#1 is great - wonderful shot.

Although I think Paul got the colour right in his version of #2 I didn't like the crop (too cramped) and same goes for #3 - the cropped version has cut right through some of the paintings behind the character. A slight crop of the original and a colour correction between the two versions (original is too saturated and Paul's version too cold for me) would be spot on.

Insects Dave !

My daughter just asked me if they were flying really slowly No ! They were flat out, but 1/2000 and the lense focused on infinity allowed the K5 to lock on really well.

K5 & DA*300 / ISO200 - 400 / F5.6 to 8 / 1/800 (nest) to 1/2000 (BIF shots). Hand-held and panned.

I've been trying to get these little b^%*%s for a while ! Now they are nesting it's much easier to get settled maybe 50m from the colony and wait for them to fly over me.




[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-4/1226155939_CSgS4-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-5/1226156012_NBPW9-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-6/1226156046_pYe5K-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-7/1226156111_AZ33f-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-2/1226155850_WQgWB-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-1/1226155836_7C6dZ-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Other/Birds/Black-Crowned-Night-Heron-8/1226156264_A7qrx-L.jpg[/IMG]

I really like #1 (it's actually hilarious - all the sheep are looking at you) and #4 the best. Very nicely shot !

That's quite cool Paul. Almost an oil painting like quality. I like it a lot.

Here we go ..... macro shots means Spring has arrived.

#1 - a touch over-exposed and the flash (doesn't look like a ring-flash) probably needs to be dialed back a touch for both #1 & #2.
#3 - Wold be better if a) the spider wasn't centred and b) one leg hadn't been chopped off by the top of the frame.

Still nice and sharp and all three are lovely shots !

Very nice - I wonder what that sharpness is like when stopped down to say 2.8 ?

Thank you Don, TT, Blythman, Gareth, and Tim - glad you liked them !

Blythman - you can find a lot of Black Swans here, I've seen them in many places, however I'm not sure if the are wild or raised.

Gareth - 'smeg' : the lake is surrounded on all sides by trees and (as you can see from the feathers) there are many waterfowl, so just a little wind and the debris on the surface is pushed into the corners of the lake - as happened this day.

You haven't done much wrong Alan - settings look spot on (ISO2,000, F9, 1/2000) and shot at 260mm which is probably the sharpest point on this lense's range. However it looks like the 55-300 didn't lock on focus 100% - it is a bit slow to focus. I'm sure in better light you'd have had a lock. Sometimes MF and pre-focused on a spot works well - the DoF - even at say 10ft (3M) is quite small, measured in just a few inches. If you can get a lock then AF-C is better than AF-S of course and you might be able to keep the bird in focus whilst you shoot a burst.

Nice SIF shot - love the trailing wing tip.