The House Sparrows in my Yard

[purplehaze]

So far, the D500 has mostly been employed shooting the house sparrows in my yard, through the narrow, dirty dining room window. Surprising the variety of backgrounds you can capture with a long lens. I haven't figured out where they are nesting, but fear it may be my eaves. I caught them mating one day, so, if they are there, I am going to resist removal. These were all shot with the 300 mm PF.

#1 The male



f/4. 1/320. ISO 1400


#2 The female



f/4, 1/500, ISO 1250

#3



f/4, 1/200, ISO 400

#4



f/4, 1/320, ISO 640

[xpatUSA]

Outstanding!

And people worry about dirt on their lenses?

[Wavelength]

Awesome!!!Love them all

[billtils]

Very nice Janis. The female looks quite like what we have here but we have nothing remotely like the male!

I think this one is a female in nest-building mode - same rig as yours but with a 1.4TC.

[Geoff F]

Good images with plenty of fine feather detail.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Ted, Nanda, Bill and Geoff. Excellent capture of the nest-builder, Bill. Great DOF and sharpness. I thought I would try shooting without the 1.4 TC to start, so as to establish a baseline for comparison, see exactly the difference with it on and off. As you satisfied with the reach you get with the 1.4 TC on the 300? Or are you, like me, tempted to get a longer lens?

[billtils]

... Are you satisfied with the reach you get with the 1.4 TC on the 300? Or are you, like me, tempted to get a longer lens?

Not in the least tempted! The 300 + 1.4TC + DX body is an EFL of 630mm When I reviewed the images shot some years ago with the D750 and 150 -600 Tamron nearly all were in the 400 - 500 range, so happy to dump the boat anchor for the lighter and better quality images from the PF.

I tend to default to the 300+1.4TC combo because it works very well as a close up lens for bees etc and adds versatility to a day out .

The only thing that may tempt me is the 500mm PF but the price, f/5.6 and the fact that the current gear gives adequate cover for what I do makes staying put a no-brainer for me. I know contributors here are 500 PF enthusiasts though.

[Manfred M]

Very strong images here Janis. I especially like the second and fourth ones.

I guess as the weather improves, cleaning the window is going to be a priority, if you get images like this through a dirty one?

[purplehaze]

It is the 500 PF that tempts me, but I have lots to learn with what I have.

Tell me, do you do any manual lens correction for the 300 mm in Capture One, given that C1 still hasn't profiled it?

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Manfred. Yes, I was just about to clean that window and few others, when we got 20 cm of snow dumped on us. Won't be getting back up to window cleaning temperatures for a week or more, they say.

[Manfred M]

Thanks, Manfred. Yes, I was just about to clean that window and few others, when we got 20 cm of snow dumped on us. Won't be getting back up to window cleaning temperatures for a week or more, they say.

As I spent a fair bit of time working in Winnipeg before I retired and remember seeing snow pretty well any time from the beginning of October right through the end of April.

We had unseasonably warm weather for the first half of April, but are back to normal now. Early May is when I usually do the windows,