He did, I got about 15 - 20 feet away, thanks for commenting

I know what you mean about the colours, I warmed the raw photo a bit and perhaps went to far, I will see what I can do.

Thanks for your comment

Thanks MyPharo for your suggestions and description of what you did, it will help me during my attempts at post.

Thanks HB, I like your crop!!

Thanks for your suggestions, I never noticed the branches until you mentioned them. I will try some PP (I am not very good at it but practice makes...). I think if I was shooting it again I would try opening the aperture more maybe those branches would have been more blurred and not such a distraction.

Thanks again.

This fellow let me get pretty close, was using a Canon 6d with a 24-105 lens. The water looks a little too bright for my liking and takes away from the bird, this is cropped a fair bit. Any suggestions either for when shooting to keep the water a little darker or for a fix in post. I had just come out of the swamp and had taken my polarizing filter off about 15 minutes earlier as I was loosing too much light in the swamp.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Looking for a fish dinner!!

I just spent today at the Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary east of Naples, $12 entry cost, 2.25 mile boardwalk. Had a great time, butterflies, raccoons, egrets, blue herons, more birds of which I don't know their names (not a birder), spotted a large alligator (around 9, 10 feet) smaller alligator, some great spiders. Fellow a couple hundred yards in front of me got a picture of a very large snake that was on the boardwalk it was gone by the time I got there. BTW the $12 entry is good for consecutive days but unfortunately off to the Keys tomorrow or would have gone again. Have a good trip

Hi all, Thanks very much for the very informative answers they are very much appreciated. As SS described that is what I tried last night and that seemed to work very well. SS's example of when he uses it is exactly the type of situation I was thinking of. I have not used back button AF but will give that a try as well and see if I want to switch to that method.

I was by a large photography chain store (in Canada) last night and stopped in and asked one of the sales people who looked at me like I had two heads and told me to switch AF on or off on the lens then told me to focus with AF and recompose and to read about that. I was polite thanked her and left after looking at some of the other gear. I bought this camera from this chain just at another location and my salesperson there was great and really helpful (should have gone there but was two far away at the time).

Again thanks for taking the time to answer, I am glad I found this forum.

Thanks for the replies, I try it out later today. I want to make sure I am using it right before trying it with a shot that is important. First L glass I have owned.

My EF lenses don't do this

Hi, I need some help understanding exactly what the full time manual focus capability on the "L" lens does. If the AF is on on the body and the AF is on on the lens you can still manual focus the lens.

My question is that if you are not holding the shutter button half way down while you do the manual adjustment does it stay adjusted manually for the next shot or does the AF kick in as soon as you push the shutter button down.

Can really see the potential for this just can't seem to find where it is written down how to use it.

Thank you

Wow, that is a really fine shot, I would be hanging that one on a wall somewhere for sure. Thanks for sharing the settings you used, the separation from the background is fantastic.

If I may ask, how far was the milkweed away from the background?

Congrats on your new camera, I got the same one 2 months ago and love it, I have used it inside buildings where i never thought i would get the shot without a flash and it has been superb. I have found myself taking it everywhere and shooting more and more.

Again, enjoy, it is a good feeling isn't it???????

This is an interesting thread and I have to agree with the OP's point of view on this. As an example, I just recently bought a new camera with an excellent lens upgrading from my Rebel XT.

The difference in the same photos is amazing which totally justified my purchase to me. That is not to say that I haven't had super pictures from our P&S cameras and the Rebel but had I had the quality of the 6d and L glass those super pictures would have been even better.

I don't own the best sailboat but I have top quality lines and gear to sail it with, makes a difference there too!!!!

Searcher, you are so correct, especially when it is a pint of beer, 20 oz Imperial both UK and Canada. The Yanks pint is only 16 oz as their quart is only 32 and their little gallon is 128, which is why in Canada we go farther on a gallon of gas :D except we switched to litres so the gas companies could raise their prices faster.

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