Forest pigeon with Sigmonster + 2x TC

This Green Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula aenea) was perched high in the canopy at Subic rainforest yesterday, just before sunset. It was about 40 meters away from me, so I snapped on a doubler to make it a bit bigger in the frame. Both pics were taken with the 20D + Sigmonster + Sigma 2x in manual exposure and manual focus.

1294 mm, f/18, 1/100 sec, ISO 400, no MLU

Very nice shots, Romy. This is definately not the type of pigeon most of us are familiar with. You really provide a treat for those of us that will probably never see these birds, even in a zoo. Your shots are always so sharp and detailed. And thanks for describing what you do to get them. It's a great help to those of us that are trying to improve our photography skills.


Ron

Well done Romy again, thank for sharing.

Nice technique and preperation, it's amazingly sharp for 1/60th with such a long focal length. What tripod?

Great shots Romy. I must get to the Philippines some day to see your beautiful birds in real life.

Top shots Romy!

Now who would ever think that anyome would need 1200mm for a "pidgeon"

You make it look easy...

Thanks guys for the comments.

Kraig, I use a cheapo Manfrotto 475B tripod.... very heavy but stable. My gimbal head is the equally cheap Manfrotto 3421. When there's no wind and the subject is still, I can shoot at super slow shutter speeds using this support system.

Romy

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
Top shots Romy!

Now who would ever think that anyome would need 1200mm for a "pidgeon"

You make it look easy...

Thank, CDS. BTW, I'm wondering if you ever did a shoot-out under controlled conditions between your Sigmonster and 500 f4 L IS.

I'm planning to get the 500 to complement my system, and the first thing I'll do is to shoot it side by side with my Sigmonster to know the strengths of each tool.

Romy

Great job! Thanks for sharing the details.

amazing detail with that set up. Beautiful bird - never even heard of them before.

Amazing shots !!!!! You have superb techniques to get such results at that focal length.

Romy show us you are human.. show us a bad shot you have taken...LOL

Lol..... Eric...... For every decent shot I post, I probably have a hundred discarded....

The good thing about digital is we need not scrimp on "film" and we can shoot to our heart's content and just erase later the not so good ones. This is even better now that CF costs have fallen.

Here's a shot of a Scale-feathered Malkoha, a difficult to find Philippine endemic that skulks in the rainforest undergrowth. I got close to one in Mt. Makiling and for some reason, my DG Super failed to fire at the decisive moment.... a very rare photo ops ruined by equipment failure...

I was shooting JPEG at ISO 800 then (20D) and had to push the exposure in PS CS2 by 4 stops (effectively ISO 12,800) to make the bird recognizable, despite the resulting banding.

I wish I would have given this lens more consideration before I went shopping. Excellent!!

Zip

You are the man Romy... Mine is usually not equipment faliure it is Photographer error...LOL