First try at birds

jeffreaux2 · June 6, 2007

I got a few keepers, and haven't had time to sort through it all yet. I took about 100 of the eagle nest, but it was at the limit of the 70-300mmIS lens's capabilities. Hopefully I have a sharper one lurking on the card.

All except the eagles were shot from a boat. There were 3 infant eagles, and at times the mother on the nest. The adult male circled now and then, but wouldn't let me get a clear shot.

jeff lapoint · June 7, 2007

Hi and welcome to bird photography!

Looks like you did pretty well for your first try...much better than mine at least!

You handled the often tough exposure on that first snowy really well too

Its always tough for most of us to get in close to those osprey, although there are some real masters here on the board.

Bird photography can be quite difficult and that (and a love of nature

) is what draws many of us in! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work

BTW, I very much enjoyed your Chattanooga galleries on your website!

-Jeff

Ric Grupe · June 7, 2007

jeff lapoint wrote:

Hi and welcome to bird photography!

Looks like you did pretty well for your first try...much better than mine at least!

You handled the often tough exposure on that first snowy really well too

Its always tough for most of us to get in close to those osprey, although there are some real masters here on the board.

Bird photography can be quite difficult and that (and a love of nature) is what draws many of us in! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work

BTW, I very much enjoyed your Chattanooga galleries on your website!
-Jeff

Jeff said everything I was going to say! (we must both be real smart guys

) (or not

)

jeffreaux2 · June 7, 2007

jeff lapoint wrote:

Hi and welcome to bird photography!

Looks like you did pretty well for your first try...much better than mine at least!

You handled the often tough exposure on that first snowy really well too

Its always tough for most of us to get in close to those osprey, although there are some real masters here on the board.

Bird photography can be quite difficult and that (and a love of nature) is what draws many of us in! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work

BTW, I very much enjoyed your Chattanooga galleries on your website!

-Jeff

The osprey were tough. I knew from taking some photos of some bluebirds in a nesting box in my yard that I would have to overexpose them. At zero exposure compensation they were nearly just a sillouette. I started at zero and walked the compensation up at 1/3 stop increments all the way to 2 stops over. The limitation was the lens. Any closer, and I would have probably been too far under the nest to see what was going on above. Also, There didn't seem to be enough contrast on the nest for the lense to get a good auto focus on. I tried manual focus, but without a good split focus screen I am no good at this. Especially after taking 30 or 40 pictures, I have trouble focusing my eyes. It seemed that the ones I shot without the stabilization turned on were sharper. I was using a tripod so this makes sense. Next time I will bring a couple extenders for the lense, and a remote so I can utilize the mirror lock-up feature. I could actually see the camera shake while looking in the viewfinder using the timer to snap the shot.

As far as getting close, there was two fishermen in a boat about 60 yards to the right of the nest in open water. They were making no attempt to be quiet. We were hid out under cover on a thin strip of island that we had parked the boat on the other side of. The birds were very aware that we were there. Every time we spoke, the adult female would swivel that head around and lock eyes with us.

Question. I am planning to get a 70-200mm F2.8 lens. Would this be better for this sort of thing with a 2x extender than the 70-300mmIS I was using? I would think so, but like I said it was my first attempt.

Harryb · June 7, 2007

You're off to a good start. You did better than my first attempts at bird shooting. Its a very addicting and a very challenging type of photography.

The 70-200 with a TC should get you sharper shots. My personnel favorite wildlife lens in the Nikon line-up (considering cost vs. performance) is the 300mm F/4. It has fine IQ, does well wide open, and works well with the 1.4 & 1.7 TC.

Netgarden · June 7, 2007

Harryb wrote:

You're off to a good start. You did better than my first attempts at bird shooting. Its a very addicting and a very challenging type of photography.

The 70-200 with a TC should get you sharper shots. My personnel favorite wildlife lens in the Nikon line-up (considering cost vs. performance) is the 300mm F/4. It has fine IQ, does well wide open, and works well with the 1.4 & 1.7 TC.

Great start Jeff. There are a few which could be sharper, I am thinking you maybe had too slow a shutterspeed on those? I find I get a higher percentage of keepers by choosing shutterspeed first, based on the birds subtle movements and how much light available. You'll be addicted soon like us!

Thusie · June 8, 2007

Really good start!!!

bigpix · June 8, 2007

very nice work.......

First try at birds

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