfinder

Harryb wrote:

Hey PF,

Great shots especially the silhouette shots. Very sweet.
Just because I mixed in one non-bird shot doesn't mean that we have to make a habit of it

I'll try to behave Harry, but that little antelope was just too cute to pass up