A MATTER OF LIGHT

Not far from where I live, actually, close to the town of Castlereagh in Sydney’s western outskirts live a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles. Aquila audax, as they are known among the scientific community is the largest bird of prey in Australia and it is a true eagle, belonging in the Aquilidae (booted eagles) family. The only other true eagle we have is the Little Eagle (Hieraeetus morphnoides), which is tiny when compared to the Wedge-tailed Eagle’s large size. Our booted eagles are characterized by feathering right down to the talons, evident when viewed closely. Wedgies, as they are known among the birding community, are rather imposing with a thick-looking eyebrow, large eyes, a huge bill and feet. They mean business. You’d expect that something this size will take a very large prey item, but their favourite food is in fact rabbits. Yes, the introduced species, which is often considered a pest is a Wedgies favourite meal followed by reptiles, which are in many instances large lizards. Although, their food items are also dependent upon the geographical area they occupy with different areas offering different types of prey. Wedgies are also capable of taking kangaroos, with a group of these eagles able to disable and kill a kangaroo of around 60kg in weight! That’s the size of a human if you really think about it.

The female, watching me one morning. She has been quite approachable allowing me to get to within 30m of her perch tree.

I was never so impressed by a bird as when I first saw them glide across Castlereagh Rd, near the quarries one morning at around 05:45 as I was driving up with my three dogs to take them for their morning walk in the area. The pair of adult wedgies just floated about 15m above the road surface sweeping from one side to another, finally swooping up to the east side of a small lake where they roosted side-by-side in a tall eucalypt. This branch is still one of their preferred perches that they use and one, I think the female, was there again this morning, observing the line of traffic going to work and I suspect she was too busy looking for a careless rabbit over the opposite side in the huge fields.

Wedge-tailed Eagle with Australian Raven escort.

This time it's an Australian Magpie pursuing the mighty eagle.

My most amazing encounter occured around mid-September 2011, when driving home from Richmond after a morning’s photography, I noted both adults flying low, being chased by an Australian Raven and an Australian Magpie. I quickly pulled over and got my 500mm lens out of its case (normally I have the camera/lens ready to shoot at moment’s notice, but not this day) and I was literally scrambling to put a 2x converter on as well to get me 1,000mm focal length. I was shooting frantically as the eagles circled low, then gained altitude as the two passerines were in close pursuit relentlessly attacking. I have even managed an acceptable image with the raven pulling at a primary feather of the eagle’s wing. That is really bold. The eagle was carrying a rabbit. As both eagles slowly ascended, they got higher and higher, soon reaching heights too high for the two passerines who gave up the chase. Then the eagles headed towards the SW, I guess to their nest to feed their young. I am still hoping that sometime in the next year or two I will find where they nest so I can study them from closer proximity.

Enjoy these few images of my favourite bird of prey. The Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax).

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Nature Photography by Ákos

Let’s face it, it’s hard to obtain sufficient magnification to make pleasing images of wildlife with shorter telephoto lenses. It is possible to achieve good images without having extra long (super telephoto) lenses, but it’s much harder to get the magnification you want. Super telephotos make your shooting far more effective and enjoyable, yet even with them the focal lengths may not be enough at times. One way to overcome this shortness deficiency is to buy and use teleconverters, that are small lenses, which are designed to fit between your lens and camera.

The most common teleconverter sizes are:

– 1.4x – enlarges your lens’ focal length by 40%, so a 300mm lens becomes 300 x 1.4 = 420mm (loss of 1 stop of light)
– 2.0x – enlarges your lens’ focal length by 100%, so a 300mm lens becomes 300 x 2.0 = 600mm (loss of 2 stops of light)

The best thing is also that if you use a camera with a crop sensor, then the actual field of view will also change. It will be the total focal length of the lens multiplied by the crop factor. So if you use a 300mm f/2.8 lens coupled with a 2x teleconverter, you will have a 600mm f/5.6 lens (since adding the 2x teleconverter will equal the loss of two stops of light). On an APS-C sensor (1.6x crop factor) the lens will have a field of view equal to 600 x 1.6 = 960mm. However, you would need to consider your shutter speeds you choose to shoot at this apparent long focal length, because due to this crop factor of 1.6 the 1/FL rule of shutter speed selection will require you to use a shutter speed at least 1/960th of a second, with 1/1000th being the closest to this number.

1DMkIIn, 500mm f/4L IS USM, stacked 1.4x and 2.0x, ISO800, f/16, 1/80th, tripod and Wimberley MkII head used.

I find it rather strange, and perhaps funny, that the number of people I hear complain about or dislike using a 2x converter is far more than those who advocate their use. Why would that be? I suspect there are a number of reasons, but one may be that they lack good quality equipment or they just don’t go out and shoot often enough to get used to the limitations within which they could get great results using these pieces of glass that increase the lens’ magnification. Or perhaps they don’t have good long lens shooting technique to achieve good results. Let me clear one thing up. Of course one will see some image degradation when slapping a 2x converter between a lens and a camera. This degradation will be even more when the lens, converter (or both) are of inferior quality. I mean, not your Canon L-grade converters; do note that Canon don’t make any converter other than the L-designated, luxury, models. I suspect that Nikon are in the same boat as well. My good friend Stephen Davey has bought the new Nikon 2.0x converter about a year ago and his test shots with it, using his D3 and 600mm f/4 lens were just mind-blowing. It all comes down to technique and lens to subject distance. You simply, cannot use stacked (or any) converters and shoot a subject from 100m or more away expecting world class results. However, if you get close, then even stacking your converters will yield exceptionally good quality images. Needless to say that you still need to have good long-lens technique and a little bit of luck. But both go hand-in-hand with photographing wildlife. You need to know what you are doing, how and know your subjects, know their behaviour and learn to read them like a book.

The below image here was made yesterday morning with a very cooperative bird in Castlereagh, who was only too busy advertising his territory. My mate from Brisbane, and I, were taking hundreds of photos of this same individual Golden-headed Cisticola a week ago. I knew where he would pop-up to call, so I just had to stand just within 5m of this branch and he would come. That he did many times over an hour. I was so excited to see this image on the computer. I love it when my plan gets executed just how I like it. Note, the light was quite bad this morning and I was using fill flash to brighten the bird against a stormy sky, yet it looks (to me at least) like natural light.

1DMkIIn, 500mm f/4L IS USM, stacked 1.4x and 2.0x converters, ISO1000, f/19, 1/100th, tripod and Wimberley MkII head.

Whatever you do, wherever you are, don’t be afraid to shoot, experiment and learn. The more you shoot, the better your images become. I am eternally grateful to my wonderful wife and for the many subjects who (sometimes) cooperate with me. The best thing about getting this image (and the others before) that no call playback was used at all.

Stay safe and happy shooting.

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Nature Photography by Ákos

Well, great to be back to the old ways of adding posts to this blog. I’ve tried to get out spotlighting as much as possible in the past two or so months, since spotlighting, night photography, is what I really love doing. A few different outings resulted in a mixed bag of critters and while nothing really new caught my eye, it was great to see the usual suspects doing what they do best, that is; be nocturnal animals in their habitat.

Eastern Barn Owl, 1DMkIIn, 500/4L, ISO400, f/8, 1/60th, flash, hand held, full frame

Many of my outings were in the Cattai area, some on private property, lucky I am privileged to know some land holders in different locations. Once they see a few images from those areas, they are more than happy to allow me access with a simple courtesy phone call.

Hope you enjoy these humble images.

Common Brushtail Possum, 1DMkIIn, 500/4L + 2x, ISO400, f/10, 1/60th, flash and tripod used

Yellow-bellied Glider, 1DMkIIn, 500/4L + 1.4x, ISO400, f/8, 1/100th, flash and tripod

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Nature Photography by Ákos

I was privileged to hang out with a mate of mine from Brisbane, Chris Martinez (a fine bird photographer and great guy) last Saturday morning. We met at 05:50 just south of the town of Castlereagh and I dragged him along to a spot I regularly walk my dogs. Golden-headed Cisticolas have been rather vocal there for at least three-four weeks and I had no problems walking within 4.5m of them even with my three dogs around me. As soon as the sun appeared over the hill at Cranebrook it emitted the most incredible and beautiful light and we were making our way down the old road to one favored perch, a bushy lantana with the top branches at head height. I also pruned the area a little to create more appealing fence posts and lantanas with less intersecting branches the evening before. We saw the first male calling feverishly and as we put the tripods down, he perched right here in front of us!

The culprit with the big mouth! Almost ready for an outburst.

Now you're talking about attitude.

Then we came to the second perch that was a small branch atop a little bush and the male was busy there as well. In fact, he and his mate were building a nest below this bush. As Chris walked in close to trim one leaf from a branch he almost headbutted a Silvereye nest in the bush. That’s really cool as I’ve not yet seen a Silvereye nesting. We had a great session, I believe it was Chris’ best ever with cisticolas so I was pleased that the birds showed as promised. Some even more awesome opportunities arose after coffee near a small reedy pond where another male cisticola perched on top of a bush, and right in front of Chris. How good was that? There was the small resident flock of Chestnut-breasted Mannakins too, and the three or four Rainbow Bee-eaters that surely must have a nest hole over the drop-off.

I just love old, wooden fence posts.

Then I took Chris to see where Henry and his mate (kestrel) are nesting. As I got out of the car, I was just blown away to see both resident Wedge-tailed Eagles sitting on the same perch where I could approach the female really close about six or so weeks back. Having talked about this to other birders/photographers for ages it was just a total fluke that they were there, thus prove that I know what I am talking about. We got a few images, though not much worth keeping I think. By now the light was getting atrocious, so we took it easy watching Henry and his mate fly in and out of the tree where they are nesting. After about an hour of little activity, we drove to the weir on the Nepean River. Again, the light was just crap by now, but I wanted to show Chris my fave BIF spot, and in typical fashion one cormorant flew past in about 20 minutes of us standing on the water’s edge. It was not that great at this time to be honest, but it can be a magical bird in flight location. About 30m up were a pair of Dollarbirds swirling through the skies, so I suggested we walk back up onto the top, to the overgrown field to try for a BIF of these. Yeah right! At least that’s what you may be thinking. Well, in bird photography you can only prepare so much and then still need a dose of good luck to make it all come together.

This feisty little dude has a LOT to say!

Another male with hand held 500/2x combo. That's a 1000mm of focal lenght, almost full frame.

The field on top was perfect Brown Snake country with the knee-high grasses and weeds so I was treading as carefully as I could. We made it to around 30-40 meters from the tree in which these Dollarbirds were perching in between sorties, while I fielded a call from my wife Donata who asked what time to expect me for lunch. I said another hour as we are at the weir, checking things out and the Dollarbirds are “biting”. As we set-up our tripods and the super telephoto lenses I was only dreaming of a shot in flight. Nothing could prepare me for what came next. One bird took off and flew straight at Chris and me. I could not pick it up in the viewfinder until the last moment when it dropped really, really low and flew about 10m high or so, maybe even lower. I managed to get one really good shot of this head-on encounter, which you can see below.

Henry's mate banking close.

The amazing Dollarbird flight.

Enjoy this quick read and hope you will pop back soon for more great stuff that live in my neck o’ the woods.

NB. No calls or hides were used with the cisticolas. The Kestrel was cropped in half from a horizontal image and the Dollarbird is full frame, with some top/bottom trim only with a slight bit of canvas added on the right as the primaries were just too close to the frame edge.

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Nature Photography by Ákos

We have had some gorgeous August days of late with temperatures in the low twenties (Celsius that is) and about two weeks ago I’ve spotted my first return migrants, a small flock of Fairy Martins (Hirundo ariel). I initially heard the faint squirt-like sounds they make (kind of like a wet fart to put it bluntly) and noted them swirling about 30m above me near the quarries.

Fairy Martin, Penrith Baseball Fields, October 2008. 30D with 300mm f/4L IS lens and 1.4x converter. Car used as hide.

I have now been hearing more and more reports of migrants, which is a fabulous thing. YAY! Also, about a month ago I noted the resident White-winged Chough (Corcorax melanorhamphos) at the horse property in Cranebrook have built a new mud nest, some 50m from last year’s tree, almost next to the riding arena. Yesterday, while my wife was getting ready to ride, I heard the screaming of young from this nest. As I set up my super telephoto lens with the 2x converter to get as tight a shot as possible, I realized that three young birds were begging for food every time an adult bird returned with food items. This was fabulous indeed. Judging by the advanced stage of this nest at the end of our southern winter, which is mild by European standards at least, I can predict with growing confidence another bumper nesting season for the region due to good rainfall in winter and the availability of prey. I look forward to seeing more of the choughs and hope they will nest again. I guess most likely late November, early December at the latest to keep pumping out the babies.

The new kids on the farm. Canon 1D MkIIn, 500mm f/4L IS lens with 2x, tripod.

Last season, this group successfully nested twice out of three attempts raising two from the first and two from the second nesting sessions. Please enjoy these newcomers of the world as you see them.

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Nature Photography by Ákos