alloutdoors

A few shots from this morning.

Haha, I'll be looking for a "headshot" or two.

Really nice shots, I hope the birds cooperate like that for me tomorrow morning. It's killing me that I haven't gotten to point the new lens at a turkey yet.

For landscapes/static subjects you can try HDR as suggested. For a single frame though, if the dynamic range of the scene exceeds the range that your camera can capture there isn't really anything you can do. The "answer" is to shoot at times when the dynamic range is lower such as early or late in the day, or when it is slightly overcast. Harsh, direct mid-day light generally sucks for photography. You can retreat to the shade, but if you are getting dappled light through the canopy it won't be any better (can actually be worse).

Nice shots! I've only been able to get out one morning for turkeys so far and they had other plans that day. Hoping to get some shots Saturday morning, and if that fails I'll just have to tag my two birds quick and get back out with the camera.

Found this American bittern hunting tadpoles at Montezuma NWR. The ability of these birds to disappear into the cattails is simply amazing! I would lose track of this one for several minutes at a time when it stepped back even slightly into the thicker vegetation, even though I knew to within a foot or two exactly where it was standing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Nice shots!

Also, thanks for the comments everyone! Glad you enjoy the photos, and thanks for looking. Sure, I've posted some of the details of my setup in other threads so it's already out there for someone to Google anyway. The short answer, that full setup runs into the low five figures. The exact number depends on if you are buying new or used, and on what camera body you choose to use. Breaking it down by the components, the lens is the biggest chunk of it. At retail the Canon 600mm f4 IS II runs $11,500, on the used market it's $8,500 to $9,500 depending on condition. The nice thing about good glass is that it retains it's resale value very well. I've bought used lenses and then sold them for nearly the same price five years later. The only thing that really drives down the used market on a lens is when a replacement model is released, but the product cycle for high end lenses is usually at least ten years and can run easily run out to fifteen or twenty years in some cases. The initial buy in with photography is high, but then as you upgrade equipment that typically means you have equipment to sell as well which helps defray the cost. The full tripod setup is close to $2,000 retail ($1,050 for the tripod, $300 leveling base, $600 for the gimbal head). I was able to piece it together used for closer to $1,300, partly because I was able to buy the gimbal as a package with another tripod which I then sold. Camera bodies are another story. My current main body is a 1DsIII, which was Canon's flagship pro body when it was released in 2007 for $8,000. The life cycle on pro bodies is 4-5 years and I stay a generation behind as a general rule, when I bought this body around 2012 it was for less than 30% of its launch price. Now you can pick one up for around $1,200. Canon just recently announced their newest flagship, the 1DX Mark II, which nowadays come at the "bargain" price of $6,000. I'm looking forward to picking up the original 1DX in the near future for a fraction of the price. Bodies depreciate so quickly that I just can't stomach that kind of loss, which is why I buy used. The other thing I should mention is that although I do have quite a bit of money invested in my camera gear I'm certainly not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. My two biggest passions (after family of course) are photography and turkey hunting, and other than travel and tags for out of state hunts I don't spend that much on turkey hunting so most of my play money goes to photography. I don't own an ATV, or a UTV, or a snowmobile, or a motorcycle, etc., I own a big lens instead!

Ok, allow me to settle toegate. I'll assume you are talking about the bird on the left in the above photos, because you can't see the feet at all of the bird on the right in the first image. Please note that in the following image the bird that was originally on the left has moved to the right side (the bird sitting over the U-shaped twig hasn't moved). You can clearly see that all toes are present and accounted for in their entirety. That said, it's true that doves are particularly susceptible to frostbite. I would however challenge you to prove "the increase in people who feed birds". Based on what data, and compared to when? More importantly, is there any data showing a corresponding increase in the incidence of missing toes in morning doves to suggest a cause/effect relationship? I think you hit the nail on the head with the first part of your reasoning. Weather patterns related to climate change have demonstrably altered the migration behavior of a vast number of species. It's no surprise that doves would hang around during a winter like the one we just had, but even during our warmest winters it is still almost guaranteed that we will get at least a week or two where nighttime temperatures drop into the negative teens or lower which can easily catch them off guard.

Shot these during yesterday's storm. My son took some photos too. He was really excited about this one, "Daddy, I got a picture of both of them!".

I shoot pretty much exclusively in RAW so everything generally gets at least a little bit of post work to bring the colors and contrast back up. The high ISO shots got a fairly minor noise reduction setting of around 20 in Lightroom.

I've photographed this little guy several times before but it's been a goal of mine to get shots of him with his eyes open which I finally managed tonight. I recently acquired a new camera body and these shots wouldn't have been possible without it due to its low light capabilities, he didn't open his eyes and climb up to the edge of his hole until 15 minutes after sunset. I know this won't mean much to most of you, but the other camera geeks will appreciate this little tidbit, the shots where the eyes are open were taken at 8,000 and 10,000 ISO.

Thanks everyone, glad the photos are appreciated. It is, and the hen is in there with him too. The flock was mostly teal and I was a little surprised the bigger ducks were keeping up.

Saturday morning at Montezuma. Pretty sure these two are married...

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II, recently upgraded from the 500mm f/4 IS (Mark I version). I saved for years to be able to get one of the big tele's, and it's been so worth it.

Well, if you consider a Toyota Prius a blind... These were sort of a unique scenario. We spent the weekend at my in-laws who are the last house on a dead end road. A couple hundred yards past their house the beavers have blocked a culvert and created a really nice beaver swamp. The water is actually up onto the edge of the pavement in a couple spots. I took my wife's car down and sat there shooting these from the window. What's funny is I spent the day before at Montezuma but got better shots shooting these birds from the car. I should also mention that maneuvering a 600mm f/4 inside a Prius is a bit challenging.

Yes, it's a female mallard.

Tough picking my favorites from this set, these guys were very cooperative and I ended up with hundreds of shots of them.

Spoiler alert: The newt loses.

Long lens, 600mm. I was looking for ducks and eagles along the Hudson without much luck. These guys were pretty close to the road on the way home.

Slow morning, but got some shots of this pair of geese in the corn.

It's freeze dried.

Haha! Maybe I should double check.

Yup, all real.

Ten day license is about $50 plus $125 for the turkey permit. This was a quota hunt and it took two years to draw the tag. It runs you about $30 each year to apply. Depending on the popularity of the WMA I've heard it takes between two and five years to get drawn.