Another Note (10/27/14, 5:30 pm): Fixing this problem is obviously taking longer than I’d hoped. We think we’re making progress but it’s become very complex and it’s not an easy fix. Hopefully I’ll be up and running normally again very soon (right now I, and others, can comment but I can’t publish a new post). Please hang in there…
Ron
Note: As I’m sure many of you have become painfully aware, my site has been down for several days with server issues. It looks like we may have come up with a solution but for complicated reasons it may be several more days before I can publish any new posts, even though my blog is now running again (comments made to previous posts are no problem). Please bear with me…
Until this past spring my cupboard was largely bare of flight shots of Western Kingbirds. But this male gave me plenty of opportunity to practice my skills as he encouraged his mate at nest-building.
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM, canvas added for composition, not baited, set up or called in
Only female Western Kingbirds actually construct the nest but this male would often perch in the vicinity of the nest and wait for her to return with nesting material. When she did he would sometimes lift off and fly just over the nest in apparent encouragement and that’s what he was doing here. I enjoy seeing the dorsal plumage in this shot even though we can’t see any of those wonderful ventral yellows.
I’m a little surprised that the right wing-tip isn’t sharper. With a shutter speed of 1/4000 sec and without my tc at f/7.1 I’d expect it to be a little more crisp. I don’t have any problem with a little apparent motion blur at the wing-tip in a flight shot like this but I did notice it and couldn’t help wondering why.
Ron
Note: I’m having server problems this morning so access to my blog has been intermittent. I apologize. They’re “working on it”. Grrrr….
Note #2: Ok, things are finally up and running again (at about 5:30 pm MST) after being down for nearly the entire day. Sure hope it lasts…
Great shot, Ron!!
I feel for you and your server problems, probably why I don’t do a blog. Just when everything is running smoothly, bam. I had to deal with those in my adult life, now that I’m in my second childhood, I’d rather have things continue to go smoothly. Probably why I stayed out of politics. So, I vicariously live through your blog!!!
Hope you get it fixed soon, I miss your daily posts.
“Just when everything is running smoothly, bam.”
You’ve got that right, Dick! I hate getting sucker-punched, especially when it involves my blog. I have hopes to publish a new post very soon – we’ll see what happens…
Gorgeous!
Good to see the site back up, Ron. I was jonesing a bit. Excellent flight shot of a fast-flying species.
Love this – and may all your server issues melt away. Soon.
Thanks, Elephant’s Child. The “melting away” has been maddeningly slow, however.
As I’m sure many of you have become painfully aware, my site has been down for several days with server issues. It looks like we may have come up with a solution but for complicated reasons it may be several more days before I can publish any new posts, even though my blog is now running again (comments made to previous posts are no problem). Please bear with me…
So sorry you are having server problems. I was really surprised when you replied to my comment that I could never tell was posted. Hope it gets straightened out quickly, before all us Feathered Photography addicts go into withdrawal…
Hopefully no withdrawal, Susan. I may be able to publish a short “test post” tomorrow afternoon if there are no more nasty surprises. Thank you for the support!
I like this one. It looks from this photo like the outermost tail feathers are white on the outside edge? If so, that would make them easy to identify in flight. We do have Western Kingbirds here, and what I’ve mostly seen is the yellow on their under sides.
Susan, yes, they do have white on the outer margins of the tail but so do many other passerines. I think the yellow belly (which you mention) is a more reliable field mark for ID.
Ron, did you do a DOF calculation? You don’t state the camera-to-bird distance, but if it were less than 30 feet, the distance from the sharply focused eye to the front of the DOF would less than 1.7 inches according to http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html. Could that account for the OOF wingtip? Just a guess.
Dwynn, I didn’t do the calculation but I’ve used that calculator often (I think it’s the best one available, that I know of). I suppose DOF could be the reason for the soft wing-tip (something had to do it) but it still surprises me a little that it’s as soft as it is.
What a wonderful flight shot Ron!
Charlotte
Thanks very much, Charlotte.