To tyro: photographing birds

[notrap]

Hello John,<br />
thanks for your kind words! You are one of the &quot;critiquers&quot; on TE I often read, hoping to learn a bit of your elegant way to express your thoughts.<br />
I had to look up the settings for this photo, the lens was quite clear, because it is the only one I have to do this kind of photos: a Canon EF 70-300 1:4-5,6 L. The camera has been an oldie, the 10D, without a full size sensor, but in the beginning of digital photography it was ok. I began to take photos of birds because of the benefits of this lens and the cropping factor, before the digital era I never tried. The settings are 1/90 sec. and f: 5,6, 400 ASA, that means it has been luck and not skills to get a sharp picture. The camera produced 3072 x 2048, and I cropped the original to 1800 pixels, the bird was too tiny and despite the 300 mm I was not able to fill the frame. Surely it can not be used as a large wallpaper!<br />
All the Canons which are mentioned in the introduction have gone meanwhile, except the 5 D Mark III, and 2018 has been the year I went on holiday equipped with a Powershot G1X Mark II and a Samsung mobile phone. I miss the long tele and other features badly, but I don't like to carry this load anymore. <img src="images/smilies/frown.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Frown" smilieid="11" class="inlineimg" /><br />
Thanks again, and best wishes again, and if you want to know more - feel free to ask.<br />
Regards,<br />
Elvira<br />
<br />

[notrap]

Sorry, but TE forum software made a mess out of my text, I hope you can read it!
Elvira

[tyro]

Dear Elvira,

Thank you for your kind and full reply. And yes, despite the horrendously irritating problems of this website, I was perfectly able to read and understand all you had written. However, I spent the last 10 minutes or so composing a reply to you, then I thought I had sent it but, unfortunately, it appears to have disappeared off to somewhere beyond Andromeda. So I shall start again. Sometimes it amazes me why we still persevere with this website because it really is so awful - but I suppose it's because of the friendliness of its members and the general camaraderie we enjoy here as well as learning about the World and a little about photography too.

I think you did extremely well to capture that little blue tit so sharply at 1/90 sec - it must have sat very still, probably mesmerised by your big lens! I had a 20D and I can imagine that your 10D wasn't a very fast camera either. The longest lens I have is a Canon 100 - 400mm f/4.5 - 5.6 L IS (Mark I) which I like very much but, as you say, a tiny bird like this, even at the full reach of the lens, is still very small in the frame. But I shall persevere - perhaps I need to build myself a hide of some sort in my back garden or make myself a camouflage suit!

I have to agree with you about the inconvenience of lugging around a big and heavy DSLR. And recently I was foolish enough (there's no fool like an old fool!) to buy myself a Canon 5D Mark IV. It is a beautiful camera and will take shots with remarkably little noise at ISO 6400 - quite amazing - and I really need to get out and about with it some more and make good use of it. Unfortunately, I suspect that I won't even get around to using half of its amazing features.

All these pictures from Norway were taken with my 5D Mark II but, because we were on a cruise, we didn't need to walk terribly far on each of our trips, probably no more than 5 or 6 Km at the most. But, back home, I go for weekly country walks with some old friends and then I carry a super little Canon EOS M5 which I bought second hand - it has a APS-C sensor and takes remarkably good shots and works just like a little DSLR. In fact, I suspect its images are similar to those from your G1X Mark II.

Anyway, thank you again for your kind and helpful words. I shall be keeping a close eye on your gallery from now on!

Kindest Regards and Very Best Wishes for 2019 to you and yours.

John.