The Young Ones

[shane shacaluga]

This weekend a friend let me take a few shots his canon setup. He always has top notch equipment and surprised me with a 600 f4 II lens. He had a 1D mkiv as body.

It was mid afternoon and light was not the best but there was loads of gull activity so took a few pot shots to see how AF speed and extra focal length compare to my current walkabout setup

I was quite surprised with the machinegun type shots that the 1d4 takes and the lens was pretty fast on the AF although his settings were not what I would have used

I think he had this on TV for some reason with the SS blocked at 1/3200

Saw this pair of juvenile yellow legged gulls squabbling for a fish so took aim and gunned them down

Here was is my favourite frame

Canon 1D4
600 f4 ii
tripod mounted
1/3200
f4
iso 125

cropped 25% off for tight framing and applied levels curves and some selective sharpening on the subjects. Toned down the blue sky a bit too

C&C welcome

By the way i tried to shoot handheld with this setup and its perfectly doable for a while. If only I had the cash....

[Lyle Gruby]

I like the poses of both birds, prey item is nice, IQ is pretty good. The left bird looks like it could use a little more sharpening.

[Marina Scarr]

Very well done getting both birds in the frame in decent posts and sharp.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cool chase scene. I'd be tempted to add back some canvas here, but I like the result anyhow. My favorite part is how the chaser is looking at the chased!

[Girish Prahalad]

like the poses on both the birds. exp & IQ look good.

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks a lot for your comments guys,

When zoomed right in the bird with the fish is slightly OOF due to the wide aperture, but was worried about over-sharpening and it to look pixelated. Will try to sharpen a bit more though

Daniel, i was actually tempted to crop even more so that the birds details were more visible. Don't you think the birds would be too small if I crop less?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Shane - very well caught I am trying not to read previous comments but in the corner of my eye I spot "crop less". I would crop less, adding a little ore canvas to the left and top. You have caught really good interaction between the gulls - well done.