I visited two weeks ago for the first time. I’m a veteran landscape photographer, but have never photographed birds. Actually, I’ve never used the AF Servo mode on my Canon 5d IV, so it was quite an adventure learning something new. I shot almost all the photos at 400mm using my 100-400 II, occasionally also putting on a 1.4 III extender. All shots were done hand held. I was there for three sunrises and three sunsets. The great mystery was that the snow geese didn’t show up for a morning lift off two of the three mornings. None of the rangers knew where they were hiding out. Fortunately, on the last morning they appeared so I got to experience that. There was a lot of opportunity to photograph sandhill cranes taking off and landing. All and it was a very memorable and enjoyable trip. I think next time I will rent a crop factor camera to use with my 100-400 lens and extender. Most of my birds in flight photos are crops of much larger photos, so it would be nice to start with larger birds. I’ve posted two favorites, you can see the rest at https://www.flickr.com/photos/7868706@N02/albums/72157677253037618/with/46560653011/
Tony, I cannot comment on the technical side as I only shoot landscapes with SLOW film. But I can say what I like. I really liked the wonderful collection you’ve posted here at NPN as well as on the link…
It looks like you had some really lovely light while you were there, Tony. I particularly like the wonderful colors behind the blast-off image, but the cranes in the pond is also lovely. Well done.
Two entirely different images and both are quite nice, Tony! The first one is more of a landscape that has birds in it and the second is all about the birds and the landscape is simply background. I especially like the second one. The massive amount of birds is impressive enough but the sunset colors in the background makes it even more striking. I have been shooting wildlife with a 1.5 crop mirrorless camera and a 100-400 lens the last couple years and so far I’m quite happy with the results. That makes for 600mm without the extenders and a somewhat lighter package for hand holding also.