Your Canon Photos No. 40: 4th to 10th February 2024

This weekly thread is principally intended for you to showcase your photos made with Canon cameras of all sorts: SLR, DSLR, Mirrorless, M-series, APS-C, film, etc. But any brand of camera will be accepted, including photos taken with your phone. We do enjoy reading an accompanying text explaining your photo and any special techniques you may have used. Comments and helpful criticisms on others' photos are also welcome: we can all learn something from each other. We look forward to seeing your contributions and new participants to this series of threads are always welcome!

A new thread for the following week will be posted next Saturday around 10 pm UK time.

Digirame and I will be active here and are sharing the hosting, but we are used to all joining in and commenting on others' photos.

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Review of last week

I started the ball rolling with some shots of the temporary outdoor ice rink in front of the Vienna town hall. The weather has not cooperated in letting me show more of this, with skaters doing there stuff: but I shall soon.

Although living further north, Photobygms was able to show clear skies and well-lit winter scenes. I envy his energy in taking regular long walks. The RF24-240 lens again showed its high quality.

Meantime, Digirame got some real snow and ice and showed us more tobogganing parties.

Simplejoy showed us wintry views of his local area and provoked an interesting side discussion of white balance, together with a spectacular panorama.

Digirame's skies were taken over by geese. (Shades of the Hitchcok movie!)

Fotoword acquired an RF800 and proved with his collection of photos of his local birds that this is another high quality piece of glass, also reminding us that it is summer in Australia.

OpenCube's photo of leaves on the wind provided a nice contrast.

Bryan's young falcon was a good "catch"!

It has been a good week for birds, as Digirame found some grebes and megansers, showing that species that are common in one place are unknown elsewhere.

MikaY continued in this vein with a Eurasian treecreeper (what?) which looks very delicate.

And for variety Dunlin found some early snowdrops. Please tell us more about your experience of darktable. Does it deal with all types of raw files?

Thanks for an interesting, educational and highly entertaining week!

Subject: Spring Crocus

Well...the spring crocus flowers are here again. After some snow in the valleys we are finally getting a lot of warm weather and sun. That encourages the crocus to bloom. Here's a couple of pictures to start things off.

Photo No. 1 - I cropped this in, to get closer to the bee.

Model - Canon EOS Rebel T7i
ExposureTime - 1/320 seconds
FNumber - 13
ISOSpeedRatings - 500
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
FocalLength - 250 mm
Lens Model - EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM

Photo No. 2 - I wanted a deep depth of field, so I chose F18.

Model - Canon EOS Rebel T7i
ExposureTime - 1/320 seconds
FNumber - 18
ISOSpeedRatings - 2500
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
FocalLength - 135 mm
Lens Model - EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM

With apologies to those who dont like photos of food, I decided that we needed cheering up today, so I made what Delia Smith calls a Fisherman's Pie. Here it is straight out of the oven.

Enjoy -- we did!

David

@Digirame, nice shots again!! love that bee, Here it is a rainy day again and the forecast for the whole week is also rainy..
All the snow is gone again for now. but no spring flowers yet where we live.

@davidwien food photos can also be nice (and delicious) 😁

No pictures from us this week, perhaps I'll drop a flashback this week. We have been busy running rollers and painting some walls at home.
Also replaced some older carpet and underlayment with a new PVC floor with new isolation (anthracite stone tiles look floor)

David,

The food looks good. Yummy! 😀

Photobygms,

Have fun with your painting and home restoration. Yes, there is another life we have outside of photography. I know it all too well too. 😀

Looks great, even though I would hesitate to eat something called "Fisherman's pie"... What is it made of?

Nice shot! Is it usual where you are, that it gets this warm at the beginning of February?

Something (a little bit) autobiographical:

Reflections on writing about lenses... by simple.joy, on Flickr

Here's my description:

Don't worry - I'm constantly going through patches (of demotivation) like that but am already fine again. 👍

One slightly darker image:

Creativity can start in dark places... by simple.joy, on Flickr

and then something significantly lighter:

'Tis a bear into the woodwork... by simple.joy, on Flickr

continuing the theme of "horse chestnuts" we already had here some months ago! 😉

Mostly cod (Kabeljau) and potatoes. We had steamed carrots and bruxelles sprouts (Kohlsprossen) with it!

David

I hardly ever take photos that involve movement, but as I was framing this shot, I heard a car coming up over my left shoulder, so I waited until he came into view.

I had propped my mini tripod on the hood of my car and was trying it out.

At 1/640th of a sec, it froze the movement pretty well, I think. He was doing about 30mph, moving away from me. The focus held up pretty well.

I turned around, and took a shot in the other direction.

Steve Thomas

Simplejoy,

Thanks. It is a little unusual for us to get this warm weather so early. But year by year, sometimes we get those warm currents or sunny days. Then there's those times we get the freezing air in February from Canada (and then it can snow sometimes). The two sunny days have now past and we are expected to get more rain.

Here's the storm clouds coming in. I took this today, after taking advantage of all that sunshine (on another one of my hiking trips). I knew that time would be short. From what I heard, the bulk of the moisture is supposed to hit California. We are not supposed to get a lot, just our typical showers and light rain.

Model - Canon EOS RP
ExposureTime - 1/320 seconds
FNumber - 8
ISOSpeedRatings - 400
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 94 mm
Lens Model - RF24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM

Simplejoy,

Yes, we all have those moments of up and down. Sometimes when I'm a little down, I have to reflect how thankful I should be, especially when we realize how much worse so many people are. Then we start on another project, climb another hill. It's the journey not the top of the mountain that should motivate us. 😀

Wow...that's neat to see the black walnut...kind of like the black sheep. Did you paint that walnut a black color?

I like seeing your horse chestnut. When David showed his pictures of the horse chestnuts, I found one too. But it fell apart (split open), so I didn't get a chance to take a good photograph of it. But one thing I can say about horse chestnuts, is they sure hurt when they fall down from a very tall tree. It was kind of funny...when the wind would pick up I would get pelted with them. Ouch...it hurt...but I quickly learned to stay away.

Steve,

That's great you are getting out and taking pictures of things with movement. I hope to see more.

I don't use tripods, because I've learned to be a human tripod (so-to-speak). When I would take pictures of wildlife with my older cameras at long focal lengths, I had to practice how to keep the camera and lens quite steady (because I was limited to a maximum of ISO800 or ISO1600 and the shutter speed was very slow). It's a matter of holding the camera/lens firmly with both hands, and gently pressing it on the forehead using the viewfinder, and pushing down the shutter button with the finger only without moving the hand. There's other techniques too when using the LCD screen (instead of the viewfinder). Sometimes I brace the camera and lens. You can set the camera down on a flat object and use the timer too. A lot of the experienced photographers do the same. Maybe others here can describe what works for them, when they don't use a tripod.

The reason I don't use tripods, is that I'm moving around too much, too quickly. When I first got the Tamron 150-600mm lens, other photographers would tell me to get a tripod. But nope...no tripods for me. 😀

Some pics from today at Bicentennial Park
Still using the 800mm f11
Trying to focus up close on small static insects was challenging but mostly I got it to focus.

The birds were pretty good except for one little birds in a large bush that was moving about. Only a couple of pics hit the nail on the head.

Anyway...

Cicada's
First one is an Orb Weavers breakfast

Second is alive but unable to break free

Third was walking up a limb

And the birds

The little Egret with a very little fish

Superb Fairy Wren in mating colours

Willie Wagtail

The Silvereye below is the one that was difficult to focus on

Brush Turkey

White Faced Heron flew between to railings on the path I was walking

The lens is comparatively light so I can handhold it for quite a while.

The challenge is when I'm focusing on a bird in the lake at a distance when suddenly a tiny Wren turns up a few feet away. That's when I realise I need to step back a little and the lens isn't fast going between far and near focusing, often struggling

Thanks
Paul

@fotoword That 800mm does deliver, a nice combination with your R8!

Paul,

Your photos are wonderful. I especially like pictures of the Fairy Wren, the little White Egret and the White Faced Heron. You nailed that flying heron!!! That's one to be proud of.

Subject: Cormorants

One day in January, I went looking for Wood Ducks again. But I found very few, so I was glad that I took so many of them when I did many weeks ago. But I did find a pair of cormorants. I was lucky to get a few pictures of them up close. But they did not feel comfortable with me, with that big Tamron 150-600mm lens, so they moved to the other side of the pond.

Photo No. 1 - I first saw the cormorant by the side of this pond.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 1250
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
FocalLength - 450 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 2 - The sun at times would be blocked by the clouds.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 1600
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
FocalLength - 450 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 3 - Then the sun came through and the cormorant wanted to dry its wings.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 1600
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 428 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 4 - Again....

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 1250
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 428 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 5 - And again....

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 1250
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 428 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 6 - Back into the water the cormorant went, apparently being fearful of me. I had a difficult time getting this one. The cormorant was moving around quickly and I was a little concerned that I would have a blurry photo. But it came out OK.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 640
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 600 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 7 - Another one...as the bird went further away.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 500
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 600 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 8 - And again....

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 800
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 600 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 9 - The cormorants moved to completely the other side. Later I walked over there, to see if I could get more photos, but it would not let me.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 320
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 600 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

Photo No. 10 - Here's what the cormorant looks like, relative to other people that were nearby.

Model - Canon EOS 800D
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 9
ISOSpeedRatings - 1250
ExposureBiasValue - 0
FocalLength - 191 mm
Lens Model - TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011

I hoped you liked this series. I should point out that there were two cormorants. One cormorant was attempting to dry its wings and the other one was swimming in a location close by.