These images were created at Prince Phillips Steps, Tower Island with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens and the Canon EF 2X III TC (hand held between 310 and 400mm) with the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop at about 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Av Mode. |
Editing Practice I: Nazca Boobies
On the recently concluded Galapagos trip, we had a great half hour with a pair of courting Nazca Boobies. Here are three of my favorites. Which image would you rate the highest? Why? The lowest. Why? Which one(s) would you keep. And why? Remember, the background artifacting is a result of the creation of the animated GIF so please disregard it.
I will be off-line (on the bear boat) until 8-11-11 and will share my thoughts with you when I return.
Shopper’s Guide
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Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter. I also use it a lot with the 1.4X III TC which is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies.
And from the BAA On-line Store:
Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
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The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.
Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. These high capacity cards are fast and dependable. Clicking on the link below will bring you to the Delkin web site. There is lots of great stuff there. If you see a product that we do not carry let us know via e-mail; we will be glad to have it drop-shipped to you and save you a few bucks in the process.
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I pack my 800 and tons of other gear in my ThinkTank Airport SecurityTM V2.0 rolling bag for all of my air travel and recommend the slightly smaller Airport InternationalTM V2.0 for most folks. These high capacity bags are well constructed and protect my gear when I have to gate check it on short-hops and puddle jumpers. Each will protect your gear just as well. By clicking on either link or the logo below, you will receive a free gift with each order over $50.
See my favorite and my comments here.
1) Hey Honey – I like the eccentric composition, clear focus on both birds and positions of the birds relative to each other. The background is not distracting.
2) Over The Top – lovely portrait but the de-focused bird in the background detracts a bit because of its close proximity to the foreground bird.
3) Yakking Opposites – the bright spots in the background are distracting. I like the birds’ positions relative to each other and the action.
I like yakking opposites because of the eye contact.. both the birds are looking into camera.
Prefer yaaking opposites for symmetrical eye contact
Artie – Looking at “Over the Top,” do you wish you might have framed the birds just a tad bit higher in the frame? I assume you’ll say no, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Becky, I just remembered: these were extracted JPEGs; I will crop as you would have expected when optimizing that image 🙂 artie
‘Hey Honey’ is definitely the pick for me. It is superb from a natural history point of view. The intimacy of the birds is what the whole image is about. And focus is good in all the right places. Yakking Opposites has great composition, but the rear bird could do with a little sharpening. And finally Over The Top, would be a perfectly usable image if you didn’t have the other two available.
“Hey Honey” and “Yakking Opposites” are my favorites, though all three shots are great. At first I was going to say that “Over the Top” is the weakest because the booby in the rear is blurred. However, after looking at it again, I think I would rate it lower because the bill is pointing straight ahead. Of the other two, I think “Hey Honey” surpasses “Yakking Opposites” simply because of the way the shapes of the head came out.
I love Hey Honey but it bothers me that I can’t see both of the backround birds’ eyes, then I like Over The Top but the blurred Nazca Boobie in the background is distracting to me, so my favorite is Yakking Opposites since I like everything about it.. it’s pretty amazing that you were photographing Nazca Boobies at all!!!
“Hey Honey” is my favorite. I just like the position and focus of the 2 boobies. Same opposite approach, but very different than direct opposite as in Yacking Opposites. That seems to be more “predictable” in my view…
I think that «Hey Honey» and «Yakking opposite» have a better publishing potential than the third one.
Yakking Opposites is definitely my favorite. The 2nd one is my least fav. The 3rd one comes in the middle. I like everything about the Yakking one, the composition, colors, actions, etc.
I love “Yacking Opposites” image composition is great, shallow depth of field, eyes and beaks sharp, and birds are just slightly off from center. The over the top is second to me, just like the other composition better, no other complaints about the image.
At first glance, I thought “Over the Top” would be my last choice. But after another look, I put it in first place with “Yakking Opposites” being second. What I like about my first choice is the clean profile with great head angle and sharp focus with the eye that engages the observer.
“Over the top” is my definite favorite. The composition with the OOF bird in the background is very pleasing, and the OOF bird is far enough out of focus that it is obviously intentional.
“Yakking Opposites” would be my 2nd choice, edged out by the fact that the left bird’s head is just OOF enough to bother me. I do like the composition and the HA on both birds.
For me, the first one “Hey Honey” is the best photo
because I like the composition and it appears they
are interacting with each other.