Alright, so it's an African Goshawk . This guy lives at the bottom of my dad's garden ! I though I'd post this after seeing the fantastic images of his European equivalent. This image isn't great quality wise due to the complete lack of light but I'm heading off to Kenya in a week, so I'm gonna set up a hide near his favourite perches and try and get some better shots of him then.
300mm, f2.8, 1/30s, iso 1000
approx. 90% of ff
Comments welcome!
Billy
Posted by jack chapman on March 24, 2009 at 3:32 PM
brilliant composition and a great pose, a little bit soft though, does appear to have a green cast to it but that does give it a bit of a foresty sense to it which i quite like, but may not be desirable,
i'm sure you'll get a better version quality wise when you go back
Posted by Liam Pauling on March 24, 2009 at 3:49 PM
I like this, it looks as though your camera has focused on the branch to the left but the comp is nice. Look forward to more.
Posted by Mark Sisson on March 24, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Good luck Billy - they are well worth working with and waiting for.
A 300 2.8 is one heavy piece of kit, and at 1/30 you were pushing the boundaries.
You don’t say what camera support you are using, a cable release might have helped here, possibly coupled with a mirror lock up, as I don’t think the image is what I would call pin sharp. Everything has its limits of performance, and IS/VR is no different, as is the human body, so to eliminate any possible source of vibration can only be a good thing.
Richard Peters asked in a earlier post “Why a Cable release”, give me a nudge in say a week, and as I’m getting back to full functioning I will be writing it up in the next day or so, and if your interested then I’ll send you a copy. Might also help with your intended hide work.
Like the green cast created by the sun coming thro’ the leaf canopy, gives a real nice feel to the shot.
Still an excellent shot, the composition is really excellent. Well seen and worked.
Thanks for the input guys - I agree about the softness. This was actually a bit of a grab shot - I was sitting in the bag hide waiting for a genet (cat like mammal) that also lives in my dad's garden to wake up for the night when this handsome guy dropped down on the branch in front of me and started eating his catch. The remote flashes I had set up were all pointed at the ground - hence the ultra-high iso just to get any shutter speed at all.
Ray, I was shooting from a tripod, but at the time of taking this shot, my cable release was 4500 miles away - back here in the UK! I'll remember to pack it this time though. Bad news is (from what I've read) they seem to like hunting at twilight so I'm likely to encounter similar conditions again. Good news is - he didn't seem to mind the flashes going off (though they weren't aimed at him) so a couple rigged off camera may do the trick.
If you think that you might be working multiple subjects/distance quickly, in the half light, have you thought about a “Better Beamer” flash extension ?? Just a thought.
Might also be worth bearing in mind, a bean bag resting ontop of the lens, invariably this will reduce lens/camera movement, again just a thought.
Discussion
7 replies300mm, f2.8, 1/30s, iso 1000
approx. 90% of ff
Comments welcome!
Billy
i'm sure you'll get a better version quality wise when you go back
Mark
You don’t say what camera support you are using, a cable release might have helped here, possibly coupled with a mirror lock up, as I don’t think the image is what I would call pin sharp. Everything has its limits of performance, and IS/VR is no different, as is the human body, so to eliminate any possible source of vibration can only be a good thing.
Richard Peters asked in a earlier post “Why a Cable release”, give me a nudge in say a week, and as I’m getting back to full functioning I will be writing it up in the next day or so, and if your interested then I’ll send you a copy. Might also help with your intended hide work.
Like the green cast created by the sun coming thro’ the leaf canopy, gives a real nice feel to the shot.
Still an excellent shot, the composition is really excellent. Well seen and worked.
Ray, I was shooting from a tripod, but at the time of taking this shot, my cable release was 4500 miles away - back here in the UK!
Thanks for looking, and for the comments.
Billy
Might also be worth bearing in mind, a bean bag resting ontop of the lens, invariably this will reduce lens/camera movement, again just a thought.