• Members 676 posts
    April 30, 2023, 2:35 a.m.

    I'm a great advocate for getting close but sometime shooting from 40-50feet away is useful and desirable …. So when my wife said there was a stranger in the yard I took my 100-400mm lens with the MC14 on the M1.2 and sat on a stoop about that distance from the bird feeders!!! … A Rose-breasted Grosbeak …. (560mm, F/10, 1/400sec, ISO3200)

    1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak.jpg

    I had seen the female the day before and that morning but mistakenly took it for an unknown sparrow ( 560m, f/10, 1/200sec, ISO 500)

    2 Female Grosbeak.jpg

    actually I saw two females so there may be a pair of grosbeaks migrating through our yard They were stuffing themselves today from our feeders and will probably be heading north in the morning. … I had several more birds that came by and I'll share a few more … A small downy woodpecker (560mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO 1250)

    3 Male Downey Woodpecker.jpg

    A blackbird (maybe a red wing as we have a couple resident) (560mm, f/9, 1/160sec, ISO 2500)

    4 Red Winged Balackbird.jpg

    Finally, the Red Breasted Woodpecker and a friend ...( 560mm, f/9. 1/400sec, ISO 4000)

    5 Red Brested Woodpecker & friend.jpg

    I don't usually shoot at the feeders but at the approaches around them but this is the attraction … I also don't usually shoot as less than 1/1000 sec with this lens but as several have expressed some concern about the resulting ISO, and it does diminish the details and reduced the perceived focus, I practiced a bit of stability. .. It also demonstrates the camera + lens good OIS/IBIS as well as the fact that I can still hand hold the camera under these settings when I work at it…..

    There are quite a few more from this session but as I had three previous sessions continuing to try my hand at ProCapture with some interesting results I suspect some of those sequences will appear next and then as I continue generating newer files and ideas even most of those sets will be left for a rainy days when I need to go back to the files …

    WhyNot

    Something NEW .. When I previewed this post I only got the pictures no text ...

    5 Red Brested Woodpecker & friend.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by WhyNot on April 30, 2023.

    4 Red Winged Balackbird.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by WhyNot on April 30, 2023.

    3 Male Downey Woodpecker.jpg

    JPG, 928.2 KB, uploaded by WhyNot on April 30, 2023.

    2 Female Grosbeak.jpg

    JPG, 783.4 KB, uploaded by WhyNot on April 30, 2023.

    1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak.jpg

    JPG, 1.0 MB, uploaded by WhyNot on April 30, 2023.

  • edit

    Thread title has been changed from Voyeuism ..... WhyNot 4/29/23.

  • Members 567 posts
    April 30, 2023, 3:17 a.m.

    A nice set to look through WN. You did well with these. The bird in the second has a lot more yellow in its breast feathers than I see here. Here they just look like large female house finches. The other bird in the last looks like a thrasher.

    If the pain lets up and I can stand at the kitchen window I will see what I can catch. The pain in my leg now extends as far as the shin from the hip. I think it is all connected to the back issues but I need to see some medical professionals for opinions.

    Andrew

  • Members 318 posts
    April 30, 2023, 10:02 a.m.

    Lovely set WN of lovely Birds u have lots of different birds coming to ur garden I would love to have a woodpecker on my feeder beautiful 🙂

  • Members 676 posts
    April 30, 2023, 3:04 p.m.

    Thanks for stoping by, Andrew ... I hadn't really noticed the yellow feathers until I looked at the picture after downloading ... I thought she loked a bit like the Brown thrasher or maybe a large sparrow ... and yes the friend is one of our brown thrashers ...

    Well backs can be debilitating I've had a few incidence of that and do everything I can to avoid aggravating the back!! ... Right now I'm having a few stability problems that make it difficult to plan a walk of any distance ... so maybe I'll sit more in the yard and watch the birds watch me ... Tricky lighting this morning with bright sun and then a dark cloud moving over and then it comes out again .. large swings in exposure .... I have had a few problems and have seen the nurse practitioner (I haven't seen my Dr. in years!!!! .. ) but he sends me to specialists who I can see me a month or two later to treat any immediate problem ... waiting to see a couple now ... one about this stability problem ! ....

    WhyNot

    Interesting Preview allows me to see what I've included of your response but not what I am writing .... seems to be a problem update!!! ....

  • Members 676 posts
    April 30, 2023, 3:10 p.m.

    Thank you Paul ... we do have a variety of birds living near .. and that always surprises me as we don't live near a wooded area but in the central city .. I shot those pictures from 40-50 feet because I thought the Grosbeak would be extremely shy.. However, this morning I was filling the feeders at a small table in front of the feeders, turned around and there was the Grosbeak two to three feet in front of me looking at me. I spoke to him for a while before asking him to move so I could rehang the feeder and he moved away .. but came back after I had finished!! ... They always surprise me ...

    WhyNot

  • Members 510 posts
    April 30, 2023, 4:53 p.m.

    Funny. The blackbird really gives you the evil eye. 😀

  • Members 676 posts
    April 30, 2023, 10:28 p.m.

    Not evil eye just watching as I have a reputation among the local black birds .. Chased them out of the yard over a couple decades ago and only now are they coming back .. If they don't bring all their friends I may tolerate them .. they use to make such a racket that I couldn't sit in the yard and read ... but the years and loss of some hearing have taken care of that ...

    WhyNot

  • Members 336 posts
    May 3, 2023, 4:39 a.m.

    Getting close is often a PITA, WhyNot. These are great, clear, and close wasn't necessary. I like the blackbird and the woodpecker best. Rich

  • Members 676 posts
    May 3, 2023, 3:24 p.m.

    Thanks for stopping by, Rich, and thank you for the comment ... Getting close has many practical advantages but is time consuming .... We'll have to have this conversation sometime .... just no now ....

    WhyNot