2011 Nationals

[GrahameA]

Morning All.

Just spent the week at the Nationals - along with a few cameras.

Yesterday was Clout and I happened to notice a large dead tree that had a few resident Birds. Grabbed the camera with long........... lens and snapped off a few shots. 500mm is considered by the avian aficionados as the minimum length for bird use. They are probably correct. I was wishing for a 1.5X or 2X tele-converter.

bird01.jpg (23.71 KiB) Viewed 892 times

Wing shot as it flew in to the tree.

bird02.jpg (24.54 KiB) Viewed 892 times

Another wing shot but much easier as it was just hopping around in local area.

bird03.jpg (38.6 KiB) Viewed 892 times

They just seemed to be squabbling over something.

bird04.jpg (87.14 KiB) Viewed 892 times

An Ibis - that I happened to notice during lunch feeding in the Marshland - part of the range and it was not Marshland until the recent rain, the lot that started in November and has continued.

A comment about long lenses. I am using a 150-500mm Sigma. It is a handful and really requires at least a mono-pod. If you do not use some form of support your wrist and shoulder will know about it after using it for a day or two. An acquaintance of mine was using a similar lens with a 2X teleconverter. He moved to using an external shutter release as the vibration from his hand was causing vibration issues if he released the shutter normally! Probably would also have helped to have used mirror lock-up.