Keith, I tried to find your email address so I could send you the following:-
Hello Mr. Rankin;
What a delight to visit your site and to get all the information on Hummingbirds. I live in Fort Saskatchewan and get the occasional hummer in my backyard. I believe the waterfalls attract songbirds to my garden and missed the chance to shoot a male Goldfinch bathing in the top of one of the falls flumes. My camera was in the house. I was better prepared on a later occasion and got a rare chance to get a great pose of a male Rose Breasted Grosbeak, the first and only one I have seen in my life. I have seen many more females and think this coming summer will see more.
I took a camera safari last September through the inside passage in Haida Gwaii aboard the SV Maple Leaf, a 92’ schooner. We got some incredible wildlife viewing and I got as close to a Grizzly so as to smell his breath (I exaggerate a little); unfortunately my shots were not the best with all the excitement and being so close.
I invite you to visit my Flickr site at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aeros4/sets , you won’t see anything of the standard that you produce, but may be interesting none the less. I am thinking of making a trip to a raptor rehab facility in Southern Alberta run by one Owen Slater, he may be the son of a man I met in Ontario who was managing the raptor section of African Lion Safari, a park near Toronto, If it is the same family, then we have a shared history, one that good screenplay’s are made of. I have included my contact information bellow and invite you to phone or write (I want to pick your brains). I was doing wedding shoots with My Pentax 645 for more than twenty years, two years ago I got the Pentax 645D with the new 25mm and stock 55mm, I have some old 6x7 glass adapted to the 645D but not very happy with the 400mm and doubler, too much chromatic aberration. My recently acquired Canon 7D with a 100-400mm plus doubler has proven to be a great and sweet piece of glass; I have some nice bird shots from my backyard.
I just went crazy on my seventieth birthday and sprang for a Nikon D800E. After buying this camera I feel the same sense of complete calm and satisfaction as I did with the purchase of the 645D, I may sell the Canon system and invest in a 500mm telephoto for the Nikon, such a well designed camera, a joy to use. From this point on I vow to never do another wedding, will concentrate on improving my landscape and wildlife work and explore as many other venues as I can. Best phone No. to reach me is 780-998-9707. email
[email protected]
Happy shooting,
Richard Jones.[/quote]