Digital Photography Tips, Recipes, Technology and Photographs from The Mansurovs
It took me a while to sit and wait in the car in Florida to get a good shot of this bird. The Western Meadowlark is pretty easy to spot and photograph here in Colorado – I can often get pretty close to them without scaring them away.
Shot with Nikon D3s and Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S lens in aperture priority mode, Auto ISO with Minimum Shutter Speed set to 1/1000th, f/10 for increased depth of field.
I’m currently testing the new Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and doing as much bird photography as possible to see how it performs in various situations, especially with teleconverters. I received it a couple of weeks ago, but my schedule went hectic and I have not received the new Nikon TC-20E III, which I really wanted to test this lens with. The Nikon TC-20E III is nowhere to be found at the moment and I was able to get a copy by renting it through LensRentals.com for now. I also needed the TC-20E III to complete my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II review and wanted to test it with all of my telephoto lenses after hearing so much about its great performance. The TC-20E III is arriving at the end of this week, so I am planning to get out and shoot as much as possible during the weekend and next week.
So far, I’m in love with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II. It is so sharp and full of contrast, that I don’t even see a reason to shoot it without teleconverters. The Nikon TC-14E II is unnoticeable on it and the Nikon TC-17E II performance is just superb – that’s what I have been shooting with and I am more than impressed with this setup. The TC-17E II makes the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II a 510mm lens and the new VR system helps me keep the lens stable while hand-holding it. I do not have an arca-swiss mount for the lens yet, so I have not used a tripod once so far – only hand-held shots.
I really enjoy raptor photography, definitely much more than any other type of bird photography. Birds of prey are powerful, aggressive, fast, agile, precise and even at times ravenous, having no mercy on their targets. They are also tough to photograph and get close to, since most of them (especially adults) do not like people and their presence. I have been studying raptor behavior and habitat during the last 3 years and have traveled to various locations both in Colorado and in other states to see and photograph these beautiful creatures. In this article, I will show you some of the latest pictures and videos of predators I took during the last month and will give you a few tips on photographing raptors.
Grackles are very common in Florida. During my last visit, while I was photographing birds near Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a female grackle landed on a nearby bench and started showing off. At first, I did not pay attention, since I normally do not take pictures of common birds. But this one did everything it could to get my attention…it probably was asking for food, which it wouldn’t get from me anyway, since I don’t feed wildlife. After a short while, I turned my camera (Nikon D3s with Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S + 1.4x TC) from the beautiful Roseate Spoonbills to the grackle and took a shot:
This article is about birding in Florida, where I will share my birding photography techniques and discuss some of the best birding spots in Central Florida, near Orlando. The below pictures are from my most recent trip to Orlando – the best bird images can be found in my Bird Gallery.
I have just finished reviewing images from my recent trip to Orlando and I will be posting some images of birds tomorrow. I figured it is a good time to do it now, since I will be heading back to Orlando next week again. Here is one of my favorite shots:
This above image was shot with the Nikon D3s + Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S lens with a Nikon 1.4x TC @ 420mm. To freeze the bird in flight, I had to use a shutter speed of 1/1600 of a second at f/5.6 aperture (wide open with the 1.4x TC). ISO was set to “Auto ISO” with minimum shutter speed set to 1/1600 and maximum ISO set to 6400 and I shot in Aperture Priority mode. As for metering, I used spot metering – my normal metering mode when shooting birds.
I took the Nikon 70-200mm VR II + TC17E II (1.7x) with me during the trip to Puerto Rico just in case I encountered something I wanted to photograph from a distance. As I was walking close to the shore, I spotted a few different types of birds and I decided to try out this combo and see what results I would get.
And here is a 100% crop of the above image:
My last image of the Western Meadowlark did not come out so well, so when I saw one today I decided to take a picture and see how it comes out. I think this one is better, with that green grass in the background. Spring almost seems to have made to Colorado, but as soon as I plan to go and take some pictures of the blooming trees, it freaking snows (it is currently snowing outside again). It will be cold and windy this weekend and I’m hoping for a better weather next weekend, because I have 5 wide-angle lenses to test!
Western Meadowlark
Red-Winged Blackbirds are very common in Colorado. They are permanent residents in most local parks, including Cherry Creek State Park, where I captured one of them while it was singing to attract a female. Spring is a great time for birds in Colorado, except when it gets very cold. It snowed today in Denver and the temperatures dropped below 40F, which is not abnormal for Colorado in April :)
Red-Winged Blackbird
Hoping for a sunny day next week, so that I can get out and do some spring birding!
Captured with Nikon D3s and Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S + 1.4x TC.
Just wanted to give a quick update on what I have been working on lately. I apologize for not being able to update the website – I was the last person in the family to get the flu virus and I have been very sick for about four days now.
Anyway, here are some things that I’m currently working on:
