Fine Art prints, matting, framing and shipping.
I missed getting this Green Heron, which was perched on top of a piling, 7 feet away from where I was standing (in my kitchen, shooting through the sliding glass door) - by about half a second. 
If I hadn't paused to re-focus before re-framing I might have had the killer close-up I've been trying to get of this bird. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...
But while it would have been a nice close-up, the lighting wasn't optimal. The sun was up, but it was behind a bank of clouds, off-camera left and to the rear of the bird. It would have been a pretty flat image, I think.
If I hadn't paused to re-focus before re-framing I might have had the killer close-up I've been trying to get of this bird. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...But while it would have been a nice close-up, the lighting wasn't optimal. The sun was up, but it was behind a bank of clouds, off-camera left and to the rear of the bird. It would have been a pretty flat image, I think.
I was able to capture a bunch of images of one that's been coming around frequently; perhaps it's the same one. He lands on my dock or boat, and my neighbors' docks and boats, and frequently fishes from the various perches they present - from a wave runner ramp next door to some lines that go from my dock to my house barge. I also grabbed two frames of him while he was on the smaller service dock in front of my house barge, but these were shot through a screen, and as a result don't look very sharp. Here is one decent capture that I was able to make a while ago:
Fine Art prints, matting, framing and shipping.
As the only lens I currently have is a 24-105mm zoom, I can't really get a very good close-up from any kind of distance - i.e. more than seven or eight feet away, depending on the size of the subject. So in order to get a decent portrait I need to really enlarge the image, and severely crop it for composition. But to get any kind of depth of field (so I can ensure I have a sharply focused photo) I must shoot at a very high ISO, in this case 1600. This has the unfortunate result of really exaggerating the grain inherent at this "film speed."
Ideally, I'd like to own a Canon 400mm, 600mm or 800mm lens - the longest lens they make - but at prices that range from $8,000 to $14,000, they're out of my zone of affordability for now. I'll probably end up getting a different 400mm lens by Canon, which is less than a quarter the price of their $8,000 top-of-the-line 400mm. The two trade-offs are A. No image stabilizer and B. A smaller (i.e.5.6) f-stop than the larger and thus "faster" f/2.8 on the costlier lens. At least it's closer to what I can afford, especially if I can pick up one that's used.
The other lens I consider to be a must-have (for me, at least) -
and the one I'll probably get first - is the 100mm f/2.8l Macro. It's the one feature I miss most from my last two digital point and shoots. Those little cameras did (and one still does) a great job shooting macro photos.
For "One That Got Away"
Camera Data
Canon
Canon EOS 5D
1/200 second
F/5.6
105 mm
50
Jul 25, 2011, 7:08:35 AM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
For "Green Heron"
Camera Data
Canon
Canon EOS 5D
1/160 second
F/8.0
105 mm
1600
Jun 22, 2011, 6:37:36 PM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
The other lens I consider to be a must-have (for me, at least) -
and the one I'll probably get first - is the 100mm f/2.8l Macro. It's the one feature I miss most from my last two digital point and shoots. Those little cameras did (and one still does) a great job shooting macro photos.
For "One That Got Away"
Camera Data
Canon
Canon EOS 5D
1/200 second
F/5.6
105 mm
50
Jul 25, 2011, 7:08:35 AM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
For "Green Heron"
Camera Data
Canon
Canon EOS 5D
1/160 second
F/8.0
105 mm
1600
Jun 22, 2011, 6:37:36 PM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
