-=1D Mark IV Owners Thread! (it's time)

AnnieMacD wrote in post #18095140
BTW the ISO varied from 100 to 1000 in the 2 hour match. It started off in sunshine and ended up with dark clouds overhead!

That's a good ISO range, Annie. And you could always set the ISO range in the custom functions so it doesn't go to impossibly high speeds.

Thanks, Levina, I've already done it!

This one's with Nifty - but he can post in his own thread!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/KdCX​2u

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #18092573
Love this, Annie. A great pic!

You are very kind, MM. Thank you.

That looks pretty good, MM. My problem with the ring of fire is how does the camera know where to put the focus on the bird? I tried it a few times with Swallows and maybe I did it wrong but in the majority of pics focus was on the wings or the rear end and hardly ever on the head.

As I describe it, it's a hail mary shot, when you know you will miss otherwise.
Sometimes it saves your but, but it's not in any way a guaranteed keeper. It works best on large birds and no busy background.

MedicineMan4040 wrote in post #18093097
... it's a gamble. It--... is a 'hail Mary' for when there is no way to get a focus point where you actually want it.

... So 'AF-ON' for the points you want and '*' button for the hail Mary/desperate.
Now if you have clean sky with no distracting objects I think ROF works even better.

.....

Exactly!

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #18093405
A cloudless sky would definitely help with ROF. I've tried it once when it was very cloudy and the camera was focusing all over the place, just not on the bird. However, I'm sure that with blue skies and a bit of luck it can work sometimes. I have to say I only tried it on Swallows and they're notoriously difficult to shoot anyway.

You too with the rain and the lack of light eh? Good light makes all the difference in the world. If I had the money I think I would migrate to Florida or some such place...

Levina back when I was doing timelapses I loved the clouds, the storms, but even a good thing gets old
Knowing you love avian photography you should make a best effort (maybe you have) to visit some of the hot spots in Florida. Places like Viera Wetlands stick out as do some of the commercial
venues like Gatorland during the high rookery season.

Last year we shot Costa Rica and Florida and I can compare contrast the two...in a few months I will be able to add Panama to the list but no matter how many species the Central America countries have you still have to get to the area and find them and high speciation=low individual numbers. Happily many many of the lodges 'set up' for the photographer but after a while you realize that the falcons, the owls, the other raptors, etc. don't come to the feeders and really how many hummingbirds do you want to shoot?

The one huge thing Florida has (currently and subject to change) is infrastructure. I remember one 5 mile/8km stretch in Costa Rica took us almost 2 hours in a 4x4 jeep type vehicle, and that was to a really nice lodge.
In Florida via the interstates you could easily hop from one hotspot to another in just hours=shooting Circle Bar B in the morning and the Corkscrew in the afternoon as an example, then the next day working the Big Cypress as you slowly move toward Kissimmee Plains. The next day Viera and then Merritt Island.

p.s. Levina if you are ever bored here in the opening of this timelapse I did a while back an idea of my area
https://www.flickr.com …icineman4040/12​181881735/

One from my trip to the BTCC at Knockhill in Scotland at the weekend

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/L1S8​KQ

I very much enjoyed your timelapse video, MM. That must have been a lot of work! Looks like a beautiful place to live and shoot birds.

You are right of course that no matter where you go you will need to find the birds and it's probably as hard in Florida and Costa Rica as it is over here, although sometimes with people posting images of so many great birds, like Bald Eagles and Osprey, Hawks in the backyard even, it often seems as if these birds are everywhere in your part of the world and all you have to do is step outside with a camera. But I'm fairly certain that is not the case.

The problem here is quality of light. The Netherlands is not blessed with good light. All too many days end before they have properly begun, just greyness and dark and awful. The kind of light that will make ISO800 noisy, even with a 1DIV. In Spring or Summer when the weather is warm and nice, light at sunrise is amazing (sunset too but I really love that morning light). It would be so wonderful to have that more often. That's why I said Florida, but any warm, sunny region would do.

I would love to travel but I have health issues so it's not going to happen. I get sad sometimes when I see pics of Cranes or Spoonbills or Puffins, knowing I'll never shoot them myself. I dream of going to Africa but it will never happen. Still, on good days and when the weather is good, I can go to the countryside, which is just a 10 minute drive away (we're a tiny country so everything is nearby) and that already is great. Even if I don't shoot anything worthwhile, it's just wonderful to be there, out of the city, green fields as far as the eye can see with cattle, little to no traffic and birds. I'm always happy there. And if I manage to shoot something other than my usual city suspects, I'm even happier.

Here's just a snap of a Grey Heron. ISO1600 and not a trace of noise on the bird. There was a mild bit in the background, which I cleaned up, but nothing on the bird, not even at pixel level. See, that's the kind of light I like!

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Great shot. Funny, it appears this moment has been missed by almost all the spectators in the background.

There is a sequence of corners at that part of the track so they will no doubt be following the mayhem going on behind that one

Been waiting some time to get this shot...

Nice!

The Forth Road Bridge old and new

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/KKgf​aS

Best post that 'other' bridge as well then

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/L8F5​BQ

jeffcranwell wrote in post #18096361
Best post that 'other' bridge as well then

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/L8F5​BQ CC9J9277 by Jeff Cranwell, on Flickr

I like them both but this one is my favourite.