Bird shots at -17c

tonysmyth · Mar 8, 2005

It's a bitter cold day today but the sun is out. I stopped by a local park area to see if any birds stayed in Canada for winter. It was -17c or for you Americans yahoo weather tells me the low was 14 and with the wind it feels like 8.

Anybody seen spring? :crazy:

Big Mike · Mar 8, 2005

Great shots...what equipment are you using?

thebeginning · Mar 8, 2005

wow, those are really nice. especially the blue jay. how did you get so close to the squirrel?

tonysmyth · Mar 8, 2005

That's with a Canon 300D and a Sigma 75-300mm lens. Now the digital cameras are not the same as film cameras when it comes to lenses, so the 75-300 in the digital world is actually a 120-480mm F5.6 when zoomed in all the way.

The squirell was actually the easiest of the all. We have tons of squirells up here. I could get tons of shots like that. The hard one was the blue jay and the cardinal. They both spook very easy and even if you stay really still they tend not to get close to people. They fly away at the smallest movement or sound.

I'm really loving this new Canon 3ooD. The quality is exceptional. I've been in TV for 17 years and have only dabbled in still photography. This was mostly due to the high cost of film and developing. Now these new digital cameras make it possible to really let the creative juices flow. You can take tons of shots and see what works. If your still using film and paying for developing I would say the time is now for the switch to digital.

Tony

photo gal · Mar 8, 2005

Wonderful shots!!! : )

rob1116 · Mar 8, 2005

the bird shots are great... were they taken hand-held? At what focal length?

dalebe · Mar 9, 2005

wow great shots, how far away from the birds were you so as not to disturb them?

LaFoto · Mar 9, 2005

Hey, Tony, congratulations on your bird photos, especially the "bird" in the last pic is interesting

. Very furry "bird" - and I here I am, already "old", thinking they always had feathers

... Just joking.

I like the second and fifth one best, with regards to the feathered birds

, and the closeness and crispness of the furry "bird", too, of course.

Canoncan · Mar 9, 2005

Gorgeous Blue Jay shot! The squirrel is also very crisp. The others seem a bit soft. Still good captures.

lathamemmons · Mar 10, 2005

great job on the blue jay

tonysmyth · Mar 10, 2005

480 f5.6 monopod and about 10-20 feet away from subject except the squirrel which was just a few feet away.

All the shots except the squirell were croped and sharpened. One comment about the softness. I was manually focussing and really finely moving the ring just millimeters back and forth. I'm still learning and it didn't even occur to me to change the ISO from 100 in order to get a wider depth of field. I thought of that afterwards. I'll go back at some point to the same spot and try again.

As I mentioned I'm using a Tamron 75-300 which gives me 480mm with the digital conversion, correct me if I'm wrong here. Would I get better shots with Canon glass? Any suggestions on doing these shots without a $5000 lens?