[r0ckstarr]

Today was the first day being out in two weeks since contracting H1N1 and Pneumonia.

Wow. Glad you're doing better.

[r0ckstarr]

DA*300 @ 420mm









DA*300 by itself

[BigDave]

Franc and Ducatigaz:

Very nice images, both of you!

[Quartermaster James]

Cheers Dave, this bloke was a bit of a show pony and a good rider. It was hard not to get drawn into taking his photo.

---------- Post added 03-21-16 at 08:14 PM ----------



And a hearty thank you to you too.

---------- Post added 03-21-16 at 08:19 PM ----------



There's more room around the little fella, he doesn't feel as squished into the bottom of the frame like the previous image. Is that how you see it?

Pretty much. Thanks.

[Ducatigaz]

Yep, but a lot have the same motivation when viewing handsome squirrels!


Here is what that hawk was after yesterday...one of the many doves that feed here daily.

Mourning Dove


Regards!

Is the Squirrel dead or asleep?
I went for a wander around today with my K-5/ FA*600mm f4 ED [IF] and I also took my Sigma EF-610 DG Super/Better Beamer {as if I wasn't carrying enough already]

[WPRESTO]

A lady bluebird with a treat (yummy!).

[normhead]

K-3 and F70-210 with the HD DA 1.4 TC..

It's not quite 300, the exif says 294... it's definitely not ƒ4 , it's ƒ8, but if you have lots of light, it gets it done. When it gets even a little bit cloudy, only the centre AF point locks focus. The nice thing about a lens this size is, I stood outside the blind so, all these are hand held. A smaller lens lets you do that.

---

Last edited by normhead; 03-21-2016 at 11:26 AM.

[gatorguy]

Great shots Norm! I realize my relatively cheapo M400 would be hard-pressed to get anywhere near that level of detail but still itching to make a couple of rounds with it. Question: I saw you mention a 1.4TC to use with it. Which one? Secondly, are you using a Better Beamer along with your flash for these pics? I only just became aware of the benefits of using one for daytime shots and the lack of significant shadows makes me think that's your typical set-up too. Probably everyone else here already knew about it but as a newbie here there's still a lot of water dripping off my ears. Can you toss me a towel?

[normhead]

I use the HA DA 1.4 TC with my A-400, but it needs good light.

I'm getting detail in these images because the little guys are quite used to me and they get quite close. I don't use flash....When I positioned my blind and feeders in the fall, I make sure I got good angles for shooting with the sun behind me. I moved the blind a couple of times this year until I got it just the way I wanted.

You can get good detail with the A-400 but you need to be close. The difference between star lenses and the consumer glass, is the opportunity with star glass to get images at distance. That was true until the D FA 150-450 which seems as sharp as any star lens. A little bit of haze in front of the sun is my diffuser.

A-400 images.




The trick with the A_400 and TC is to take lots of images in burst mode. Ignore the AF confirmation, shoot some of th images slightly long, some of them dead on , and some slightly short, change slightly after every burst of 5 or 6 images, some of them will be good. Of course you probably have to wade through 4 or 5 hundred images, but you get to be real quick at it. after a while.

[swip]

A head shot of a robin in my backyard.




And a not-so-focused shot of a peregrine falcon. It was hunting among a flock of northern pintail but with no luck. I need to practice way more for BIF shots yet.
The Sigma 500 with HD DA 1.4xTC is not particular quick on focusing either. Do you guys use spot focus for such a shot?

[derekkite]

A spring arrival, Red winged Blackbird. And a song sparrow.

[luftfluss]

A head shot of a robin in my backyard.

That's fabulous!

And a not-so-focused shot of a peregrine falcon. It was hunting among a flock of northern pintail but with no luck. I need to practice way more for BIF shots yet.
The Sigma 500 with HD DA 1.4xTC is not particular quick on focusing either. Do you guys use spot focus for such a shot?

Cool shot! I use MF, so hopefully somebody else can answer your question.

[riseform]

Some early spring arrivals K3ii and DA 560

Sage Thrasher


Sage Sparrow


Horned lark (actually stays around all year)

[luftfluss]

This very cold spring evening I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot a beautiful mallard pair on the Musconetcong River.

A 400/5.6

[Billk]

And a not-so-focused shot of a peregrine falcon. It was hunting among a flock of northern pintail but with no luck. I need to practice way more for BIF shots yet.
The Sigma 500 with HD DA 1.4xTC is not particular quick on focusing either. Do you guys use spot focus for such a shot?

I usually use spot focus for BIF but sometimes use whatever you call the focus option where you have the centre spot displayed in red and the surrounding 8 spots displayed in pink (That's on my newish K3ii, the K7 doesn't have it). I take the second option for really fast and/or small birds, like swallows and lorikeets and when there is nothing in the background that will get focused on instead of the bird.