dubi said:

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Cardinal sitting under the feeder yesterday. He prefers to eat the spillage.

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The two cardinals that come to my feeders do the same!

MBAR said:

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2020 really got me to try new types of photography and I started looking for birds. While I've seen some cool things around and gotten decent photographs, getting little song birds to fill a frame has been nearly impossible. So I put up my feeders, set some branches as perches, and set up a portable hunting blind. Now I can almost fill the frame with these little guys! Next I'm going to make a reflection pool for them to splash in.

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You did it now! You won't be able to escape.

dubi said:

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Cardinal sitting under the feeder yesterday. He prefers to eat the spillage.

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Nice one, Mary!

I was surprised by how small they were! Was expecting something closer to other owls!

MBAR said:

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I was surprised by how small they were! Was expecting something closer to other owls!

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They really are tiny.

Anyone know where I can get some autopsy photos printed? Obviously NSFW and don't trust the likes of CVS or online file transfers to people I don't know.

went by Houston camera exchange this past weekend to attempt to trade in my fuji gfx 50s and a few lenses in for something more appropriate to my style of photography (handheld walking around town).

Unfortunately somehow in the past few months looks like something was pressing against the LCD display on the back of the camera while it was sitting in my case and now I have a small section of dead pixels. Long story short, my 4000 dollar body is apparently now only worth 1000...

Anyone have any place they would recommend to at least look into the idea of fixing this? Is it even worth looking into or would you recommend i just bite the bullet and just let it go?

Definitely fix it. The lcd screen can't be more than a couple hundred bucks.

I'd send it in to the manufacturer to be repaired.

Sony Alpha 1. Wow.

Better be a big ass roll.

In.

Probably will be getting back into pics. I'm an old SLR photographer, and will be looking to add the D to the front.

Those are hard to get, and get that sharp. I have heard of people that set up some sort of a feeder and background to help.

BIF, or birds in flight, can be its own rabbit hole in photography. There are a few photogs out there who specialize in doing workshops for others to help them get great BIF shots. Alan Murphy, who lives in Houston, is one of the premiere people doing this. He is known for meticulous setups to get the shots, and sells e-guides to others to replicate his techniques.

There are several places around the country he and others go to that specialize in doing this. There are at least a couple of these in south Texas. It basically involves getting the birds used to landing on or taking off from a specific perch which you prefocus on, preferably with your camera on a tripod. Then you wait for the bird to do its thing and trip the shutter in a burst to catch the action. The best way to do this is using a cable release, so you can anticipate this before the bird even enters the frame without your eye glued to the viewfinder.

Check out his website, he has some amazing images.
https://www.alanmurphyphotography.com/

labmansid said:

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BIF, or birds in flight, can be its own rabbit hole in photography. There are a few photogs out there who specialize in doing workshops for others to help them get great BIF shots. Alan Murphy, who lives in Houston, is one of the premiere people doing this. He is known for meticulous setups to get the shots, and sells e-guides to others to replicate his techniques.

There are several places around the country he and others go to that specialize in doing this. There are at least a couple of these in south Texas. It basically involves getting the birds used to landing on or taking off from a specific perch which you prefocus on, preferably with your camera on a tripod. Then you wait for the bird to do its thing and trip the shutter in a burst to catch the action. The best way to do this is using a cable release, so you can anticipate this before the bird even enters the frame without your eye glued to the viewfinder.

Check out his website, he has some amazing images.
https://www.alanmurphyphotography.com/

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Yeah, this is almost exactly what I'm doing. I've prefocused on an area they were flying through near the feeders and just fired when they entered that area. Keeper rate is incredibly low but I did get some good ones. None as good as that one would have been if I'd just been able to get the wings in frame.

I need to rework the way I have the perches near my feeder soon. My images are getting fairly stale. Waiting for things to start blooming to I can get some green perches!

bthotugigem05 said:

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Sony Alpha 1. Wow.

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Will have to wait for the next version and hope these drop to an affordable (for me) and justifiable price. I'd love to have one but I don't make a living with cameras.

Does anyone have experience with Skylum Luminar 4, On1 Photo Raw, or similar products? I've been using Lightroom 6 for years but recently had to rebuild my computer and lost the install disc. I'm not interested in the subscription model that Adobe forces you into now, so I'm looking for other options.

I have Luminar 3 and it's fine. They push presets pretty hard but all the manual tools are there to do what you want. They run sales all the time so make sure you arent paying full price for it.

Another option is Darktable. Its free open source and is pretty powerful. It has some quirks, but is constantly being worked on and improved. I use this on my Chromebook and its been solid.

DSLR or Mirrorless?

I've been shooting sports photography for over 10 years. Started with a point and shoot, bought a D80, then a D7000, then a D5500 and added nicer lenses along the way. Learned how to adjust all the bells and whistles for most sporting events to where I have very little post-processing (cropping and highlights are mainly my workload).

I started off with middle school and high school events and have been blessed to shoot Div-1 and semi-pro athletic events.

Now I want to go next level. I've been saving, so it's time to splurge.

I have around $4800 for body and lens (if need be).

No reason to go with a DSLR right now other than saving money. Canon and Sony's mirrorless are the way to go, IMO.

There is nothing special enough about Canon's Mirrorless to make you want to switch everything over there, especially how they have screwed up so many photo things over the last decade or so.

Sony maybe.

But I would get your hands on a Z6II and try it out, as well as consider a used Nikon D4 or D4s. If you are mainly focused on shooting sports, a D4s used for under $2k is probably the way to go.

D4s for $1250: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1686918/0?keyword=D4s#15497455
D500 for $1100: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1688659/0?keyword=D500#15509593
For most sports, you want multiple cameras, and those two leave you a lot of budget for glass.

But it also all depends on what glass you have. The glass is the most important part.

My set up last year before sports died was:
Z6+24-120mm for sideline stuff
D4+50mm 1.8 for plays that pop up right in front of me
D500+70-200mm 2.8
D4+400mm 2.8.

I would switch the D500 and D4 if the play was far away for the extra reach.

I also have a D5 and while the AF is better, it isn't that much better than the D4s to justify the cost. The Dual-XQD is a great reason to use the D5, though.

Guitarsoup said:

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There is nothing special enough about Canon's Mirrorless to make you want to switch everything over there, especially how they have screwed up so many photo things over the last decade or so.

Sony maybe.

But I would get your hands on a Z6II and try it out, as well as consider a used Nikon D4 or D4s. If you are mainly focused on shooting sports, a D4s used for under $2k is probably the way to go.

D4s for $1250: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1686918/0?keyword=D4s#15497455
D500 for $1100: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1688659/0?keyword=D500#15509593
For most sports, you want multiple cameras, and those two leave you a lot of budget for glass.

But it also all depends on what glass you have. The glass is the most important part.

My set up last year before sports died was:
Z6+24-120mm for sideline stuff
D4+50mm 1.8 for plays that pop up right in front of me
D500+70-200mm 2.8
D4+400mm 2.8.

I would switch the D500 and D4 if the play was far away for the extra reach.

I also have a D5 and while the AF is better, it isn't that much better than the D4s to justify the cost. The Dual-XQD is a great reason to use the D5, though.

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I envy your 400mm.

I appreciate the tips and will probably go the D4 route. I've invested too much to switch from Nikon at this point, because I'll never actively seek to shoot much more than I already am.

Between the D500 and D780, which one would you use?

The D780 is significantly newer and will have a lot of newer tech in it. But the crop sensor is really nice to have when you need that extra reach if you don't have a 400. The D500 is also a 10fps camera compared to the 7fps D780. If you were doing video, the 780. But if Sports are the primary use, the D500 is incredibly hard to beat.

I don't know if I agree with gs about canon mirrorless being nothing special. R5 is really a danm nice camera.


Didn't realize d500 was so cheap. I might pick one up at that price!

MBAR said:

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I don't know if I agree with gs about canon mirrorless being nothing special. R5 is really a danm nice camera.


Didn't realize d500 was so cheap. I might pick one up at that price!

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It kind of boils down to the old argument that glass is more important than one single camera. If you are heavily invested in lenses in a system, it doesn't make as much sense to switch everything out and start over. Several of us have done that before, and it can be economically painful for sure. I think that may be one point GS was trying to make. I was somewhat tempted at one point to switch to Sony, but glad I held out and stuck with Canon.

That said, being a Canon shooter, and R5 owner, I am in several Canon forums/groups and I see pretty frequently where others have switched systems because of the R5. It is a phenomenal camera, even with a few quirks, which no camera is perfect for everything. It depends a lot on how happy you are with what you already have, and what your main shooting interests are.

Switching from a DSLR to a mirrorless did have a bit of learning curve, but that wasn't very bad at all. That should really not be a determining factor in a decision whether to upgrade.

dubi said:

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My new purchase: Canon R5

For Gsoup, it has 2 cards!

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Congrats!! So, have you purchased a new CF Express card for it yet??

MBAR said:

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I don't know if I agree with gs about canon mirrorless being nothing special. R5 is really a danm nice camera.


Didn't realize d500 was so cheap. I might pick one up at that price!

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It isn't special enough to switch systems. It is a very good camera by all accounts.

And with Canon's track record over the last 10-12 years on digital cameras, they are the brand I trust the least by FAR.