Official Photography Thread

[swampfrog]

Had a week vacation/family reunion on the Oregon coast. Before the reunion, started the week off with a "Puffin Cruise" out of Port Townsend, Washington on an invitation from Wuap, whose family also went. It's a cruise around Protection Island which is a protected site for nesting seabirds. The boat cannot come within 200 yards of shore, which turned out to be a little too far for bird pictures of decent quality. I'm not sure the captain even got that close, it seemed much further. I ended up renting a 400mm f/4 DO II for the week. With converters I had 400mm f/4, 560mm f/5.6, and 800mm f/8. First time shooting at 800mm with the 2x converter, but focusing was only center point and only fast enough for static subjects. Tried a little from the boat, but quickly switched to the 1.4x converter at 560mm, the boat was too rocky to keep the center point on a subject long enough to lock focus. Mostly took landscape shots @560mm which is also a different experience. I will likely be sharing quite a few over the next few weeks as I get through the over 4000 pictures I took during the week. For a "puffin cruise" the puffins were elusive, 1 or 2 were spotted well away from the boat, but I did not get a picture. Made up for it at Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach. Here's the first few (as usual, best viewed on a widescreen monitor with the browser full screen):

Sea Lions resting on the beach, cropped to panoramic:


Water Tower on the island (it was once inhabited, and still has one resident):


Seagulls, with a heron playing Where's Waldo:


Rhinoceros Auklet, one of the few bird shots worth keeping:


Sailboat moored at Port Townsend:


Port Townsend Sunset:

[swampfrog]

First evening at the rental:



The next day, time to start chasing the birds with the big rental lens. This one at 800mm:



Shooting closeups at 800mm is also interesting:



Evening time, back to the shorebirds, the depth-of-field is really thin at 800mm:



Never been able to take these kind of flight shots before, hand-held 560mm with near instant auto-focus is addicting:

[falafel]

Cool stuff.

[swampfrog]

The next morning. Chasing shorebirds again in softer morning slightly overcast light. The images are degraded not viewed at full screen. The difference in bright overcast conditions allows less shadows on the birds which many find more pleasing.

Some flowers on my walk out through the grasslands, highly processed.


Semipalmated Plover (@400mm)


Sandpiper (@800mm)

[Katy Lied]

Love your shorebirds, who look so human compared to birds in flight.


Re: your sea lion picture, I like the single sea lion looking at the camera. It makes the picture so interesting. However, the sea lion directly over him, which I've circled in red, sort of distracts. I wish the back one were not looking directly at the camera.

Swamps Pix.jpg

[swampfrog]

Re: your sea lion picture, I like the single sea lion looking at the camera. It makes the picture so interesting. However, the sea lion directly over him, which I've circled in red, sort of distracts. I wish the back one were not looking directly at the camera.

[ATTACH]8094[/ATTACH]

Agreed. Might look at some photoshop work there--but probably not, have too many other edits to do. I had a couple with a sea lion looking directly at the boat from the water near shore, but were not sharp The boat made framing difficult, and combined with shooting at 800mm, I didn't even have much idea for sure what I got until I had them back at the computer.

[Pelado]

The next morning. Chasing shorebirds again in softer morning slightly overcast light. The images are degraded not viewed at full screen. The difference in bright overcast conditions allows less shadows on the birds which many find more pleasing.

Some flowers on my walk out through the grasslands, highly processed.

At what speed did you shoot the flowers? What did the unprocessed image look like?

[swampfrog]

At what speed did you shoot the flowers? What did the unprocessed image look like?

Don't remember what speed, I'll look it up back at home. The majority of the processing was related to coloring--to give it the brownish tones, which is an effect I like with long grasses. I'll post the before and after in my other thread tonight. This actually was the test shot. It's good practice that as soon as you first pick up the camera to go shooting, shoot the first interesting thing you see and look at the results. At least then you know there is a battery in the camera, there's a memory card in the camera, it's focused, etc. There's mental checklist of stuff I also try to remember to examine at the same time. What mode am I in? What's the ISO set at? Is the autofocus on the lens turned on? Is the IS on the lens turned on? Is the resulting photo RAW? Is AI Servo enabled? Is high speed multi-shot enabled? Then I evaluate the histogram of the shot to decide what approximate ISO, aperture, and shutter speed I'm going to need for my intended subjects (static, moving, or flying).

[swampfrog]

Meant to include this one also. I like the juxtaposition with the raised feet.

[wuapinmon]

swampfrog takes great photos. If yall only had an idea how bad that boat was pitching, you'd be truly amazed at that auklet photo. He was also smart enough to go inside before we got swamped on the way back to port. I had saltwater all over my equipment and had to spend a long time cleaning everything once we got home.

That lens was amazing. The peep photos from the shore are world class. That pregnant water drop on the bill of the sandpiper is a moment in time that we would've never known (and which would've been lost) had you not taken that photo. The ripples in the water were a fleeting instant, overpowered by the next wave. And let's not forget the eye in the reflection staring at us. Such beauty!

[Pelado]

swampfrog takes great photos. If yall only had an idea how bad that boat was pitching, you'd be truly amazed at that auklet photo. He was also smart enough to go inside before we got swamped on the way back to port. I had saltwater all over my equipment and had to spend a long time cleaning everything once we got home.

That lens was amazing. The peep photos from the shore are world class. That pregnant water drop on the bill of the sandpiper is a moment in time that we would've never known (and which would've been lost) had you not taken that photo. The ripples in the water were a fleeting instant, overpowered by the next wave. And let's not forget the eye in the reflection staring at us. Such beauty!

I hadn't noticed the reflecting eye or the water drop until you mentioned them. Pretty cool.

[BigFatMeanie]

I hadn't noticed the reflecting eye or the water drop until you mentioned them. Pretty cool.

Me neither. I looked at it for probably 1 second, thought "it's a bird" and moved on. I'm a neanderthal when it comes to art.

[swampfrog]

swampfrog takes great photos. If yall only had an idea how bad that boat was pitching, you'd be truly amazed at that auklet photo. He was also smart enough to go inside before we got swamped on the way back to port. I had saltwater all over my equipment and had to spend a long time cleaning everything once we got home.

That lens was amazing. The peep photos from the shore are world class. That pregnant water drop on the bill of the sandpiper is a moment in time that we would've never known (and which would've been lost) had you not taken that photo. The ripples in the water were a fleeting instant, overpowered by the next wave. And let's not forget the eye in the reflection staring at us. Such beauty!

The water got me a little bit, but I had my back turned to it and was able to protect the camera so that only a few drops got to it. I was surprised at how jittery the auklets were, I expected they would not be so easily spooked by the boat. The pitching and rolling were manageable at times, but we never were close enough before they turned their backs and swam/flew off. Pictures of the rear of birds are rarely interesting, though occasionally a look-back pose as in this case can be nice.

Sending that lens back to the rental (lensrentals.com) was a let down. Had a great time with it. I've only posted a couple days worth so far. More to come. It's the first time that shooting birds that small was worth the time. The plovers and sandpipers are 6 - 7 inches long, think the size of a dollar bill. Since they forage along the shore in groups, I found that if I sat on the beach in one spot, eventually a group would make it's way towards me. I probably shot well over a thousand shots of just those two species. They are moving almost non-stop, it's one of the reasons I like shooting birds--it's challenging at times to get a couple dozen really good shots in a thousand attempts. The water drop and reflection were unplanned, but they set that shot apart from the hundreds of similar images I have. I also like freezing motion and admiring the small details that only freezing and magnification can provide.

Thanks for the kind words.

[swampfrog]

I hadn't noticed the reflecting eye or the water drop until you mentioned them. Pretty cool.

Me neither. I looked at it for probably 1 second, thought "it's a bird" and moved on. I'm a neanderthal when it comes to art.

Which tells me I did something wrong, especially with the reflection. I'm going to go back to that one, the reflection should pop at you more. I applied some processing to the bird which I did not also apply to the refection, which I will fix. The water droplet would have been better if it had been hanging from the tip of the beak and was also reflected in the water below. It's a favorite from the trip, I might even print and frame that one in an 8x12.

[creekster]

Which tells me I did something wrong, especially with the reflection. I'm going to go back to that one, the reflection should pop at you more. I applied some processing to the bird which I did not also apply to the refection, which I will fix. The water droplet would have been better if it had been hanging from the tip of the beak and was also reflected in the water below. It's a favorite from the trip, I might even print and frame that one in an 8x12.

I wouldnt overreact to these comments. Many people here are looking on a phone screen in tapatalk which means the images are bout the size of a postage stamp. Your shot is very good as posted.