joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Superlative 👑👑👑👑

texasdigital Loc: Conroe, Texas

I have seen photographs in NatGeo that technically were lacking in quality. However, the choice was to have a photograph that was not perfect or to not have one at all. Sometimes, it is the impact of the photograph that matters, not the quality.

btbg

I am actually a professional soorts photographer. Dont often post sports photos because historically the corporation I worked for claimed they owned the photos. They no longer claim that so I am now posting some sports photos.

As to not posting in the bird sectiin I only posted in the main section because this was about converters not birds which is why gwilloams posted people being pulled on tubes behind a boat.

Also I think most of the argument about sharpness of the original images ia more about exactly where the focus point is, the narrow depth of field and the post processing or lack thereof. For example the beak of the wren is not particularly sharp.

As to a 600 f4 I thought about getting one but the 400 2.8 with a converter covers essentially all of Nikons big lenses while only buying one. They make the 400, a 600 f4, a 800 f6.3, well the 400 with the built in 1.4 is a 560f4 so almost the equivalent of the 600 f 4 and without the 1.4 converter but wirh the 2x attatched it is an 800 f6.3, so in my view it is more versitle.

Also for some of us there is no such thing as a big enough lens. A couple years ago I started shooting softball from behind the outfield fence. It allows you to shoot both batters and defense and baserunning at all four bases. All you miss is catches in the iutfield. Well sure enough they wanted me to shoot baseball from the same place and since fields are much larger even 1120 is marginal for home plate.

As to rodeo I have never shot from the stands. A 200_500 is pretty good for every event except team roping if you are in the arena.

btbg

You are not being rude. The reason I am on the forum under btbg instead of my name is because I work for a newspaper corporation with 23 or 24 newspapers. I shoot spirts and write. I also get sent out on low light news stories, bad accidents or fires, or police activity, the things that shake most people up.

I have the equipment I have because of kow ligjt and the fact that for some things like fires having a big lens may be the difference between having a shot for the news or not. I try to shoot sharp photos, but the reality is I get paid for the decisive moment not the technical quality of the photo, akthough that is still important.

I use the nickname heee, which standa for big tall bald guy because I participate in the attic at times and doing so under my name would not be considered professional

texasdigital Loc: Conroe, Texas

I'm from the South, so you might want to consider using words that we country boys understand without opening a dictionary. Say, transcendent. Yet that might be giving me too much credit, so how about extraordinary?

Ah, heck ... use what words you desire, I'll just consult Dr. Google if I don't understand. Accept my gratitude for your supporting reply.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

ialvarez50

The pictures are ok, you need to focus better. The first bird. The tails are sharp but not the head, secon bird much the same. Probably manual focusing or select a focusing spot on the head of the bird.
My two cents.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I was one of that group that thought teleconverters were rather useless UNTIL I started using teleconverters that are specifically designed for lens being used, i.e.: Sony's FE 1.4x and FE 2x with their FE 200-600 lens. Now I'm a teleconverter fan.

My old Kenko 1.4x and 2x teleconverters work but with a significant loss in image quality.

bwa

texasdigital Loc: Conroe, Texas

Until I retired, I was a crime scene photographer. We may have more in common than most.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Hilarious!

btbg

You could be right about the focus. Manual focus wouldn't help as the photos are cropped and Im doing good just to get a focus point on the birds.

I know that the bird photographers here spend a lot of time and energy getting their photos. I did not. I shot these specifically because of an earlier discussion about converters and I wanted to here from both sides. I have found the conversation to be interesting and possibly informative. I went to a location deliberately where it is impossibke to get close to the birds because of fencing and water. It is a man made wildlife refuge that is a series of ten holding ponds created to take treated sewage water and allow it to settle even further before the water retuens to a river. They have planted natural grasses and other plants that attract birds have about 10 miles of hiking trails around the ponds. Over the past 6 or 7 years they have started getting more and more species of birds. I go out there for exercise and take my camera along just in case. Last week I just decided to do this because of the converter discussion. Onky way to shoot heee is go really big or crop like crazy, cant set up blinds and ecen if you did someone with a dog or with kittle kids on bikes willbcome aroundbthe pavedbportiin of the trails and spook any birds that got even close to the trails, so its great for hiking and bird watching, but not for bird photography, making it a perfect location to try out teleconverters.

btbg

Could be. Not sure I would want that job. About 7 years ago I soent 3 hours under a car because I was sent to shoot a police stand off with an armwd subject and that was the only place I could find where i was behind the police barracades but still in sight. I'm sure if they had seen me they would have made me move. Anyway I got the shots and then the family of the individual came into the paper to discuss his mental illness and what ked to his mental break and they chose to run a news story and a feature story about mentall illnesss without the photos i took. Instead they had me go with a news reporter to shoot the family whe they talked to them about mental illness. On the one had I was glad because I certainly didn't want to imbarrass the individual, who it turned out I knew, but on the other hand they would have been award winning photos.

cindo51

These are stunning photographs! I have a 2x extender that I purchased when I went to Africa, but I really didn't use it... and you can't use auto focus with it as I recall. I shoot either a canon 90D (a 7D at the time) and my two go-to lenses are 24-70 and 70-200... but you have inspired me!

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Both much sharper than his.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida