Nice work Mark. All three images perfect - IMHO.
Thanks, Ken!
With the effective focal length of the bird shots being 1020mm, how has it affected your stalking? Were these all posted full frame?
The effectively longer focal length made stalking much easier. It still requires getting pretty close to the birds, but the extra reach can be just enough to put you beyond their personal zone so they did not get spooked.
Both bird shots were cropped to square up the aspect ratio. The first bird shot was shot vertically and I composted it with the full cattail head in the frame. But that made it look a bit top heavy, so I just cropped off a bit of the bottom to put it at the aspect ratio of an 8 x 10 print. It was not cropped horizontally.
The second shot was composed horizontally, with the bird close to the center. I cropped a bit off both sides to get the more square aspect ratio and move the bird more off center, but it was not cropped vertically.
These days I pretty much open up everything at the largest interpolation in Photoshop CS, and then do adjustments from there. The first image is about 13.5 x 16 inches at 300 dpi, the second is about 13.5 inches square - plenty big compared to the scans I get from 35mm!
The moonshot is full frame.
- MCC
Kenneth Waller ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Cassino" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: PAW- Bird and Moon Shots
> 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 > > ----- > > Mark Cassino Photography > > Kalamazoo, MI > > http://www.markcassino.com > > ----- > >
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Mark Cassino Photography
Kalamazoo, MI
http://www.markcassino.com
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