7awol Loc: Butler, Pa

Yesterday (Oct 4th), made both of these images minutes apart from the same spot on the shore of Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park in western PA. The Osprey was fishing over the water and the Red-tail was hunting over the wooded area at the same time. It was a thrill watching these two raptors with different objectives working so close to each other. Shouldn't the Osprey be in Alabama or Florida by now?

Nikon D300, Nikkor AFS 300/f4, Nikon TC 1.4, SB600 Flash/better beamer. 1000/f8, aperture priority, camera chose ISO, 250 for Hawk, 280 for Osprey

Red-tailed Hawk


Osprey

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

There are still a few left around but, you are right, most have left for warmer climes. Some go to the Gulf states, some to the Caribbean Islands, some to Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, some go as far South as Peru and Brazil. The females migrate first, sometimes leaving their nestlings before they are fully independent, leaving the males to keep feeding the young. This bird appears to be a male.


For those of you who don't know a "Better Beamer" is a Fresnel lens that attaches to the flash unit to concentrate the beam of light giving you better range. 7Awol, if you were shooting at 1/1000, can I assume you were using High Speed Synch? My guess is that that would decrease the flash output too much. give us the scoop!

Very nice overhead flight shots here. The shadows on the undersides of the birds seem to have been lightened, I assume, by the flash.

Thanks for sharing.

7awol Loc: Butler, Pa

High Speed Synch? Yes...and you are correct, flash power is drastically reduced at 1/1000 however I will accept all of the (lighting) help that I can get and have the SB600/Beemer combo mounted all of the time. At minimum, I sometimes get a catchlight in the eye. If I get lucky and fill the frame with a BIF (or reduce shutter speed for stationary birds) the Beemer (still about $30 I think) really earns its keep with more balanced lighting and enhanced feather detail. Sadly, neither of the above birds came close to filling the frame...the Beemer probably didn't add much to these captures at that distance. The underside shadows required a bit of tweaking in Photoshop. Thank you for responding.
Dean

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

I suspected as much. I have to assume you were tripod mounted also? Do you ever use the 70-200 f/2.8 with the 2x TC? I believer that will still auto focus, right?

7awol Loc: Butler, Pa

Handheld...gets a bit heavy after awhile and am probably at my limit, I'd most likely tip over trying to handhold a 200-400 or 500mm. I do have a decent tripod/gimbal but seem to get more BIF keepers handheld. Need to spend more time working with the tripod. The 70-200 f2.8 and TC2 (both 2nd gen) do work well together, focus is fast and accurate in all conditions. That combo is a bit bulkier (to me) than the 300 f4 and TC1.4, IQ about the same to my eyes. I have attached the TC2 to the 300 f4 (which makes it an f8) and found that it focused just fine for BIF against a bright uncluttered sky. Results would be ugly in darker, busy- background situations. Nikon says that the D300 autofocus is not dependable above f5.6.
Dean

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

I too prefer handheld for BIFs but there are circumstances when it makes sense to use a tripod such as when the birds are flying a regular pattern or for Hummers feeding. I usually use my 100-400 for BIFs handheld but have done the 500mm f/4 for short periods. Adding the 1.4 TC to the 500 makes handholding almost impossible for me as the field of view is so narrow, I have trouble getting the bird in the viewfinder.

We always seem to pushing up against the limits of the physics or the technology. Now if they would just make a 2 lb 200-800 zoom, f/2.8 on a body that would shoot 10 frames per second and could handle ISO 12,800 with no noise.........AND be reasonably priced......HA!