Photography Fun

[Brian]

More tests. Crops and auto edits

[Brian]

Cooper's Hawk and Merlin

[Brian]

Merlin Landing. With Crop and Heavy Crop.

[Brian]

Sonoma Fun

[Brian]

I am flirting with return to full frame after 20 years shooting smaller mirrorless choices. As we all know the full frame cameras have shrunk down a ton, and lens design has brought down weight of the full frame lens choices a lot. All that said, I still don't know if I can stick to the full frame when it still requires that what I carry is about twice the weight. Got a 90 day trial on used Full Frame Sony A7R5. For wildlife I tried Tamron 150-500 lens on the Sony and it really could NOT beat my old Micro Four Thirds setup, at least for static wildlife subjects like this Cooper's Hawk. Here is G9 Picture Micro Four Thirds Camera Picture and this combo is total just 3.5 pounds to carry. I will comment with same shot on the Full Frame, even on 50 inch monitor really no difference at all and the Full Frame setup is about double the size and weight.

CropLumix.JPG (780.4 KiB) Viewed 12313 times

Same Cooper's Hawk on Sony A7R5 with Tamron 150-500, with crop to equal framing of the little Lumix G9. Really no difference at all. Ignore that I warmed it up a lot and added saturation, the Sony shot was really 'cool' on color to start. This testing led to me return the Tamron 150-500 and step up to native glass Sony 200-600 lens. The Sony A7R5 with the 200-600 certainly does better with wildlife in motion with more confident autofocus on birds in flight, etc. The downside is that it's a monster in size compared to G9 with PL 100-400 that weighs about half as much. I can go hike with the G9 with PL100-400 in a sling or hip bag, the Sony with big 200-600 requires a backpack.

CropSony-1.JPG (1.1 MiB) Viewed 12313 times

[Brian]

Tigers, Temples and More!

[Brian]

More

[Brian]

Epic Tiger Morning! Two tigers this morning close to us. First it was Sultana (daughter) and a bit later her mother, Noor. This is Noor walking right at us. Ranthambore National Park.

[Brian]

Final Safari Game Drive, Ranthambore National Park. We were first at zone 2 gate before it opened and that made all the difference as we quickly found tracks of this big male and came upon him just five minutes down the road.

He held that face for more than a minute and swung his head around in circles as he did it. Guide explained that a female had marked this rock and this is the male's Flehmen response. Went and looked it up for more detail. In German, the word flehmen means lip curl or curl of the upper lip. A tiger opens wide to allow the scent to reach the roof of its mouth where the Jacobson organ is located.

The Jacobson organ is important for mating, marking territory, and intraspecific communication. Tigers use the flehmen response when investigating different scents left by other tigers. It’s like smelling in high definition. A male tiger can actually tell if a female is ready to mate by smelling her urine. Many other species, including snakes and hoofstock, have this special organ as well.

[Brian]

Owls and Kingfishers in India