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Kipper, Fozzie, and myself went off to Melbourne's Western Treatment Plant, primarily in search of birds. These are some snapshots from the day.


Setting up. Hmmm... all Gitzo tripods, and all Arca-Swiss mounting gear. It made swapping equipment easy (Kipper used my monopod with tilt-head at times, and I'm now having to find money to buy a Sidekick after using Fozzie's!). And yes those are Better Beamers on the flashes.

Kipper was a bit more energetic about chasing birds around the countryside, but I came away with enough shots to be happy.


Remember, this is a sewage treatment plant (although this is towards the end of the filtration process).


Kipper hunting White-fronted Chats


My rendition of his subject


A Silver Gull trawling a sewage line for tasty scraps.


The other guys didn't seem interested in this scene...

The flight shots were tricky as most of the time the sun and wind were coming from opposite directions:


This Black-Shouldered Kite wasn't particularly cooperative for me, but I only noticed this blink/wink when reviewing the shots.




Who knew it was winter?
This was taken on my infrared-modified PowerShot S30, which has an 87C filter installed internally. For those of you wondering about IR, here are alternate versions of (almost) the same scene:





In search of sun protection, Kipper was even prepared to wear a Canon EOS hat...

We took some time out in the middle of the day and went to Serendip Sanctuary, where this Blue-billed Duck was being chased by a strange monster...




Stealth Turtle

OMG, we're talking about them on another thread!
DaveB, you were joining the Bird or Girlstalker team?

Is that a turtle!!!???!!!

=BlackWater= wrote:Is that a turtle!!!???!!!

Yep. Can't you see its eye looking at you?

Nice to see the bird photographers in there natural habitat.

Ahh yes yes, i see its eye now

Dave, nice to see you guys at work

Dave, nice to see you guys at work

great photos - I was lucky enought to go to the Melbourne Water treatment plant about 5 years ago - bird heaven and great photos !!! Well done guys - if we ever venture down to "Mexico" again, will definitely be heading back to the old sewerage works


Rel

Nice shot of my arse Dave

Yes, it is a sewerage plant and no I wouldn't do it if it was higher up in the filtration process That shot there I was chasing a few Sharptailed Sandpioers, a few of them were Juvs. Might have to visit somewhere, where the water does contain a load of bacteria.

On another note, I found for flight shots my 500MM with TC, Wimberley + SB800 with 1/500th shutter speed really sucked for flight shots. I'd say a success rate of about 5-10% in regards to getting a sharp image. Might be my technique, might of been the wind on the day, not sure. I certainly had a better success with the 70-200VR with 1.7 when I was there last with it. Guess the 300VR + TCs would be the way to go for flight shots. Guess I need to start saving again ^_^

A narrative in pics - excellent

Kipper, mightn't you just be better off trying it without the 1.7x TC? It's sure to help the AF performance.

200mm/2.8 VR with 1.7x TC (although I'm not sure it's _exactly_ 1.7x): 340mm/4.8 VR.
The 500mm/4 is longer and faster (albeit without VR).

With the TC your 500mm becomes an 850mm/6.8. That's a very long lens (VR would help) and a fairly slow one (which will not be helping AF speed or accuracy).
I was using my 100-400mm lens with 1.4xTC most of the day, but when I realised the AF was annoying me tracking the kites and gulls I took the TC off and the AF was amazingly better.

DaveB,
Has kipper ever tell you that his new 500 VR is on ordering?

Yeah I probably should of Dave and I will try it again before I make a decision whether it's the camera, the lens, the technique or the wind.

As for my TC, I had the 1.7TC when I had the 70-200VR, I now have the 1.4x

Glad you guys had a great time. I really enjoyed the sleep in and was hoping you guys were seeing lots of nice birds. Fozzie is hard work...no not really! He forced me to be subjected to parrots and rosellas on my head on Sat just so he could get shots of birds.

Dave, that Purple Swamphen is really nice with all that weed. Plus one of my favourites the Blue-billed Duck.

DaveB,

Just arrived home from the Airport. Great array of shots from the day. Hope mine turn out as well.

Had a amazing time in Melbourne with Nicole, Kipper and DaveB. Thank you to everyone for sharing Saturday (Nicole/Kipper) and Sunday (DaveB/Kipper) It is truly amazing that both days started out poor, Saturday: drizzle then cleared up around late morning, Sunday: no birds to speak off until almost the same time then things just happened for the rest of the day.

Oh Dave hope you did not get into too much trouble with your wife when you arrived home late on Sunday night. It is OK with me if you blame me.

Bloody el Kipper is that a Ray Gun

Great shots, great IR'S & great weather.

Well done blokes.

Mic.

Weekend warrior, our very own Kipper:

can someone tell me what is he dome or diffuser that is over your sb 800's???

That's the BB (Better Beamer)
which we had discussed on other thread yesterday.

flipfrog-Better Beamer is a flash extender

Fozzie, I'm not really in trouble. She was understandably annoyed that her computer decided to die while I was out of the house (this is what I get for being my family's sysadmin ) but I wouldn't have been able to help much more if I'd been home: dead is dead, and that laptop's not going much further! It was on its last legs anyway. Now we're stringing something together to let her work while we wait for her shiny new computer to arrive. BTW, I can't quite put my finger on it, but the colours of your images (including the kite you've since removed) look funny to me. "Pastel" might be an appropriate adjective. Any ideas about what might be going on?

Flipfrog, the beamer concentrates the flash for telephoto work. Quite the opposite of a diffuser. The other guys had them on SB-800s, I had mine on a little 420EX.

Dave - I see your point about being pastel, so I have reworked Kipper's shot. Just that I am viewing this on a LCD screen.

 BTW: I decided that I did not like the colours of the Black Shouldered Kite, hence I removed it.

Excellent job Dave tells the whole stopry of the outing, making us all wish we were there. I like the one with kipper in the backgound and birds in the foreground a really good occupational/environmental shot. well done.
cheers
marco

Argh, now I look like I have orange skin

kipper wrote:Argh, now I look like I have orange skin

kipper,
Go to the Army surplus store and get the whole set of camouflage clothing, then you're in the game!

Edit: orange skin is also meaning malaria!

Don't really need full camo gear as I can get reasonably close without looking like I've just come out of Pukapunya. The only thing I want to get for the time being is camo tape to wrap round the hood. Just a temporary measure until I can get a camo lens cover.

Flipfrog,

That is a Ray Gun Concentrator, only a select few have them.

They concentrate a beam of light into the birds eye that is 2 miles away and stuns it so Kipper can shoot the poor little bugger minding it's own business.

I can't wait for the peeking Kipper shots.

Mic.

Kipper are you waiting for the camo lens covers from NatureScapes? They look pretty cool. Any ideas when they are releasing them for the Nikons?

I've got one of their glass figurines on my Xmas list.

Paul

Great series of shots, looks like you guys had a great time... Gee I think I'd feel inadequate with all those long lenses around, you know it all comes back to that size thing

Favorite would have to be the bird in the green swampy stuff (gee I really know the technical terms huh...) and the one of Darryl framing/getting ready to take a shot of the two small birds... The turtle cracks me up...

Thanks for the series...

Great shots - kipper, have you applied to the SAS yet

Wow excellent photographs, who took the last picture of the turle in the slime? it is excellent!

You three must be having some real fun out there in the wilderness, shooting without killing. The equipment just rocks especially yours kipper, what is that weird looking flash unit?

wendellt wrote: The equipment just rocks especially yours kipper, what is that weird looking flash unit?

It's the Better Beamer to extend the power of your flash.
You should get one to shoot the chicks in the fashion show.

wendellt wrote:Wow excellent photographs, who took the last picture of the turle in the slime? it is excellent!

Thanks.
All the images at the start of this thread are mine.

I did say those were Better Beamers on all the flashes didn't I?