First sign of spring

[jeeperman]

Took a little walk yesterday looking for birds of course. Saw this and thought I would give it a go. I was not carrying my tripod so it was hand held and shot at F5.6 ISO 400 and 400mm.
Next time I would prefer a little narrower Fstop and my tripod but I think it went ok for handheld in a slight rain. C&C always welcome.

[tbob]

I suspect it will be four weeks or so until I see these little harbingers of spring around here. At least in Northern BC they cannot be trusted as definitive proof of spring as sometimes the willows jump the gun and the temperature will plummet again.

Great depth of field and indistinct/blurred background. The catkins seem very much in focus throughout as well. Very nice and well planned shot

[jeeperman]

Exactly Trevor, it has been bouncing from in the 20s to in the low 60s a couple times. Rain one day and snow the next. lol But it is on it's way!

Here is a different shot that I flipped to get a better composition. The first shot did not quite work for me flipped. I like both I think.

[tbob]

How did you find a branch with the background so uncluttered? Makes me envious! All the willows here grow in great clumps or below/between the spruce and aspen trees and I seem unable to find any where even shooting at f18 or smaller I don't end up with the background full of nasty, out of focus linear junk.

[jamn4ex]

Same here 27 in morning then 60 in afternoon. Cool shot.

[jeeperman]

Thanks James, unfortunately most days only make it to about 45 so far. Just a few up to 60.

Trevor, in these images the background was a serious nightmare of a mess. There was a bit of a gap about 5 or 6 feet from the branch to it. The only way I could get rid of it was to blur out the background to the extreme. I was able to do this by standing about 5ft from the subject and useing my 400mm at full zoom at F5.6. If I do it again I might go up to 7-8.0 to get a little more DOF, just a little. As I don't want to have the background in focus at all and if you use F18 that is what you will face.

[Steve S]

Nice job paul, i think i like the second one best. (the framing is just a little better, not so close to the edges)



Trevor, you do know ,you can place a clipping in the perfect lighting and background. It won't hurt the tree any. Sometimes that is the only way to get the shot you're after.

[Kaclarity]

Paul Another fine job. I tink next time I see ya at the dock I'm going to steal that Lens . I all so liked the second one. Paul it made me Sneeze. Keep up the good work. JimC

[jeeperman]

Thanks Steve, I think you are correct.

Jim, first...thank you. Second...good luck with that!

[Bobobird]

Same here, 2nd shot but both are excellent.