Canon 400 5.6, 1.4 tele,Provia pushed 2 stops

It's amazing how these guys can perch on a vertical stem. Good seats were at a premium this day.

-- Steven Sisti (stevesisti@aol.com), July 30, 2000

Answers

>img src="http://stevesisti.tripod.com/egrsit2.jpg">

Hope that did it !

-- Steven SIsti (stevesisti@aol.com), July 30, 2000.

-- Steven Sisti (stevesisti@aol.com), July 30, 2000.

Third time's the charm, I see.

Good profile shot. The position of the feet definitely make this photo. Unfortunate that the other sticks sneak into the bottom of the frame, but cropping them out would lose that lower foot, so I suppose they're staying, good or bad.

-- Christian Deichert (torgophile@aol.com), July 31, 2000.

Are these birds actually blue or is that just a scan error or is it on the slide. Of course fill flash will fix it otherwise this is a great shot. Love the feet position as well

-- Keith Anderson (andos@pacific.net.au), July 31, 2000.

This shot is fabulous. The colour shift mentioned previous may be present but it kills me how people always talk about catch lights and fill flash when bird shots, such as this, are taken with VERY long lenses. You would need fire works to fill this thing in. No?

-- Alan McCord (lightandglass@hotmail.com), August 02, 2000.

Yes it amazes me how many idiots there are who have no idea about flash photography. You are using a 400 speed film and a 560mm lens. So taking into account that a decent flash light has a guide number in the 30-40 m range with a 50mm lens at ISO 100. It's bloody easy to get that flash to fire a light when it's set at it's biggest zoom and with the extra distance from using a fast film to easily reach around the distance that this shot was takien at. Learn how to use flash Alan before making a mockery of someone who has learnt of one of the worlds best nature photographers.A 81A filter and a flash of around 1 1/3 stops under would have done wonders for this shot.

-- Keith Anderson (andos@pacific.net.au), August 05, 2000.

and a better beamer flash extender will allow you to do it with 100 ASA film, I use a project flash with a 500mm f4.5 + 1.4x for 700 mm f6.3 with 100-200 ASA range film all the time, it does absolute wonders for bird shots and is indespensible if the bird is shaded by foliage in a tree.

-- Chris Ross (chrisx2@loxinfo.co.th), August 05, 2000.

Amidst all the fill flash propaganda I think it's worth noting that ProviaF does tend to go a little on the cold side when pushed 1 or 2 stops, although I'm not sure if that's the problem in this case, which would be fixable in either Photoshop or via an e.g. 81A filter or via filtration at the printing stage. If you want to have a certain color balance it may be worth running some tests.

Movement a little to the cold or warm side is probably not a huge issue. There is no one true color temperature, tastes vary, and there considerable variation in the way films record colors (e.g. Velvia).

Does anyone here advocate use of blue filters when shooting wildlife at sunrise or sunset ?

-- Phil Jeffrey (pjeffrey@hotmail.com), August 10, 2000.