Saved the day (pics incl)

[Steve Foss]

Never fails that when I hit the woods searching for wolves, moose, lynx and fisher, and hit the big goose egg, there are two species of birds that always cooperate. Two from today.

Canon 20D, 100-400L image stabilizer, 400mm, iso200, f5.6, 1/640 sec.

1/1600 sec.

1/2500 sec

[Dbl]

Beautiful shots Steve. I love the twinkle in the eye of the last photo. The first is a shot from an angle you rarely see. Very cool.

[jonny_redhorse]

very nice Steve!......I love the way these little chickadees "puff up".... kinda like a flying furball!.lol!...the last one is my favorite!......christmas cards next year?........jonny

[buzzsaw]

I like the action shots and the clarity on the thrird one is perfect! Which Nikon were you borrowing? Just kidding.

[Steve Foss]

Now, Buzz, why would I bring along a boy's toy to do a man's job?

[buzzsaw]

She said what to you?

[Steve Foss]

Sorry, bubba. It was out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

[waskawood]

Now children . Very nice shots Steve. I am still mainly studying the manual.

[Steve Foss]

waska, the manual will be your friend for long, long time.

[polarsusd81]

Steve, with the L lens, were you using a polarizer filter on those photos? I am looking at getting a couple new lenses this year, possibly 24-70 2.8L and the 70-200 2.8L.

[Steve Foss]

No Tom, no polarizer. I tend to leave it off unless I know I'm going to be shooting reflective surfaces such as sun-drenched water, bright snow or wet leaves. The 100-400L is a slow lens, only opening to f5.6 at 400mm, and I don't want to give up a stop or two that using a polarizer involves unless I can't avoid it. Polarizers also darken the whole image indiscriminately, so it's great to enrich highlights but can turn shadows dead. Unless you've got reflection to deal with, you can do as much to control bright lighting with exposure as you can with the polarizer. And, though the polarizer does yield somewhat more saturated colors, you can achieve that with a simple application of saturation in post processing.

The lens offers nice clarity, excellent contrast and color saturation, as do all the L lenses.