Bird Photography Lens

wrote:
On Feb 2, 6:32 am, "-hh" wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:

Just a comment but he does have a point, however abrasively he may
have made it. Bird and animal photography has much in common with
hunting--you have to get close enough to the critters to get the
shot, then get the shot before it gets away.

True, but it still depends on the subject being receptive, which was
where 'triangle pants' was being naive.

I was well aware of the possibility that Lucke was a nitwit, but felt
I lacked sufficient evidence at the time: so I took him at face
value. A casual reading of my -- can I use the word
"contributions" ;-) -- here shows I respect expressed intelligence,
experience and so forth, but do not tolerate fools well. We all have
our character flaws.

It's not a matter of tree hugging oneness with nature, it's a matter
of learning the habits of the critters you're after and then putting
yourself in a place and time when they are likely to appear, and
dressing and behaving in such a manner that they don't notice you
and be scared off.

That is 80% of what we can do, and yet it still only gets us "so
close". If it is close enough can depend on your glass.

Particularly for the generic amateur who doesn't have the big guns,
this effectively means that the only time that you'll get any closer
is when the subject is aware of you and decides to tolerate your
proximity for whatever reason. For example, they don't want to leave
a kill, or that you've baited them in to feed.

Or acclimation to humans. I've seen somewhere some photos from the
Serengeti of a cheetah who had climbed up onto the roof of their
safari vehicle and proverbially sat down leaning against a
photogrrapher's big lens. IIRC, his web image of the event was taken
4 ft away with a WA. Anyone who wants to claim that such a photo
was supposedly all "skill" doesn't know or believe in luck.

Yes, yes, yes. The luck factor is significant, and generally under-
played by the professionals and the wannabes.

"Luck" in that sense is a bit akin to "luck" in poker.
Ya, luck can play a part, but it is far more impacted by skill that one
might suspect on casual observance.
In other words... Skill means your odds of "winning" skyrocket, and your
chances of success increase, big-time. Photographers who deliver regularly
may be lucky from time to time, but is it "luck" that you survived a fall
from 10,000 feet? -Or were you simply prepared...with a parachute?

--
Images (Plus Snaps & Grabs) by Mark² at:
www.pbase.com/markuson

-hh wrote:
Or acclimation to humans. I've seen somewhere some photos from the
Serengeti of a cheetah who had climbed up onto the roof of their
safari vehicle and proverbially sat down leaning against a
photogrrapher's big lens. IIRC, his web image of the event was taken
4 ft away with a WA. Anyone who wants to claim that such a photo was
supposedly all "skill" doesn't know or believe in luck.

You might be thinking of a BBC "Big Cat" series. In which case what the
cheetah did through the open roof onto the naturalist below was even more
unwelcome and entertaining!

Mike.
--
If reply address = connectfee, add an r because it is free not fee.

On Jan 30, 1:09 pm, "Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even number
wrote:
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote:

I have a Nikon D70 (wife has a D80) and the only telephoto zoom we
have is a Nikkor 70-210mm which we are always fighting over. We wish
to add another large zoom lens and have been reading up on the Sigma
170-500mm,Sigma 80-400mm & Tamron 200-500mm. Has anyone got
experience of these lenses. Unfortunately the Nikkor lenses are out
of our price range i.e. around £600.

For birds, I would think that 500mm would be too long. Will you
really be able to find the birds with the 500mm?

For panning in flight, it's true that longer lenses are tricky...but 500mm
is NOT too long.
Frankly, for birding there is just about no such thing as too much extension
unless the long tele means you're stuck with a small max aperture (like a
crappy mirror lens with a constant f8, for example).

Just for historical reference, here is the best mirror-lens ever
made....

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...off% 26sa%3DG

-hh wrote:

Or acclimation to humans. I've seen somewhere some photos from the
Serengeti of a cheetah who had climbed up onto the roof of their
safari vehicle and proverbially sat down leaning against a
photogrrapher's big lens. IIRC, his web image of the event was taken
4 ft away with a WA. Anyone who wants to claim that such a photo was
supposedly all "skill" doesn't know or believe in luck.

That was Bill Hilton last April. Sure it was luck that the cheetah
did jumped on the vehicle, but they do that because they have come
to learn that vehicles are 1) not a thread, and 2) not something
to eat, so they use them occasionally as a high point to look for
game. Otherwise, there is impressive skill by the guides to
spot the wildlife and then to get close in a vehicle can sometimes
be a challenge, especially with birds.

Bill and I just returned from Tanzania, and we'll have many images
up on web sites soon. Here are some initial shots:

Close up of a cheetah on a fresh kill (he ignored the vehicle, never
once looking directly at us):
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...9954b-700.html

For several days I could not get close to a Lilac-Breasted Roller (a bird),
but then I got lucky with the right light. We started a fair distance
and then moved the vehicle closer and closer, getting photos until I got this one:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...1277c-700.html
(on safari you can't generally get out of the vehicle because
there is too great a danger from large predators).

Then sometimes luck, light and skill come together and you get to the
right spot at the right time:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...1856b-700.html

Roger

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:57:29 -0700, "Roger N. Clark (change username
to rnclark)" wrote:

-hh wrote:

Or acclimation to humans. I've seen somewhere some photos from the
Serengeti of a cheetah who had climbed up onto the roof of their
safari vehicle and proverbially sat down leaning against a
photogrrapher's big lens. IIRC, his web image of the event was taken
4 ft away with a WA. Anyone who wants to claim that such a photo was
supposedly all "skill" doesn't know or believe in luck.

That was Bill Hilton last April. Sure it was luck that the cheetah
did jumped on the vehicle, but they do that because they have come
to learn that vehicles are 1) not a thread,

Flashing on the scene in the movie "Duma" in which the cheetah is
chasing a thread (actually a string) being pulled by a motorcycle.

and 2) not something
to eat, so they use them occasionally as a high point to look for
game. Otherwise, there is impressive skill by the guides to
spot the wildlife and then to get close in a vehicle can sometimes
be a challenge, especially with birds.

Bill and I just returned from Tanzania, and we'll have many images
up on web sites soon. Here are some initial shots:

Close up of a cheetah on a fresh kill (he ignored the vehicle, never
once looking directly at us):
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...9954b-700.html

For several days I could not get close to a Lilac-Breasted Roller (a bird),
but then I got lucky with the right light. We started a fair distance
and then moved the vehicle closer and closer, getting photos until I got this one:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...1277c-700.html
(on safari you can't generally get out of the vehicle because
there is too great a danger from large predators).

Then sometimes luck, light and skill come together and you get to the
right spot at the right time:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...1856b-700.html

Quite nice. How big is a black shouldered kite, anyway?

On Feb 2, 2:59 pm, "Mike Coon" wrote:

It's amazing that more field guides don't concentrate on recognition of
birds solely from a back view! I'd buy one...

Well, it turns out that by the time you could use it effectively you
wouldn't really need it.

"-hh" wrote in message
oups.com...
"Mike Fields" spam_me_not_mr.gadget2@comcastDOTnet wrote:

The one I liked was the picture I saw where the light airplane was
sitting on the runway somewhere over there and the people were
trying to figure out how to get back in the plane ... with the lions
that had found the shade under the wing and decided that was a
good place to stay.

I spent some time in Tanzania last summer and heard some similarly
interesting stories ("...your tent last year had..."). Fortunately,
or airplane had no problems with lions:

http://www.huntzinger.com/photo/2006/tanzania/210_refill(4722).jpg

We did, however, came back one evening to find that the local
"gardener" was preoccupied with trimming the bushes next to our Banda:

http://www.huntzinger.com/photo/2006/tanzania/banda-
elephant(4141).jpg


tusk tusk tusk - oh well, somehow I suspect "nice doggie" would
not help a lot in that situation :-)

mikey

"Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)" wrote
in message ...
-hh wrote:

Or acclimation to humans. I've seen somewhere some photos from the
Serengeti of a cheetah who had climbed up onto the roof of their
safari vehicle and proverbially sat down leaning against a
photogrrapher's big lens. IIRC, his web image of the event was taken
4 ft away with a WA. Anyone who wants to claim that such a photo
was
supposedly all "skill" doesn't know or believe in luck.

That was Bill Hilton last April. Sure it was luck that the cheetah
did jumped on the vehicle, but they do that because they have come
to learn that vehicles are 1) not a thread, and 2) not something
to eat, so they use them occasionally as a high point to look for
game. Otherwise, there is impressive skill by the guides to
spot the wildlife and then to get close in a vehicle can sometimes
be a challenge, especially with birds.

Bill and I just returned from Tanzania, and we'll have many images
up on web sites soon. Here are some initial shots:

Close up of a cheetah on a fresh kill (he ignored the vehicle, never
once looking directly at us):
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...9954b-700.html

For several days I could not get close to a Lilac-Breasted Roller (a
bird),
but then I got lucky with the right light. We started a fair distance
and then moved the vehicle closer and closer, getting photos until I
got this one:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...1277c-700.html
(on safari you can't generally get out of the vehicle because
there is too great a danger from large predators).

Then sometimes luck, light and skill come together and you get to the
right spot at the right time:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries...1856b-700.html

Roger

Great pix, but it is the first time I have ever seen a "tie dyed" bird
before ...

mikey

In article . com,
" wrote:

On Feb 2, 2:59 pm, "Mike Coon" wrote:

It's amazing that more field guides don't concentrate on recognition of
birds solely from a back view! I'd buy one...

Well, it turns out that by the time you could use it effectively you
wouldn't really need it.

I think one trick is to just keep the camera turned on. Critters notice
small quick movements more than they notice long slow ones.

On Jan 30, 1:47 pm, "Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even number
wrote:
Ken Lucke wrote:
In article , Mark²
wrote:

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote:
I have a Nikon D70 (wife has a D80) and the only telephoto zoom we
have is a Nikkor 70-210mm which we are always fighting over. We
wish to add another large zoom lens and have been reading up on
the Sigma 170-500mm,Sigma 80-400mm & Tamron 200-500mm. Has anyone
got experience of these lenses. Unfortunately the Nikkor lenses
are out of our price range i.e. around £600.

For birds, I would think that 500mm would be too long. Will you
really be able to find the birds with the 500mm?

For panning in flight, it's true that longer lenses are tricky...but
500mm is NOT too long.
Frankly, for birding there is just about no such thing as too much
extension

Boy is that ever true. I need a 25,000mm lens. But the damn birds
would still fly off for me, as I have some sort of personal congenital
radiation field that is the exact radius of the focal length of
whatever lens I happen to have on the camera at the time. If I turn
the camera on, it causes the bird to instantly be prepared to show me
a good view of its little feathered butt as it flies off as the
shutter is pressed.

Sometimes you find yourself in interesting situations...like this one, where
I climbed a tree and ended up 6 feet away from this hungry hawk, using only
a 200mm lens on a full frame...

WARNING: Rather gory prey-eating shot here...flash-heavy, due to dark
shade, and super-bright background)

Damn. In spite of the subject, great shot.