Photoclubalpha

Although the first shot was already posted in this forum, but since it was as an image upload and not a link, I am posting it again here just for the sake of the subject title.
Both shots are with A700 and SAL75300

Seagull shot at lake Sevan


Bee Eater shot from my garden


C & C are most welcome and do post your pictures of birds in flight (BIF).

OK, one of my tests for new cameras is to chase ducks on the Tweed at dusk when they fly in just before sunset, so that's where the A900 ended up today. You have no time at all to aim the lens and frame them - this is much harder than shooting motor sport or any other form of action, and the distance/speed plus the nature of the backgrounds can defeat almost any DSLR. I got a fair result from the A900 with 70-300mm G SSM but the 100mm macro was far more sure in focusing, and faster, perhaps because it's f2.8 and can use the centre sensor fully. The 70-300mm can fail totally on many subjects, even static ones - the A900 is not as good the A700 with this lens. But with anything of f2.8 or faster the A900 seems to be excellent.

Grabbed without even thinking about settings - 1/13th (!) at f8 on aperture priority:



Image at a comfortable viewing size:

http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/103389396

It's not perfect at full 6000 pixel width, though still sharp enough to use - it just works better at a small size.

David

Gee Dr Harout,

I believe I would travel a few thousand miles to get a good shot of a bee eater... Once when I was at the Adriatic coast in Croatia I saw a kingfisher and I mistook it for a bee eater... I nearly got a heart attack. But then it was dark already and there was no way I could get it decently, and then the disappointment was big after finding out that it was a kingfisher... (which I never shot decently either, so far).

Thanks for posting. The shot looks great.

Cheers Jonathan

Last year I noticed them in spring only. This year they showed up in spring as usual, but made a come back at the end of August. I still heard their voice as of today. It's very odd they're still here.

Dr H, superb control of your whites on the seagull. Lovely and sharp, just a pity you managed to clip the wings. Also nice capture of the bee eater. Here is one of my BIF's, some yellow billed ducks.

Here are the next two frames after the panned ducks shot - these were not on sequence shooting, but on continuous AF with timing manually, and they covered this distance rapidly - the EXIF data shows that the three shots were 2 seconds between each one.
You can also get an idea of the weather and light conditions at the time. Tomorrow I plan to try the A900 with the 100-300mm APO, 70-200mm, 70-300 Tamron maybe.

David

Haha, we're having a nice thread here. Wonderful shot Robbie (A700 + 500/4.5).

Jonathan K wrote:Gee Dr Harout,

I believe I would travel a few thousand miles to get a good shot of a bee eater... Once when I was at the Adriatic coast in Croatia I saw a kingfisher and I mistook it for a bee eater...

I would have to travel about 20 miles to my nearest location to be able to maybe catch some bee-eaters. But never be fooled, not easy to catch these suckers.

Doc, the detail and color on your seagull are amazing. Robbie, that's a beautiful composition and a nice close shot of some great-looking ducks. DK, I love that second duck-pan shot with the more mixed lighting, I'm ga-ga over it, in fact.

No birds around here, none that you'd shoot, anyway...with a camera, I mean.

RobbieA wrote:I would have to travel about 20 miles to my nearest location to be able to maybe catch some bee-eaters. But never be fooled, not easy to catch these suckers.

Lucky you...
Great pic! Thanks!

Jonathan