1 Attachment(s)
Gray Ghost v Red Tail Hawk
Attachment 186347
Alright, so yesterday was a bittersweet day. I went up to a spot where I know a Harrier couple reside and took my new Sigma 1.4 TC a first test run. There was some amazing frames, however I am deeply saddened to say that the TC had to be faulty as 4/5 shots ended up with weird mushy appearance (and blur) and some odd bkg noise; basically they were no good. While I did notice the unit made an odd noise when tilted during install, I thought it was maybe how they came l and I couldn't the full extent of the poor quality in view finder and continued shooting.
The second valuable lesson I learned yesterday is to remember when you raise your EV to 1.7/2 while shooting in the sky so that you can lower it when you shoot a mostly white bird against a normal bkg :-/
Anyway, I know this is a forum about honesty, not grace, but the image was too cool not to share. Certainly not tack sharp but I'm hoping I salvaged it. There was a couple of the male himself that I will post later, hoping they are presentable.
STORY - this RTH came through the marsh and the Gray Ghost avidly defended his turf. Think the female was out hunting.
I chose a vertical crop to showcase the vertical levels of the birds. Not sure it's copacetic. You can see the nictitating membrane protecting the RTH eyes for an attack though, which is cool.
Nikon D850
Sigma 500mm f4
Handheld
ISO 1800
1/4000
f5.6
700mm
~ 55% crop
Post in C1P and PS. Took out and smooth some bkg striations.