Posts for: John Gerlach
Apr 1, 2024 12:50:18 #
Thanks all. The reason I want the new Canon 200-500mm is it is faster and can use a 1.4x teleconverter better while still providing decent lens speed. That faster zoom would come in handy for the bird photos I take using my floating blind as reach is more crucial. I do have an ebook on reflection pool photography and will be expanding it great over the next year as I do reflection pool photos at my homes in Idaho and now a place to winter in Indiana too.
Mar 31, 2024 19:50:09 #
I just spent the last week teaching a photo workshop at the Desert Retreat near Marana, AZ. The birds are most cooperate, and so are some of the squirrels. I like making wildlife images when I also get a reflection. Soon we go to Laguna Seca for more bird photography and then back to Indiana for still more spring migrant birds. Our web site is fully updated with our tours now and our next Kenya tour is sold out. All of these images were taken with a Canon R5 and the 100-500mm lens. I keep hoping for news of a Canon R1 or R5 II and a 200-500mm lens but still nothing has been announced......
white-winged dove
(Download)
mourning dove
(Download)
guilded flicker
(Download)
gila woodpecker
(Download)
curved-billed thrasher
(Download)
cactus wren
(Download)
Harris's antelope ground squirrel
(Download)
Harris's antelope ground squirrel
(Download)
house finch
(Download)
lesser goldfinch
(Download)
Jan 24, 2024 19:23:08 #
10MPlayer wrote:
Wow, those are beautiful. Now you've gone and made me want to visit Africa. I've never had much interest but seeing your brilliant photos makes me want to do it.
Clients tell me it is the best vacation they ever had. It is fabulous.
Jan 20, 2024 13:31:26 #
John Gerlach wrote:
Thanks all for your kind comments. I know I have been lucky to do nature photography for a living for some 50 years. And it is more fun than ever with all the new gear and features that allow me to shoot photos in ways I never thought possible back in the days of Kodachrome 25!
By the way, you might check out my Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/JohnGerlachPhotoWorkshops
It is a continuous nature photography page where I post recent photos and information about high I made them. Usually, my best new photo ideas get posted here first.
Jan 20, 2024 13:28:20 #
Thanks all for your kind comments. I know I have been lucky to do nature photography for a living for some 50 years. And it is more fun than ever with all the new gear and features that allow me to shoot photos in ways I never thought possible back in the days of Kodachrome 25!
Jan 19, 2024 11:06:55 #
tcthome wrote:
Beauties. I'll probably never go to Africa but out of curiosity, what did this trip cost your customers & did it include flights & transportation to the lodge? Thanks for any replies, Tom.
It cost about $15,000 for two weeks in Kenya. Everything is paid for in Kenya but you must pay for airfare to Kenya and home of course. It is expensive due to the high costs in Kenya. The government is even raising the cost of being in a park for the day to about $200 per person, so the cost keeps growing each year. It is deluxe all the way, though.
Jan 19, 2024 11:02:23 #
Retired CPO wrote:
Great photos! I went to Kenya in 2020 and want to go back yesterday!
Do you have a website with the information for your safari's?
Do you have a website with the information for your safari's?
Go to www.gerlachnaturephoto.com
I have not posted the next safari yet, but expect to do so within the week. All of our trips are posted on the opening page to the web site along with some of my instructional photo articles.
Jan 18, 2024 17:16:46 #
luvmypets wrote:
Very nice!!! Love the sunset photo!!
I've never heard of the aardwolf or the gerenuck. Love the cute little faces of the gerenuck!
Dodie
I've never heard of the aardwolf or the gerenuck. Love the cute little faces of the gerenuck!
Dodie
I like their faces too. They posed for a long time allowing me to try more depth of field and focus stacking to get both in sharp focus. There were staring right at me, not because our safari vehicle was there, but because a pride of lions was eating a warthog right behind us.
Jan 18, 2024 13:25:06 #
Hi all,
I just returned from Kenya where I was leading a photo tour. Due to all the rains over the past few months, Kenya is GREEN! And the wildlife are responding by having lots of babies.
I managed to break my Canon RF 100-500mm a week before the trip, so I did almost all of my photography with the older Canon 200-400mm with built-in 1.4x and used the spare camera I bought just before the trip - the mirrorless RF 6 II. I had my Canon R5 with me, but test at my Idaho home a couple days before flying to Kenya seemed to show the R6 II was even better at detecting animal eyes than the older R5, so I stayed with the R6 II. It worked well and I did well with every situation. I used Auto ISO for exposure and exposure compensation nearly all the time and kept continuous autofocus active on the shutter button. While I was a huge fan of BBF for 30 years, I find I no longer need it with the newer camera controls. I did try to buy the newly released RF 200-800mm but no luck as usual with new Canon gear. Actually, I am hoping to buy the Canon R1 and the 200-500mm lens I have heard about, but neither are available. If I can't get the new flagship Canon camera and the new fast zoom lens by fall of this year, I plan to drop Canon and move over to Nikon. Dixie just got the Nikon 600mm f/4 with the built-in converter - what a beast!!!! I wish I had that option in the Canon line. Canon needs to speed up getting new products out there.
For those who are interested in a Kenya Safari, we are planning another one that runs later this year and into 2024. Parks we photograph include Amboseli, Samburu, and the Masai Mara. I have led over 40 photo tours to Kenya and we do it well. Unfortunately, a Kenya tour is not inexpensive as Kenya fees keep going up. We only put three photographers in a safari vehicle allowing everyone to shoot out either side of the vehicle easily, and we fly from park to park. That makes the tour cost more, but it is WAY better for everyone! I still have another 50,000 images to sort through! Kenya is truly an amazing experience and while it is the most expensive trip I lead, it is also the most repeated trip too!
I just returned from Kenya where I was leading a photo tour. Due to all the rains over the past few months, Kenya is GREEN! And the wildlife are responding by having lots of babies.
I managed to break my Canon RF 100-500mm a week before the trip, so I did almost all of my photography with the older Canon 200-400mm with built-in 1.4x and used the spare camera I bought just before the trip - the mirrorless RF 6 II. I had my Canon R5 with me, but test at my Idaho home a couple days before flying to Kenya seemed to show the R6 II was even better at detecting animal eyes than the older R5, so I stayed with the R6 II. It worked well and I did well with every situation. I used Auto ISO for exposure and exposure compensation nearly all the time and kept continuous autofocus active on the shutter button. While I was a huge fan of BBF for 30 years, I find I no longer need it with the newer camera controls. I did try to buy the newly released RF 200-800mm but no luck as usual with new Canon gear. Actually, I am hoping to buy the Canon R1 and the 200-500mm lens I have heard about, but neither are available. If I can't get the new flagship Canon camera and the new fast zoom lens by fall of this year, I plan to drop Canon and move over to Nikon. Dixie just got the Nikon 600mm f/4 with the built-in converter - what a beast!!!! I wish I had that option in the Canon line. Canon needs to speed up getting new products out there.
For those who are interested in a Kenya Safari, we are planning another one that runs later this year and into 2024. Parks we photograph include Amboseli, Samburu, and the Masai Mara. I have led over 40 photo tours to Kenya and we do it well. Unfortunately, a Kenya tour is not inexpensive as Kenya fees keep going up. We only put three photographers in a safari vehicle allowing everyone to shoot out either side of the vehicle easily, and we fly from park to park. That makes the tour cost more, but it is WAY better for everyone! I still have another 50,000 images to sort through! Kenya is truly an amazing experience and while it is the most expensive trip I lead, it is also the most repeated trip too!
May 16, 2023 15:30:11 #
amfoto1 wrote:
On a mirrorless camera?
No, that was on a Canon 1DX Mark III Canon offers no way to AF microadjust with my Canon R5. But some mirrorless cameras still do offer it I hear.
May 16, 2023 13:47:47 #
Kencamera wrote:
Beautiful Photos and great discussion. I looked into AF Microcalibration years ago and discovered some interesting information.
I found that nearly all Canon cameras and lenses needed some AF microadjustment, but seldom was it more than plus or minus 5, but one of my new 100-400mm lenses needed a -9 adjustment.
May 16, 2023 10:09:39 #
Nalu wrote:
With my Canon DSLR's I was hesitant to use a 2X converter but I found the 1.4 satisfactory. Now that I have switched to the mirrorless Sony's, I never hesitate to put on either the 1.4 or 2x.
Good to know. I am wondering about trying a 2x converter on my 600mm f/4 for my floating blind photos. Reach is so crucial for that type of photography. Having a 1200mm f/8 would be interesting to try and then if I switch to 1.6x crop factor, that would be 1200 x 1.6 = 1920mm!!! mmmmmmmmm.....I think I need to buy that 2x RF converter!
May 15, 2023 14:42:39 #
Gourmand wrote:
Like you, I have resisted doublers for decades - b... (show quote)
Nice feather detail. Clearly, the images shot with teleconverters on mirrorless cameras are of better quality in terms of sharpness.
May 15, 2023 14:41:08 #
PHRubin wrote:
I wonder if the difference is the focus system. If in the past you used a SLR, the focus plane might have been slightly different than the film plane, which as you mentioned, would require a focus calibration. With the mirrorless, the same sensor that makes the image is used for focusing, so the planes must be the same. For critical focusing with my DSLR I used to use Live View to accomplish the same thing.
Yes, I think having the DSLR misfocus was more the problem for unsharp images and not the extra glass so much. Now that autofocus is vastly superior with mirrorless cameras, we are all doing better with our focus.
May 15, 2023 13:03:23 #
More than twenty years ago I tried using a Canon 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon 500mm L lens and the sharpness results were not good enough for me, so I stopped trying to use teleconverters for many years. In the past couple of months I decided to try the RF 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon 100-500mm lens and figured I would find the same loss of sharpness and drop it. So, while leading a photo workshop at Laguna Seca Ranch in South Texas, I spent one entire morning shooting several thousand images using the 1.4x teleconverter on the 100-500mm while using my best technique on a Wimberley gimbal head inside the photo hide. When I looked at the results with some dread about how they might not be what I was hoping for, I was surprised to see how sharp the images were. Clearly the 1.4x teleconverter did not reduce sharpness much at all and the results were acceptable to me and the folks who publish my images to go along with my articles. I still have not tried the 2x teleconverter on my Canon RF lenses, but I hope to do so this summer.
I suspect that the sharpness would have been good enough all along if only I had AF microadjusted my older Canon lenses with the 1.4x teleconverter on that era. I know when I was AF microadjusting camera/lens combinations, I nearly always found some adjustment was beneficial and was also surprised the few times I did AF microadjust the lens with a teleconverter on it how thing changes. It was not unusual to find a lens by itself my autofocus better with say a +4 AF microadjustment, and when you put at 1.4x teleconverter in the optical path, that adjustment would change, and sometimes by quite a bit such as -3 when the lens by itself was a +4. Now that I have mirrorless Canon R5, the autofocus is much more precise and I am getting suitable photos with or without the 1.4x teleconverter. I think the loss of some sharpness was more the fault of the camera not hitting sharp focus rather than the glass causing it. I should have listened to the reviews of the RF teleconverters sooner as nearly all are glowing reports and I agree with them. Anyway, after carefully looking at thousands of bird images shot with the 100-500mm and the RF 1.4x teleconverter, I give the combination a "two thumbs up." Here are more examples of recent images shot with the RF 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon R5.
I suspect that the sharpness would have been good enough all along if only I had AF microadjusted my older Canon lenses with the 1.4x teleconverter on that era. I know when I was AF microadjusting camera/lens combinations, I nearly always found some adjustment was beneficial and was also surprised the few times I did AF microadjust the lens with a teleconverter on it how thing changes. It was not unusual to find a lens by itself my autofocus better with say a +4 AF microadjustment, and when you put at 1.4x teleconverter in the optical path, that adjustment would change, and sometimes by quite a bit such as -3 when the lens by itself was a +4. Now that I have mirrorless Canon R5, the autofocus is much more precise and I am getting suitable photos with or without the 1.4x teleconverter. I think the loss of some sharpness was more the fault of the camera not hitting sharp focus rather than the glass causing it. I should have listened to the reviews of the RF teleconverters sooner as nearly all are glowing reports and I agree with them. Anyway, after carefully looking at thousands of bird images shot with the 100-500mm and the RF 1.4x teleconverter, I give the combination a "two thumbs up." Here are more examples of recent images shot with the RF 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon R5.
