Plain Nesting

[Amit Gupta]

Plain Prinia

Taken in mid-morning sunlight, Late september, post monsoons, at Uran near Mumbai, 2008.

The bird wast using this shrub as a staging post before taking the twigs to its nesting site in a bush nearby.

EOS 40D + 70-300IS, aperture priority

1/1600; f5.6; iso 200; 235mm.

[Rahul Parekh]

beautiful capture...loved the interaction with the plant.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Amit,
Lovely shot. Its sharp. The action is interesting. Good eye contact. Is this a cropped image? People following the performance of the 70-300 lens would be interested in knowing.

The back ground is diffused and doesn't distract from the bird. I would have loved some more depth of field, but it is a tight balance between sharpness and dof. These little fellows are very fast and need high shutter speeds.

Overall a nice shot. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[AB Apana]

It is a fine image with a clean BG. Perhaps it needs a bit more pop.

Apana

[Chitrita Chatterjee]

very nice pic.....

[Mrudul Godbole]

Hi Amit,

Nice sharp image. I liked the perch and the twig in its beak is a big bonus. Nice composition.

Keep posting..

[Mital Patel]

really good work Amit and nice example of 70-300 quality.

nice composition, nice perch.
one thing i would say that you could have expose 1 f/stop less which could have gave more depth and contrast to the image.

i have processed a bit wish you like it.
the main thing i did is recover the highlights and did little PP for dof and few % more saturation.

[Amit Gupta]

Thanks Mital, It does make a difference.

Sabasachi: This is indeed a crop, about 30% of the original. I was trying to stay betwee 200-270mm, as some people believe that to be teh 'sweet spot' for the lens. It does seem to be true, but 300 itself is quite short for most birding situations.:(

[Rahul Parekh]

Thanks Mital, It does make a difference.

Sabasachi: This is indeed a crop, about 30% of the original. I was trying to stay betwee 200-270mm, as some people believe that to be teh 'sweet spot' for the lens. It does seem to be true, but 300 itself is quite short for most birding situations.:(

Hi Amit,

Have a teleconverter. If your lens gives good results with it :)

Rahul

[Amit Gupta]

Hi Rahul,

I don't think a TC agrees with this lens very much, am planning to invest in a bit longer FL soon. I am inclined towards the 400/5.6, but temptes by the faster 300/4 with option of TC !:confused:

(Till then, but also later) must keep trying to get closer!:)

Cheers!

[Rahul Parekh]

Hi Rahul,

I don't think a TC agrees with this lens very much, am planning to invest in a bit longer FL soon. I am inclined towards the 400/5.6, but temptes by the faster 300/4 with option of TC !:confused:

(Till then, but also later) must keep trying to get closer!:)

Cheers!

Hi Amit,

Have a look at Sabyasachi's thread:
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=529

More:
300mm F4: http://photo.net/equipment/product-detail?product_id=528


Hope this helps :)

Rahul

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Thanks Mital, It does make a difference.

Sabasachi: This is indeed a crop, about 30% of the original. I was trying to stay betwee 200-270mm, as some people believe that to be teh 'sweet spot' for the lens. It does seem to be true, but 300 itself is quite short for most birding situations.:(

Amit,
Cropping substantially won't help if you are going to print big or send it to a magazine for publication.

I will never try to use this lens at 200mm and then crop the image. Please do an experiment yourself by keeping your camera on a firm tripod or beanbag. Use timer and mirror lock up and then click at various focal lengths and then compare the images. View the images at 100% and see if you feel there is substantial difference to merit throwing away focal length. There are lot of experts in internet various forums who talk confidently without even using a lens. Lot of people talk about the MTF charts. However, when you photograph in the field the difference is not easily visible.

I remember in one Bharatpur trip I had photographed using the 70-300 lens (without IS) and photographed Egyptian vultures nearly full frame, Indian roller, Sarus crane, Kingfisher etc full frame in slide films. However, most of the times, the birds were much smaller in the frame. Was not always successful in inching closer to the birds.

You definitely deserve an upgrade soon. The difference in quality would be immediately visible. Till then crawl or sit in a hide to get those birds closer and keep on feeding us with good photos.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi