A visit to see the Herons

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Horus
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A visit to see the Herons

Post by Horus »

Tuesday was another of those rare sunny days that hinted that Spring may be about to spring at long last. It was my last chance to see how the Snowdrops had performed at Rode Hall as they have just about finished for this year, but with any luck the daffodils would be out, or at least some of the early ones would and of course those nesting Herons I have told you about, maybe this time I could get some better pictures.

It was very pleasant in the sunshine, but still a little cold and at first I had the place all to myself, or that was what I thought. I sat myself down on a bench near the lake and watched the antics of several pairs of Herons who were I assume just about to start breeding or may already be laying their eggs. There was a lot of flying in and out by different birds, one would leave the tree and later return, unfortunately they were coming and going on the far side of the small island in the lake where their nests are sited and it was almost impossible to take any decent photographs due to the tree branches.

Fortunately after about 30 minutes or so, a pair nesting nearer to my side of the island started some activity. They suddenly took flight from the tree and I got a rather poor and hurried picture of them together. After that I had some fairly clear although extreme range pictures of them bringing back twigs and repairing the nest and eventually several courtship and mating shots. These birds are much bigger than they look when briefly glimpsed along a river or canal and have a wingspan of about 6 feet.

Sorry about the quality but they were all taken at extreme range, but at least I got some pictures this time.

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Post by jewel »

Wonderful pictures H thanks for those ........I love herons, they look like old men when you see them fishing, we get a lot here along the river and the sea, I often spot one in the field when there has been rain, they are amazing, and how fortunate you were to get such great shots!! :) :D
We have had some fab days of late .......it was so warm in the sunshine on sunday we spotted an adder basking in the sun next to the path!
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Post by Kiya »

Great picture Horus :)
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Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Terrific Great Heron photos H! Gorgeous birds really. I've never gotten that close to one but I love watching them. They're so still but when they're ready to strike a fish they go a super speed.
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Post by Grandad »

Some really good ones there H.....but let's have a bit of the techie stuff. :)

What sort of zoom were you on and were they hand held or with monopod???? I like to know all this stuff to find out where I go wrong. :lol:
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Post by Horus »

:lol: :lol: I don't think you go far wrong with taking your photographs Grandad, they are always of an excellent quality. ;)

For the Techies, these were hand held at 30 x zoom (720mm) sitting on a bench, quite cold and trying to brace myself with elbows against my chest.
Now don't laugh but when I set out I had just about everything with me from tripod to filters to special macro lenses as I had no idea what I wanted to photograph when I set off out that day.

I even had a nice hot flask of coffee and some cake lovingly put up by Mrs H, but much to my surprise there were quite a few other people about and as soon as they see you looking at something they all gather around you asking questions. :) Not that I mind very much and spent half my time helping people with their point and shoot cameras, they must have all had one for Christmas. :lol: :lol: So it was not a good spot to have your camera on a tripod. :roll:
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Post by Grandad »

30x eh? I thought it must be something like that. Since I changed back to SLR the longest lens I now have is a 200mm which equates to about 6x with the smaller sensor against the old 50mm standard on 35mm film.

To get anything like your results I would at least need a monopod and set to no faster than 400 ISO so that I could crop to get a closer view. I have mentioned that I am considering getting a 2x teleconverter that would give me about 12x zoom. A much cheaper option than a really long lens with a large aperture.....have to win the lottery to justify one of those. :) :) :)
:gg:
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Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Grandad - I never knew what you just said about lens. I had no idea a 200mm was about 6x.

I use a monopod although I have to admit the weather here has been so bad lately I haven't had the camera out of the house for a long time. Weather isn't that good. I've debated trying to get some 'weather' photos but 'I' don't like getting blown all over the place and soaked by driving rain. Good info!
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Post by Grandad »

LLL, regarding zooms, the old 35mm standard was based on a focal length of 50mm which for the film size was approximately equal to what the the human eye could see. The diagonal size of 35mm film was 43.2mm.

The CMOS sensor in my camera has a diagonal size of 28.4mm which to approximately equate to the human eye would require a lens of 28.4/43.2 x 50 = 33mm.

That is why a kit lens today is eqivalent to a medium zoom on old 35mm cameras. !8 - 55 becomes 27 - 82 35mm eqivalent...

So to all intents and purposes my camera lenses set at 33mm are just about equal to normal vision so a 200mm lens divided by 33 = about 6 times.....

The teleconverter that I mentioned is a budget method of increasing the focal length of ones lenses by 1.4x or 1.7x or 2x or even 3x. The disadvantage is that you can only use them with manual focus and they reduce the 'f' number by a factor equal to the maginfication factor. ie if a 200 lens is f4.5 at full zoom this will become f9 with a 2x converter with the consequential increased exposure.

I'm waffling....sorry to bore...get carried away sometimes... :lol:
:gg:
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