Head and Shoulders/Great Blue Heron /Full Frames (4)

[Gary Fairhead]

I was leaving one of our parks in the west end along the Ottawa River yesterday afternoon and I noticed our resident model looked about to strike a target. I took four shots and these are full frames so the composition is as shot and I might crop them for composition at a later time. The third image has water coming off the bird/fish while there is a lack of water in the second image ...perhaps not yet in motion? All shots have flash for fill except the 3rd when the 580Ex was still cycling and this is one of those times when there is no sunlight and the flash is more apparent in the images.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a300/g2a/New%20Birds/IMG_0906.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a300/g2a/New%20Birds/IMG_0907.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a300/g2a/New%20Birds/IMG_0908.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a300/g2a/New%20Birds/IMG_0909.jpg

[canonloader]

Great colors, expecially in the beak. The flash brought it out nice. Kind of a shrimp of a fish though. :)

[HWP]

Excellent series. Great sharpness and colors. I'm starting to get interested in learning flash fill...especially after seeing these.

Henry

[hTr]

Super Shots Gary, Minnows work!!!!

[Stephen Stephen]

Great action series here Gary and the colour of the water really makes the bird stand out.

[Gary Fairhead]

Great colors, expecially in the beak. The flash brought it out nice. Kind of a shrimp of a fish though. :)


Thanks Mitch! Yeah the fish is prety small and thats about the only size I have ever seen him catch:D

Stephen StephenGreat action series here Gary and the colour of the water really makes the bird stand out.


Thanks Stephen and I find myself looking at water color a lot..the seasonal change has already started to provide some nice colors in and out of the water.

And thanks also to Henry and gary for the feedback:D

[busbyea]

Gary nice catch....Yours and his.

The day I was trying out the 2X; I managed a shot of him from across the pond with a big Bullfrog. Too much motion blur on the capture of the frog; and he then turned hi back towards me; so I missed the rest...Needless to say...Recycle Bin it went..

[Gary Fairhead]

Thanks for the comment Ted and i had no idea there were any frogs in this pond. I havenever even seen a tadpole in there so a Bullfrog must have been quite a catch for this bird. See you in the field ( or, along the river;) )

[philc123]

Superb series Gary,
I bet that catch did'nt fill him for long!
The last one is my fave. Great captures. :)

[downywp]

Excellent shots, very sharp with great detail and colour and once again, excellent work with fill flash, looks very natural!:)

[guitarman3]

Great series here Gary! Do you care to share your flash and camera settings for fill flash? Do you use a beamer? I couldn't pick up any exif data. Thanks

[eccles]

Nice sequence set. An actual strike would be the icing on the cake but I'd be pretty proud of these.

[Reyno]

Beautifully captured GBH cloe ups Gary.

[Gary Fairhead]

Great series here Gary! Do you care to share your flash and camera settings for fill flash? Do you use a beamer? I couldn't pick up any exif data. Thanks

Thanks for the comment and it seems when I save to the WEB in CS2, all EXIF gets erased. I can save as ....but I have been saving for the WEB for so long it's hard to get used to another way...as for your question

the 580EX allows for high spped synch so I can shoot my normal exposure ( example 1/500 sec at F8 ) and as long as I have the flash set up ( push of a button) for high spped it will fire no matter the shutter speed. I don't use a Better Beamer presently so I maximize the focal distance on the flash ( max is 105mm) Its just a matter of pressing the zoom button on the back of the 580 and dialing the wheel until it reaches 105mm. Once the flash is set up like this it stays until you make a change OR change the batteries ( back to default). On the 30D the top button on the right allows me to increase or decrease the output on the flash. This can be done without taking my eye off the viewfinder,,,same as the middle button for +- exposure compensation. So I will adjust the output of the flash depending on the situation but my normal output is -2/3 to -1 and I believe -1 was what I used on the heron. I am using the flash to pull details out of the shadows and not as a main source of lighting although I have done that occasionaly when its quite dark like in a wooded area under cloudy conditions. I also continue to use exposure compensation as if I had no flash on the camera...

A lot of photoographers will caution you to not use Spot Metering ...many prefer Partial Metering but Spot Metering is all I use...but thats me:rolleyes:

Hope I answered your question and the settings for these shots ( same for image 3 but no flash) were ISO 320 at 1/320 sec at F5.6 +1/3 exp.comp. ( mistake) and -1 exp.comp. on the flash.

And a big thanks to Phil, downyp, eccles and reyno for looking and commenting:D

[guitarman3]

Gary, I really appreciate you sharing how you used your 580EX on these shots. This is something I need to get used to doing especially now that fall has rolled around in the cloudy pacific nw. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks a bunch! Oh, one other question...what approximate distance can you expect the flash to cover between camera and subject? Thks!

[canonloader]

I've got the 550ex. It's about the same as the 580ex. It's good to about 15 feet or so and I've used it out to 30 feet with the Beamer.

[Gary Fairhead]

Gary, I really appreciate you sharing how you used your 580EX on these shots. This is something I need to get used to doing especially now that fall has rolled around in the cloudy pacific nw. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks a bunch! Oh, one other question...what approximate distance can you expect the flash to cover between camera and subject? Thks!


The 400 's minimum focusing distance is 12 feet so I find the flash good from 12 feet to approx 40 feet...it does drop off though at the further distances.. I have used it for larger birds at greater distances ( 50-60 feet) but I increase the output to the + side ...for these distances a Better Beamer is the way to go and with that item I have heard that the flash is set at 50mm.