Well seen and executed. An Ent from Lord Of The Rings???

Good luck with the new project.

Steve

As I suggested in your '250mm limit' thread, one of the Pentax 55-300mm lenses is a good starting point. Apart from anything else, get one with quick-shift (not sure whether they all have it) and you can manually tweak focus if auto-focus is having trouble (as it very often will if the background is messy). That's how I started and only went down the much more expensive DA*300mm f4 + 1.4 teleconverter route when I was sure that at least some of the limitations I was hitting really were due to the equipment and not my technique. Here are a few of my early bird-in-flight shots taken 10 years ago with a 55-300mm (original version) on a K20D (which is a much less advanced camera than your K-S2). The first one was from the deck of a moving boat.

1. Cormorant taking off



2. Turnstone



3. Wisp of snipe



None of them are the 'fill the frame with the bird' type of shot, but many people (me included) like 'bird in it's environment' pictures.

Why then go down the 300mm + TC route, rather than big telezoom? Because I went to a presentation by a very good bird photographer who was about my age but unlike me had been doing birds since the days of film. In his film days, he thought nothing of lugging a huge and heavy lens around to get vast reach and maximum light through the lens. Having got rather older, he now valued lighter weight kit. The optimum for him was a 300mm f4 prime plus teleconverter. With a high quality lens and sensor, he would crop to get a larger image of the bird and increase ISO (rather than carry an f2.8 lens) to get fast shutter speed. And it wouldn't break his ageing back. So I reckoned that if it was good enough for him, it would surely be good enough for me and my dodgy back. OK, there are times when I've missed a shot or two because it wasn't a zoom on the camera. But there are also times when I've put the DA*300 in the bag when I wouldn't have bothered with a heavier lens.

Incidentally, it's worth noting that even a 600mm lens (if you can get one) would only double the size of the image of the bird compared with a 300mm lens. You'd probably still end up cropping (and wanting an even longer lens...). And as I said in your other thread, there is no substitute for practice, practice and practice!

Steve

Glorious cornflowers. I particuarly like the first few, with a few in-focus flowers emerging from a soft cloud of blue.

Have you considered entering one of the cornflower field shots for this year's Countryfile Calendar?

Steve

The usual route is via one of the Pentax 55-300mm lenses, although I don't know how your Tamron 18-250mm would compare with them. And as Peter says, don't be afraid to bump up the ISO to keep shutter speed up. But whatever the lens (or ISO), there's no substitute for practice, practice and practice again.

Steve

Ah, I remember the days when carriages had signs saying "Do not lean out of the window", many of which had been 'corrected' by hand to read "Do not clean soot off the window".

Nice shots of a lovely part of the country. And even better, you presumably managed it without head being severed from body by a stray branch or trackside structure!

Steve

Hmmm... That last para may be making a good point. After having watched the last programme with Mrs L (who is not interested in photography), I asked her what she thought of it. She shrugged and said 'It was OK'. Now, I'm not interested in baking (expect for testing the products...:wink or sewing, but if asked I'd be more positive about the bake-off or sewing-bee programmes. And that's because they are at least mildly entertaining for someone like me who neither understands nor cares about the technical stuff. Perhaps in trying to be different, Rankin et al have missed the mark both for photographers, who want more about the photography, and non-photographers, who want more entertainment.

How could the programme makers do it better next time (if there is a next time)?

Steve

Welcome. I've learned a lot from this forum, I'm sure you'll be able to find out anything you want. Just ask. We're a friendly bunch.

Steve

So... what did you think of the final episode?

Interesting how Rankin has been concerned throughout with the picture while this thread turned to equipment.

Steve

Interesting question. Possibly a consequence of the use (and over-use) of "capture the moment" in photography. Search for 'capture the moment' on the internet and the results are dominated by photography. I've no idea how, where, when or why that phrase started to be used, though. It appears to have been used about 10 years ago in an ad campaign for Canon printers.

And taking your question in another direction, when did a photograph become an image?

Steve

Magnificent photo. Superb use of light.

Pity it's such a horrible creature - vine weevil is the most common cause of "death by pest" for pot plants in my garden.

Steve