KFC 2014 with the 5D3



Quick post to share a shot I grabbed during the floods, a Kingfisher taking advantage of all new fishing grounds - ie.  the local field about 10m from the usual river bank.

Taken with the 100-400mm at full reach and then heavily cropped, I'd like to have said it was skill or at least luck I had to thank, but more practically it's just having more mega-pixels that enabled this image.  Still it was in some quite nice light with diffuse shade, an eye catch-light and some Sunshine to make those stunning colours pop.

 

It did dive and catch a fish, but unfortunately flew to a distant branch with it, throwing shadows and foreground branches in the way.

 

The background is a mess, but at least it is fairly bland in tones, with no colour distractions and has a lot nicer bokeh than with my old 50D.  Happy days.

 

Shot at ISO400 to get a somewhere handy shutter speed, I have reduced the luminosity noise.  Still not impressed by what is supposed to be good high ISO noise control, maybe I should be changing my in camera noise reduction.  Task 1 on my 2014 to do list - learn my new camera inside and out!

 

Spent a few days by the Devon coast last week, so there will be more shots and 5D3 comments at some point this week...



US Tour - American Dreams (More Cars!)

More wrecked old cars from the US tour, given what I consider an appropriate amount of post-processing to help portray the kind of feeling I wanted to capture.  Surprised by how sad some of these decaying cars felt, as some where part of areas that had seen prosperous times 40-50 years ago and are now near derelict, with maybe the remaining residents being the people who drove the cars into town all those decades ago.

The first was in a small town museum, which was just a collection of old stuff that had been donated - I get the feeling a lot of it had probably still been in use until recently.

The second was a near derelict town in the middle of the desert, shot at sunset, to me it captures something of the Americana feel to some of the places.

The third is a huge scrap yard in a town just west of Vegas.  Locked up with lots of "no tourists allowed" - "go away" warning signs, I tentatively took photos over the fence, while the car idled within sprinting distance.



ISO200, 16mm, f/4.5, 1/25s, -1ev - bracketed exposure using lightroom



ISO320, 16mm, f/5.6, 1/25s, -1ev, circ plrsr, levels, curves 



ISO100, 16mm, f/9, 1/200s, -0.7ev, curves, over-sharpened (on purpose), cropped

US Tour - Critters

 

No bears or mountain lions, but a few animal shots from the US tour ...

 

 

Condor, Grand Canyon
ISO1600, 560mm, f/8, 1/1000s, -0.3ev, teleconvertor, noise reduction

Ground Squirrel (not a Chipmunk)
ISO500, 560mm, f/8, 1/800s, -0.7ev, teleconvertor, noise reduction

Another squirrel posing
ISO200, 360mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, -0.7ev, noise reduction

Condor flying over Grand Canyon
ISO100, 310mm, f/5.6, 1/800s, -0.7ev, cropped

Coyote, waiting for food by a tourist spot
ISO100, 180mm, f/5.6, 1/1000s, -0.7ev, cropped