What’s Up?
More of the same. But no rain on Thursday. I have not gone down to the lake as the fields are so wet that I’d be scared of getting stuck (again).
I hope to be making a second FlexShooter Pro video this morning if I can grab Jim before he heads out on his walk. It will cover some newly discovered fine points, photographing tall nests, mounting the camera body with short lenses, balance (non-) issues with shorter telephoto lenses, and a great tip for macro photographers.
FlexShooter Pro Updates
We currently have FlexShooter Pro heads in stock here. We now have BigFeet in stock for all popular Nikon and Canon telephoto lenses. The FLN-60 plates, custom designed for the Nikon 600 VR, arrived yesterday via DHL. All Bigfeet are priced at $109.00 plus the shipping. We hope to have them in the store soon.
The 2018 B&H/BAA Bird Photography Holiday Contest Results
Thanks again to the great folks at B&H for their generosity. Thanks to all who voted here
Here are the results of the non-binding popular vote:
- Tied for first with 81 points each: Image #3: Wood Duck pair courting and Image #2: Snow Goose blast-off, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM.
- Third place with 61.5 points: Image #4: Painted Bunting displaying male.
- Fourth place with 45.5 points: Image #1: New Holland Honeyeater, Tasmania.
There was, however, only one judge for this contest. I am proud to announce the results as follows:
Tied for first: Image #4: Painted Bunting displaying male and Image #2: Snow Goose blast-off, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM. Chris Tricou and Krishna Prasad Kotti will each receive a $100 B&H gift certificate via e-mail.
Tied for third: Image #3: Wood Duck pair courting and Image #1: New Holland Honeyeater, Tasmania. Joe Sobelefsky and Paul Burdett will each receive a $50 B&H gift certificate via e-mail.
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This image was created by Chris Tricou with the mono-pod mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR lens with the Nikon crop factor body, the D500 dSLR. ISO 320: 1/2000 sec. at f/5. Image #4: Painted Bunting displaying male |
Tied for First
Action poses of songbirds are rarer than hen’s teeth. Throw in one of North America’s most beautiful passerines and the fact that photographing small birds is a huge challenge and you have a winner. Not to mention the soft light and the sweet, out-of-focus background …
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This image was created by IPT veteran and BPN member Krishna Prasad Kotti. He used the Induro ballhead-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR lens with the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III and the mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 dSLR.. ISO 100: 1/5 sec. at f/22. Image #2: Snow Goose blast-off, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM |
Tied for First
What can I say? I love blurs and I loved going to Bosque. Two of my Bosque images were honored in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. One was a blur.
In Krishna’s image I love the soft light, the two different degrees of blurring, and especially the clean lower edge. In A Guide to Pleasing Blurs (by Denise Ippolito and yours truly), I wrote something to this effect: When you get down to surreally low shutter speeds, below say 1/15 or 1/10sec., your keeper rate goes down dramatically but your chances of creating a contest-winner go up dramatically.
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This image was created by IPT veteran (and former BPN member) Joe Sobelefsky. He used the tripod-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens with my favorite Canon body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dSLR.. ISO 2000: 1/1000 sec. at f/4.5. Processed in DPP4. Image #3: Wood Duck pair courting |
Tied for Third
Joe’s wonderful image was more than well-received in the popular vote where it tied for first. I love the soft light, lovely background, the intimacy, and the excellent use of available depth-of-field. For me, it is a bit tight in the frame.
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This image was created by BPN member Paul Burdett. He used the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) with theC Canon crop factor body, the EOS 7D Mark II dSLR. ISO 640: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6. Image #1: New Holland Honeyeater, Tasmania |
Tied for Third
I fell in love with this bird and this image the moment I saw it on BPN. It reminded me of some sort of breeding plumaged Yellow-rumped Warbler hybrid on steroids! The sharpness and the bird’s attitude add greatly to the success of this image.
One of the things that I love about BPN is seeing new birds and meeting photographers from around the world. Especially in the Avian Forum.
My local birding season is Jan-Mar. So, I can wait for quite a while.
Meantime, might visit Masai Mara NR, Amboselli NP and Lake Nakuru NP in Kenya in September. Finding no choice, will have to use what I have at present.
Target species: Grey-crowned Crane, African Raptors and Leopard. I already captured all the others from my two previous tours to those national parks.
How about meeting there?
Regards.
Hi Quazi,
Been there, done those 🙂
And I would love to go back. But my days of 30-40 hours plane journeys are in the rearview mirror. Unless I get to Australia/New Zealand before I croak 🙂
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Artie: Thank you so much for the award. My first one! I guess I’ll keep on pressing the shutter now. Cheers.
YAW Paul. I hope that it will be the first of many. I need to e-mail everyone their B&H gift certificates 🙂
with love, artie
Good evening Guru. Hope you’re fine.
All the images in the above post are great. Difficult to pick one as my favorite!
New subject: I’ve been a Canon user for the last 11 years and focus mainly on wildlife photography emphasizing on birds. The Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM is my main glass and use it both on crop and full frame bodies.
However, Canon’s miserable failure to offer prosumer super telephoto glasses to enthusiasts like me has forced me to think otherwise.
I can see you’re using Nikon 500mm f/5.6 PF with great satisfaction. Read few reviews on the same and all are full of praises. The catch points are: it’s lightweight, great stabilization system, becomes a 750mm lens on DX bodies and it’s a 500mm glass that is significantly cheaper than the f/4 version. IMO, a combo of D500 + 500mm f/5.6 PF is going to make it really great for bird and wildlife photography. I’m a prime maniac. Important to mention here also, I’m not that convinced with the mirrorless hype.
The only downside of this new Nikon prime lens is; it’s made in China.
May I request your advises on the above?
With thanks and best regards.
Quazi
Am thanks and ditto.
I love, love, love mine. See the blog 🙂 If you order from B&H, please use my link. It is still very hard to get so pre-order soon. I have never used a D500; I love my D850.
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I need a crop body for bird photography because we don’t get them close often. I’m sure you know Nikon D500 is its flagship 1.5x DX body. All reviews give it a very high rating, far ahead of Canon EOS 7D II.
My old haggard Canon 5D II is good enough for my landscape shots. So, no complaints against it though dynamic range wise Nikon is better.
I would love to use your link. I’m living on the opposite side of the globe and that’s why my pm is your am. Singapore is my nearest market. Possible to organize a delivery there?
Best regards.
Quazi, Many thanks. I will e-mail you the correct links. Do understand that it will take a while to get a 500 PF as they are very hard to come by. B&H delivers all over the world.
with love, artie