Crappy light in CT today..

coastalconn · Mar 30, 2014

The good news was I borrowed my friends D600 since my d7100 is getting fixed and my D300 finally died. I was playing around with my new cheap Chinese flash when this Cardinal landed right in front of me! There are many Ospreys around and even found a late season Snowy! Wish the Snowy did something but he just sat in the Osprey nest really far away.. Comments welcome... Of course you can click through to flickr for larger views..

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D-B-J · Mar 30, 2014

Maybe that's 'cause it was raining all day!

Nice set, given the conditions.

Best,
Jake

MSnowy · Mar 30, 2014

Wow! sucky light is right , made that Osprey look like a Snowy

Mach0 · Mar 30, 2014

Nice set

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Civchic · Mar 31, 2014

The feather detail on that cardinal...swoon. Amazing.

sm4him · Mar 31, 2014

It would make my whole YEAR if I had the chance to take photos of a Snowy, even from that distance and in crummy lighting.
That Cardinal is beautiful! Did you have the flash diffused at all, or just on low power? I often have trouble not getting too much of a reflection in their eyes that makes it obvious flash was used. Maybe because I don't use it enough to learn how to avoid that.

baturn · Mar 31, 2014

Crappy light not withstanding they all look great to me, and the Cardinal is outstanding.

coastalconn · Mar 31, 2014

Thanks Everyone!

sm4him said:
It would make my whole YEAR if I had the chance to take photos of a Snowy, even from that distance and in crummy lighting.
That Cardinal is beautiful! Did you have the flash diffused at all, or just on low power? I often have trouble not getting too much of a reflection in their eyes that makes it obvious flash was used. Maybe because I don't use it enough to learn how to avoid that.

I haven't gotten a beamer yet, so I was just trying to figure out flash in general. I think I set my EC to -.7 then I think I set my flash to -3 EC so a total of -3.7, seems goofy, but it worked. I'm just trying to figure out how to get a touch of strobe on the birds to bring out contrast and sharpness.

StoneNYC · Mar 31, 2014

I'm not a birder, but I do live in CT! Where abouts?

StoneNYC · Mar 31, 2014

That is if CT stands for Connecticut....

coastalconn · Mar 31, 2014

StoneNYC said:
That is if CT stands for Connecticut....

LOL, yup as in Old Saybrook, CT

StoneNYC · Mar 31, 2014

Oh! Trumbull and Vernon(GF's) are mine

sk66 · Mar 31, 2014

coastalconn said:
et my EC to -.7 then I think I set my flash to -3 EC so a total of -3.7, seems goofy, but it worked. I'm just trying to figure out how to get a touch of strobe on the birds to bring out contrast and sharpness.

With Nikon, I'm generally at ~ -1 FEC with matrix metering +/- any CEC due to the metering pattern. If you use spot metering for the camera (as I usually do) the flash is thinking "very differently." I find matrix metering with TTL flash to be "the closest," others say CW... When the two systems are thinking "differently" it can be very confusing as to what is going on.

FWIW, I do not use a beemer w/in the flash's normal range. Used "correctly" a beemer has a lot of spill/waste; at least 1 stop of power. But if you have to go "longer" then it does do a descent job of focusing what it collects...