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Wendy Kates
01-12-2013, 07:53 PM
Hi all,

I am planning a bird photography trip to Florida this winter, and would like the Venice Rookery to be one of my stops. But I'm concerned that my gear won't allow me to shoot nesting activity, etc. I have a Canon 7D, a 300 f/4 lens and a 1.4 extender. Will that be adequate? What about renting the 2X extender for the trip...will the resulting lack of AF be a huge disadvantage?

Thanks for your input,
Wendy

Randy Stout
01-18-2013, 06:56 AM
Wendy:

I have been to the rookery many times and have shot with a lot of different gear. Most of my nesting shots have been with between 600-800mm effective focal length. Now that the trees have all been cut down on the back side, you can shoot in the afternoon from the backside, and some of those shots require really long focal lengths to get in tight enough, depending on exactly where the nest is. I was playing around with a 600 and 2x on a full frame body last year, and it was about right for some of the longest shots.

Don't forget about in flight shots, where they often come in much closer to you, and you will need to be more loosely framed. I usually have a 70-200 on a crop body hanging on my shoulder for the fly ins.

THe other concern is always trying to get some subject isolation, as it can be quite crowded with cluttered backgrounds, so in that regard you want a larger f/stop. I think the rig you have will be adequate to get some really fun shots. Loss of autofocus with the 2x would really reduce your success rate. You might get some good ones, but there would be a lot of duds!

Just for the spectacle of it, I always try to get there before dawn. The early fly outs are amazing most days. Hard to get good pictures of that without doing flash blurs, but the show is worth it.

Good luck, and if you have other questions, drop me or Marina Scar a PM.

Cheers

Randy