Whatbird.com

I didn't get a chance to post these earlier.  Last weekend (July 5), I got a chance to go back to Orlando Wetlands Park, and I was able to take the rental lens I had gotten for my North Carolina trip (a Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR, and a TC-17EII 1.7x teleconverter).  I was fortunate enough that the Caracara family had decided to stick around for a while.  Here are a few more shots of them. 

500mm, f/6.3, 1/800", ISO 200 (-0.67 EV),  cropped, no edit

 

 

 

Foreground could be better in this shot, but I love how he's got his crest up.  It makes him look tough, I think 

500mm, f/6.3, 1/500", ISO 200 (-0.67 EV), cropped, no edit

 

 

This one finally got out in the open, so I didn't have to crop this shot (though I probably could have composed it a bit better)...

500mm, f/6.3, 1/1000", ISO 200 (-0.67 EV), no crop, no edit

 

I also got to see their little one again...

500mm, f/6.3, 1/640", ISO 200 (-0.67 EV), cropped, no edit

 

 

Incidentally, I was also lucky enough to get another shot of this guy (I'd seen him before in February)...

(300mm, f/2.8,  1/800", ISO 200 (-0.67 EV) )

 

These are awesome!  I haven't even found an owl, let alone get a great shot like that!

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Life List: 139
Latest: Cedar Waxwing!!!!!!!

lyceel:

(300mm, f/2.8,  1/800", ISO 200 (-0.67 EV) )

Can you explain why you used a -0.67 EV setting?  What were the conditions and what was your thought process?

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

Well, the short answer is because I was lazy 

The longer explanation goes like this...  I always shoot in matrix metering, and I use exposure compensation to try and balance the scene and bring out the subject as much as possible.  If the subject has a lot of white, I'll bring down the exposure a bit to keep the highlights in check.  If the subject is dark, I might bring it up some, even though this might cause some overexposed highlights elsewhere in the scene.  A Snowy Egret usually needs about -1.0 (up to -2.0 in direct sunlight), while a Red-Winged Blackbird might need a little boost of +0.33 or +0.67, for example.

After doing this for a while, I've kind of noticed that -0.67 is a good "safe" setting to start with.  It's usually enough to keep any highlights in check, but not so extreme that you lose much detail.  Unfortunately, I sometimes fall into a rut where I just leave it there and stop analyzing the scene when I go to shoot.  You might think the photos above are a bit underexposed, and you'd be right.  The sky was fairly overcast that day, and there weren't any harsh highlights to worry about, so -0.67 was a bit too much (I probably could have shot them with no bias and been fine).  With a subject as patient as a Caracara, there really isn't any excuse for it either.  Like I said, I just got lazy.

On the plus side, this is pretty easy to fix with a little RAW processing.