It is still a bit early, but things are heating up with a local rookery here in the midwest. Right now, only the Egrets are in the nest and breeding, and building their nests.
My first day at the location, 30 mph winds, thank goodness for VR on the lens, shot mostly handheld due to the steep angles with the tripods, and fly by shots.
D3 and 500VR, no TC, usually f5.6-f6.3, aperture, iso 200, usually neg ev of -.7 or more.
First a nice 2/3 frame fly by, didn't have to do much with this shot at all,
Another fly by, different bird, heading into the roost area also, a couple in a row, was very pleased on how the D3 tracked through the brush, lock on set to short, but if I kept the focus point on the bird, the camera did it' s job in tough conditions
A nesting pair swaying in the strong winds, at times the branches would move back and forth over the pair, so timing was crucial to get any shots, many of my shots have branches through the eyes, this evening shot with good light was after one of their numerous "hanky panky" episodes. Very interesting what the mate will do for just a nice stick...:wink:
the love offering coming into the nest:
Another bird that flew into the roost area fighting the heavy winds in the brushy trees:
A different bird, trying to grab and break off a branch to bring back to the nest, got lucky with the tree sway on grabbing this clear shot.
Note: not one bit of color/wb post work on any of these shots, after resizing, I sharpened for web, no saturation work on any of these pics, minor sharpening on most (except this last one) and cropping, Camera set to Saturation +1, standard setting, sharpening +4, everything else set to normal.
Thanks for looking
out of camera:
Special note of thanks to Tim O for his help in shooting on the private property where the rookery is located.
My first day at the location, 30 mph winds, thank goodness for VR on the lens, shot mostly handheld due to the steep angles with the tripods, and fly by shots.
D3 and 500VR, no TC, usually f5.6-f6.3, aperture, iso 200, usually neg ev of -.7 or more.
First a nice 2/3 frame fly by, didn't have to do much with this shot at all,
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Another fly by, different bird, heading into the roost area also, a couple in a row, was very pleased on how the D3 tracked through the brush, lock on set to short, but if I kept the focus point on the bird, the camera did it' s job in tough conditions
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
A nesting pair swaying in the strong winds, at times the branches would move back and forth over the pair, so timing was crucial to get any shots, many of my shots have branches through the eyes, this evening shot with good light was after one of their numerous "hanky panky" episodes. Very interesting what the mate will do for just a nice stick...:wink:
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
the love offering coming into the nest:
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Another bird that flew into the roost area fighting the heavy winds in the brushy trees:
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
A different bird, trying to grab and break off a branch to bring back to the nest, got lucky with the tree sway on grabbing this clear shot.
Note: not one bit of color/wb post work on any of these shots, after resizing, I sharpened for web, no saturation work on any of these pics, minor sharpening on most (except this last one) and cropping, Camera set to Saturation +1, standard setting, sharpening +4, everything else set to normal.
Thanks for looking
out of camera:
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Special note of thanks to Tim O for his help in shooting on the private property where the rookery is located.
