**Weekly Wildlife Thread: August 28th-Sept 3rd**

[Cetonid]

Let's look at some animal shots instead of A77 for now.

Nice shots, but they'd be better with the A77

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[Luis Villablanca]

Did you teach him to lug all that stuff down the trail? I believe he had a 1D4, 500mm f4, monopod, 1.4x TC draped over his shoulder while hiking the trail at Grant.

BTW, while comparing stuff with 7D vs A77 on imaging resource, the A77 looks equal or better in most cases and I'm thinking with the better AF, it should be scary good for BIF.

LOL!

That A77 sure does look interesting.

I look forward to seeing your images after you guys get your hands on the new toy.
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Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

I think that's a first cycle gull (California?)
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Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

Nice shots for a Canon!

The third one looks a bit too warm on my screen. You may want to recover highlights or play with the WB.
--
Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

Nice photos, Justin.
I love the pose on the first one. I think it's a bit tight in the frame though.
I think it would improve with more room around the bird.
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Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

Great lighting. I love the dark background and the flowers.
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Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

The shot with the exoskeleton is very cool.
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Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

Hi Gene,

Shoot me a message. I'd be glad to give you some hints.
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Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

It's been a while since I last posted here.

Last Sunday I went on a pelagic trip in San Mateo County waters. Lots of fun and quite a few birds I hadn't seen before (besides on the first pages of the field guides). They are not as colorful as the mainland birds but they are very interesting, especially considering that most of them don't set foot on land unless they are on breeding territory.

It turned out that shooting from a rocking boat was not as easy as I thought...
I must have shot around 700 frames, only to keep 20-30.

Here are my favorite shots. All taken with the 1D MkIV + 300/2.8 (rental) + 2x TC

1. Pink-footed Shearwater - Unlike gulls, shearwaters fly very low and fast.



2. Black-footed Albatross



3. Sabine's Gull



4. Buller's Shearwater



5. Common Murres



6. Rhinoceros Auklet - Distant shot, but I like the horn on the face



7. Wilson's Storm-Petrel - Extra heavy crop and bad shot just to show this species. The bird is just 7.5' and flies like a swallow in open sea.



Cheers,
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Luis

 

[OldRudi]

Nice pics from all this birds. Mi favorite ist the hawk in flight.

Cheers

 

[dr jim]

That's not my doing, but he did tell me he ask Santa for a mule for Christmas. LOL
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Just for fun!

Jim

 

[steelhead3]

Luis, you are becoming an Audubon, documenting so many species. Looks like you had great weather and your photography is always the best. One thing I find so interesting about pelagic birds is how different they look when not breeding.

 

[dr jim]

Nice Jeff. I must say though, I don't normally put gators and Minnesota together . ;-)
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Just for fun!

Jim

 

[OldRudi]

Very nice shot with this flowers. Ilove it

Cheers

 

[dr jim]

What! No chicken wrap?
Cool shots. Something you don't see every day.
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Just for fun!

Jim

 

[dr jim]

Are you kidding? I love that color! That was literally just minutes before sunset and the light was very orange. You were right about the ID though.



--
Just for fun!

Jim

 

[OldRudi]

Here are two macros i shot in last days with my a700 and Minolta 100mm 2.8 macrolens. This 2 are taken with ringflash









Cheers

 

[maxeythecat]

Here's a few of my most recent....even though my A230 ain't the greatest as far as resolution is concerned, I've gotten a few lenses over the past month or so that kinda help overcome that limitation. Xmas is comin' up fast however....oooooh, that A65's gonna look sooooo good in my stocking....

 

[Luis Villablanca]

It's probably a matter of taste. On my laptop the original image had a hotspot on the throat and some small ones on the forehead (with little detail). I tested the RGB colors in Photoshop and the reds were almost clipped (254-255).
The one you just posted looks better somehow. Go figure...
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Luis

Are you kidding? I love that color! That was literally just minutes before sunset and the light was very orange. You were right about the ID though.



--
Just for fun!

Jim

--
Luis

 

[Luis Villablanca]

Thanks for commenting. We had the marine layer over us the whole day (11-hour trip). At times the light was a little brighter but overall not a lot to work with.

When I checked the histogram, the dynamic range must have been just a few stops so I had to recover the dark tones in post-processing.

I agree about pelagic birds. From the birds I shot, the difference is most noticeable the murres and the auklet, which I shot in basic and alternate plumage respectively (I hope to get a murre in breeding plumage some day).

I also like the fact that they can filter salt out of the water and that some have a very keen of smell (contrary to most birds that don't have that sense well developed).

Luis, you are becoming an Audubon, documenting so many species. Looks like you had great weather and your photography is always the best. One thing I find so interesting about pelagic birds is how different they look when not breeding.

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Luis