Reifel Bird Sanctuary - Vancouver B.C.

It's seems like its been a century since I posted any pics, my family went through some rough spots in the last year. My wife and I went out to see our grandson this last week and while we were there we managed to make a side trip to the Reifel bird sanctuary just south of Vancouver.

My son had a big surprise arranged for me. His friend lent him his 70-200mm f2.8 IS L plus extenders .
I think he was crazy but it was very much appreciated.

This is my dream lens but it will be a long time (if ever) before it could be mine (the cost alone is a complete airfare, return, to see my grandson).

My abilities do not do this lens justice but here are a couple of pictures that I managed to capture.

Great Blue Heron

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Nice shots, John ... last looks like a juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron.

cheers,
jim

Wow, these are all wonderful captures John! I like to shoot birds but i have neither of the birds you just posted in my files. You have a good son who knows how to make his old man happy. Good for you.
I agree with Jim on the juv night heron.

Hi John and welcome back to the forum. Very nice shots and I'm sure you enjoyed the lens. Were you using any extenders for these shots, and if so what ones were they? I'm trying to choose between the 70-200 (plus 1.4X extender) and the 100-400 for my next lens, so I would appreciate your comments after using the 70-200 with extenders.

Good shots. And yes, the last one is the black.crowned night heron, I wish I could have taken such a good shot when I was there.... He is very often in the first pond to othe right after the entrance

http://www.reifelbirds​anctuary.com/

I gotta go there. Maybe I can get some decent bird and/or owl shots. I took pictures of flowers yetserday and felt quite liberated. Shooting skatepark and landscape stuff is getting old.

Thanks all for your comments.

I really was not sure of the Black-crowned Night Heron as the markings did not seem to match the ones that I looked up on the web.

DDA: your quite right. This bird was in the first pond as you come in on the right. I did not see it when we entered the sanctuary but only noticed it when there were a crowd of people when we left. It flew from the pond up into a tree and I was quite a ways away from it when I took this picture. It is fairly heavily cropped to get it to this size. Looking at your signature it seems that you should have some great landscape opportunities. I was in Vancouver for a week and we had one day of sun. Oh well, we were there to see my grandson and it doesn't rain indoors!

CFCrebel: He is a great son, he is my favourite for sure (does it count that he is my only son?) !

sugarzebra: Like I said this lens is my dream lens. There were a 1.4 and a 2X extender available, but I only used the 1.4 as most of the opinions I have read say that the drop in quality with the 2X is not worth the gain in distance.

There are a million reviews on this lens here so I will not go into any detail (I don't have the experience or technical ability anyway ) on this. One point that I found aggravating was the location of the AF/MF switch. I found that I was often turning the switch off inadvertently, then wondering why the lens would not focus.

I think that this is still a compromise, with a 1.4X extender the fastest that I could shoot was f4.0, not much faster than you can get with the 100-400. I probably should have set the lens on a tripod for most of the outdoor shooting but the thrill of having the IS available was too much to resist. Even with the 1.4X on the lens, I think that it is still too short, I would have liked the extra 100mm for the great blue heron. I think that this is a great compromise if you can only afford 1 lens and you need the extra stop for indoors shooting. I have seen better examples of outdoors shooting with the 100-400L than what I have done here, but I would blame that on me rather than the lens. There is not much difference in weight between the two. In summary, if you are looking for a pure outdoors lens, then take the 100-400mm, if you have a need for a fast zoom lens for indoors that you can use outdoors then the 70-200 with the 1.4x is the way to go.

thanks all again,

I think you did a great job on all 3 of these birds John, I especially like the Sandhill Crane well done and thanx for sharing

All 3 shots are very nicely done. Exposure, colors detail and composition all work nicely . Great subject too....if I ever get out to vancouver i will definetly seek this place out.

Thanks for the opinion John and great explanation of the differences between the two lenses....at this point its looking like the 70-200! Thanks again, and thanks also for the excellent shots from the bird sanctuary.

Nice series of captures! The Sandhill Crane is my favorite. I love the challenge of photographing this elusive bird. Nice wrok!

I really like the last shot. Sharp is an understatement.

Marty

Excellent series of captures, and welcome back.

You most certainly do this lens justice. Now I want one even more than I did before. These are all great.

Fantastic captures of some great birds. I really love the crane and immature heron. well done.