Little lens photogging a Nankeen Kestral.

[beeb]

You birdos and your big fancy lenses - all you need is a 24-105 on the long end! It was full frame too! :P


Nankeen Kestral by T. Flack, on Flickr

This gorgeous little BOP did a few laps over me while I was doing some long exposures down at Point Lonsdale yesterday, and deciding I was no threat to it, went and parked itself on a nearby rock. The 24-105 was the longest lens I had with me, so I just quietly meandered my way over to it and took a few shots. Ended up about 2 meters away from it, until it eventually decided it was time to go off riding the coastal breezes in search of food again.

[inapickle]

Bet you wish you had one of those bigs lens with you

[beeb]

Bet you wish you had one of those bigs lens with you

If I had someone else carrying it for me, maybe... :P

[inapickle]

If I had someone else carrying it for me, maybe... :P

I'm with you on that one

Easier and cheaper to let every one else do it while we sit in comfort, and admire their efforts on our computers

[avkomp]

you were fortunate to have this guy so happy to let you get close too

the ones I see mostly wont let you get a shot like that even with a 600.

[loose cannon]

Ha, good one Tim. Wish I could find someone to carry my lens around for me lol.

[beeb]

you were fortunate to have this guy so happy to let you get close too

the ones I see mostly wont let you get a shot like that even with a 600.

Haha, yeah I know! Sometimes you can just tell when animals are ok with you being there. I was still quite careful not to make too much eye contact or do anything sudden or threatening, but even still I was surprised how relaxed it was.

lol @ Mick - I think we all do at times, even if it's a bunch of smaller lenses! (Guilty!)

[avkomp]

Haha, yeah I know! Sometimes you can just tell when animals are ok with you being there. I was still quite careful not to make too much eye contact or do anything sudden or threatening, but even still I was surprised how relaxed it was.

I know what you mean. I find I am fairly good at reading the body language of stuff and can often get quite close.

there is a funny end to the story to the roo shots I posted last week.
I was birding with this mate and we spotted the roos in question and managed to get very close to them for the shots you saw, but after I was shooting for a while, he decided they must be tame and moved in for a few shots, but the roos took off, last seen running at high speed towards the nepean river. he didnt read them too well at all, but the 2 biggies he made were making eye contact and walking straight towards the roos, apart from the not using cover.
if something is staring at wild life and heading straight at it, it either wants to fight, eat or mate with. he has since had success approaching other wild life by observing those guidelines. he said to me " you were right about that, it really does work".

so dont underestimate the effect eye contact might have on your wildlife subjects.

[loose cannon]

Just to add to what Stephen said - I got to within 10m of a Jabiru the other day, unheard of for around here, 50m is as close as I can normally get. Had to flip the camera over to portrait orientation to fit the Jabiru into frame!

I'd followed some cattle down to the water's edge at the river. When the cattle had had their drink and moved on I stayed put. The Jabiru accepted me as another harmless cow I suppose and didn't flinch. I followed it around for a while and it completely ignored me.

Later the same day I saw the Jabiru again and was still able to approach almost as close as I liked.

So if you want to get into birding get yourself a herd of cattle to follow around lol.