Had to take Shaz to hos,while worrying and being unable to stay with her calmed my self with the camera, I take what little chances I get with grace at the moment.
These were once captive,, sharp eyes will spot the close ring on female,the male is also close rung. I guess dumped on a canal which saddens me on a deep level ( I have some experience with wild and domestic ducks). Harder almost to take is the fact that I am beyond convinced these birds and their companion mallard are shot at,where they have no right to be: I have never seen mallard react to raising an arm(holding camera) like these companions do. Eventually patience and lying in the mud payed off and slowly everyone calmed down. I did have to avoid being mountain bike fodder,but this little group of 3 ducks and this drake gave me a little of their time.
Mandarins are utterly non native here we do have feral free winged populations and they are a joy to see,I just wish that folks whom decide they want to keep an animal would make the real commitment.
Even though i'm really an etl candidate I thought I'd share this as my first post in avian. He was being so loving and she made me laugh out loud by pulling away,he had just come back from getting one of his other ladies from wandering off:2eyes2: so felt this little capture and words might make someone smile.
It's processed in dpp I don't have other yet it's in hand though. A slight crop I mucked up my level so had to rotate slightly,focus point on drakes beak trying to get both in focus while dealing with glorious (cough cough) English light and maintaining as wide an aperture as possible in an effort to keep my shutter speed up.
Canon 1div, 300f/2.8 is, ext 1.4, tv 1/640 iso 2000 f/4
thanks for looking and all the previous kindness shown
Stu
02-09-2016, 08:20 PM
gail bisson
Hi Stu,
Sweet moment captured here and welcome to avian. Always good to step out of one's comfort zone.
You have achieved a very nice, intimate POV. Exposure looks good.
Your thought process is correct in some respects but the flip side of the coin is to remember that you may want a smaller aperture when shooting 2 subjects to get as much as you can within DOF so that both subjects are sharp.
However, I think you did the right thing because I wouldn't push the ISO of the 1DMK IV much past 2500.
A couple of thoughts:
1. I would crop in significantly from the right hand side to get rid of as much of the BG clutter as possible. I would consider a square crop to achieve this.
2. The real problem for me are the 2 branches that are in front of the birds. If you have the patience and the skills you could clone them out.
Gail
02-11-2016, 03:09 PM
Stuart Philpott
Hiya Gail thanks for the warmth and your time,sorry slow in replying cor 13 hours today i'm too old for all this graft. Anyway points taken on board those withies were a real pain to get around but yes I concur I probably do have the patience,but certainly not the skillset to pull them,oneday maybe,I am working towards goals ,but all is so slow . Thankyou also for the words on cropping and dof,it was tricky,the light has been so poor here this winter,all I seem to do is wish to be able to get the shutter up,but it was a joy to get some time with them but your points are great for me to muse and put into practice next time I get a chance with a couple of subjects with a couple of subjects .
He he, yup this whole forum is a bit daunting,you guys have so much ability and talent so it's all a bit out of my comfort zone and waring that I'm constrained so much and not really able to apply myself.But i'm learning so much it's wonderful thanks again for your thoughts Gail,
