[stormtech]

Dutch weather here, too--overcast for the past week. Despite it, I went out and found a new spot. I took the Adaptall 300/2.8 for the speed. If the sun returns sometime this year, I'll go back with the Sigma 500.

So that is where the Bluebirds are hiding...?? I like the shot with the contrast of the wood colors and nice smooth background.

[Weevil]

Keep the great shots coming people.

+1 LikE nice shots !

[dadipentak]

Your Adaptall 300/2.8 looks like a great lens.

Yeah I like it. Prone to fringing wide open but plenty sharp.

So that is where the Bluebirds are hiding...?? I like the shot with the contrast of the wood colors and nice smooth background.

I found a county nature center where they hang out and seem pretty acclimated to people. The "bird house" did come out nice didn't it?

[Frogfish]

The Eurasian Great Bittern, as with most bitterns, is a master of camouflage. However on this day, and I'll never know how he spotted it, our guide (we were searching for cranes on Poyang Lake) suddenly screeched to a halt and pointed to something in the reeds .... it was fully 5 mins before any of the other 3 of us in the van could see what he was patiently trying to point out us to, despite his description of this reed bending this way and that one that way, and it was only 10 metres away ! Of course the first shot below is at 300mm and slightly cropped !

The first few shots are with the Pentax DA*300/4 on a K5 and I was forced to use to use this with manual focussing, later in this series adding the AFA x1.7 TC, since first the contacts on my D800 had literally broken (well cracked) putting my 500mm out of commission and then the AF focus motor on the DA*300 crashed (both happening within 30 mins of each other) .... so much for bringing redundancy on this 4 day trip !

After maybe 15 mins of taking as many shots as we wanted the Bittern obviously thought there was no danger and incredibly slowly started to head away into deeper reed cover, one massive green foot after the other. A bit of a rarity so although not an exciting bird a very interesting find by our excellent Chinese guide !

[crewl1]

Wow great shots Frogfish in spite of the gear issues. Fun story too, would love to go on expeditions like that.

[Greyser]

The Eurasian Great Bittern, as with most bitterns, is a master of camouflage. However on this day, and I'll never know how he spotted it, our guide (we were searching for cranes on Poyang Lake) suddenly screeched to a halt and pointed to something in the reeds .... it was fully 5 mins before any of the other 3 of us in the van could see what he was patiently trying to point out us to, despite his description of this reed bending this way and that one that way, and it was only 10 metres away ! Of course the first shot below is at 300mm and slightly cropped !

The first few shots are with the Pentax DA*300/4 on a K5 and I was forced to use to use this with manual focussing, later in this series adding the AFA x1.7 TC, since first the contacts on my D800 had literally broken (well cracked) putting my 500mm out of commission and then the AF focus motor on the DA*300 crashed (both happening within 30 mins of each other) .... so much for bringing redundancy on this 4 day trip !

After maybe 15 mins of taking as many shots as we wanted the Bittern obviously thought there was no danger and incredibly slowly started to head away into deeper reed cover, one massive green foot after the other. A bit of a rarity so although not an exciting bird a very interesting find by our excellent Chinese guide !

Great captures! I've never seen any bittern in my life

[TenZ.NL]

Dutch weather here, too--overcast for the past week. Despite it, I went out and found a new spot. I took the Adaptall 300/2.8 for the speed. If the sun returns sometime this year, I'll go back with the Sigma 500.

You managed well, the colors really shine. Nice one!

Great Shot Jacco

Thank you, Gary

The Eurasian Great Bittern, as with most bitterns, is a master of camouflage. However on this day, and I'll never know how he spotted it, our guide (we were searching for cranes on Poyang Lake) suddenly screeched to a halt and pointed to something in the reeds .... it was fully 5 mins before any of the other 3 of us in the van could see what he was patiently trying to point out us to, despite his description of this reed bending this way and that one that way, and it was only 10 metres away ! Of course the first shot below is at 300mm and slightly cropped !

The first few shots are with the Pentax DA*300/4 on a K5 and I was forced to use to use this with manual focussing, later in this series adding the AFA x1.7 TC, since first the contacts on my D800 had literally broken (well cracked) putting my 500mm out of commission and then the AF focus motor on the DA*300 crashed (both happening within 30 mins of each other) .... so much for bringing redundancy on this 4 day trip !

After maybe 15 mins of taking as many shots as we wanted the Bittern obviously thought there was no danger and incredibly slowly started to head away into deeper reed cover, one massive green foot after the other. A bit of a rarity so although not an exciting bird a very interesting find by our excellent Chinese guide !

Excellent! Like Greyser I never seen one IRL.

[dadipentak]

The Eurasian Great Bittern

Super, Kevin! At first I thought the first shot was just a teaser ;~) Sympathies regarding the equipment failures--I gather that "the law of general cussedness" (as my uncle named it) applies as much in China as everywhere else.

[dane.dawg]

Bittern are such cool birds, nice work Kevin..
California Quail.

[TenZ.NL]

Bittern are such cool birds, nice work Kevin..
California Quail.

Wow, that`s a really nice shot and bird, even with his head in the shade. Like!

[snostorm]

I think you did well to miss it in the auction Andy ! It looks really awful to hold. Waaay too small, no ridges, no rubberised grip.

The best grip / tripod mount I've had the pleasure of using so far is that on the Sigma 500/4.5, it is damn near perfect, finger grooves for 4 fingers and long so that when holding it it is very comfortable. On the Nikon 300/2.8 I bought a replacement RRS grip / tripod mount before I'd even bought the lens (the original is that bad) - though the RRS is not that much better being very smooth with no finger grips at all. The 3 finger grip on the other big Sigmas (inc the 120-300 which I have) is not much better as you end up trying to scrunch 4 fingers on a grip for 3.

I keep looking for something like this brilliant Sigma grip / tripod mount for the 300/2.8 : http://www.naturephotographers.net/sigma500-1.jpg

Hi Kevin,

Haven't been looking in on this thread for a while, so answering an older post. . .

I have this accessory for the Tamron 300/2.8 60B, and it's a palm rest for handholding. It actually works quite well -- remember that this lens is manual focus, and the palm rest is designed to angle the hand so the fingers naturally fall on the focus ring of the lens. It's purpose is not well documented, so I remember taking a pic to illustrate its use to a member on another forum who had one and was complaining about how useless it was (but he had it mounted backwards. . .). I was surprised that I actually still had the pic in my Flickr acct.



Scott

[Frogfish]

Hi Kevin,

Haven't been looking in on this thread for a while, so answering an older post. . .

I have this accessory for the Tamron 300/2.8 60B, and it's a palm rest for handholding. It actually works quite well -- remember that this lens is manual focus, and the palm rest is designed to angle the hand so the fingers naturally fall on the focus ring of the lens. It's purpose is not well documented, so I remember taking a pic to illustrate its use to a member on another forum who had one and was complaining about how useless it was (but he had it mounted backwards. . .). I was surprised that I actually still had the pic in my Flickr acct.

Scott

Hi Scott - great to see you are still around as I haven't seen you post for a while !

Actually I knew how it was used but still, when in the field it is not easy to carry large, heavy, lenses around, and that looks almost impossible to hold meaning it would have to be attached to something like a Black Rapid and therefore be swinging around by your side. The large Sigma 500 grip/mount is easy to hold, to shoot from and is really easy and comfortable to carry the lens around by (though I still have a BR attached as redundancy). How do you carry yours around when not shooting ?

[derekkite]

Great bittern shots. Fascinating bird. A privilege to see them.

[pacerr]

Lots of ways to add support and any of them are well worth the cost or effort. Supporting the weight in the palm of your hand frees the fingers for relaxed focusing and noticeably reduces fatigue. A DIY extension allows adjusting for perfect balance as well.

H2

[derekkite]

An oddity in the wild.