Photo thread

[Flysmallie]

I love owls. Not a fan of many birds but owls are pretty special. We used to have one that lived in the neighborhood. But judging from the recent squirrel population, it has moved on. 
 

Here’s a pic I took of one out by the Springfield airport. 
 

[ness]

Up close and personal at a bird sanctuary. 

That's me in the pupil in an orange shirt.

And, the fastest animal 

[Quillback]

What do you recommend for a lens for bird photos?  

[fishinwrench]

14 minutes ago, Quillback said:

What do you recommend for a lens for bird photos?  

2 3/4" 1oz. of 7 1/2's 👍

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

2 3/4" 1oz. of 7 1/2's 👍

             Then you can get a really good picture of a bloody mess of a once lovely GAME BIRD.

   I like owls and any bird of prey.  There is a period of time where I'm not really happy with the owl though. Right now, we have rabbits in the yard. They are not scared of us and just stand there as we walk by. I mean like three feet away. They are raising little ones in the yard here and there. We get to see them also. By the time late summer begins the owls have raised a nest of owlets and have been teaching them to hunt. With the short grass in the yard the rabbits are easy pickings. Nothing left for me come October first. These cottontails don't leave because I find piles of fur where they meet their demise. Bobcats get their share also I have video of that.

[Flysmallie]

7 hours ago, ness said:

Up close and personal at a bird sanctuary. 

That's me in the pupil in an orange shirt.

And, the fastest animal 

Cool pics Mr. Ness. 

[Flysmallie]

5 hours ago, Quillback said:

What do you recommend for a lens for bird photos?  

I don’t do much bird photography unless I just stumble upon it. But most of the people that are into are using 500 to 600mm lenses and might have a teleconvertor on as well that would increase the reach. A lot of them do some heavy cropping as well. 
 

About the only real bird photography I would like to do is to photograph a duck hunt. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know, but I’ve had the idea forever. Weird since I’ve never been a duck hunter. 

[ness]

5 hours ago, Quillback said:

What do you recommend for a lens for bird photos?  

The longer the better. Think expensive  

[Flysmallie]

 

I did get a picture of this bird in flight last weekend. It didn’t take a long lens though. He was pretty easy to sneak up on. 

[ness]

On 6/1/2025 at 10:39 AM, Quillback said:

What do you recommend for a lens for bird photos?  

My current longest lens is a 55-200 mm and I'm on an APS-C sensor (Fujifilm X system), so 82-300 mm full-frame equivalent. Most systems have a pretty reasonably priced zoom in that range.

I've gotten some pretty good pics right off our deck or in the yard at 200. The first few of these were on a tripod and triggered remotely with a pretty inexpensive bluetooth remote. 

Tame hummingbirds with a point & shoot

City ducks and geese at the local lake at 200 mm on an old Nikon D200.

Not exactly sure what this Florida bird is, but this was at 200 too.