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Taken at Banyule this morning.

Lens: 70-200VR
Focal Length: 340MM (with TC)
Shutter: 1/100
Aperture: F/5.6
Exp Mode: Manual
Meter: Matrix
ISO: 200
WB: Auto
Flash Sync Mode: Front Curtain
Flash: i-TTL
Flash EV: -2 1/3EV

Used the flash all morning, seems like the pros do so I thought I better.
Had fun experimenting with EV compensation.

This is one of many

Edit: Steel eye removed as requested.

Looks like you've done well to get this little fellow so sharp, also really like the "space" where he (or she) appears to be looking... I keep noticing the colour in his (or her?) eye, wow...

I'd be tempted to clone out the ratty leaf(?) on the left hand side though...

That's excellent Darryl... Good compo and sharp as... Nice work...

How far away from the bird were you???

It's a fairly big crop still. Think that is a crop of about 1200x800 from a 3000x2000 original. Then scaled down to 650x400px to reduce a bit of noise that was visible. Was a bit underexposed as it was my very first picture for the day.

Distance was probably about 5M to 6M I think. I was looking at this barbwire fence when I saw it perch to the right of me. So I quickly turned to get it. Damn lens was hunting though (still had it on full focus not limited ). So the shots I managed to get off was only one. However I had more luck later on in the morning as I was busy playing with this Grey Fantail. It was buzzing me all morning, catching insects and flying past me. I noticed though about 50-100M down the barbwire fence a bird perched. Didn't pay much attention at first then I decided to take a look through my viewfinder and saw it was the same species of bird as this one in the photo, might even been the same bird. Anyway I was like cool. The next minute I know it flew along the barbwire fence. Perched about 10M away. So I took some shots. Then it flew along the fence and I was like "bugger it's going". Then it stopped right in front of me. So I snapped away

Will process these shots later.

Hi Darryl,

You are getting some very nice results with your technique.
Keep up the good work.

Cheers
CD

Thanks for the kind words Christian.
Here is another one.
The ones on the barbwire didn't come out as crisp as I would of liked. Funny because I was more prepared for it then the first shot. Not sure what was wrong. Shutter speed was a bit faster too.





edit: Oh I remember now, I started off the day on tripod. Then gave up!

Nice birdy's Darryl, I dont get much of a chance to try this type of pics but i like your's, very pretty bird and colours are nice.
well done.

Love your work Kipper! Some very nice shots.

In the second one is the shallow depth of field applied in photoshop or is was that done in camera?

It almost looks unreal.

In camera. It was open fields/parkland on the other side of the barbwire so nothing to create a messy bg. I used a fairly wide open aperture about 2 stops from wide open (on 70-200VR with TC - wide open is 4.6). This creates the nice smooth blurred backgrounds.

I was watching the birds all morning using the barbwire as a perch. Thought it'd be a good place to take photos.

There better Kipp than your others. I like these a lot, better background and sharp as.

Mic.

Great shots Darryl, very good indeed

Great Bird pix's........... You make it look so easy, when I know it is not....

cheers
bp

Kipper, Fantastic shots mate, i think you are becoming the Moose Peterson
of Aus, no seriously, these are well done pics of very difficult subjects,
I have been ill of late and am changing jobs (not a good combination )
so have not been out taking pics but your shots have given me
inspiration to get up and do something, keep it up !!
Regards
Norm
(who has ordered a D2X and is trying to figure out how he is going to pay for it !)

Thanks guys. I knew you'd like them Mic Been getting inspiration off of Naturescapes.net. Those guys there do some really unreal shots of birds. So learning techniques from those guys. I'm also trying to learn the behaviour of birds, watching their patterns etc. This helps to get better shots, althought this robin didn't seem to have much of a pattern at all. It might of but I didn't see it. The Wrens and Fantails did though and that helped get some of the shots that I took (not yet posted). I'm still fairly lens restricted though. I hate having to crop so much


Norm, hope you're better now dude. So what are you doing now for work?
Btw, lucky bastard RE the D2X
You're lusting the D2X, I'm lusting a 500MM with 1.4TC.
Although I could just get a D2X and crop to my hearts content

THey are pretty cool pics, both of them.

I like the first one as it reminds me of the kind of wildlife photo you'd see in a book. The second one is a nice contrast between the cute bird and rusty barbed wire. Well done.

Norm, you coming up to Sydney for the Anniversary Meet/Dinner?

Tah KK. Looks like I'm getting the hang of the shots, just need the big lens. Sigh, wish I could stumble on some money. Shits me seeing all these P platers driving around in $40K+ cars and I can't even buy a $5k lens

Well I could but it'd hamper my efforts to go to the UK to live

You want to move to the UK?

Yes pippin88. I was born there, and have lived there for 1/3rd of my life so far. So it's more of returning home.

Excellent shots, both, Darryl. Butt shots they may be, but they're very good, especially with respect to DOF.