Me in enemy helicopter: ooooohhhh elephants, let's get in for a closer look!
Yes, they do have an air of self confidence for ones so small, a bit like my chihuahua lol
Thank you 😊
Tldr: yes and no, because I shoot in RAW.
I shoot in RAW so I have an import profile I use in lightroom for all my bird photos that's basically balancing the exposure, shadows and highlights with some noise reduction and sharpening. I don't apply any colour correction.
I then mess around with the ones I want to make a tiff from or on rare occasions print. I usually end up making it worse lol
This one was a bit different, in that the bird was well lit and I was happy with everything but the leaves were really blue as they were in deep shade. I looked at changing the white balance to bring the greens out or messing with the channels, but in the end I left it pretty much alone.
When I started digital photography I found it difficult to deal with everyone's opinions on the look and feel of my images. I have a taste but it's not to everyone's liking. This many years later I have kind of decided you can't please everyone but I am really glad you like it.
I have a couple of others I think you will like if you like this one. I'll post them up over the next few days.
Thank you 👍
I took a fishing chair to a fen once. I sat down and all four legs disappeared into the peat, essentially leaving me sat on the ground 🤣
I used NX Studio from Nikon when I first started on digital, which is free, but I found it less capable than I needed. I might go back and have another look. I really like Fast Raw Viewer. It makes it really easy to cull my shots down before importing them.
In lightroom I'll do a general first pass process on import and then if there's something I really like I'll take my time ruining it lol TBH most of anything I do after the first pass is just cropping for layout.
I also have topaz denoise, sharpener and gigapixel for doing large prints and a Spyder for screen calibration. I don't think calibration is really worth it if you're only doing digital images, because unless the person looking at the photo has an identical screen and calibration it's never going to look the same, but it's a noticeable improvement when printing.
My day job is running a blackops rendition site, photography is just a hobby 😉
Or it's the name of one of my cats, who is genuinely evil.
I ended up feeling the same way about monopods. I did try a gitzo pod which was able to expand to nearly 6' 4". With a head and the camera mounted it was actually pretty comfortable for me at 6' 1". But I found it was just one more thing to think about and get tangled in my legs lol.
I shoot in manual mode but that's for no other reason than I really struggled with semi automatic modes (dealing with exposure comp and floating variables like ISO) when I first started digital photography. I honestly almost quit after using aperture priority and ending up with loads of pics at 1/8000s and ISO 12800 😆 I then had to figure out how to lock down the max iso and shutter speed and that became another thing to remember as it was always buried in a menu somewhere. I just found it all so frustrating that going manual was actually a relief. The ergonomics on the Nikons, especially the more capable ones, makes it really easy to manage on the fly so to speak. The main thing was practicing on things I didn't mind not capturing, garden birds, ducks on the river. I still mess it up but my lightroom skills have improved no end 😄
Ha, yes this is true. Always keeping my eyes open.
You could try a monopod, something light in carbon fibre would help take the weight. It's a bit trickier than a tripod at first but more portable.
That said I found regular use of heavier gear gets you used to the weight. Controlled breathing can also help stabilise your upper body and by locking your elbows into your torso the weight can be transferred into your body rather than being supported by your shoulders alone. Apologies if you already know this.
At 800mm you're at f/9 which is going to make your autofocus work harder if the light isn't great, especially on moving subjects.
Thanks Kevin
The pale ones are juveniles, they are probably 3-4 weeks out of the nest at this point. There's an adult ringing the neck of a youngling in the top photo and obviously the last one is an adult as well.
How are you getting on with your new lens?
That's a great idea for when I'm away.
I have a bird box with a camera but the sparrows that it's intended for use a hole in the wall next to the box lol
Cheers casmael 👍
Thank you 😊
Yes, I'm pretty lucky, we get a lot of birds in our garden. I can see the feeder from where I'm sitting, it's got blue, great and long tailed tits on it right now.
Thanks
Thank you.
Yes, they are tricky, especially once they have chicks to protect. I'm lucky that I live in an area with lots of opportunities to see warblers and other reedbed species which increases the odds. I also admit to being a glutton for punishment in regards to small birds. I spent more than a few hours on my last holiday trying to photograph gold crests lol
Thank you!
I don't I'm sorry to say. There's a few more on my profile page here and I'll add to this com over time. I have many thousands on my image role, but most of them are ID shots so I'm gradually sifting through them looking for ones I think people might be interested in.
Thanks :)
Thank you so much for the lovely feedback. Apart from my wife I don't think anyone else will have seen the vast majority of them, so it's nice to be able to share them. I'm trying not to spam the board too hard, if I stick to one a day I'll have posted about half of them in a year or so lol.