PAW- Bird and Moon Shots

[Mark Cassino]

Yesterday I went to a nearby park and decided to try the *ist-D with some 
serious bird photography. The red winged blackbirds were out in force, and 
while these birds are pretty common, they can be elusive and their jet 
black color really wreaks havoc on metering. I used my standard bird setup 
which is the A* 400 f2.8, and 1.7x AF adapter. With the *ist-D I wound up 
using the AF360FTG for fill flash.

I was a little worried about the flash and *ist-D combo. It's important not 
to stop down too far when birding, but with a minimum ISO of 200 and 
maximum X Synch speed of 150, the *ist-D really forces you to either stop 
down or use the high speed flash. Since high speed mode takes a pretty big 
hit out of the flash power, I was worried that it would lack the strength 
to be effective. Ultimately, the flash worked fine when shooting at 1/250th 
or less (of course, it was set at either -0.5 or -1 for fill.).

The only drawback with the *ist-D was the pause when the buffer filled up. 
I don't use the motor drive in film bodies, but I do shoot friarly rapidly 
when the opportunity presents itself. from time to time the *ist-D would 
pause and leave me jabbing at the shutter button in frustration....

In addition to two bird shots, I'm posting a shot of Monday's full moon 
setting over Lake Michigan. I had meant to shoot it with a lighthouse in 
the foreground, but mis-judged where it would ultimately set and wound up 
on the wrong side of the channel. So I just shot it with the waves as a 
foreground. Perosnally, I like it better without the lighthouse... This too 
was shot with the *ist-D. The lens was a Sigma 70-200 f2.8.

Comments are appreciated -

the link is:

http://www.markcassino.com/paw/040410/

- MCC

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Mark Cassino Photography

Kalamazoo, MI

http://www.markcassino.com

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