Eastern Bluebirds...7 images for my 7000th Post

These were all taken two Saturdays ago in the company of several other POTN members from Ottawa including liv2trip, dancad, salmon, busbyea and blackburnian ( aka Wayne, , Dan, Rick, Ted and Marc). A fellow Ottawa photographer who is not a member here but whose work I greatly admire, gave me directions to these birds and I am very grateful

All were manually focused using the Canon 1.4X TC/Canon 400 mm F5.6 combo on and the 580EX was used for fill in 5 of the images. Flash was set at -1 in high speed sync at ISO's between 250 and 320, apertures between F8 and 14 and SS at 1/500 to 1000th sec. Exposure compensation of +1/3 to +2/3.

C and C welcomed and appreciated.

"JESUS CHRIST" apsolutley fantastic gary wot can i say if i had to pick 1. no i cant. thanks for shairing

These are awesome Gary. As always. I have yet to get a shot of these birds having only seen them once.

So you are using -1 exposure compensation on the flash and +1/3 or so on the camera? Never thought of doing that, but it sure looks like it works fine.

Congratulations on 7,000 posts Gary. The vibrant blues in these shots are terrific. Thanks also for your explanation of the set up for this series...information like that is invaluable for those of us who are new to bird photography and it will help us improve our skill set which hopefully will show up in our future posts. Thanks again Gary, your contribution to the bird forum is much appreciated.

Very Very Nice Gary and Congrats of 7000

best Bluebird shots Ive seen Gary ,,, honestly Sir , Congrats on 7000 ( man how did that happen so fast lol ) see you in the field

Hi Gary -

Your images are surperb! and congratulations on the 7000th. post.

It took me years to intice Bluebirds to occupy the house I put up for them, but they finally did. Years later we are still the only ones in our area that have them.

I'm a newcomer to the group, but not to Eastern Bluebirds. If I can help you, or anyone else in attracting or working with these beautiful birds please let me know.

Magazine shots for sure! Those are really great...much better then my measly one.

Fantastic shots Gary! #2 and #7 are my favs but they all are wonderful. I have not been able to catch a bluebird around here. Very tough subject in this neck of the woods. Thanks for sharing these!

Wow...stunning shots. Super sharp with excellent details. Beautiful colours and bokeh. Brilliant work as always Gary. ...and congratulations on post number 7000.

Congrats Gary, I have certainly enjoyed your posts and look forward to 7k more!

Absolutely beautiful shots, I love #4 for the comparison between the Male and Female. All are stunning, however. Keep em coming!

Wow - Beautiful shots, every one of them! Great 7000th post for sure!

The background works really well with these blues! Beautiful bird and great pics!

The samples of bird shots!!!!!!!!

canonloader wrote in post #3216823
These are awesome Gary. As always. I have yet to get a shot of these birds having only seen them once.

So you are using -1 exposure compensation on the flash and +1/3 or so on the camera? Never thought of doing that, but it sure looks like it works fine.

Thanks for the comment Mitch ...Flash but just for fill ... and not as the main source of light. All the shots on the green nesting box were in dapled light from the shadows of a tree that was beside and hanging over the area. Same thing with the barbed wire so the -1 flash synched with the 1/500 1/640 or 1/1000th sec SS was enough to pull out some of the shadows. I should have mentionned that I used spot metering which concentrates the exposure on the 9% center of the image. I manually focused because as you know, the 1.4Xtc will not allow AF on a F5.6 lens with the 30D and taping the pins is not an option that works well for me and the lens makes an unnatural clunking sound on AF with the pins taped.

And thanks also to jpalmer, Scott, Gary, Wayne, Robert, Michelle, Grizz, Sindri, joayne, downywp, kolok and Galaxy99