Friday afternoon. I'd just finished the script that had kept me busy for three weeks and it was still light, so I ventured out on the first of three trips this weekend hoping to get some good pictures of catbirds. I'd heard and then seen one at lunch time so I knew that they had made it back to the area. But no luck on that front.
Instead, at the duckpond, there were three or four solitary sandpipers flying around (strange: I normally only ever see one at a time). But only one of them was in clear view, albeit a long way from me and my camera. But hey! It's a new, magic camera. It ought to get a usable shot.
That first image is not bad. A couple of weeks ago, about the same distance from a blue heron, I'd been disappointed by how many of the shots were out of focus. This second shot, I cropped a bit closer and you can see that it is quite good.
Hoping for better luck, I made my way around to the other side of the pond. And sure enough, the bird was closer although the angle of the sun was less favorable. Still, this is not a bad shot.
Finally, here's an image where I cropped the 768x432 pixels directly from the camera. This is very impressive.
However, clearly, I can do better if I can get closer to the bird. Basically, that means being patient and waiting for it to get closer to me, although, I could lash out on a longer lens. Right now, I have a 55-300mm zoom. For small, shy birds like this, I think perhaps I need 500mm. Sadly, even though my trusty, 30-year old Canon 1.6x teleconverter will fit on the front of my lens, it softens the images so much they are unusable.
Instead, at the duckpond, there were three or four solitary sandpipers flying around (strange: I normally only ever see one at a time). But only one of them was in clear view, albeit a long way from me and my camera. But hey! It's a new, magic camera. It ought to get a usable shot.
That first image is not bad. A couple of weeks ago, about the same distance from a blue heron, I'd been disappointed by how many of the shots were out of focus. This second shot, I cropped a bit closer and you can see that it is quite good.
Hoping for better luck, I made my way around to the other side of the pond. And sure enough, the bird was closer although the angle of the sun was less favorable. Still, this is not a bad shot.
Finally, here's an image where I cropped the 768x432 pixels directly from the camera. This is very impressive.
However, clearly, I can do better if I can get closer to the bird. Basically, that means being patient and waiting for it to get closer to me, although, I could lash out on a longer lens. Right now, I have a 55-300mm zoom. For small, shy birds like this, I think perhaps I need 500mm. Sadly, even though my trusty, 30-year old Canon 1.6x teleconverter will fit on the front of my lens, it softens the images so much they are unusable.
posted by Dave Saunders | 4:52 PM
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