Your Canon Photos No. 30: 26th November to 2nd December 2023

Hi davidwein,

Love the set of photos, it has to be the last two of set two that does it for me.

Hi stevet1,

Love the blue in your northerly shot. 👍

Hi all,

A walk around Etherow Country Park, home of the Mandarins, now the Males are back.

(Aperture f/9 <> (SS): 1/60 <> ISO 500 <> EC: -0.33 <> PASM Mode: Aperture Priority <> Metering: Evaluative <> Focus Mode: One Shot <> FL: 35mm <> Lens: Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).

A lazy day by the river. (Aperture f/7.1 <> (SS): 1/500 <> ISO 12,800 <> EC: 0 <> PASM Mode: Custom <> Metering: Partial <> Focus Mode: AI Servo <> FL: 350mm <> Lens: Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).

Next step Winter. (Aperture f/9 <> (SS): 1/40 <> ISO 500 <> EC: -0.33 <> PASM Mode: Aperture Priority <> Metering: Evaluative <> Focus Mode: One Shot <> FL: 21mm <> Lens: Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).

Female Mandarin and autumn leaves. (Aperture f/7.1 <> (SS): 1/500 <> ISO 8000 <> EC: 0 <> PASM Mode: Custom <> Metering: Partial <> Focus Mode: AI Servo <> FL: 300mm <> Lens: Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).

Male Mandarin. (Aperture f/7.1 <> (SS): 1/500 <> ISO 8000 <> EC: 0 <> PASM Mode: Custom <> Metering: Partial <> Focus Mode: AI Servo <> FL: 600mm <> Lens: Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).

Very well done - spectacular colors, great details and composition in this one!

Mocha,

Thanks. I'm glad you like the adjusted autumn colors and the dinosaurs. The older Olympus autumn colors photo looks a little dark on the monitor I have now. But that's only a little. A lot of what we see or have seen in the past is based on our monitors. Hopefully, now they are more uniform and reliable for us all.

David,

Thanks. The quality of that Canon RF24-240mm lens looks super. Thanks for letting me know.

My Canon 24-105mm F4-7.1 lens order is still processing. The Canon website said to allow 3 to 7 business days for shipping, so I will be patient. Typically, I like to buy two cameras with attached lenses, so i just switch them from my camera bags. I have that with my Canon T7i (800D) and Canon M50 MKII cameras. That's particularly useful at people events. I will just be patient before making any more purchases. 😀 Typically, I like to play around with one of them long enough before taking the next step. The RP camera will be camera number 6 that I'm actively using. If I don't rush with buying anything new, I have a better chance of not spending more than I really need. There's so much out there. Canon also is planning to release soon a Canon RF 200-800mm zoom lens for around $1800 or $1900 dollars (USD). That looks pretty cool.

Here's an example of where I think the Canon RP would be better. But I could be wrong. I find that hands-on experience is the best teacher, so I will wait until I learn more about it.

Model - Canon EOS Rebel T7i
ExposureTime - 1/50 seconds
FNumber - 4.50
ISOSpeedRatings - 12800
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 35 mm
Lens Model - EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Mocha,

There you go again, making me "jealous" of your Mandarin ducks. LOL 😀 You have a beautiful countryside too, with the colorful autumn leaves.

I've been collecting Wood Duck photos for almost two months. At first they were really shy and it was frustrating trying to get close. Now, they are allowing me to be closer. It's a lot of work. I have to stand in one place for over an hour. I should get one of those portable chairs that fold up. Well, the longer I stand there the closer they get and I can take some super photos. I keep saying to myself that I'm done, and then I talk myself into staying longer and the photos are even better. Maybe next week I'll show them. I got some neat ones of them perched too. The lighting is tough because there's trees all around this pond, so sometimes it is hit or miss.

At this pond where I go to, it was rumored that a female Mandarin duck was visiting (maybe a couple of years ago). A person can tell the difference between them and a female Wood Duck by carefully observing the white streak by the eye.

Subject: Female Wood Duck

For those interested, here's what a female Wood Duck looks like with the white around the eye. You can compare this with the female Mandarin duck that Mocha showed. I took this photo on September 4th of this year.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/400 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 8000
ExposureBiasValue - 0.67
FocalLength - 600 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Hi Digirame, Thank You.

When I showed the Mandarins earlier on this year there were no Males to be seen except for an old specimen who's beard had turned from ginger to white the rest were doing their thing, I see them along the rivers and canals in springtime. They seem to come back in winter to the Country Park. One of the trees has partially fallen into the stream and most congregate around this area, probably feeling protected by the surroundings, perching just above the water to rest and diving into the water to feed. Makes life a little easier for me, except for the annoying branches that always get in the way of that perfect shot 😁. It'll be good to see your Wood Ducks Digi, you can't have enough of a good thing. 👍 That's my motto.

Because it's Autumn and cloudy and because I don't go below 1/500 sec. with fast moving wildlife. Unless I've got my required shot and chance going at a lower shutter speed all my photos ended up between 8000 ISO and 12,800 ISO, there's always a catch, still it's less of a problem these days.

Here's the old guy that didn't make it to the rivers this year.

and here's a female Mandarin.

both taken this spring.

Mocha,

Thank you for showing us some more Mandarin ducks. I hope the "old guy" is still doing well. That's nice to see another female. Most of the time I have to keep a shutter speed above 1/250th of a second. If the image was taken in shadows and/or on a cloudy day, the ISO values can be quite high. Fortunately, the Canon T7i (800D) camera handles high ISO levels so much better than my old Canon T3i (600D) camera. So I get a lot more keepers.

Yes, I'll show more Wood Duck pictures later...maybe next week. We have had much more sunny weather this autumn, so I got a ton of them. The rains are supposed to start for us this Thursday. It's sunny today. I'm enjoying the warmth & sunlight and the photos that we can get with that sunshine.

Subject: Thank You

Thank you David and Photobygms and anybody else that has helped me with my decision to purchase my first full frame camera (either directly or indirectly). I appreciated your comments about lenses, your enthusiasm, seeing your beautiful pictures and hope we can learn more together. The Canon website just emailed me this morning and said that my $129 (USD) RF lens has been shipped. So maybe I can use it together with the Canon RP camera by this weekend. I hope my idea to buy this gear "refurbished" was a good one. I like to "value" shop to get the best prices, so I can continue using lots of toys. I got to save money for the next camera and lens. 😀 I was considering a Canon R8, but this Canon RP was too cheap to ignore for my first FF camera.

Hi David, Thank You.

The Camera used was a Canon EOS 7D Mark II and the lens Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD

My error the photos were taken in August and I thought they were on an earlier shoot I'd been on in Etherow CP during spring.

Details of photos below.

Here's the old guy that didn't make it to the rivers this year. (Aperture f/7.1 <> (SS): 1/500 <> ISO 8000 <> FL: 600mm <> Lens: Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).

and here's a female Mandarin (Aperture f/7.1 <> (SS): 1/500 <> ISO 8000 <> FL: 375mm <> Lens: Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD <> Camera ID: Canon EOS 7D Mark II).