Studland and Birdlife

Well the birdlife is a departure from my usual sort of thing, some of you may be surprised to see! An early evening visit to the beautiful peaceful spot of Middle Beach on the Studland Estate, Purbeck, Dorset. While the kids splashed around nearby I snapped a few of the locals and grabbed some long shots of the surrounds ....

All with the K7 and Tamron AF70-300 Di LDmacro, ISO 800 ...


1)







2)







3)







4)







5)







6)







7)




Hope you enjoy this taste of Studland night-life!

Nice how you can capture them behaving quite nonchalantly with a long lens, such as #4 for example.

I'm the agent representing these Birds and want to know how you intend to pay the royalties for these shots??









Seriously though, I love your boundless enthusiasm for your K7 and what it can do, but the Master is Behind the camera, and you continually produce some great shots.....really impressed with your work.

Liking 1 and 2.

Not so sure about the narrow depth of field on the longer shots. Things like the wave and fishermen being out of focus doesn't sit well with me.

Thanks .... David, I think the nearby picnic may have helped with the nonchalant behaviour ... They probably didn't want to attract my attention!

Terry, as soon as I get the full frame camera and transform into an instant PRO, you can be my agent and manage all the royalties you like Thanks for your encouraging support ...

Richard, you're right about those ' creative ' DOF effects ....I wanted to show the surrounds a little and the focus was on those far sunlit cliffs. I was pushing things technically without a tripod though, and to get a lot in focus I think I'd have needed a much higher ISO, probably by about 3 stops .... Needed a K-S1 then

Well I like 'em....
Only slight comment is I'd crop the DoF wave one to lose the seaweed and just keep the soft focus breaker, the white of which nicely mirrors the sunny cliffs

Also I think I need to get a Tamron 70-300, I had one with my K100 and K20 before dropping it (crack! ex-lens) and replacing it with a DA55-300 and subsequently DA WR 55-300. I've always thought the Tammy was sharper

Ok then Stephen, I'll make that crop .... Good idea, thanks!

The budget telezoom debate turns up now and then, and I usually make a plug for the Tamron, at least from my own experience of it. Most usually recommend the Pentax 55-300 varients ... I've no doubt they're very good, not having used one myself. However, the Tamron is doing a great job for me personally, and it's fair to say that many shots from it don't look like they came from an £89 lens !

Would take quite a bit to break that Tamron. Those things are old school solid!

Straight out of the top of a backpack onto the ground (grass) mostly OK but it rattled and wouldn't zoom anymore so I assume that a bit of the linkage broke.

As Nigel's seagull shots show, the Tamron is a good lens. It also got me into RAW processing as I started using Helicon Filter to remove the sometimes copious purple fringing.
https://flic.kr/p/9vncmw


My K20 also took a tumble onto a concrete drive (I used to be rubbish a doing up bags, ad now don't use a backpack for cameras) The K20 had a hole in the top casing near the front wheel. I fixed it with a bit of miliput, but it slowly died a death, I replaced it with a K5 so not too worried)

It's done the job for me so far, definitely, and has proven it's versatility. I have not been too plagued by PF really ... Sometimes I find it's necessary to remove, often not a worry. I too have Helicon Filter Suspicion Stephen ... Is it a specific correction feature that you use for the PF?

Actually don't use HF much these days, as I am not a fan if the interface on 5.3, I still have 4.xx somewhere, and yes I used the PF correction in the Aberrations tab (if I recall correctly) I now use Sagelight or DXO Optics Pro. DXO has auto CA correction for some lenses, in Sagelight I just use the colour sensitive masking feature. I beleive you are a Sagelight fan yourself Nigel

Absolutely! It's my first port of call with the Pentax DNGs, which I find it opens in a beautifully well prepared state. The colour temperature is perfectly carried through from the camera setting, and the gamma raising and highlight control are excellent 'out the box'.

As you hint at Stephen, it makes short work of a lot of things. I use the Undo panel as a form of easy masking, in a sort of reverse sense. The polarizer filter can be very tasty as well! We can rave, but its a battle against the elements to draw much attention away from Lightroom frankly .....

Thanks, I'll try the Helicon aberrations tab now.

I tried to purchase Sagelight and for several weeks was greeted with, "This seller cannot accept payments just now. Please try later."
Any suggestions 'cos I liked the demo?

I've had my version 4 for about 3 years now. I got a lifetime license for about 25 pounds,, some sort of promotion. I haven't tried upgrading, but I'll check it out ..... I'll try and get the latest version and see what happens. It may be a couple of days as I can't use the laptop until then. Well worth the small outlay, assuming they want your money!