Exciting birds at RSPB Ham Wall

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A great day at #RSPB Ham Wall last weekend! The Glossy Ibis that has been there for some time actually showed itself in front of one of the hides.

And to add to the excitement, a pair of Herons were starting to build a nest in front of the Tor View hide.

So, first to the Ibis. An elusive bird on most occasions, it chose a much more open location to feed during my visit. Sadly the sun was not shining during the time it was at its closest, but I managed to get some reasonable shots. Here are a few conventional poses, followed by some more unusual ones.

By the way, many of these shots were taken with the Canon 400mm f4 DO II plus 2x teleconverter. I am really pleased with them as I really would not have got anything without the converter. This confirms my opionion as expressed in my previous Blog on converters and image quality  http://johncrabbwildlifeimages.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/do-lens-extenders-ruin-image-quality.html

And what does it think it is doing with this reed? Thinking of building a nest too, just like the Herons?

I did try to catch it in flight too, but annoyingly missed my best opportunity. I had been watching it closely for ages anticipating a take-off, but when it finally did my attention had been distracted by two new visitors to the hide - so I missed it! Quite a lot of silent cursing followed that. Anyway, here are some of the flight shots I did manage.

And so on to the Herons. Not normally considered a very exciting bird due to it being so common, but when you see them flying their displays during courting and nest building you really could not ask for anything more dramatic! For a start, they fly with their necks extended rather than neatly folded away.

I first spotted them in the reeds.

 
 Then witnessed them mating.

Obviously this did not go down too well with at least one of them!

  But they soon got over it and this next sequence shows the male (presumably) bringing a stick and its mate accepting it.

  Common birds, yes, but magnificent too!

 
All shots taken with the Canon 7D Mk2 (what a fantastic camera it is) and the Canon 400mm f4 DO II with teleconverters, usually the 1.4x, but also the 2x for distant shots.

Please visit my website at www.johncrabb.co.uk and "like" my page at www.facebook.com/johncrabbwildlifeimages 

Until next time!

The excitement continues!

The other day I posed myself the question "With tens of thousands of photos in my library at the moment, when will I have taken enough?" Well, not while there are still shots like this to be had.
 

After about five years of trying to master wildlife photography, I still get excited at the prospect of gathering new and exciting photos. Maybe one day my passion will wane, but not at the moment.

The day started quietly and I only had about two hours to spare before I had to be somewhere else. I whiled away the time taking photos of anything that came into view. That is the beauty of being outside, there is always something happening.

 

I even tried to photograph the Woodpigeons that made repeated passes in front of me. It was very difficult as they were just too close, but I got this one.

As nothing much seemed to be happening - I was waiting for the Barn Owl of course - I went for a stroll to see what else was about. Caught this Grey Heron standing on a post, first just its head peeping over the reeds ...

 ... then the rest of it came into view.

Now, at this point, let me ask what you think about my new lens, the Canon EF 400mm f4 DO II? Pretty sharp most of the time I would say, but I am still getting used to it.

Despite its high spec and absolutely atronomical price however, I am still finding situations where it does not deliver. Take this Kestrel for instance.

It approached closer and closer and I thought that I was getting some good shots - I was hand holding the camera at this point. But when I looked at them on the computer screen I could see that either the autofocus or image stabilisation had failed to nail it. Many of the photos were just that little bit soft. Not what I had expected from my new set up. Maybe it was me, I will have to experiment further.

When I show my photos to audiences at my illustrated talks (had a great one at Yeovil Allotments Association last night by the way) people often say "You must have a good camera", as if that explains why I have some nice photos. Well, you couldn't do it without a camera that's for sure, but it is still a struggle sometimes no matter what equipment you have treated yourself to. In the end, it is not just the camera that gets the good shots!

You can just make out in the photo above that the Kestrel is carrying a Shrew. It flew around with it for a while as if not quite knowing what to do with it.

Anyway, all this was just by the way because it was the Barn Owl that I had come to see. Eventually, just as I had run out of time, it made an appearance. Typical bad luck for me, but I stayed on as long as I could.

It was definitely worth risking a late arrival in Bristol.

So, another brilliant outing. Can't wait for the next one.

If you live near me in Somerset you may like to book me for one of my illustrated talks - it's a lot of fun! Find the details on my website www.johncrabb.co.uk
 

Fine tuning the Canon 7D and 7D Mk2 autofocus

This is the "technical" blog I have been threatening for some time, it is an extension of the autofocus tips and advice I gave in a previous blog 

http://johncrabbwildlifeimages.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/birds-in-flight-with-canon-7d-mkii.html

In that blog I talked about the choice of 7D Mk2 autofocus settings for photographing birds in flight. Here I want to address the issue of fine-tuning, or micro-adjusting, the autofocus system to make sure it gives you sharp images.

I do not ever read very much about  this, but in my view it is absolutely essential. If you have not done it, there is every chance that your lens is seriously under-performing.

When you activate the AF system by half-pressing the shutter button prior to the shot, the camera obviously tries to focus on the subject. It normally does a good job, but it is prone to two types of error which will affect how sharp an image it comes up with. 

The first type of error is a random error. So if, say, you asked the camera to autofocus on the same object a hundred times in succession, on average it will home in on the correct distance, but there is a plus-or-minus factor affecting each attempt. So, there will be a variability in the sharpness between images depending on how successful the AF system was on a given shot. The AF system is therefore not perfect, but this is how things are in the real world with everything of this nature.There is nothing we can do about this except take a lot of shots and hope that a few are as sharp as we would like. This type of error is like a darts player aiming for the bull; over several hundred shots there will be a scatter of points at different distances from the aiming point, most will be in or close to the bull, whilst some will be a bit more wayward and others in between. It is called a "distribution" of results.

The second type of error is a systematic error. This means that the correct distance mentioned above may be no such thing. If a systematic error is present then the AF system will home in on an average focus distance which is always displaced from the actual subject, either a little too near to the camera or a little too far away. We can do something about this and we should otherwise the image will be blurred to one degree or another. Oddly, of course, the random variation always present could mean that some of your shots could occasionally be sharp, but we do not need to confuse ourselves with this.

Here is how to do it on your Canon 7D Mk2. It is a simple procedure, but sometimes difficult too. All will become clear. This is where it all starts.

Go to the AF menu, fifth item as shown, and scroll the highlight down to the bottom. Press the SET button. This is how my camera looks when I do that because I have already microadjusted my lens..

Scroll down to the third option, as shown above, and this time press the INFO button which is towards the top left on the rear of your camera. Then you will see this (my screen photo is a little out of focus itself, but I hope that you can read it OK.)

Now, you will find that you can move the pointer left and right using the large wheel on the back of the camera. This pointer is showing you the relative adjustment you are making to the average focus position. Negative values mean you are moving it further away from the camera, and positive ones mean you are bringing it closer. The aim is to make it coincide with the actual position of the target you are focusing on. This is done by trial and error as described below.

So you will need to set up a target to photograph. In my examples I have used a printed page from a TV guide. You need something with fine and coarse detail to help you decide whether or not it is in focus.

The target should be set  up at a distance of between 25 and 50 times the focal lengh of the lens. In my case I was adjusting a 400mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter attached, I had it about 25 metres away at the bottom of my garden.

Then all you have to do is adjust the AF microadjust pointer, press SET to activate it and take a picture. It is best to set the camera to ONE SHOT AF and manually adjust the lens focus wheel to blur the image a bit before activating the AF to make it work a bit harder.

I suggest that you work methodically through the AF microadjust settings from -20 to +20 in increments of 5 initially. You may need a note pad to record what you are doing and as an aid to interpreting the images afterwards.

You will end up with series of images which are in focus to different degrees. This one, for instance, is decidedly  out of focus:

Whereas this one is better:

 

 But is it better than this one? I think not.

And therein lies the rub!! It is quite easy to eliminate AF microadjust settings that give horrible results, but very difficult to choose between the three or four that give the better results. You can, of course, repeat the tests with microadjust settings varying by just 1 or 2 points over a more restricted range to see if that helps you decide. You can see that, in the end, I chose a setting of -9 for my lens combination.

One tip is to go through the initial test images eliminating the obvious bad ones then if, for example, you are left with reasonable results ranging from settings of -5 to +15, then it is odds on that the best result will be obtained somewhere in the middle of that range, i.e. at about +5. You can investigate. Always remember, that your efforts will be somewhat confounded due to the random variation which also affects the results. You may need to do it a few times or, as I did, get the best possible setting like this then experiment further when shooting in the field.

I reiterate here that, in my view, this is an essential adjustment to make. I have found huge differences in the required microadjust settings for each of my lenses and again if teleconverters are used. Without making these corrections you could conclude that you had a bad lens. This is why I am somewhat mistrustful of lens reviews where they compare sharpness - how did they focus them?

There are other ways of doing this and you can buy special target apparatus, but the above worked for me. Good Luck!

Please visit my web page www.johncrabb.co.uk and my Facebook page www.facebook.com/johncrabbwildlifeimages

You may also like to read my Blog article on the effect of Lens Extenders, or Teleconverters, on the quality of wildlife images.
 http://johncrabbwildlifeimages.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/do-lens-extenders-ruin-image-quality.html



It has some perhaps surprising conclusions!

Hobbies and other challenging birds in flight

After writing my last blog on "Birds in Flight with the Canon 7D Mk2 Autofocus"  http://johncrabbwildlifeimages.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/birds-in-flight-with-canon-7d-mkii.html
I have been more than usually careful to inspect my images for signs of bad focus.

I have continued to use the settings I recommended and have been practising on Hobby falcons.The result? Well, I have to tell you that autofocus is something of a lottery no matter what camera and lens you have and despite using the best settings. I am pretty sure that the settings I recommended work most of the time, but there is no such thing as a perfectly reliable autofocus system.

This is hard to come to terms with after paying an arm and two legs for the best available kit, but the plain truth is that the autofocus system does its Hi-Tech best for you, but there is scatter in the results. Sometimes it will nail the bird dead on, no messing, other times it focuses just a few inches further away and sometimes just a few inches too near. It is the inescapable nature of all physical systems. It is just the way the world is and we have to accept it.

More than that, the system may focus on a wingtip when it is the bird's eye you desperately want to be in focus. If you have the skill to keep just the centre point locked firmly on the bird's eye as it sweeps past then this is perhaps the setting you should use. I have to say that you would be in a very small minority of photographers if you can do this reliably every time.

The best you can do, in my opinion, is to set the camera up to give you the best chance, and take as many shots as you can squeeze off. That way you will get some good ones. If not "good ones", at least ones that can be tickled back into life with your photo processing software. Some slight sharpening in Lightroom or Photoshop can work well, but the image has to be almost right to start off with.

Here are a couple more of the better Hobby shots I took over the last few days. As a matter of interest, I was using the "Auto" setting within the 65 point auto-select mode, i.e. letting the camera decide which AF point to use to establish initial focus from the 65 available. I said before that this can work well against a plain sky, and it does! Normally I would have the centre point selected as the initial AF point.

For each shot that I dare show I have thrown away many more. We drool over the brilliant images produced by the best professionals, but they are only showing you the best, not the hundreds they have been obliged to ditch. It is sometimes said that the only difference between us ordinary photographers and the best pros is the size of their waste bin! If you can get just one sharp photo of a Hobby careering about the sky you are not doing too badly. It shows that your camera can take sharp autofocus photos. Some of my shots will soon be uploaded to my website www.johncrabb.co.uk so you will be able to see them a little larger.

As proof that my set-up can take sharp photos, here is a shot of a dragonfly - the sort that Hobbies chase and eat!

There is one more important aspect of using Autofocus and that is that it must be micro-adjusted to match your lens. I will write a blog on this soon. If you do not do this, you will be unlikely to get a good sharp shot however hard you try.

So apart from worrying about whether I have given you good advice on the 7D MkII, I have been enjoying the activity at the #RSPB Ham Wall reserve in Somerset. There are thousands of dragonflies, that is why the Hobbies are there of course, but even this Moorhen was making repeated trips into the reeds to gather them to feed to its chicks. Here it is is with a beak full.

There are young chicks everywhere on the reserve, here are some young Canada geese with their parents.

It is a good thing that the parents are keeping a close eye out for them because the level of predation is enormous. Regular bird watchers witness the day-by-day reduction in the number of chicks as the multiple predators take their toll. One such predator is the Mink. I caught this one on its way to raid the nest of a Moorhen.

Another "bad guy" - yes, I know it is just nature, but I cannot help taking sides - is the Carrion Crow. This one has just stolen an egg, possibly from a Heron's nest.

But it did not keep it for long as this next shot shows it dropping it! A few seconds later I heard the splash as it hit the water. Small comfort for the robbed parents.

Marsh Harriers, much as I love them, pick of young birds with ease. They are constantly on patrol over the reed beds.

This cute looking Coot chick, with its red face and orange hair, is taking a big risk in open water. Thankfully it was OK.

There are still plenty of these, Bitterns.

 And these, Great Egrets

Always a pleasure to see them both. Such dramatic birds in flight.

This Great Crested Grebe had caught a fish that was marginally too large for it. I think it managed to swallow it in the end, but probably did not need another meal for a while.

And finally, is this just showing off do you think?

Please do visit www.johncrabb.co.uk and "like" my Facebook page www.facebook.com/JohnCrabbWildlifeImages

Thanks!