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| White Cheeked Starling |
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| Daurian Redstart (female) |
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| Oriental Greenfinch |
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| White Wagtail (ssp. lugens) |
Monday, 28 March 2011
Niodori Park - Misato
I spent a couple of hours birding at Niodori Park this morning. I was primarily after a good clean shot of a wagtail but they were hard to find today. The wagtails were surprisingly hard to find today but I made up for it with a couple of new species. So all in all it was a good morning.
A relatively common visitor to the park.
I believe this is a Daurian Redstart female but I'm not 100% on identification here. The male is very colourful but I didn't see any males around.
Another first sighting species, a pair of Oriental Greenfinches. They were hard to photograph since they didn't like me getting too close. This image is cropped more than I would like. I probably need 800mm or more of reach for these guys.
These guys were the purpose of my outing but only showed up as I was leaving and didn't hang around long either. The other day I got a reasonable shot with just 35mm of focal length. Today I needed all 400mm and a cropped sensor camera.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
First Impressions - 5D MK II
After humming and harring about buying the 5D mk II now or waiting for the next generation full frame camera, I finally pulled the trigger and bought one. I also got the 24-105mm kit lens which I was just as excited about since I have been after a standard travel zoom and all the cropped camera options left something to be desired.
On full frame this lens is
Anyway, it arrived early this morning and since this camera uses the same battery as the 7D I threw in a fresh one and immediately took it out for a field test.
Before I even left the house this test subject, came around. A neighbourhood cat we've come to call Choco-chan. I like the shallow DOF here.
While 105mm is not what I would usually choose to photograph birds, I thought I would see what it can do anyway. This image is about a 75% crop but still shows great detail for a web image. One thing becomes quite obvious with the camera is the lack of a built in fill flash to add that catch light to the eye.
The shallower depth of field will take a little adjusting to. I was going for a slightly out of focus station in the background but this is a little more than I expected even for f/8.0. Looks like a great subject for a tilt-shift lens.
I took a trip to Akihabara, Tokyo to get a few supplies (protective screens, filter and flash sync cable) for the new camera and lens. While riding the train I took the opportunity to try some photography from the last car as we entered a tunnel. You won't be able to see this in a web compressed jpg image but this was at ISO 800 and the noise is so much less than my 7D.
This is a 5 second exposure at f/4.5 and ISO 800. Again the noise is very well behaved and although it's hard to prove, I'm hoping that image stabilisation is helping to keep the image smooth and "together".
So for my first day out, I'm very happy with the camera and lens. I must admit I am left wondering why I didn't buy it sooner. I almost bought another 7D with the Canon EF-s 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens, but now I'm so glad amazon was out of stock and I cancelled my order. For what works out to being just 50% more, I have a much better camera and walk around travel lens. I should be able to recover some of that cost by selling some old EF-s lenses too.
On full frame this lens is
- Wide enough for landscapes
- Long enough for portraits
- Weather sealed
- Image stabilised
- Constant aperture zoom
- Shallower depth of field relative to cropped alternatives
Anyway, it arrived early this morning and since this camera uses the same battery as the 7D I threw in a fresh one and immediately took it out for a field test.
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| Choco-chan |
Before I even left the house this test subject, came around. A neighbourhood cat we've come to call Choco-chan. I like the shallow DOF here.
 |
| White Wagtail |
While 105mm is not what I would usually choose to photograph birds, I thought I would see what it can do anyway. This image is about a 75% crop but still shows great detail for a web image. One thing becomes quite obvious with the camera is the lack of a built in fill flash to add that catch light to the eye.
 |
| Purple and yellow pansy flowers |
The shallower depth of field will take a little adjusting to. I was going for a slightly out of focus station in the background but this is a little more than I expected even for f/8.0. Looks like a great subject for a tilt-shift lens.
 |
| Tsukuba Express entering a tunnel |
I took a trip to Akihabara, Tokyo to get a few supplies (protective screens, filter and flash sync cable) for the new camera and lens. While riding the train I took the opportunity to try some photography from the last car as we entered a tunnel. You won't be able to see this in a web compressed jpg image but this was at ISO 800 and the noise is so much less than my 7D.
 |
| Tsukuba Express in a tunnel |
This is a 5 second exposure at f/4.5 and ISO 800. Again the noise is very well behaved and although it's hard to prove, I'm hoping that image stabilisation is helping to keep the image smooth and "together".
So for my first day out, I'm very happy with the camera and lens. I must admit I am left wondering why I didn't buy it sooner. I almost bought another 7D with the Canon EF-s 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens, but now I'm so glad amazon was out of stock and I cancelled my order. For what works out to being just 50% more, I have a much better camera and walk around travel lens. I should be able to recover some of that cost by selling some old EF-s lenses too.
Friday, 11 March 2011
Snow Monkeys
Today I took a trip to Nagano to photograph the world famous Snow Monkeys of Japan.
These are some of the most northern primates (except humans) that live in a cold harsh environment. A few years ago they discovered that onsens were warm and they started relaxing in them through the long winter months. In these parts of Japan there is snow on the ground for about 4 months of the year.
These monkeys are wild and live in the mountains near by but are very used to tourists and photographers around them. As such we can get really close to photograph them.
This is why they are called Snow Monkeys.
When it's really cold, lots of monkeys will get into the onsen. This was taken shortly after a snow shower.
This little cutie was making several strange sounds and facial expressions.
These are some of the most northern primates (except humans) that live in a cold harsh environment. A few years ago they discovered that onsens were warm and they started relaxing in them through the long winter months. In these parts of Japan there is snow on the ground for about 4 months of the year.
These monkeys are wild and live in the mountains near by but are very used to tourists and photographers around them. As such we can get really close to photograph them.
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| Cold Day |
This is why they are called Snow Monkeys.
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| Their Onsen |
When it's really cold, lots of monkeys will get into the onsen. This was taken shortly after a snow shower.
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| Young Snow Monkey |
This little cutie was making several strange sounds and facial expressions.
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| Grooming, a never ending task |
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| Finally some nice lighting |
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