Hopefully my mini slump is over..

[coastalconn]

I only had 4 days off between Thanksgiving and New Years and it was getting a bit much to get out and find my birds, not to mention this crappy weather pattern we have had. I've been feeling a bit glum, but I found some birds today.. Comments welcome..

1&2 I know, I know, clipped wings and feet, but still really liked the shots...
1

Robin and Bittersweet 1 by krisinct, on Flickr

2 even 1/1000th was quite fast enough...

Robin - Keep your eye on the prize by krisinct, on Flickr

3 Ha, he who laughs last

Kingfisher Laughing by krisinct, on Flickr

4

Kingfisher 2 by krisinct, on Flickr

5 Found a new really cool awesome spot, saw 5 Eagles, but none of them would cooperate. Had to settle for this Juvi Cooper's

Juvenile Coopers Hawk 1/13 by krisinct, on Flickr

 

[wyogirl]

love the Kingfisher. He looks like he's having a bad hair/feather day.

 

[BillM]

Beautiful set of shots, I have no issue with the wing clipping in #1, still a nice shot. And great pose on the hawk.

Really like to know how you like that Tamron when you get it.

 

[Derrel]

So...what's the overall verdict on the D7100 so far???

 

[matthewo]

Nice job on the king fisher, i know how tough they can be. Is this about your closest photos?

If your like me, im still yearning for more. I would willing sit under my blind all day just to get a few full frame photos of one on a nice perch. I had the perfect setup with a nice colorful background and the bird only landed for 1/2 sec. And heard the vr on my lens. I spent a few hours as well as kayaking to a little island

They are a bird you got to do your homework and wait them out. They are birds of habit, they will use the same perches at similar times day to day. Key is getting setup and waiting it out and always be ready

 

[LarryLomona]

Great shots.

 

[baturn]

Great job on the Kingfishers. Hopefully ....someday..sigh

 

[coastalconn]

love the Kingfisher. He looks like he's having a bad hair/feather day.

Beautiful set of shots, I have no issue with the wing clipping in #1, still a nice shot. And great pose on the hawk.
Really like to know how you like that Tamron when you get it.

Great shots.

Thank you! Hopefully the Nikon mount will be released this week, but I have my doubts

So...what's the overall verdict on the D7100 so far???

Well, it's pretty simple, even though test results, blah blah claim 1 stop blah blah, in the real world I am experiencing a 2 stop advantage in real life shooting. I feel the finer grained noise is easier to deal with. This was shot at ISO 2800 and I feel it is the same if not better than ISO 800 would have been on the D300. Once you get used to the lower tier handling it is fine. I know the AF is supposed to be better than the D300, but I don't think it is. Hard to quantify but the D300 just seems to track more accurately. If they only threw the D7100 sensor in a D300 body... The D300 stays at home as my backup because at the end of the day, IQ is really that much better on the D7100...

Golden Crowned Kinglet by krisinct, on Flickr

Nice job on the king fisher, i know how tough they can be. Is this about your closest photos?

If your like me, im still yearning for more. I would willing sit under my blind all day just to get a few full frame photos of one on a nice perch. I had the perfect setup with a nice colorful background and the bird only landed for 1/2 sec. And heard the vr on my lens. I spent a few hours as well as kayaking to a little island

They are a bird you got to do your homework and wait them out. They are birds of habit, they will use the same perches at similar times day to day. Key is getting setup and waiting it out and always be ready

I have one set closer but it was through the reeds... shhh, don't tell anyone but I was sitting in my car when I took the Kingfisher shots today Saw him sitting in a tree by the beach I check every morning. I would have probably had many more but someone went by on their bicycle....

 

[KelSS90]

Love that the berry in #2 is mid-air!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[matthewo]

that pretty good for 2800 iso on a crop sensor, im guessing its not much of a crop, hard to say the d800 is much better. maybe a stop.

I have been really happy using imagenomic noiseware or topaz clean on the lowest setting for the fullsize photo, then resize to web using bi-cubic smoother gradient, then sharpen. using those techniques I would doubt you would notice a difference between the d7100, and the d800, I still might get a d7100 later as well.

you want me to clone out that branch in #3, I think the image would be much nicer

 

[coastalconn]

that pretty good for 2800 iso on a crop sensor, im guessing its not much of a crop, hard to say the d800 is much better. maybe a stop.

I have been really happy using imagenomic noiseware or topaz clean on the lowest setting for the fullsize photo, then resize to web using bi-cubic smoother gradient, then sharpen. using those techniques I would doubt you would notice a difference between the d7100, and the d800, I still might get a d7100 later as well.

you want me to clone out that branch in #3, I think the image would be much nicer

Nah I got it, I was lazy before... Love the LR5+PS bundle. I'm gonna send you a PM with a link to the raw file with the Kinglet. If you have time, play around with it I would love to see what NR does. If you feel up to it post it back here...

Kingfisher - He who laughs... by krisinct, on Flickr

 

[matthewo]

here is my quick edit, I guess kind of what I would do to it.

noise and sharping was done like this

noiseware weakest setting - then resize to 1000px wide, bicubic smooth gradient - then regular filter-sharpen-sharpen, then topaz clean(on my very low custom setting I made.) as well as a little change in color and contrast and highlights and shadows. I think mine may look a little warmer little more contrast and a little less noise then yours, as well as its a slightly bigger size at 1000px, but other then that similar...

 

[coastalconn]

Look Great Matt! Fun seeing someone else play with the image. I am only trying to learn a few aspects of PS but I'm generally trying to outline the bird then inverse selection and use NR on the background, but I haven't found a NR setting that seems effective. The other thing that is fun is content aware fill, but it sure can be goofy.. I've been using less NR lately as I'm trying to preserve detail.. Might have to look into other options. Thanks for having a play!

 

[bc_steve]

Hardly looks like a slump to me, those are great especially the first and the last

 

[JacaRanda]

Nice job on the king fisher, i know how tough they can be. Is this about your closest photos?

If your like me, im still yearning for more. I would willing sit under my blind all day just to get a few full frame photos of one on a nice perch. I had the perfect setup with a nice colorful background and the bird only landed for 1/2 sec. And heard the vr on my lens. I spent a few hours as well as kayaking to a little island

They are a bird you got to do your homework and wait them out. They are birds of habit, they will use the same perches at similar times day to day. Key is getting setup and waiting it out and always be ready

Very good to know. Thanks Matthew. I saw my first one fairly close this weekend.