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Ken Little | profile | all galleries >> Birds tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Birds

Contained is this gallery are a few pictures of birds I have taken with either a Canon 20D, Canon Powershot G3 or the G3 attached to a Celestron spotting scope. The hard part about photographing birds is their relative shyness, coupled with their small size and rapid movements. The combination suggests use of either a fast lens, high ISO setting, telephoto or zoom lens, a blind (hide) or a combination, depending on your budget. I hope to get better pictures with my Canon 20D with a Sigma 70mm-300mm zoom lens coupled with a Tamron 2x Teleconverter. In essence, the combination makes the lense a 140mm-600mm. But add the 1.6X crop factor and the combination is a 224mm-960mm. However, with the teleconverter attached there is a 2 f/stop light loss. So, the pictures have to be shot at a relatively high ISO level of 800 to 1600. Usually this causes a lot of noise in the picture, but the Canon 20D has a very good noise reduction algorithm, resulting in fairly low noise photographs. Some sharpness is compromised by the fact that in 90% of the photos, I am usually handholding the camera at a 960mm setting. The EXIF data may exhibit 300mm, but with the 2X converter and "Crop" factor, it is like shooting with a 960mm lense. So, there is some quality loss. Hopefully, as I shoot more birds, I can improve on my stalking and use a tripod. Stay tuned! Please feel free to post comments about the birds being photographed. I would like to learn more about them.
Blue Heron in Karate Kid Pose
Blue Heron in Karate Kid Pose
Mallard in Flight
Mallard in Flight
Female Red-bellied Woodpecker
Female Red-bellied Woodpecker
Osprey
Osprey
Male Red-bellied Woodpeckers
Male Red-bellied Woodpeckers
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Common Loon
Common Loon
Pelican in Flight
Pelican in Flight
Pellican Feeding
Pellican Feeding
Brown Thrasher
Brown Thrasher
Brown Thrasher & Chick
Brown Thrasher & Chick
Mute Swan & Canada Goose
Mute Swan & Canada Goose
American Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
Chipping Sparrows
Chipping Sparrows