by successfulbob | bird photography, Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography gear, wildlife photography
“Off to harass the birds again are you?”
My wife Holly calls it harrassing cause I used to have to get very close to the birds to fill the frame and they often would leave in a snit at being disturbed… I call it photography while I study and capture behavior images. I really enjoy photographing birds. At her parents place which looks over the marsh in Delaware I’ve plenty of subjects.
I was curious as to how the Lumix FZ1000 would perform and I gotta tell ya it ain’t bad at all. Having a 400mm f4.0 lens is quite good. I’m even more impressed with the ability of the digital zoom going to 1600mm. At that zoom range some detail it starts to soften but being able to fill the frame from a long distance is more than worth the trade-off. Here is a sequence to show the range of the camera…
Images made from the same position. To get to the digital zoom of 1600mm you must be in jpeg capture mode.
Still, with proper exposure I’ll take the reach over being able to shoot in RAW.
Osprey doing a flyby of her nest.
If I’m going to have one camera for vacation, or just to have at hand daily – that does almost everything I need – the Lumix FZ1000 is the one.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography, wildlife photography
GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Oh wait. I’m a little carried away there… But, one technique for making an interesting photograph is to take a very small subject and fill the frame with it. This flower is about the size of a fingernail. Using the Lumix FZ-1000 I was able to bring this tiny subject forward. While I don’t often recommend bulls-eye composition I think it works in this case because of the bud in the lower left corner and the leaf in the upper right hand corner. The flower dominates but the additional subjects in the frame give you eye something else to look at and turns it into more modified diagonal composition.
The bud is barely the size of my pinky fingernail & the flower is just a bit bigger than my thumb. Settings 432mm Exposure 1/5000 sec to help freeze the flower in the breeze, f5.6, ISO 800
Constantly working and playing when not on a commissioned job. Without practice and really knowing your gear it’s difficult to grow as a photographer. Golfers are constantly trying to ‘find the groove’ and practice is a huge part of their ability to succeed.
When is the last time you tired something new?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography gear, wildlife photography
It can make you crazy!
Trying to photograph these wondrous creatures.
Butterflies! Even the name kind of pushes you to run back to childhood. Especially when you walk in and the first thing that happens is a butterfly flutters around your head… and then lands on your nose! Really!
I decided to take the Lumix FZ 1000 because of the long reach, 4K video and fast glass to see what I could see…
This moth caught my eye. The warm tones and patterns with the cool colors toward the center really worked for me.
The long zoom allowed for some really nice bokeh.
A more traditional butterfly capture of a monarch on a flower.
I told you the butterfly came to visit up close and personal. Thanks to fellow visitor Phyllis Pardoll for capturing
the fleeting moment and sending me the quick snap before my visitor departed.
OK you know me and even though nature is beautiful in her own right I had to play to see what I could do to push the patterns of the moth to new places. Let me know what you think!
This is still a work in progress. Experimentation rules!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | bird photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, photography, wildlife photography
What ties the images below together??
Other than they are of the same subject?
Great White Egret image.
Great White Egret image.
Great White Egret image.
Great White Egret image.
Great White Egret image.
Well I gave you hint at the answer in the title of this post. All five images were created withing two minutes. How many different looks can you obtain by changing the direction in which you shoot? Look at the different color and feel of each image. The mood is totally different in each capture.
Plenty of options exist in a single situation and exploring the possibilities beyond the obvious help define us as photographers. Next time you are on a shoot circle your subject and see how many different looks come about. After a while you’ll start to pre visualize exactly what you want to show… And I’ll bet it will be different than what you are automatically photographing now.
Images captured with the Lumix GH4 100-300mm f4.0-5.6
by successfulbob | bird photography, Lumix GH4, photography, photography education, wildlife photography
So you want to see the befores?
I received a request to show the images I’ve been playing with the last couple of days how they looked pretty much straight out of the camera. I can do that…
Great Blue Heron at the Venice, Florida Rookery. Art Photo here
Sandhill Cranes, Sarasota Florida.
Sandhill Cranes behavior images. Art Photos here
Sandhill Cranes at dawn Sarasota, Florida. Link to post here
Photo gear used was the Lumix GH4 and the 100-300mm Lumix G Vario f4-5.6 lens. A faster lens would have been better but the reach of this is quite good (200-600mm 35mm equivalent) At just under $500 this is a pretty nice lens to chase down waterfowl.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | bird photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, photography, wildlife photography
This time I went to the rookery in Venice Beach about a half hour south of Sarasota. Apparently I am a little area for the big nesting season but there were a few Great Blue Herons, some Anhingas and some other smaller birds in the area. Not the ideal time of day to shoot but with a little imagination, a couple textures and some Photoshop Blend Modes I might be on to a little something here…
Playing around with the concept night and day… Great Blue Heron from Venice Beach Rookery.
Original image captured with Lumix GH4 and the Lumix Vario 100-300mm lens.
Back out to shoot some more… Later!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
