Hawk, Ducks, GBH and Geese

PrescottPhotog · January 17, 2008

Hi Everyone,

I had the chance to shoot with a Canon 1Ds Mark III for a couple days this week. It is a beautiful beautiful camera. I had a problem with the close up fast moving BIF's because of the full frame and 21 mega-pixels. But the shots of the ducks and geese flying in as well as the clarity and detail of the ducks on the water is absolutely astonishing when viewed in larger sizes. It locked in on the distant flying ducks and geese like nothing I have ever experienced and they were a long way away.

All these are from the 1Ds Mark III. Hope you like them, comments are welcome as always.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Giphsub · January 17, 2008

#3 & #6 are my favs

Ric Grupe · January 18, 2008

Which lens did you use with the SUPER camera?

This one is very nice. I think I would have rotated the crop clockwise a tad.

This one is to die for. Just the kind of image I prefer.

The close ups are very nice too.:D

PrescottPhotog · January 18, 2008

Giphsub wrote:

#3 & #6 are my favs

Hi Mike.. Thanks for your comments

PrescottPhotog · January 18, 2008

Ric Grupe wrote:

Which lens did you use with the SUPER camera?

Hi Ric, Thanks for your comments. The lens I used for these shots was the 300 2.8 with 1.4 extender, handheld. With the FF there was no sensor factor so I was shooting 420mm. Here is a link to a full shot of the geese to give you an idea just how well this camera picked out the geese and ducks and the detail it gathered (compare the feather detail on the geese in both shots-cropped and uncropped). I was amazed at the AF on this camera using the center point only from this distance (handheld) given all the background grass and trees and the lower contrast of the geese.

http://www.webblinks.com/postings/sm_011708/geese.jpg

All shots posted were taken at a far distance but since the 21 m-pixel sensor produced shots almost 6000 pixel wide there is a lot of room to crop.. but this also caused a couple problems..

1. The close up shots (of BIF's) had so much info it caused problems when cropping. Cropped for instance, the catch light in the eyes was glaring and very hard to handle. I'm sure if I had more time with the camera it could be figured out.

2. I'm running a Mac Dual Core G5 with 4 gigs of RAM and between Lightroom and Photoshop my computer was getting bogged down because of the size. TIF's opened from Lightroom to Photoshop were over 120 megabytes and even crops were 50-75 mb.. HUGE files.

The ducks landing and rotation. I looked at it when I cropped it. I looked at it from my point of view (knowing the actual shape of the lake) does run on an angle the way I posted it. I rotated it and reposted it and it does look better. Thanks !!

Ric Grupe · January 18, 2008

The ducks landing and rotation. I looked at it when I cropped it. I looked at it from my point of view (knowing the actual shape of the lake) does run on an angle the way I posted it. I rotated it and reposted it and it does look better. Thanks !!

Looks even better!

I know what you mean about shorelines...they can give the impression that a shot is tilted when in fact it is not.

The full frame shot of the geese in flight is great too. You cropped that one perfectly IMO.

Osprey Whisperer · January 18, 2008

Nice fowl series.

Harryb · January 18, 2008

Outstanding set.

BBiggs · January 18, 2008

These are really nice! Must of been awesome holding over 10k of photo gear in your hands

PrescottPhotog · January 18, 2008

Bird Man Photographer wrote:

Nice fowl series.

Hi Mike.. Thanks for viewing.

PrescottPhotog · January 18, 2008

Harryb wrote:

Outstanding set.

Thanks Harry.. much appreciated.

PrescottPhotog · January 18, 2008

BBiggs wrote:

These are really nice! Must of been awesome holding over 10k of photo gear in your hands

Hi Brenton, Thanks for your comments. It was fun shooting with the 1Ds but I was very concerned about getting a scratch on it before I returned it, it could have been a very costly mistake.

Hawk, Ducks, GBH and Geese

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