My support gear, and more of my pelican.

I would like to tell you a bit about my support gear. Because I use a heavy lens, I invested in a gimbal head. But, I needed a better tripod, and with the dollar being so good, and with good recommendations from top bird photographers like Maxis Gomez, I bought an Induro carbon fibre tripod from BNH. I love it. I also updated my monopod with a very strong manfrotto, and put on it an Induro tension ball head. That has been the best investment I have made. What a strong head that is, and the tension controls are great. No more flopping like with the old ballhead. I have the bhd2, and I also use that with my 800. I love the freedom of a monopod, and in certain circumstances, is a great way to shoot.
I also invested in a lowpro passport sling bag, for when I only need to carry a small amount of gear with me, and it is so comfortable, and easy to access. I rarely carry my backpack now, and can grab what I need straight away.

Anyway, back to my pelican. Here are some more images from last saturday when I took the other shots I posted last week. The weather has been miserable since, the only sunny day was when I was shooting the polocross (which was really lucky), so fingers crossed for some sun this week.

I love this photos, just so cute!!

Pelicans

I went with a friend to Colleges Crossing, a waterway near my home. I had been there the day before, and got some good egret and heron shots, but today someone was smiling at me. As it was my birthday, I would like to think it was my mum! After all, it is thanks to her that I have the camera gear that I do. Anyway, the plan was to shoot the egret from a different angle to the day before, when this pelican flew in, and filled my frame. A mad scramble to move myself back so I would have a little bit of space, and then the fun began. The sun was going down, and created that lovely afternoon light, and the pelican decided to have a quick clean. These would have to be my best pelican shots to date.

Introducing Huey

Well, after a lot of soul searching, a lot of researching, I finally decided to purchase the Canon 800mm lens. The main reason was that I was tired of never having enough reach with my 400mm. For me, 500 wasn't a big leap, even though it is a great lens. I wanted more reach, and did not want to continuously shoot with a convertor on. The 600 was the largest and heaviest lens, funnily enough, so then the 800 came onto the radar. While still an extremely large lens, I am very happy with my purchase. (thankyou to Photocontinental at Mt. Gravatt for giving me a good deal). I have used the 1.4 convertor with it, some birds are just so small, and won't let you near. So being such a big lens, and my baby, I named it Huey, after the cartoon duck character.
He is taking some getting used to, the dof is very shallow, he is heavy, and I can only shoot using a tripod, but using a gimbal head is a breeze.  I do feel somewhat restricted from my usual handholding.

The bird photos in my previous blogs from Ash Island are taken with Huey. Here are some images from my first outing to Sherwood Forest.