Yard Birds..Playin' with my new Lens

[Mike McKenzie]

I spent the last couple of days out in the yard learnin' with my new zoom lens, gettin' ready for this Fall....

Here a few Nuthatches for Ed Wahl, who I've heard likes 'em. These suckers are hard to shoot because they NEVER sit still!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Nuthatch1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Nuthatch2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Nuthatch.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/NuthatchA.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Upsidedown2.jpg

A couple of the woodpecker types...
Acorn Woodpecker
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/AcornWoodpecker-1.jpg
Here's one makin' off with his booty...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Offwiththebooty.jpg

A Ladder-Backed Woodpecker
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Ladderbacked.jpg

This (I think) is a surprise shot of the good kind..Mourning Dove
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Dove3.jpg

A male Allen's Hummer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Hummer1361.jpg

From the bottom up...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/HummerBottom.jpg
Female Allen's Hummer...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Hummer.jpg

This Scrub Jay lords it over his territory..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/ScrubJay.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Blueonblue.jpg

Red Shouldered hawk givin' everything the "eye"..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/RedShoulderedHawk.jpg

Female Western Tanager..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/FemaleWesternTanager2.jpg

Here's a young of the year Blue Bird gettin' it's "grown-up" feathers...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/Bluebird2.jpg

This last Bird is of the U.S. Marine Corps type.... A UH-Y1 that flew by yesterday and was almost gone before I could get out from under the trees...Semper Fi, brothers!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/USMC.jpg

Mike

[luckydude]

Cool! What's the lens?

[jbird]

Awesome pics Mike! Looks like youre getting some good variety. Well done.

[Ed Wahl]

Great stuff Mike. Keep 'em coming.

Nuthatches are cool.

Thanks.

Ed

[Mike McKenzie]

Cool! What's the lens?

A Canon 100-400mm 4.5/5.6L IS...As far as I'm concerned it beats the heck out my 400mm Prime L Glass without IS... I only wish I hadn't whizzed away all my money in my youth so I could afford a 2.8 with IS II !

Thanks Ed....I'll try to get some better Nuthatch pics but it ain't easy!

JBird, Yeah, I get a really good variety of birds around the place, however not quite your Oregon picture quality around here .. I'll have spend more time at my Mother's place in Ashland...
BTW There's steelies in the Rogue but I can't fish 'em 'cause it ain't snowin' yet!

Mike

[jbird]

Mike

I oscillate between photography and fishing obsessions. Sometimes I could care less about fish and just chase birds. Im 2000 miles from the Rogue now so youre gonna have to pester those fish for me. On a bright note I did catch some 2' northern pike on my 3wt yesterday! :-)

The fall migration of birds is going to be peaking soon here in Wisconsin. Hopefully I'll have some pics to put up soon!

[Ed Wahl]

Um Jay ole buddy ole pal, I'm assuming you got some pike pics to show?

My last pike was in the '70s living in northern Illinois.

Let's see 'em buddy.

Ed

[jbird]

Um Jay ole buddy ole pal, I'm assuming you got some pike pics to show?

My last pike was in the '70s living in northern Illinois.

Let's see 'em buddy.

Ed

In an effort to not hijack mikes thread, I started one in the ww section.

http://www.kiene.com/forums/showthread.php?p=105161#post105161

[luckydude]

A Canon 100-400mm 4.5/5.6L IS...As far as I'm concerned it beats the heck out my 400mm Prime L Glass without IS...
Mike

Wow, that's a nice copy of the 100-400, pretty sharp. I don't think they are all like that.

I'm guessing you have the 400mm f5.6 L as well? I've been thinking about stepping up to that, currently using a 300mm f4L with a 1.4tc. It's pretty sharp but slow to focus which sucks for birds.

What I think I want is the not yet released 200-400mm f4 that has a built in 1.4x tc. If that thing isn't too heavy I'm in.

What's the body you are using?

And I'm guessing those are crops? Post processing or no?

[Mike McKenzie]

Wow, that's a nice copy of the 100-400, pretty sharp. I don't think they are all like that.

I'm guessing you have the 400mm f5.6 L as well? I've been thinking about stepping up to that, currently using a 300mm f4L with a 1.4tc. It's pretty sharp but slow to focus which sucks for birds.

What I think I want is the not yet released 200-400mm f4 that has a built in 1.4x tc. If that thing isn't too heavy I'm in.

What's the body you are using?

And I'm guessing those are crops? Post processing or no?


I'm Usin' the Lens on a Canon Rebel T2i.... and yes, the images are crops
mostly because they were all shot at the long end of the Lens and I think you get a better picture when you crop as the subject doesn't get lost in the image and generally I get no loss of detail with the crop, in fact you get better detail..For instance..Here's the original photo with no processing (except in the camera with picture style custom functions)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/IMG_1286.jpg

and the crop, with a little tweaking of Hue and Saturation to bring out the blue in the bird. The Bokeh in the background could have been a little better if I had a tripod and used a lower ISO for the shot (I think.)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/stripermike/ScrubJay.jpg

As for the Zoom Lens, after readin' a hundred or so reviews it seems some folks had trouble with theirs as far as sharpness goes, for my Lens, the only trouble I have is me! I got rid of the Prime Lens because I had issues with camera shake when hand held. :-(
Tryin' adjust sharpness in a blurry photo with processing software, is something that does not work unless you like a halo around everything and lots of graininess.
All the shots with the new lens have been hand held...It could only get better with a tripod.. As far as post processing goes ..very little with these photos..as I said above a little bit of tweaking with Hue and saturation..Also I keep it under 400mm. So far, I usually use 380 max which with the sensor crop is about a 600mm equivalent..

Still learnin'..
Mike