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Beautiful day in Melbourne today. Woke up late as set the alarm wrong (oops!). Anyway despite arriving late at WTP it was one of those days where things were going right. A lot of getting dirty and getting annoyed at people scaring the birds off. After that it was a drive out to Brisbane Ranges. No koalas but plenty of dragonflies and flowers to test out the new macro lens. Overall a good day. Was exhausted when I got home.
Bird shots taken with the 80-400VR. Last two shots taken with the Sigma 180 macro. Click for larger images.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper


Richard's Pipit


Wandering Percher (I think?)


Daisy

Wow, the pipit and the percher are bloody great!

Wd Nicole some great shots there. Was a good day out, lovely weather, great bird action and good company.

Had some moments that I thought were going to turn out crap, and some others that I thought were going to turn out good. Get them home and it's the other way around lol.

#1 and #2 stand out for me. Both have great DoF, are sharp and great colour.

Lovely sharp shots Nicole.
Can't pick a favorite I would frame them all.

Thanks guys. Was having fun chasing after the dragonflies. Will have to organise another trip out there for people who haven't been.

Was a good day out

The action was heaps better than Monday. Don't know about the grumpy Melbourne Water guys and those people at the Conservation Ponds walking right up to the bank. Really wanted a better photo of a koala though.

Atleast he moved on though and be a bigger dick than he was.
Out of interest do the people boating have permits to use those areas?

I reckon the whole of WTP all the way to the salt lakes at laverton should have a 1km no go zone with boats.

Like the shots Nicole - nice subjects, nicely composed!

WOW Nicole, you got some good shots there, amazes me how you bird people get these pics i have tried and bloody hopeless so yeh done well nice pics.

Well people have to apply for a fishing permit if they want to get access to the restricted areas. The Beach Rd launching point is a public area though I believe. Not sure if it is a marine santuary preventing boats from going within a certain distance.

some nice shots nicole.
Its funny, I never saw a pipit before this week when I posted my ID shot.
Now I see a second shot of one within a week. Yours is closer than mine though
http://www.dslrusers.net/viewtopic.php?t=11040
The heavy crop wasnt kind to me.

Another nice dragonfly shot too.

Steve

Avkomp I've got two different shots of the Pipit, one on the same perch as Nicole posted and another on a fence post. Both captured in the same day. You usually see a lot of them out along country roads. Look quite similar to some of the larks.

Darryl:
It may be that they are everywhere, but until you start looking at birds you just dont notice.

Since I became interested in birds, you notice all of them, and the guide books mean that you can look em up.

Steve

Nicole - great work.

I am also a macro 'freak', and absolutely love the ' Wandering Percher (I think?) ' with the Sigma 180 macro.

Glad that you had a excellent day yesterday, even if you did sleep in

Thanks Fozzie. Plenty of places to play with macro. If we go up to the Dandenongs while you're here there might be time to take a side trip to the flora reserve nearby.

Great photos Nicole. The dragonfly is brilliant

Really nice shots you have here Nicole! I especially love the DOF in the 1st one and always love the macro shots. It would be nice to get out to one of the parklands someday....one day.

Nicole,

Nicole wrote:Thanks Fozzie. Plenty of places to play with macro. If we go up to the Dandenongs while you're here there might be time to take a side trip to the flora reserve nearby.

Sounds excellent

I will be sure to pack the Nikkor 200mm f/4. I will also bring along the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 so kipper does not feel left out.

fozzie wrote:Nicole,

Nicole wrote:Thanks Fozzie. Plenty of places to play with macro. If we go up to the Dandenongs while you're here there might be time to take a side trip to the flora reserve nearby.

Sounds excellent

I will be sure to pack the Nikkor 200mm f/4. I will also bring along the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 so kipper does not feel left out.

fozzie,

Hehehehehe! so nothing in Adelaide for macro shooting?
kipper will use his 500 AF-S for macro shooting of the bird lice

Birddog,

Birddog114 wrote:

fozzie wrote:Nicole,

Nicole wrote:Thanks Fozzie. Plenty of places to play with macro. If we go up to the Dandenongs while you're here there might be time to take a side trip to the flora reserve nearby.

Sounds excellent

I will be sure to pack the Nikkor 200mm f/4. I will also bring along the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 so kipper does not feel left out.

fozzie,

Hehehehehe! so nothing in Adelaide for macro shooting?
kipper will use his 500 AF-S for macro shooting of the bird lice

There is a method to my madness. While he has the Sigma macro lens on his D70, I can slip the AF-S 500mm f/4 onto my D2x

Great shots Nicole,

The bird shots, are they handheld?

Do they come out that sharp out of the camera or do you have to apply a bit of sharpening at the PP stage?

I've always been impressed with how sharp you photos are with the 80-400VR. I'm thinking of putting a request to Santa for this lenses

The sandpiper shot is awesome!!

Cheers,

radar

radar wrote:
I've always been impressed with how sharp you photos are with the 80-400VR. I'm thinking of putting a request to Santa for this lenses
radar

Andre,
Your Santa should be very healthy, he'll carry both of the 80-400VR and the full set of tripod & head thru your chimney.
Hope & wish dream comes true.

Birddog114 wrote:Your Santa should be very healthy, he'll carry both of the 80-400VR and the full set of tripod & head thru your chimney.

Better make my chimney bigger, just in case

Thanks guys.

Andre, the bird shots are handheld. I like the ability to handhold as I find it more flexible. The sandpiper was taking sitting down and the pipit was from inside the car. You can’t just rely on the VR (although I find it very helpful!)…you still need good handholding technique. The pics are sharp out of camera but I always apply sharpening at PP stage. That’s part of my workflow though regardless of the lens. I had read mixed review of this lens (people complaining it was soft) prior to purchasing it. I’ve been very happy with it though and find it to be very sharp. The 200-400 is on my list next but that’s a long way away!!!

I'll be doing the sharing thing at WTP outing with Fozzie, I promise Nicole you can get a rough idea of the weight of the 200-400VR if you use the 500 without a TC.

I did a few handheld shots with the 500MM on the weekend and achieved good results aswell. Just have to have good light, shutter speed has to be 500+. Might get lucky at 1/320, 1/400 but I certainly know 1/125 doesn't get sharp results when panning fast. I accidently flicked my command dial to F20 and tried to pan a Black Kite in flight, worked well until he got close and I had to pan to track it