Collared Sparrowhawk...

[Ironwood]

I found this youngster having some trouble, it had been injured.
While I was near it, an older Hawk landed on a branch just above and to the right, as I swung the camera around, it took off ( no photos of that one ). I am not sure if it was a parent or an attacker. I actually got pretty close to the young one, maybe 4 meters, but it was getting quite distressed, so sadly, I ended up leaving it hoping it would recover enough to keep itself safe.
It could also be a Brown Goshawk, but matched a photo of a juv. Collared Sparrowhawk more closely.

Taken with the Nikon D7100 and Tamron 150-600, all have been cropped from landscape to portrait.

@600mm, iso400, f8, 1/640th


@240mm, iso3200, f8, 1/640th


@210mm, iso3200, f8, 1/640th.

[Isac]

Well done Ironwood. Lovely detail throughout. The Tammy seems to be quite a good lens.

[seaslug]

Well done. Lovely looking bird.

[Ironwood]

Cheers Isac and Greg.

I find myself wondering if this bird is still OK, it was in my pool garden when I first noticed it, it got up onto the fence then tried to take off towards the creek, I lost sight of it but it seemed to crash land. When I went to look I found it down near the creek, thats where I took those last 2 shots.
I was pressed for time because I had to go back into work, so I had to leave it. I just got back home now, after dark.

[Isac]

I hope you find it to be OK Ironwood.

[Ironwood]

If I get home before dark this afternoon, I'll go and have a look if its still around.

[Ironwood]

.................. The Tammy seems to be quite a good lens.

I get a shot now and then that gives me hope Isac. I just wish I got more keepers using it. It is capable of good results, so it must come down to my technique, and borderline available light.

I have ordered a Better Beamer, and a new battery door to fix my flash, I am hoping this will help me improve my results amongst the shady trees.

[avkomp]

Nice pix, hope it is ok though. The better Beamer will do two things for you, Depending on the flash you have, if using above 105-200 mm, you will be able to focus the flash so that you can get more range in the flash shots. This will do the second thing of a quicker follow up shot

[LJG]

Great catch Brad, I certainly hope he recovers OK.

[Ironwood]

Cheers Stephen and Lloyd, I got home too late to go and have a look yesterday, and left again before sun-up this morning, should be home around 3pm today, will have a look around then, but don't hold much hope to find it after this long.

Nice pix, hope it is ok though. The better Beamer will do two things for you, Depending on the flash you have, if using above 105-200 mm, you will be able to focus the flash so that you can get more range in the flash shots. This will do the second thing of a quicker follow up shot

Thanks for the tips Lloyd. I have been reading whatever I can find on the net about using the Better Beamer, found some info on a couple of bird forums.
One thing I read, mentioned the BB worked best with the flash set at 50mm, not sure if this was just one persons findings or a general rule of thumb.
When mine arrives, I will do a series of tests to see what suits my setup the best.

[Ironwood]

No sign of this fella anywhere this afternoon. Hopefully it recovered and was able to fly away.

[avkomp]

Cheers Stephen and Lloyd, I got home too late to go and have a look yesterday, and left again before sun-up this morning, should be home around 3pm today, will have a look around then, but don't hold much hope to find it after this long.


Thanks for the tips Lloyd. I have been reading whatever I can find on the net about using the Better Beamer, found some info on a couple of bird forums.
One thing I read, mentioned the BB worked best with the flash set at 50mm, not sure if this was just one persons findings or a general rule of thumb.
When mine arrives, I will do a series of tests to see what suits my setup the best.

50mm is a good starting place and it stays there most of the time, I use mine on a rrs off camera flash bracket, so this puts the flash higher and further forward, (also lets me change from portrait to landscape without moving the flash.
but 50 gets your shot lit
but I like to push it a bit and with the nikon flash, I can zoom the flash down to 24 at times, the bummer is that the beam is very narrow and I have to align the flash beam at the intended range.
this is because the flash and the camera axes are parallel, so you want the flash beam at a point where what the lens sees correspond. 50mm allows you to use it over varying distances without having to move it. good for easily 90 percent of the time.
with my bracket I may move it from time to time so that it looks where my lens is looking cos I have the flash beam more concentrated than recommentd sometimes. was using 24mm on the owls because I didnt want to waste any light.

as for learning to use it, you need to know how it will work, so the best way I found was to find yourself a wall that has something on it that you can identify.
I put an 70-200 or similar lens and used it around 100mm focal length, smaller is ok also. use a tripod. obviously you doing this at night .
so you take a few flash pix at varying zooms on you flash whilst leaving your camera focal length fixed. using 100 or so, what you will get hopefully are varying boxes of light with in the frame
where the flash is actually falling. so you know what say 50mm zoom on your flash does at a given range. after you know that, you are ready to play for real, but first you probably want a longer lens on say 500 ish mm or so. now with this still on the tripod take a photo of something on the same wall. if all is well the entire frame will be lit properly with the flash,
more likely first time it will be high or low, so that maybe half the shot is lit etc, so if it is low, you wrap the velcro that holds the wings on, so that it lifts the flash head a bit.
I think you get a little bit of sep.velcro that can be mounted on the body of the flash to help it lift a bit too if needed.
after you got it firing where you need it, take it off and put it back on the same way. ensure it stays alligned. repeatability is the key, after a while you put it on the same way each time and
you get it aligned right away each time. I got a bottle of white liquid paper and marked some spots on the beamer and my flash head, this meant that if I keep the velcro within the lines, it was gonna be right everytime. If out shooting at night or whatever, I usually find a tree or something about the range I want and take a test pic to ensure the flash is doing what I expect. avoids embarrassment later.

hope that makes sense, if not when you got the gizmo in your hands, we can talk further, but it will be a logical thing when you have it. pretty much universally used by nature photographers who use flash. so plenty of help around.

[Ironwood]

Thanks for that detailed explanation Stephen. Those tips will be helpful to get me started. It's coming by standard postage from the US, so will be a few weeks yet I expect. As I also mentioned, I am also waiting for a new battery door for my flash to arrive from Hong Kong. It is a Yongnuo YN568EX, apparently the broken tabs on the battery door is a common problem with them. I know I will work a few things out with some trial and error when I get it set up, but I am wondering if I can use HSS and a faster shutter speed for a bit of fill light in shadowy daylight.

[avkomp]

The Nikon and canon flashes support hss. The Nikon one works like smoke and mirrors IMHO, you get greatly reduced range above 1/320 sec. So prefer good like for birds etc if I can help it. No particular problem for closer stuff tho