Blue Herons in Golden Gate Park
I haven't posted here in quite some time. Here are a few photos I've been doing in Golden Gate Park. At Stow Lake every spring, blue herons nest on the island near the boathouse. Bird photography requires a lot of time and patience. It's like going fishing, sometimes you don't come back with much.
I started dong this at the end of March and progressively got better at working with long lenses.
posted by martin at 2:13 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I am jealous of these shots. Living in Southern Florida we have lots of wonderful looking birds, including herons. Could you share the lens you used on the picture on the left? I am looking at picking up a 400mm just for these types of shots.
Your ability to capture the bird on the left in mid flight, in focus, and pretty good depth of field is amazing to me. I understand taking lots of pictures and not getting even one. I do that on most days. Great shots.
Really nice shots, Martin. I think these are important because we don't see many pictures of blue herons from San Francisco. I've seen hawks and even a golden eagle in GG Park that you've now inspired me to try to capture one of these days.
--WT
The first photo of the heron landing was made with a Canon 30D and a 300mm auto focus lens. A bit cropped from the original frame, holds up well. The second shot was with a Nikon D50 and a 300mm lens with a 2X teleconverter. I started shooting birds with the D50 back in April and was getting a lot of shots out of focus. My results with the Canon are much better both because of the focusing system and the newer glass of the Canon. Both shots were made on a tripod. My advice - use a 300mm for birds flying and a 300mm with a 2X if the bird is stationery and far away. You don't need to get the expensive teleconverters - I use a Tamron 2x and a Nikon TC-200.
I really love those!! The first one looks like a statue in mid-air! The second one is kind of cute; they look like siblings, pecking away at each other.. havin a little curfuffle =P
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