Post by Ely Teehankee on Jul 7, 2012 13:19:27 GMT
Ariel & I would start out photographing the same bird side by side. But there are also lulls and we move a few yards away from each other seeking other birds that may be lurking around. After a few minutes, I chanced upon an unusual looking bird that had a long tail and a head crest. It was flying about 30-40 meters from us when one of them turned around and perched 17.8 meters from where I was standing. I quickly pointed the camera and focus on the bird and right after squeezing the shutter it flew away and I told Ariel about it. Immediately he said that is the bird he has been looking for. It is the Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher (Ptilogonys caudatus) 9" (23 cm) in length. It never came back & I felt Ariel's disappointment in having missed it.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 300mm
f/2.8L IS USM. Gitzo GT3530LS tripod, Wimberley WH200 head. Manual exposure in available light.
1/1500 sec., f/2.8, ISO 400
The following weekend, Ariel came with his beautiful girls (wife & daughter) to pick me up and go back to the city. During the week Ariel would go to work and leave me in the mountains to go birding. However every week end he would come back for me and than we would move to another location for a different specie. But before going back we wanted to give the place one last try. Here we are looking out to the mountains hoping to see any bird that would come near because of the flowers and the fruiting trees nearby. Noticed that there is one tree immediately to my right and very close to us.
All a sudden Ariel turns to his right and said "Long-tailed" is here. I was there the whole week and I never saw the bird again and now the miracle of a pair appearing before us about 4 meters from where we were standing. We were both very excited, pointing with our camera to the direction of where the birds were and choosing which one would give us a better picture. The birds were a lot calmer than us, enjoying the fruits that was on the tree oblivious to our presence.
We were both taking pictures in a frenzy of click click click. I could not take a picture with the whole bird inside the frame as I had my 2X TC attached to my camera for the birds earlier when we were aiming at the forest. I did not want to miss the chance of the bird being so near so I took a lot of shots with the TC on and this is how the bird looks like when it is too near. There is a glare on the lens that reflected on the bird but the nearness of the bird gave out a lot of feather details.
1/250 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800
1/320 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800
1/320 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800
I wanted to have a full picture of the bird, and gambled that if I removed my TC, I would still have the opportunity to take the bird in full. As I was removing the TC, I kept on saying don't fly, don't fly, wait for me. Thank God, it did stay and I was able to take some pictures.
1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 800
1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 800
1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 800
All this time Michelle & Kyla were laughing at us because we look so funny as we move from left to right, forward & backward trying to fit the bird into the frame with the least obstruction. Of course we were completely unaware that they were laughing as our attention was completely on the birds and oblivious to what was going on around us.
Now we can heave a sigh of relief as we look at our captures on our LCD monitors.
Thank you to Kyla who was taking our pictures when all this was going on and we did not even see her as if she was never there. Moral of the story: Birds are so beautiful and there can be no distractions when they are showing themselves to bird nuts like Ariel & me. We celebrated with a sumptuous lunch right there at Myriam's Quetzal Lodge. We had fresh rainbow trout, a special torta, pork chops, and a vegetable dish all done by the super cook Myriam. For drinks we had black berry juice harvested from the 25 hectare property of Myriam's husband. We had fresh fruits for dessert and than we all drove back happy and contented with what had transpired.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 300mm
f/2.8L IS USM. Gitzo GT3530LS tripod, Wimberley WH200 head. Manual exposure in available light.
1/1500 sec., f/2.8, ISO 400
The following weekend, Ariel came with his beautiful girls (wife & daughter) to pick me up and go back to the city. During the week Ariel would go to work and leave me in the mountains to go birding. However every week end he would come back for me and than we would move to another location for a different specie. But before going back we wanted to give the place one last try. Here we are looking out to the mountains hoping to see any bird that would come near because of the flowers and the fruiting trees nearby. Noticed that there is one tree immediately to my right and very close to us.
All a sudden Ariel turns to his right and said "Long-tailed" is here. I was there the whole week and I never saw the bird again and now the miracle of a pair appearing before us about 4 meters from where we were standing. We were both very excited, pointing with our camera to the direction of where the birds were and choosing which one would give us a better picture. The birds were a lot calmer than us, enjoying the fruits that was on the tree oblivious to our presence.
We were both taking pictures in a frenzy of click click click. I could not take a picture with the whole bird inside the frame as I had my 2X TC attached to my camera for the birds earlier when we were aiming at the forest. I did not want to miss the chance of the bird being so near so I took a lot of shots with the TC on and this is how the bird looks like when it is too near. There is a glare on the lens that reflected on the bird but the nearness of the bird gave out a lot of feather details.
1/250 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800
1/320 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800
1/320 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800
I wanted to have a full picture of the bird, and gambled that if I removed my TC, I would still have the opportunity to take the bird in full. As I was removing the TC, I kept on saying don't fly, don't fly, wait for me. Thank God, it did stay and I was able to take some pictures.
1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 800
1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 800
1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 800
All this time Michelle & Kyla were laughing at us because we look so funny as we move from left to right, forward & backward trying to fit the bird into the frame with the least obstruction. Of course we were completely unaware that they were laughing as our attention was completely on the birds and oblivious to what was going on around us.
Now we can heave a sigh of relief as we look at our captures on our LCD monitors.
Thank you to Kyla who was taking our pictures when all this was going on and we did not even see her as if she was never there. Moral of the story: Birds are so beautiful and there can be no distractions when they are showing themselves to bird nuts like Ariel & me. We celebrated with a sumptuous lunch right there at Myriam's Quetzal Lodge. We had fresh rainbow trout, a special torta, pork chops, and a vegetable dish all done by the super cook Myriam. For drinks we had black berry juice harvested from the 25 hectare property of Myriam's husband. We had fresh fruits for dessert and than we all drove back happy and contented with what had transpired.