One of my favorites birds here in Florida is the Roseate Spoonbill. Starting about now their colors get even more rich as they get ready for the breeding season. This one was taken at Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, FL. Captured with the Nikon D810 and Nikon 300 f/4 lens with the Nikon 1.4TC, iso 1600, f/7.1, 1/3200.

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I love my Nikon 24-85 G VR lens. I bought mine right after I bought the D810. This image was taken with that combo.

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All the best to everyone for a VERY Merry Christmas!!

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Thank you Sonny! Yes, if they are relaxing or sleeping they sometimes stand on the one foot.

Well, the new Nikon D810 has a special dampening mechanism on the mirror to help stop vibration from mirror slap. One can also use the new front curtain feature along with mirror up settings to help stop vibration, but of course the subject cannot be moving. I tried this out recently with a very cooperative barred owl. I used the Nikon 300 f/4 lens with the Nikon 1.4TC, the Mup setting, no flash. The first image is the full frame and the second a cropped in view. I also was using the full DX mode of the D810 giving a 15 MP raw file. The other settings were iso 500, f/7.1, 1/25.

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The Nikon 70-300VR lens is a great lens for the price and the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 is an awesome lens for landscapes and portraits. I use both on my D7100.

First of all I would not advise using a TC of any kind on that lens. That is a nice lens that would turn not very good with a TC. Second the Nikon TC's will not fit on it. The only TC's that would work are the third party ones like Kenko.

What camera are you using? Really the idea with BIF's is NOT to use the lowest iso, but to use whatever iso you need for the shutter speed you need. I NEVER use iso 100 for any of my BIF's. You want to probably make sure you have at least 1/2000 for practicing, then that all depends on the subject. As you get better and better you can start judging what you need for what subjects. And yes, any shutter speed past 1/500 does not benefit using the VC. Neither of my Nikon lens that I use for BIF have VR, the Nikon 500 f/4 AF-SII lens and the Nikon 300 f/4 lens.

I subscribe and only use Photoshop. I prefer the conversions I get in NX2 and NX-D for my D7100 and D810. I spend very little time in the Nikon software then save as a 16-bit Tiff for Photoshop where I have the Google-Nik plug in set to use.

I struggled with this for awhile till I bought a Microsoft Surface Pro. After that I sold my iPad. The Surface Pro is a tablet and and full service laptop, WITH a USB port and all. I have Photoshop and NX2 on it and on the road it fits very well in my carry on bag. On the road I carry an external portable USB 3.0 hard drive to back up my images. I highly recommend it!

Microsoft Surface Pro

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Thanks so much all!!

Congrats! Love the colors!

I used a D800 for a full week, everyday, in south Texas, on several of the photo ranches. Liked it but the sound of the shutter was annoying and the 4 fps, at full FX, was just not enough. I read some of the pre sale reviews and spec of the D810 and decided to give it a go. Awesome camera with all the refinements that I did not like about the D800. The shutter is VERY quiet, the new mechanism on the mirror to greatly reduced vibrations and the increase in fps, even without the optional grip.

The wing just touching the water makes it for me, nice.

Thank you so much everyone! Definitely makes getting up early worth it, plus I always have the camera at the ready.