Took a two hour drive out to some sessile oakwoods in North Wales to try and find some Pied flycatcher. Its a a very atmospheric place to visit with the ancient twisted oaks dripping with lichen and mosses. I had left it a bit late in the year for the visit as both adults and young just seems to vanish after the young fledge. After a long time searching I eventually found two pairs in a very quiet wood, which had either nested late or were attempting a second brood. Some tricky light conditions during the visit with limited light in the woods and the shafts of sunlight penetrating the canopy dancing all over the place as the wind swayed the tree tops. This is a shot of the male returning to feed some waiting young.
Taken with 1Dmk3 and 500mm lens supported on a monopod. ISO 400 at F5.6 - 2EV at 1/400s with Evaluative metering.
Beautifully composed with good exposure and the fly or bug is a awesome bonus. You did extremely well with the lighting and excellent detail and eye contact.. Many thanks for sharing Rich !!
Great head angle, bug, and EXP. Is -2 full stops a typo? It does not seem right for the MIII. All around excellent but wish for a thinner perch.
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Thanks for the replies. -2 EV is not a typo. I have always wondered about the exposure on my MK3 as it has always taken a lot of hard work to tame and seems very prone to burning out the whites when compared to my Mk2. I checked through the rest of the photos I took that day which ranged between 0 to -2EV with the constantly changing light. The whites on a pied flycatcher are very bright, especially when the sun hits it, and the back ground was very dark at times but I was surprised that I had needed to go that far down when I checked the EXIF for this post. A thin perch would have been nice but I had to use what nature provided as I didn't want to cause any unnecessary disturbance to the adults rearing their young.
Strange. My MIII bodies are all way light. I would have made the first image here at zero and expected it to be right on. My MIII bodies--all three of them--need almost a full stop more light than than my MII bodies did.
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You have got me wondering about my Mk3 now Artie and why there should be such difference. However, I have got accustomed to the body as it currently performs which I suppose is half the battle. May be a call to the Canon technical desk may be in order.
Hey Rich, Actually darker is better as you get more shutter speed. As long as the histograms and the image files are good I would not change a thing.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,