Tenerife: Birds 1

[Dave Humphries]

Hi all,

The first of a series.

This, fairly obviously, shot at a bird display (best I've ever seen) at "Jungle Park" in the south of the island.

All manner of birds taking part, this one looks rather pre-historic from many angles!

Catch if you can


Well caught


Not as sharp as I'd have liked, but this was the first time I watched/shot at the show, but content wins over technical quality. It was transitioning from forward flight to hover, hence sharper man and tower in the second (no panning reqd).

Those big wings make them quite effortlessly agile, despite their size.

EDIT: Added a third pic of, I think, the same bird.



A bit more streamlined in "cruise" configuration.

C&C welcome,

[kevinbythebeach]

nice pic...a wee too bright......those are some butt ugly birds....lolol

[Yan Zhang]

Wow, these are great captures!

Dave, can you tell me what lens you used for these shots? and what are the exposure time?

Many thanks,

Yan

[Colin Southern]

Great shots Dave. I reckon I'd be running the other way if I saw something like that coming towards me!

[batman44]

Awesome shots! Nice job!

[ajith.rajeswari]

Nice capture ..reminds me of a plane landing :-)

[Colin Southern]

Nice capture ..reminds me of a plane landing :-)

That's the big difference between birds and pilots ...

... the birds NEVER forget to lower their landing gear!

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks for all the kind words.

Kevin,

Very interesting you say that because on the landing shots, ACR (on Auto) wanted to up the exposure by 1.75 stops, I was reluctant, but did in the end, with some Recovery wound in, which only gave me a few pixels clipping the whites on this colour bird and angle of light, etc.

Yan,

The lens was the Sigma 18 - 250mm f3.5 - 6.3 DC OS, at 250mm.
The beauty of this flying display is you are close to the action, these were less than half width crops before downsizing, many times I had to zoom out not to clip bits off. Most of my previous English bird shots are 1:1 before they appear here.

The two landing shots were 1/1000s and the inflight was 1/3000s (all 3 at f8, ISO200).

Regards,

[Daniel Salazar]

hi Dave, are they carnivorous?...didn't they eat your new Nikon

[Dave Humphries]

This one certainly seems to like its meat!

No, both I and the camera returned safely

More shots of Eagles, Vultures, etc. to follow

[kevinbythebeach]

these birds remind me of the movie "the Crystal Chard" that came out int he 80's

really good Jim Henson Movie if you havent seen it....

[ajith.rajeswari]

That's the big difference between birds and pilots ...

... the birds NEVER forget to lower their landing gear!

Good one Colin ..

[Colin Southern]

Good one Colin ..

They reckon that there's only 2 groups of pilots in the world ... those that HAVE forgotten to lower the gear, and those that WILL! (luckily for me I never joined the first group, and got out of aviation before I joined the 2nd!)

[ajith.rajeswari]

They reckon that there's only 2 groups of pilots in the world ... those that HAVE forgotten to lower the gear, and those that WILL! (luckily for me I never joined the first group, and got out of aviation before I joined the 2nd!)

h'm , Lucky CiC , we would have missed those awesome NZ landscape photos..

[Dave Humphries]

Hi all,

I found a couple more of this chap(?) from another day's shooting that were worth some PP effort.

Hairy comes

TB1-4: 1/2000s @ f8, ISO400 at 250mm

and Danger; low flying area

TB1-5: 1/2000s @ f8, ISO400 at 250mm

A really "pre-historic" looking animal

Cheers,

[Markvetnz]

These are Marabou Storks, native to sub saharan Africa. They are carrion eaters. I've had the pleasure of seeing them in their native habitat. Africa has some of the most amazing storks. The saddle bill would make an amazing subject for bird photographers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_Stork

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sa...lled_Stork.jpg

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Mark,

I see what you mean about the saddle bill.

If you interested, I am just re-organising my PBase Birds gallery into sub-galleries for the different species (if that's the right use of the word).

The King Vulture is also quite photogenic in a colourful way!

It's interesting; I get the feeling, coming to birds from photography, that there is a distinct tendency to not post images of birds in captivity. Maybe it's considered 'cheating', which I can understand, as there must be considerable skill in knowing where to go in the wild and be able creep up, without disturbing them, to get pictures of the birds.

At the moment, I need all the help I can get , and if flying displays are organised, I'll go for that everytime, at least you don't come back empty handed. I'm still at the stage of trying to get high quality images of the birds, so the more practice I get, particularly at close range, the better.

Even my 'wild' shots from the local UK rivers cannot be described as difficult, if you stand by the bank, the geese, swans and ducks all come over to see if you have food! So the wilder varieties like the Comorant interest me more.

Cheers,

[Markvetnz]

I saw your photo of the King Vulture. Beautiful! I'm not a birder of any sort, but my brother was heavily involved in birding in Natal, South Africa and my late uncle was the no1 authority on South West African (Namibia today) birds. Photographing birds combines colours, textures and movement into the composition. Quite a challenge to get the right sort of feeling across in the pics. I love the one of the stork landing - "full flaps".