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Saturday was for the birds
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:29 am    Post subject: Saturday was for the birds Reply with quote

On Saturday I visited a birds of prey sanctuary nearby where I live. The weather was unseasonably cold and very overcast with poor light. Most of the time I was shooting ISO400 at wide apertures. I was hoping for better photography circumstances than having most of the birds behind chain link fences, but there were some opportunities out in the open as well. These were all raptors. The ones out in the open were (somewhat) trained birds that they would release and then lure them back with food. In flight shots were very difficult as you can imagine, so I just shot quickly as they landed. I'm amazed they don't fly off to freedom.

I found that shooting through the fence was possible if the bird was far enough away and my aperture was wide open, thus not giving clarity to the foreground. The first set are with my Vivitar Series 1 200/3, mostly set at wide open. The second set is using Topcor 135/3.5, also wide open or at f/4.

Series 1 200/3
1


2


3


4


5


6


7


8



Topcor 135/3.5
1


2


3


4


5


6


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Amazing! I love birds, and the shots you made i liked a lot.
Indeed burning my tong with the Vivitar lenses...
BTW lost an auction at ebay today for a Vivitar 55 2.8 Macro C/Y for one miserable dollar, shame...

[]s,

Renato


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beautiful series and birds!


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
Beautiful series and birds!


+1!! Shocked


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

+1


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

some amazing photos, specially like the first 2


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Those are really great. Good bird shots indicate a good mix of photographer, camera, and lens.

Shooting through fences shouldn't post a huge challenge. With a 135, it will. I shoot intramural softball for my friends every summer and have shot zoo animals, both on the opposite side of a chain-link fence. For that I use at least a 300mm (I've used the zoom at 250mm with success. As long as I'm within about 20 inches of the fence, the aperture is wide-open (4.5 in the case of the lens I typically use) and the subject is at least 15 feet beyond the fence, the links are invisible. I'm certain there's a ratio of film plane:fence and fence:subject distance that represents the minimum differential, but I don't know what that is nor how to calculate it.


PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You are right, it's a combination of distance to fence, distance to subject, focal length, and aperture. I was restricted from getting closer than about six feet from the fence, The 200mm at f/3 seemed to do the trick on most, but there were some where the bird was too close to the fence. Photos 3, 4, 5, and 6 were through the fenceing. You can easily notice the fence pattern in number 3 background, although it gives the appearance of being behind the subject.


PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great bird pics! My favourites are #2 from the Vivitar set and #4 from the Topcor set.

P.S. The first Topcor pic looks like The Maltese Falcon. Cool


PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Superb shoots, I didn't expect less , once I read who did post them, but even this expectation I say Wow!


PostPosted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 2:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some really stunning shots! Very well done!