Emu for u

Taken this weekend at the wildlife safari, this young emu opened it's trap for some reason and I snapped this one off.
70-200@200mm
f/8

OK, I think it's actually a Rhea...

Another bird? what's happening around here? This is funny - good choice with the pano look...

Yeah, it's a rhea . Cute, Rick, especially those "ears".

So, you're going to the birds, eh?

Yes...going to the birds, for sure. It is alot of fun to shoot these...birds in general I mean. I'm with you on the "short a couple hundred mm"...The only way to get real close to birds is to be in a place like this (wildlife safari) where they actually expect you to stop. I was probably 10-12 feet away from this guy.

Rick... birders do it with stealth! Ahem, get close to the birds, that is. Even so, that 500 or 600mm lens with a 1.4x or 2x TC comes in soooo handy. But, at 5-7K per lens it's not going to happen for a long time for me.

When you see someone post a shot of a small bird (a chickadee like I posted a few weeks ago, or a warbler, etc) and you also see that it was taken with a 300mm lens then you know that that photographer used lots of stealth, knowledge of the bird's habits and habitat, and a ton of patience to get close enough to get anything large enough to make presentable in an image! It is truly extremely tough photography where specialized and expensive equipment helps immensely.

If you want to go out someday to do some bird photography, just let me know...

I'd love to, and I will. Perhaps I'll rent the 400 from pro photo for that day...it would be fun.
or...there's always the rainbow lorikeet area at the zoo...I think 18 mm would be too much, as they perch on your shoulders at times...

That would be great, Rick. Actually, I think a fisheye lens shot of a lorikeet's head might be a rather humorous and interesting capture...

Nice one Rick. What did you do to make it open it's mouth?