Wedge-tailed Eagle

[johnd]

Taken at Taronga Zoo when I was in Sydney the other day.
It's one of my first bird shots with the 80-400 and I quite like the result.



Cheers
John

[radar]

John,

what a great shot. That is one magnificient photo of the Wedgetail Eagle.

Looks like you will be putting that 80-400 to good use,

Cheers,

André
(reminds himself to make it to Taronga zoo)

[Alpha_7]

Great shot of one of my favourite birds, sadly since I've had my camera I"ve only seen caged ones.. (shows I haven't been bush nearly enough).

How cropped was this ?

[johnd]

Thanks André and Craig.

Craig, I cannot recommend enough the Bird Show at Taronga Zoo. We liked it so much we went back for the 2nd sitting. The action is fast and furious but I was able to get better shots at the 2nd sitting because I remembered the script from the first.

Exposed for the sky in manual mode (about f5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200 from memory), continuous focus, shot at 5fps on d200 mostly at 400mm. Filled a card up real quick, then deleted heaps of half bird and out of focus shots between shows.

The original is landscape oriented. I think I've cropped off about 1/5 each top and bottom and 1/3 off each left and right to give this portrait oriented image. From memory, in photoshop, it is about 45% when fitted to screen.

Cheers
John

[Trieu]

Love the shot, I can't imagine how big the bird is in real life?

I heard their wingspans are huge!

[Alpha_7]

Thanks for the information John, does the Bird Show run all days ? We have tickets to the Zoo, just haven't had a chance to use them yet.

[radar]

Thanks for the information John, does the Bird Show run all days ? We have tickets to the Zoo, just haven't had a chance to use them yet.

Craig,

it runs every day, 12 and 3, have a look here:
http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/content/view.asp?id=1075

cheers,

André

[Alpha_7]

Thanks for the link Andrei.

John, would I survive with the 18-200 or 80-200 ? Or should I get out the 70-300G ? When I go, I hope to take both bodies, to save a bit of lens swapping.

[johnd]

Craig, I used the 80-400 and 85/1.4 all day. So I'd say the 80-200 would be a prefernce to the 18-200. Uunless you plan on sticking the camera in the lions mouth, I don't think you'd need to go wide. I don't know about the 70-300 for the bird shots. Maybe the 80-200 and some serious cropping. With the 80-400 I got a fair bit of colour fringing (or whatever that thing is that you fix in camera raw) on the shots of the dark birds against the blue sky. I think the 70-300 would probably give you more fringing but the 80-200 might perform better with it's better optics. From memory the 70-300 goes soft when longer than 250mm, so probably best to stick with the 80-200. Or borrow a 80-400.

The bird show entry is free as part of zoo admission. I'd recommend you go to both sessions (12 and 3).

Cheers
John