Category: Equipment

Birds @ Village Creek Drying Beds

by Michael

After beginning the day studying for a biology test (yech) and then taking the test and getting an A, I decided it was time for Karen and I to spend a little “us” time out and about with our cameras.

We headed south to Arlington to a place called the “Village Creek Drying Beds”.  Yes, it is a water treatment facility, but there are usually all kinds of birds there.  I’m told that it is a migratory stop so almost every time you go you may see different birds.

We were there last weekend, but shooting from the car with the big lens didn’t work out so well, so I got an Apex Low Profile™ bean bag to mount my camera on while driving through the beds.  The difference was huge!  Instead of just a few keepers from the week before by just balancing the camera on the window, I ended up with more like 80% keepers!

Since I spent the morning on school work, we didn’t get there until mid-afternoon.  Not sure what it was like earlier in the day, but it was not as happening a place as I had hoped today.  But I was able to capture one of my favorite birds, the Red-tailed Hawk.  I saw it sitting on a tree stump, and while watching it, I began to get the feeling it was about to take off, and sure enough it did.  I thought this was a great shot, but it would have been an even greater shot had I not clipped the end of its wing.  I really wasn’t expecting it to reach that far up!

After it took off I was able to capture a few BIF (bird in flight) shots that turned out pretty decent.  Having the ability to mount my Wimberely gimbal head to the beanbag is a real plus!

I did see one kestrel but before I could get aimed and focused, it flew off.  I’m still waiting to get a really good shot of that one.

After driving around the beds for a while, I promised Karen that we would get out and walk some (she’s always trying to get me to exercise), so we parked and walked down one of the berms at the south side of the beds.  To the south, there are several heron nests up in the trees.  It is an amazing sight to see all of those really big birds up in the tops of the trees.  Because of the branches in between us, I couldn’t get a clear shot, but I did catch this one Great-blue Heron wading in the murky water in the shade of all the trees.  It was really amazing that as I was preparing to take the shot, it moved into a place where a beam of light illuminated its face.  I found this shot very striking!

It was shortly after this that one of the “officials” came and started running everyone out so they could lock the gates for the night.  I had hoped to see the bobcat that has been spotted around here around dusk, but I guess today wasn’t the day.

If you are interested in checking out the drying beds, here is a link to google maps.

Maybe I’ll see you out there some time!

All photographs made with the Canon 7D and Canon 600/F4 IS lens

 

Test Firing the Canon EF600mm f/4L IS + 2x

by Michael

So, now that I have added the Canon EF600mm f/4L IS to the lens lineup, I just couldn’t resist trying it out with my Canon 2x TC.  Of course, I lost autofocus on my 7D due to the 2-stop light loss, but I figured “Hey, I used to focus manually way back in the olden days, so why can’t I do it now.”

All I have to say is “WOW”!  Canon really knew what they were doing when they built this stuff.  I was shooting at ISO 800 and 400, and considering I was manually focusing at 1200mm (with my almost 50 year old eyes), I’m pretty impressed with the outcome.

These are just simple birds from my back yard, but they really show off the power of this lens.  Thank you Canon!  These shots, while having been resized for the Web, have not been cropped in any way.  The EXIF data is intact on these images if you are at all curious of the settings.

To begin, I focused on my feeder and waited.  Eventually, along came one of my local House Finches.  I have lots of these guys around the house and they are always willing to model for me.

Wow, not bad.  Not quite as clear as at the native 600mm, but not bad, especially when it comes to posting on the Web!

Listening, I could hear chirping coming my neighbor’s yard, so I turn to find another one of the little fellows up in the top of one of their trees!  A distance shot!  Great test!

Not too shabby.  Looks like I might take this 2x with me to Yellowstone next month!  Might help out with those long shots of the wolves in the Lamar Valley!

Next up was a local Mockingbird that landed on my bird bath.  This was the first time I have seen him/her there so I fired away.  (One of these days I need to figure out how to tell the guys from the gals for this species.)  You can certainly tell that the depth of focus is really narrow shooting at this range.  Still, very clear! 

As I’m sitting there enjoying the early afternoon, I hear my buddies the Bluejays approaching.  They always announce their approach and all the other birds scatter.  Funny thing is though, these guys really are bullies!  They make a lot of noise and scare other birds, but they are about the most skittish birds that visit my back yard.  I have the hardest time luring them out for a photograph.  They will hide in the trees, swoop down to be a peanut or two, and then right back to the safety of the tree before the camera can even focus on them.  But not tonight!  With the big gun, I can get him even when he is hiding in the tree!  I’m really liking this lens!  (I’m starting to get redundant.)

And last but not least, there are always a few doves around sitting on the fence, all made up with their blue eyeshadow.  They seem to be able to sit there for hours, just watching me and the other birds.  Then sooner or later, a whole flock of them will descend to the ground and start picking up the seeds that the finches have knocked out of the feeders.  These guys are good models because they don’t move much, so even as the sun is setting, you can still use a pretty slow shutter-speed with them.

So that was it for the evening.  I didn’t see my Northern Cardinals around, but they can’t be far away.  Maybe by Saturday morning I’ll be able to catch the “early birds” as they are rooting around looking for those fabled worms.