[IRide]

Ahhh....mornings at Cherry Creek. I've spent more than a few there in days gone by. Nice job.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by IRide

Ahhh....mornings at Cherry Creek. I've spent more than a few there in days gone by. Nice job.

When were you here?

I live and work in the Tech Center.

Dave

[IRide]

Originally Posted by dcstep

When were you here?

I live and work in the Tech Center.

Dave

I lived and worked in the Denver area from 1966 until 2004. We love the state and miss our many friends in the Denver Metro area. I spent many mornings fishing Cherry Creek, Chatfield reservoirs and the South Platte river near Deckers.

Steve

[dcstep]

Steve,

I moved here in '04, right as you were leaving.

Dave

[M_Six]

Icarus

[dcstep]

Did its wings melt?

Great shot. (I can't resist shooting into the sun. You never know what you'll get, but it's often stunning, like this).

[Itsed65]

I finally got around to making some more hummingbird food last night, and was rewarded with plenty of business at my back window this morning. This was shot from my kitchen counter, across the living room and through the window and sliding door, so two extra pieces of unwashed glass. Not too bad I thought. 7D with 100-400L.

Hurray, they finally refilled it! by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[M_Six]

Thanks, Dave. I was out with my new 100mm L macro lens and saw this guy cruising right over my head. I tracked him right into the sun and got a nice sun spot in my eye for my carelessness. At least the image came out ok.

Steep learning curve with the macro. Get too close and you have to deal with a razor thin DoF. Back off a bit and you might as well be using a normal lens. The windy conditions today didn't make it any easier.

This turned out to be one of my better shots today and this was shot with the 400 f5.6 and 1.4x TC. I was 30ft away from this guy.

[Spinny02]

Great shots gents!

[M_Six]

Great shot, Ed. I'd try one of those but with the cats outside I'd be afraid of luring a hummer to a nasty end.

[Itsed65]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Great shot, Ed. I'd try one of those but with the cats outside I'd be afraid of luring a hummer to a nasty end.

Thanks Mark! Love the caterpillar shot. I know what you mean about the knife edge DOF using the Macro. It's an art for sure.

I have the feeder hanging safely out of kitty range, and I have not seen any casualties. As my critter cam has shown me, my backyard is quite the party zone for all kinds of animals during darkness! Besides countless feral cats, I know my yard is regularly visited by deer, raccoon, foxes, possums, skunks and turkeys. (This doesn't count the king snake we found in the garage one summer) I have also heard owls, but sadly haven't actually seen one yet. I'm pretty sure the hummingbirds are safe out there, but who knows.

[M_Six]

Our outdoor cats are great leapers. My bird feeder is over my head (I'm 6'3") and I've seen the cats leap up and snag a bird feeding at it. Most of the birds they catch are eating seeds that have fallen to the ground though. I guess that wouldn't be an issue with hummers.

[IRide]

Another gift from the garden.

[Itsed65]

^^^ Nice one! Especially for Halloween time

[M_Six]

Saw this young bald eagle fishing today. He caught a small fish and just decided to eat in in flight.

[ddk632]

Wow, love the Icarus shot!

----

OK - Dave rip it apart.

I took the 100-400 and the 2.0x TC with me, and heeded your advice (mostly) about MF with this lens. Shot the first race with AF and no TC, then slapped on the TC. Then took it off again

This is one of the better shots with the TC that I feel like came out pretty good, but the problem is, I really have no frame of reference. I sort of feel like my AF shots at 400mm are sharper, but this one was 800mm with the TC on a monopod and seems not too bad. What say you, and others?


CCS #878 by ddk632, on Flickr

I'll post another one I really liked as well. Welcome all comments. Been a while since I've posted a snapshot here

[ddk632]

Here's manual focus 800mm shot #2.

I believe this one is dumb luck shooting into a pack of riders on the first lap, but I like how it came out. Rider #85 seems really sharp to me and sort of stood out from the pack.


Middle of the Pack by ddk632, on Flickr

What say you, BimmerPost Photogs?

[M_Six]

Both look good to me, especially for manual focusing on something coming at you in a big hurry.

[Itsed65]

The second one looks dead on. The first is ever so slightly soft to my eyes, but still totally acceptable. Very well done for MF.

Mark I had to wait to get home to look at your eagle pic, I couldn't tell what it was on my iphone. Very cool! I wish we had more eagles out here.

[dcstep]

David, I think that you did great. Trying to MF at 800mm is really tough with today's viewfinders. They're just not made for MF. There is some luck involved. Before my 5D MkIII would AF at f/8, I tried MF a couple of times at 1000mm. I thought the subjects were sharp, but they hardly ever held up to close scrutiny.

BTW, try a 1D X. It'll blow you away with its AF. It locks in instantly with TCs attached. My 5D MkIII will lock in, but after a second or so. The 1D X is like .1-sec.

Dave

[ddk632]

Thanks guys, appreciate the honest feedback. Looks like it'll pay off to practice a bit (well, a lot) more with it the extender. You guys didn't see all the shots I threw out

Dave - would love to try the 1DX... knowing myself, I'll want to get one though

However with the 100-400, at the long end with a 2.0x TC (800mm), even the 1DX would still have to manual focus since it'll be at f/11, if I understand the charts correctly.

Another from the day (with AF this time and no extender)


Arai #66 by ddk632, on Flickr

[Itsed65]

I took my new segway/chair out for a spin yesterday and got to explore some of the trails at one of our regional parks. This used to be the home of the Atlas Powder Company. All the eucalyptus trees were planted to act as a cushioning barrier in case of explosions. It closed after WW2.


Remnant by lennycarl08, on Flickr