Handsome Guy

Another fine Egret shot Jerry. Maybe a tad bit soft in the larger post. You may be right at the limit for cropping this image. You really did a nice job of composing this for a portrait. Great job.

So wonderful and Great Egrets are always one of favourties

I think this comp works well Jerry, nice detail in the whites.

Very cool portrait, Jerry. The position of the wings really makes this for me. Really strong graphics.

You keep coming with the most surprising shots of these Egrets ! Nice ! Hans

I like the composition and action. I would maybe like to see just a little more detail in the feathers.

Slightly soft, but well-done. The blue seems a bit overpowering to me..
Sandy

Beautiful I just bought the same Canon lens. Are you super happy with it? I am going to go on Monday to Brazoria wildlife Refuge, just South of here. I cannot wait to try it out. I have a 60D body. What teleconverter do you have added to this lens? And, finally, is this your normal ISO, shutter speed and f-stop for bird shots with this lens in bright sunlight?
Thanks in advance for answering my questions

Beautiful I just bought the same Canon lens. Are you super happy with it? I am going to go on Monday to Brazoria wildlife Refuge, just South of here. I cannot wait to try it out. I have a 60D body. What teleconverter do you have added to this lens? And, finally, is this your normal ISO, shutter speed and f-stop for bird shots with this lens in bright sunlight?

Lucy,

I do love my new Canon lens. I rented a Canon 500mm lens to use on my Yellowstone trip last September. While the lens was fantastic, I found that I was too close to some of my subjects and longed for a zoom lens. I had been following the development of the Canon 200-400 lens for quite some time. I thought it would be a great choice for me. So, I purchased the lens and have not regretted it. It is super sharp. As you probably know, the lens comes with a built in 1.4 teleconverter. It is great to be able to engage and disengage the converter with the flip of a switch.

I normally shoot with a Canon 7D. The 7D is great in lots of ways, but high ISO performance is not one of its virtues. So, I usually use an ISO of 320 or 640 in order to get the shutter speed I need. I usually use f7.1 for still subjects. I have found that this is sufficient to get the depth of field I need. If there is more than one subject, and they are separated a bit, I will stop down as far as I can while still maintaing a sufficiently fast shutter speed. This lens has a learning curve. Spend some time with it and things will begin to fall in place. A good rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed that is 1/focal length. If you are shooting at 400mm, use 1/400s minimum shutter speed. This is a guideline for still subjects. If you are trying to freeze the wings of a flying bird, obviously this will not be a sufficiently fast shutter speed. Good luck and good shooting.