'Beautiful plumage, the Norwegian Blue...'

[Steve Kaluski]

OK, so its not a Norwegian Blue, however some of you may get the joke ... but a Ring-necked parakeet, also called the Rose-ringed parakeet.

Like a lot of big cities, we all have green spaces and London isn’t short of them, including the Royal Parks... St James's Park, Green Park, Regent's Park, Primrose Hill and of course the well know Richmond Park for its deer. However a few minutes walk from the house, we have Hampstead Heath and this is where these birds live and congregate. Rumours were, that some parakeets escaped many years ago from Shepperton Studios during a film shoot, who knows other than, they seem to be quite happy after many years living here and often seen/heard squawking as they fly over the house in the morning.

Thanks to those who posted or viewed the previous posting.

Steve

Subject: Ring-necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon EOS R3
*Lens: RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM + EXTENDER RF1.4x HH
Exposure: 1/2500s at f/9 ISO1600
Original format: Portrait, almost FF
Processed via: LRCC 12.3, & PS'23 24.4.1

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve ... you quite cool and friendly neighbors .
Love the BG ... looks great with the colors and OOF tree .
Funny expression in the birds face , but due to the shooting it is somehow problematic and the glory of the bird is missing here . Due to the shadow side we are looking at .
Good to see you are using the TC as well with the lens ... it is stunning .

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

it is somehow problematic and the glory of the bird is missing here . Due to the shadow side we are looking at .

Very hard to avoid the trees in the BKG shooting into the canopy, so I tried to line the the RH branches with the body of the bird. The body posture was due to him/her trying to workout what I was doing, a bit like an owl as they bob their heads to build the focus, if that makes sense? Doubt it could see its reflection. The shadow is what it is, I'm sure others may find it a killer, personally I'm not worried as it's the jaunty posture I like.

Good to see you are using the TC as well with the lens ... it is stunning .

As you say Andreas, it is, I can only assume folk haven't got their camera set up correctly in many ways not to get pin sharp images with this set up. Yes a pain as it works in a limited distance, but invariably you are at full tilt to access the reach.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Steve ... you got me " wrong " with the BG , I think the BG is very nice !!!!

[Steve Kaluski]

No, I agree, perhaps I was just trying to clarify my approach.

It was probably more the ‘shadow’ aspect?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Yes the shadow aspect is not ideal .... at least in my book . But with shots like this unavoidable unless one uses a flash

[Dorian Anderson]

Assume this is more to show capability of zoom + TC than anything artistic given the overhead shooting angle, heavy shadow, and branches. If yes, then it does that nicely. I have heard nothing but good things about 100-500, with and without the TC. Despite my comments about it being shorter, slower, and more expensive than the Sony 200-600 on another recent thread, everyone who owns it seems very happy with it, particularly the IS when used for video. Would be interesting to see TC results on R5 with the smaller pixels, but it certainly looks great here!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Details showing well in less than ideal light.

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp and a nice subject but off angle light wrecks this one for me.

with love, a

ps: I've used the Sony 200-600 and the Canon 100-500. It is no contest. The only thing that the Canon has going for it is that it is lighter -- 3 lbs. versus 4.65lb. Remember that the size of the bird in the frame is proportionate to the square of the focal length. 5 squared is 25. 6 squared is 36. The bird will be 44% larger in the frame at 600mm than at 500mm.