Long tails

[madmitch]

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/IMG_7188.JPG

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/IMG_7220.JPG

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/IMG_7227.JPG

First serious attempts.

Mitch

[RobertP]

Really shallow depth of field there - and some really close near misses with the focus. Looks like it must be a nightmare to get right. Good effort :)

[CT]

Good efforts there with what looks like quite moderate glass. You need either very long lenses or to be able to get very close to these little birds to really show the fine feather detail.

[dougdarter]

What a beautiful little bird. I wish I had them in my garden!

Nice pics:thumbs:

[CT]

What a beautiful little bird. I wish I had them in my garden!

Nice pics:thumbs:
Now now - you got all those Goldies. :nono:

[dougdarter]

Now now - you got all those Goldies. :nono:

I love goldies, but I'd still like to have a long tailed tit, pleeeeeeease, just the one, I promise to look after it:D

[CT]

I love goldies, but I'd still like to have a long tailed tit, pleeeeeeease, just the one, I promise to look after it:D

I'll try to catch you one. I've only ever seen them in pairs though. - just not often enough! :shrug:

[madmitch]

Thanks Robert,CT & Doug.

Was lucky enough to watch this pair doing the courtship display and nest building. The nest is less than 1 metre from a customers drive and i have permission to take pics when i like, just need to take more time if the little chaps will let me.

Any tips on getting better shots would be much appreciated.

Camera and lens- 5D,300 2.8 is, 1.4 &2X,handheld,manual focus and lots enthusiasm & inexperiance

Mitch:)

[oldgit]

The first is great. They are such cute little fellas/gals.

Looking at yr kit list.. top notch stuff. With some practice you should be able to get better results. I'll leave it to the experts to comment.

[CT]

Thanks Robert,CT & Doug.

Was lucky enough to watch this pair doing the courtship display and nest building. The nest is less than 1 metre from a customers drive and i have permission to take pics when i like, just need to take more time if the little chaps will let me.

Any tips on getting better shots would be much appreciated.

Camera and lens- 5D,300 2.8 is, 1.4 &2X,handheld,manual focus and lots enthusiasm & inexperiance

Mitch:)

Well you've got the right gear to bring home the bacon I think it's just technique you need to work on Mitch.

Enabling all the AF points is a nono really as you can't guarantee where the system will choose to focus, especially where the bird is surrounded by branches and foliage as in some of your shots.

One AF point is the way to go, and you really do have to get that one AF point over the most important part - the bird's eye. DOF is usually very limited but your shots will succeed if the head and eye is sharp and other parts aren't. Working hand-held, the chances of you keeping that AF point over the eye of a bird twitching and moving about are slim to say the least, particularly with a heavy lens/camera combo, so I find a tripod is an absolute must to give yourself the best chance. The tripod head is pretty crucial, and most birders go for a gimbal type head as these heads enable you to track the bird smoothly without messing about with knobs and levers.

There are a few gimbal type heads on the market and they're all horrendously expensive with the exception of the Manfrotto Bogen 393 which is around a 100 quid, a bargain at that price, and will enable you to handle the longest, heaviest lenses on the pod with ease, as well as being usable with shorter lenses too. I can't over -emphasise the difference a gimbal head will make to your shots and ease of working.

So ... get set up with a tripod and decent head. Ideally some makeshift hide will help (it's often possible to work from a parked car) although if you get comfortable and keep very still you should be OK - it seems to be sudden movements which spook the birds.

Take a good dollop of patience with you, use one AF point, I find servo focus the best AF mode, and let's be seeing those killer shots. :thumbs:

MANFROTTO GIMBAL HEAD (http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/non-nikon_articles/manfrotto_393/393_1.html)

[madmitch]

Thanks old git and CT.

Had another try today will post later.

I just bought new manfrotto neotec tripod and hydrostatic ball head on saturday, it's a very solid tripod and very quick to set up and the friction control on the head works brilliantly with the 5D&300 combi, but i think anything bigger lens wise and i will have to take your advice CT.

Thanks again

Mitch

[CT]

Well that sounds like a great ball head Mitch. I've managed with a pretty simple ball head just by keeping hold of the camera with all the ball locks loosened off which gives you good free movement of the camera and still works with IS.

Unless you can slide the camera to balance the centre of gravity (as with an arca rail type mount) you're fighting the tendency to nose dive or tip backwards but it's definitely do-able like that, and no sense in investing in a gimbal head unless you intend to do a fair bit of birding. As you say though, if you go much longer with lenses, the gimbal head really becomes essential.