Red tail in flight

[byuphoto]

Coming home from an unsucessful turkey shoot I caught this guy circling overhead
Canon T90
Canon 300 f2.8 L
Fuji 400 ProS

[Randy]

Cool picture! Did you crop or was the viewfinder that full? If it was me and I saw that in my viewfinder, I'd snap and run!

[mickeyobe]

If J.J. Audubon could see this he would rush right out and buy a T90.

Mickey

[John Parry]

Lovely Rick

You had to be there! That's something else to make time for... Our motorways have a large, often overgrown, roundabout at each junction. Most have a resident pair of kestrels, one of which is generally hovering over the grass through spring and summer. Mmmmm...

And I know where there's a buzzard's nest. Yes - on the 'Things to do' list. Along with going on a turkey shoot!

Was this hand-held, or did he hold still long enough to set up? Seems to have been plenty of light anyway.

Regards - John

[PeterW]

Once again Rick you've shown your mastery of the T series Canon. What a lovely opportunist shot. With a 300mm lens the focus had to be spot on, which it is. I love the lighting, a combination of plenty of light underneath to show detail and backlighting to make some of the feathers translucent.

Can we have some more details, please? Was this hand held or tripod or some other support? Was it a one-off shot, or did you use the T90's what is it, 4.5 frames a second motor drive, and pick the best one?

I know we shouldn't ask for secrets, but it's such a wonderful picture. One last question, I'm not familiar at all with the Red Tail. It looks quite a big bird, and quite menacing?

Canon's 300mm f/2.8 is a magnificent lens. If I remember correctly it cost more when new than the Canon T90 complete with its standard 35-70 zoom! I've longed for one for ages, but it's way, way out of my pocket money range.

Peter

[Randy]

I used to work for a Feed Mill, and one time I had to go get grain from a farmers barn loft. I had to climb into this hole in the wall to gain access to the bin. Once I climbed inside, I found myself face to face with a huge Eagle! He opened his beak and flexed his talons at me, and I never moved so fast in my life! Last year at Blakeslee Log Cabin I had another encounter with an eagle...I didn't know he was in the tree until after I took the picture.

[byuphoto]

Thank you all. I have some private property that is full of American wild turkeys but unfortuneately I haven't been able to call them in. I was about 10 AM when I packed up and headed for the truck. The area is wooded and quite brushy except for some access roads I keep up. The hawks tend to fly up and down these roads. This one was perched in a pine tree and at my approach he flew out and circled. I was able to set the canon quickly to +2 exp and with the motor drive I pre focused fired about 10 shots and picked the best. This is a slight crop as he came directly overhead. I did not have any filters on as I had been set in the deep woods. When shooting wary birds such as turkeys I only use a monopod even in a blind. So this shot was handheld.

[byuphoto]

As far as the red tail. It is my areas most common raptor wingspan of abot 2-3 feet. I bought the 300 off ebay after selling my 100-400 L EOS mount lens. I gave $1200 for it. I know have the 200 f2.8, 300 f2.8 an f4, 400 f4.5 and 500 f4.5 in the long lens catergory

[John Parry]

Oh!

I was struggling to capture a black-headed gull in flight today (the snow seems to have broaught all the birds out - or maybe they just stand out). I've found that is an excellent way to waste a lot of film. My 230AF has a pre-focus function (MUST read that manual).

From what I was able to understand, the idea is to set the focus distance that you want, press the shutter button, and the camera sits there until something turns up in the right position, at the correct distance, when it fires the shot. Have been thinking of ways to use that (eg focussing on a flower, then waiting for a bee to turn up) but all I could see were problems. For example, why wouldn't the camera see the flower in focus, and take the shot without waiting for the bee?

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Is that what you meant by pre-focusing, or did you just give it your best shot at manual focus for the first shot, and blast away in the hope that some would come out?

I'm fascinated by some of the techniques I'm learning on here. Someone will mention something, and I'm asking myself "Why didn't I think of that?"

Regards - John

[byuphoto]

John, as he was coming in i panned and set the focus ahead of him and tripped the shutter

[byuphoto]

From my years in the field I am quite good at guessing distance. In this case I set for infinity and stated shooting a s he came in and filled the frame. Plus he was just gliding and riding the wind, not flying and flapping

[kiev4a]

Beautiful!

[kamera]

Rick,

Great nature shot, and so much more with just being in glide pattern.

Uh...guess I asked a silly question about the finch picture. And I do know they are a teeny bird.

Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI

[herron]

Coming late to the discussion...but I had to say that's a neat shot, Rick. Particularly with a hand-held 300mm! The 300 would exaggerate my hand shake enough (too much coffee ) to make hand-held clarity a real issue!

[John Parry]

Ron,

I could make you a cup of tea that would make you swear off coffee altogether. The problem with you Americans is that you learnt bad habits very early on in your history. Trust me - nobody is ever going to make a good cup of tea by steeping the leaves in cold, salty water!!

Regards - John